American Hi-Fi

Boston quartet American Hi-Fi are the latest crop of punk-pop upstarts from across the Atlantic, but something tells me that they may be more than your average three-minute thrill merchants. True, they have their required quota of dumb lyrics and obligatory swear-words, but at least they’re not trying for the same tiresome pubescent humour of Blink 182.

The debut album from four self-confessed heavy metal fans, American Hi-Fi was produced by Bob Rock, whose previous credits include Motley Crue and Aerosmith, and while there is nothing especially innovative or awe-inspiring in terms of the guitar-driven arrangements here, there are enough catchy hooks and singalong choruses to keep even the cynics happy.

Single ‘Flavour Of The Weak’ is perfectly indicative of the fare on offer, dolloping out a three-minute helping of unrequited love for the MTV generation. The guitars fizz and pop, and in Stacy Jones they have a decent vocalist, albeit one who looks like he should be the bass player in a Poison tribute band.

The muscular ‘A Bigger Mood’ and ‘Hi-Fi Killer’ sound remarkably like Bush, due mainly to the pulsing bassline that forms the former’s engine room, and the fact that Stacy owes at least some of his phrasing to Gavin Rossdale, admittedly not exactly a vocal innovator himself.

The band display decent pop credentials on ‘I’m A Fool’, the half-acoustic ‘Another Perfect Day’ and even the epic (for them) ‘Wall Of Sound’, perfect American chart fodder. There are a couple of semi-ballads thrown in: ‘Safe On The Outside’ is not a million miles from The Goo Goo Dolls, while ‘Don’t Wait For The Sun’ should satisfy even the Zippo-waving contingent. Just in case anyone accused them of wimping out, however, you also have the hard rock wig-out of ‘Scar’ and the grungey ‘What About Today?’.

American Hi-Fi are far from original, and sometimes come across like an amalgamation of some of America’s more successful rock acts, but that said, what they do, they do well and, in general, the songs are strong enough to withstand the lack of creative freshness.