Stealing pop-punk from the grasp of eye-liner clad teenagers, American Hi-Fi returns with its signature '90s alternative sounds with Hearts on Parade.
Famed for their 2001 one-hit wonder \Flavor of the Weak,"" American Hi-Fi has stayed under the mainstream radar since, but Hearts On Parade finally gives them the platform to soar in a commercial market.
Masters at catchy three-minute pop songs, American Hi-Fi still finds room for mature lyrics and sophisticated arrangements in an album that has an air of 1997 within its bridges and choruses. At times heavy with synthesizers, backup vocals and production techniques, the album unabashedly attempts to create pop songs that appeal to a wide base of listeners.
Their latest is a traditional ruse on living life in the glare of Hollywood's flashbulbs and the confusing muses of women who typically dominate pop-punk albums.
Hearts on Parade, for all its valiant songwriting intentions, results in an album that consists of highly-glossed, over-the-top dribble of stale bubble-gum pop with a crunching guitar flavor.
Without a doubt, the award for ""most catchy song"" on Hearts On Parade goes to ""The Geeks Get The Girls."" Storyboarding a social misfit's success at picking up a girl is played out to the full commercial, catchy effect that made ""Flavor of the Weak"" so popular. Unable to spell popular without pop, American Hi-Fi provides a copycat formula of unsubstantial quantity for this song that will undoubtedly get a lot of radio and video play, but only because of its safe nature.
Singing ""Tonight tonight, he's gonna get it right / Even losers can get lucky sometimes / All the freaks go on a winning streak / In a perfect world, all the geeks get the girls,"" lead singer Stacey Jones spits out the rhyming syllables but does little to entrance the listener. It is pretty apparent where the story is heading, and short of creative songwriting, there is nothing stopping someone from changing the channel.
While American Hi-Fi was entertaining to 16-year-old girls in 2001, there is very little to offer to the same girls in 2005 who have since grown up. American Hi-Fi may wish to cut their losses and again target a new bunch of 16-year-old girls, but it is disappointing that they have not offered more to the ears of a generation honed on punk, pop and alternative who now expect more from their artists. Having ""been there, heard that,"" many listeners who do not fall within the high school demographic will find nothing on Hearts on Parade but the standard, catchy pop that has been largely shunned since the days of 7th period gym.
