Houston Calls

This album is the epitome of what you see when you think of California — happy, overtly perky smiles, bright colours, sunshine and little to no depth beyond the polished surface. At times, you will completely lose yourself (or so goes the excuses to your friends) and find yourself bobbing your head in time to their ultimately cheesy lyrics; first treading on thin ice with the words "Let me kiss your index finger/I’ll point out how you’ve made me crazy,” then just throwing all abandon to the wind with the song "Bob and Bonnie,” which is just more than most people could handle and still stay sane. The music, melody, and tone of the album really isn’t bad at all — the lyrical structure is actually fairly decent — it’s the actual words that fail them with this effort and leave the listener feeling decidedly more brain dead after letting this seep into their grey matter. Props to these five boys for fitting the word "soliloquy” comfortably in the opener "Sunrise Goodbyes,” but I would skip this album and check out their next one and see if it reflects a bit more of a world-wise view, and uses the great keyboard and piano breaks more to their advantage.