The Whigs

A garage rock taster plate, the third studio record from Athens' the Whigs toes the company line, faithfully checking off genre requirements. "Kill Me Carolyn" and "Someone's Daughter" suckle at repetitive vocal hooks, with little resonance; "Hundred/Million" relies on big beats; and "So Lonely" treads on rough-hewn guitar lines and a '60s reference. Singer Parker Gispert's lyrics never strive for more than new rock clichés and there's not enough distortion in the world to conceal their irrelevance. Nevertheless, the tried-and-true, light iconoclasm of "I Am for Real" fares relatively well. Almost every cut is formulaic and familiar, but mostly unobtrusive. In the Dark is neither particularly ambitious nor original, so it could do well on new rock radio. At least that's something.