Head Automatica

Popaganda

When Glassjaw mouthpiece Daryl Palumbo loaded up his iPod with Squeeze and Elvis Costello records and decided to get his swerve on with Head Automatica, more than a few Glassjaw fans were sure he’d gone gay. The rest of us knew it was exactly the opposite. Still, without Dan The Automator’s production this time around, Popaganda isn’t nearly the shit-hot dance explosion that made the first half of 2004’s Decadence so unstoppable–but that’s probably because, with the exception of “Egyptian Musk,” the party just moved over to Rachel Bilson’s place this time around. And, really, it’s more a prom than a party. The catchiest tracks on Popaganda–“Graduation Day,” “Laughing At You” and “Nowhere Fast”–might be borderline soundtrack material for The O.C., but at least the band doesn’t try to pass them off as anything deeper than that. In fact, the most refreshing thing about Popaganda is that Head Automatica aren’t a pop band pretending a punk band, or a pop band pretending to be a melodic-hardcore band, or even an emo band pretending to be grown men–but that they’ll do whatever it takes to get Summer naked on the Bait Shop floor.

ROCKS LIKE: Various Artists’ The O.C. Mix 5, My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, Elvis Costello’s When I Was Cruel

Warner Bros.