I'm wary about passing snap judgments on catchy pop-based stuff these days. With the more esoteric kind of music, my M.O's fairly stable though. Give it one test run, and if I think it's got some potential to be appreciated after repeat spins, then I listen to it a few more times. Else, the thing goes the way of the idli (that means I start shaking my head violently and putting as much distance as possible between me and the offending object). Anyway, that plan's worked out fairly well so far. However, when I'm dealing with music that gives you all the goods from the get-go, that throws me out of whack. It's like a hot girl that doesn't bother playing hard-to-get; it's natural instinct not to trust 'em!

This new collaboration between Paul Gilbert and Freddie Nelson is something like that. They go, "Ok we're going to be playing songs inspired by a whole bunch of fun, famous bands. Our singer's pretty good and we've got a monster guitar player who freaks out all the time!" And you're sitting there, going, "Uh, what's the catch?"

Let's find out. They start out in fun fashion with Paris Hilton look-alike, which sounds like a mash-up of Queen, Extreme and Mr. Big, with Nelson channelling Freddy Mercury pretty well over some self-hating hopeless romantic lyrics. Thumbs up. Waste of Time comes across a bit like No Doubt's Spiderwebs, which apparently doesn't sound all that bad if you've got a killer guitarist in the band (though I guess you could say that about just about any song). Pedal to the metal, and then they crank out The Last Rock & Roll Star - this is straightforward bludgeoning in the style of a band like Loudness and about as heavy as these guys ever get. Right after, they pull a rapid U-turn for Bad Times Good, which could be mistaken for a bonus track from an oldschool Beatles album.

You get the drift. Forget about any trademark sound, these guys are just interested in playing anything they think could turn out to be fun, and it fortunately turns out they're packing enough skills to pull off a whimsical formula like that. Any of these songs could be pimped as a single, and it's to their credit that none of them have been wussified in the process. Gilbert doesn't go totally apeshit with his versatile playing style like he did on his solo album earlier this year, but whenever some rip-roaring leads are called for, he rarely comes up short.

I guess the catch is that there isn't any catch. This is a total 'hearts on their sleeves' trip, and it's unlikely that you'd appreciate this album any more on the fourth spin than on the first, which is one of the things I've come to enjoy about my dirty, scruffy rock and metal. In fact, with the diminishing returns associated with the overexposure of catchy songs, you'll probably end up liking it just a bit less after repeat spins.
It's hard for me to fault them for this while I'm listening to I'm Not Addicted completely tear it up in high-speed blues-pop fashion, complete with extended soloing and lyrics about a hapless chump in denial of the vise grip that his significant other has on him. That's the thing about this music - it takes any hoity-toity presumptions you have and boots it out the window. Ah, screw it, I'm going to give this my wholehearted recco - just don't play it to death too fast.

Label: Victor Entertainment 
Year of release: 2008