Bland city rock

Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Rush, Stone Temple Pilots, and Jet are only a few of the heavy hitters that are distributed by the Atlantic Recording Corporation, a company that has earned the reputation of breaking and distributing some of the most popular groups in music history. However, it seems that lately the standards of signing groups are sinking like stones in the sea.

Big City Rock, currently touring with Head Automatica, is one of Atlantic's most recent attempts at breaking a new group. Playing straight pop-rock music, Big City Rock's self-titled record is nothing that should send anyone running to Wal-Mart to spend their Mighty Taco money.

The album is relatively short. Coming in at a brief 10 tracks and offering a little over a half-hour of music, "Big City Rock" hums hookless tunes that could be heard droning through the receptionist's desk radio at the doctor's office.

"Big City Rock," released March 7, is a record that boasts lyrics that are relatively uninteresting and come across as a bit forced at times: "Do you want to rock, do you want to roll, do you want to get down on the floor? All of the above."

The lyrics throughout the remainder of the album are as deep as a wading pool.

Nate Bott's witless lyrics paired with vocals that sound like Alexander Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand offer an awkward sound with hooks that just don't catch.

Atlantic must be directing Big City Rock towards mid-30s adults who don't have ADD and would rather not hear spontaneous, attention-grabbing, hook-driven music. It also seems that Big City Rock borrows many popular Franz Ferdinand drum beats, but mostly comes across like a danced-up Bryan Adams song that is trying hard to sound like early U2.

This doesn't mean that "Big City Rock" is a flop; the music is well-produced and well-arranged. Most likely this can be attributed to the limitless budget Atlantic can throw at any group to make them sound relatively enjoyable.

From Los Angeles, Calif., Big City Rock comes across as the type of group that would traditionally be signed to one of Atlantic's sister labels designed for smaller, less notable groups. Perhaps the suits at Atlantic have some remodeling plans for Big City Rock.

The smartest way to sample Big City Rock's sound is to download their best efforts, "Human" and "All Of The Above," using your own means, or logging onto Atlantic's Web site and paying 99 cents per song to check them out.