*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
|