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NeonA Man Ivy League/Slanted They've managed to remain fairly anonymous until now, but I bet people will start talking about Neon at length in the near future. The naive kids will think they're the salt of the earth, but the jaded critics will fall into two categories: those that think their highly sanitised, glossy sounds are a testament to their skill and talent, and those who think they're just commercial rock bullshit. I tend to fit somewhere in between the last two: yes, I know there's not much to Neon, but I can't help but fall victim to those crazy male-female harmonies. First single A Man didn't do much for me, but when I first heard Dizziness all those teen angst memories came flooding back. It helps that the song is quite familiar: it drifts along quite close to Veruca Salt's Shutterbug, except without the volume or anger that made that band so damn cool. And I think television has popularised the riff-heavy Hit Me Again ("Look me in the eyes, and tell me that it's alright, without your love"). That's definitely the kind of song that will get those jaded critics up in arms, yelling and screaming about how it's just so damn catchy, it can't be any good. And there's some truth to that: the rest of the album does seem somewhat like filler in relation to its hits, partially because it plays like a Greatest Hits collection full of individual singles and without any sense of adventure or structure. However, the Lennonesque Summer Rain and People Inside should not be ignored, nor should harder-edged closing track Everything. It's not great, but it's masterfully done.  |
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