* "Popaganda," Head Automatica (Warner Bros.) One and a half stars
Before hooking up with Dan "The Automator" Nakamura for Head Automatica's 2004 debut, "Decadence," singer Daryl Palumbo was best known as the throat of the generic post-hardcore band Glassjaw. He's reinvented himself again, dropping Nakamura and the late-night dance grooves in favor of power pop. In 2006, power pop essentially means emo, and "Popaganda" is nothing more than Palumbo and crew hopping on another bandwagon. On this disc, Head Automatica is into guitar-driven hooks and little else. More often than not, it hangs an entire song on the riff. The attempt to be consistently catchy becomes cloying very quickly.
Given the time of year, "Graduation Day" is already a hit even if the song has little to do with the late spring rite of passage - or anything else discernible. Elsewhere, you can see directly through their influences. Elvis Costello should receive writing credits for "Lying Through Your Teeth" if he hadn't already written hundreds of better songs. With his overdone enunciation throughout, Palumbo makes an argument for Costello being the inventor of emo singing - minus the screaming, which there is little of here. "Scandalous" goes for the lightning melody that The Beatles and Squeeze created so effortlessly. This song doesn't have that magic. It's also hard to miss the band's affinity for Cheap Trick, normally as admirable an influence as they come. To hear those kind of arena-sized guitar riffs, look no further the Cheap Trick's latest, "Rockford."
Things fare slightly better when the band plays it straight-up emo, as on "Shot in the Dark (The Platypus)." It doesn't sound much different than anything playing on "Steven's Untitled Rock Show," but at least it's good. Coincidentally, the most interesting track on "Popaganda" should have been on "Decadence." "Egyptian Musk" is a sinewy punk-disco groove carried by an insistent bassline that is at least twice as good as anything else on the disc. Most importantly, it doesn't sound forced.
Chances are that by Head Automatica's next disc, it will have latched on to another flavor of the day. It's doubtful Palumbo will get it right.
