Get Born
Sometimes having good, original ideas is the worst thing you can do in rock music. To paraphraseJim Dickinsonon theBeastie Boys, rock and rollistheft, and it's not so much about whether or not one steals but why, how much and how well (i.e. from whom). Riff-heavy in all the right ways, this is a very well-produced retro-rock record with handclaps, catchy choruses, and plenty of attitude. They freely cop fromAC/DC,the Stones,the Verve,Oasis,Humble Pie,Aerosmith,Black Crowes, andMooney Suzuki, and they do it very well. The only problems with the album lie in the words, and in the softer material. Most of the lyrics are so banal ("Now you don't need money with a face like that, do ya") they were seemingly written by some newfangled songwriting program set to "1973." And half the album consists of ballads that are just pretty good: the Oasis-y "Look What You've Done," thePink Floyd-esque "Timothy" and theSmall Faces-ish "Move On.". But it's the mid-to-uptempo stompers that this group excels at.--Mike McGonigal