Hollywood Burnouts

Good grief, do we need new versions of second-tier '80s hard rock bands? I'd say no, but here we have Germany glam rockers Hollywood Burnouts summoning the spirit of acts no one cared about in the first place, like Danger Danger or Tuff. It's not that the musicianship is bad (it's perfectly fine) or that the songwriting is sub-par (it's actually pretty good). It's that the band sound rather uninterested and uninspired, even during songs like "Tonight," which must be fun to play, and the Dokken-loving "8 Lives Gone." This feels like it's the end result of some lost bet. Look, there are still a number of Sleeze Beez and Dangerous Toys records I've never even heard (or heard of), so it's hard to get behind new albums like this being made, even if tunes like "Fake Baby" threaten to reel you in with their stupidly fun sleaze rock appeal.