On their fourth album, modern power poppers
Myracle Brah deliver hooky pop sounds full of power and imagination. They also exhibit a degree of sonic experimentation that is somewhat unique to the Not Lame school of power poppers. Lots of these bands are content to just play ten or 12 songs with the same guitar sound, the same drum sound, and the same vocal sound, but
Andy Bopp and
Myracle Brah are constantly changing things up. On "Misfortune #1," they strip away the electric guitars and frame
Bopp's
Lennon-esque vocals with bongos and acoustic guitar. "Theme From Disconnect" has a trippy sound with heavily reverbed vocals and strangely mixed drums and "Roller Coaster" is arranged wonderfully, with the guitar and basslines floating like butterflies while the echoey drums pound in the distance. The songs sound good and they have hooks, too. "Superwannabe," "Orange Shirt," "Broken" (which shows a previously unheard
Love influence), and "Independence Day" are memorable tunes. Unfortunately, there are a couple of songs that are less than stellar and drag the record down: "They Hear" is a boring grunge lite dirge and "Too Many People" has an uninteresting chord progression and a slightly annoying vocal melody (not one of
McCartney's better efforts; too bad they had to cover it). Still, on the whole this is a strong record -- as good as anything on Not Lame and almost good enough to be mentioned in the same exalted breath as
Velvet Crush or
Matthew Sweet or even
the Greys. Almost. Strongly recommended to fans of adventurous power pop.