The Bouncing Souls: Hopeless Romantic

The Pennsylvania punk-rock stalwarts in The Bouncing Souls have garnered a sizable following thanks to live shows and 1996's sing-along mountain of fun, Maniacal Laughter. Any of these fans will tolerate, even enjoy, Hopeless Romantic, which at least offers a few similar moments of boundless enthusiasm. Compared to Laughter, though, it doesn't deliver nearly enough punch for anyone else to enjoy more than once. On its own, the album doesn't seem bad, merely uninspired, and it's not without its bright spots. "Monday Morning Ant Brigade," despite the cliched anti-work subject matter, is pretty invigorating, as is the title track and the boppy "Bullying The Jukebox." Still, the flavorless instant-nostalgia of "87" is devoid of honest energy, and the album's remainder isn't much better. It's not a dearth of effort or experimentation that sinks Hopeless Romantic: The band sets up some relatively complex songs (for pop-punk, at least), actually features singing instead of tuneless shouting, and throws in more than a few simple chords. "Wish Me Well (You Can Go To Hell)," a male-female duet of arguing to peppy music, is poorly executed, but it does show a willingness to stray from the tried-and-true path on which The Bouncing Souls' fan base is built. Hopeless Romantic is a snapshot of the group at an awkward adolescent period in its career: It wants to accomplish more, but it's nowhere near its potential. Here's hoping the next album sees it through to a more musically interesting adulthood.