Debut album from Melbourne Australian quartet, produced by Dave Sardy (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson). Elektra. 2003.
Sometimes having good, original ideas is the worst thing you can do in rock music. To paraphrase Jim Dickinson on the Beastie Boys, rock and roll is theft, 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 from AC/DC, the Stones, the Verve, Oasis, Humble Pie, Aerosmith, Black Crowes, and Mooney 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," the Pink Floyd -esque "Timothy" and the Small Faces-ish "Move On.". But it's the mid-to-uptempo stompers that this group excels at. --Mike McGonigal
