American Hi-Fi
Hearts On Parade
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American Hi-Fi throw a touch of angularity on the commercial power pop of 2003's The Art of Losing while also testing the waters in more funky arenas. But no matter what dressing they put on their songs, underneath it all the music's still about pop perfection. The funny, self-aware "Hell Yeah" is a prime example.
After bashing drums for Nineties alt-rockers Letters to Cleo and Veruca Salt, Stacy Jones reinvented himself as an expert bandleader wallowing in neopunk's teenage wasteland. Since scoring a hit with 2001's "Flavor of the Weak," the American Hi-Fi singer-guitarist has turned out superbright rock long on snotty pop-culture references, processed sneers and the kind of dating
Read More melodrama that post-collegians are really too old for. Hearts on Parade, Hi-Fi's third album, pushes this formula to the point of annoyance, imagining a lame paradise where "The Geeks Get the Girls" and wishing for "Something Real" on an everything-sucks ballad Good Charlotte wouldn't touch. "The Everlasting Fall" and "Highs and Lows" work up a relaxed Fountains of Wayne-style sunniness, but most of Parade's flavors are pretty weak.
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