Teddybears

Theoretically, bringing together the Flaming Lips, Robyn and Cee-Lo Green for an album should be a good thing, but somehow enigmatic Swedes Teddybears manage to mess it up. Devil's Music is the band's second album to make it to North America since they turned their back on their hardcore past and turned into an electro pop act, and like its predecessor, it relies on guest vocalists. The problem is that the good songs are surrounded by far too much weak material to ever justify picking up the album ― this is a record made for the iTunes generation. Cee-Lo joins forces with the B-52s on album highlight "Cho Cha," with Eve's contribution to "Rocket Scientist" coming a close second. But others fare less well. Wayne Coyne manages to make the repetitive "Crystal Meth Christian" more bearable than it should be, although Robyn just sounds bored on "Cardiac Arrest." Everything else doesn't even warrant a mention. While Teddybears might not have been trying to create a classic album for the ages, good pop music doesn't have to be this disposable and forgettable. And this is very forgettable.