*ALBUM REVIEW*
*Retrieved from Playboy site on June 5th, 2003*



As a member of the Coppola clan, Robert Carmine and his band, the hyper-hyped LA five-piece Rooney, might've enjoyed a nepotistic nudge toward their major-label deal -- but they didn't need it, as early boosters such as Rivers Cuomo and the Strokes can testify. In its three years, Rooney's concocted a distinct identity as purveyor of the best power-pop since the Carter Administration -- a heady hooks 'n' harmonies cocktail, one part Cars, two parts Cheap Trick and a dash of Beach Boys for good measure. They've strained the results onto their self-titled debut -- 11 jangly, shimmery, three-singers-deep tales of girls (the six-string-supercharged Stay Away), pop-poisoned rock (the st-st-stutter-stepping Popstars) and more girls (the swaying If It Were Up To Me). Which says nothing of the quintet's way with wordplay: "I've done our charts and it says/That we work as one/Like The Jackson Five/And The Temptations." As the asphalt dries on Carmine's road, he and the rest of Rooney are left to stare down an entirely new concern: how to top a debut boasting some of the most exquisite songcraft in recent memory.

-Steven Chean