Bubba Sparxxx: Deliverance

The Australian alt-rock band You Am I was part of the post-Nirvana wave of major-label signings a decade ago, and though it was a grunge-scene favorite with the support of Sonic Youth, it never made the transition to mainstream success, or even the one-hit-wonderdom of its peers. The stumbling block might have been singer, songwriter, and guitarist Tim Rogers, a gifted tunesmith with roots in '60s Britpop and '70s American underground rock, but whose marginal voice and excessive attention to craft often impresses fellow musicians more than casual music lovers. On You Am I's sixth album Deliverance (the first to be released in the U.S. since 1997's Hourly, Daily), Rogers and company continue to bash out big-hook fuzz-and-jangle, albeit with more twang than they've incorporated before. Their vision is best realized on the energetic anthem "Ribbons And Bows," which sounds like a noisier version of the cheery college rock of the mid-'80s. Other highlights include the thumping, Stones-y title track, the roaring country-rocker "Crash," and "Who Put The Devil In You," which cuts its dissonant, punky drive with dreamy bursts of distortion and a classic power-pop bridge. But though there's nothing objectively wrong with Deliverance–and a great deal that's right–it's hard to say that Rogers integrates influences like The Who, Big Star, and R.E.M. to the degree that listening to his music is even remotely preferable to heading back to the source. You Am I rocks heroically, but its finest qualities are almost too fine, like minute variations on a kicky, overly familiar sound.