Hey! Album Review

Bob Remstein
Wall of Sound

The Marvelous 3
Hey! Album
Label: Elektra
Genre: Rock/Pop
File Under: They want you to want them
Rating: 71

Flee for your lives! Do it now, because the advance of the hard-charging power-popsters is at hand. If the Rentals, Imperial Drag, and the entire crew of analog-synths-get-grungy bands haven't already induced you to call up the dream police and surrender, the Marvelous 3, Atlanta's entry in the post-'70s pop-rock sweepstakes, should do the (cheap) trick.

On the upside, this potent trio has combined blazing guitars, catchy choruses, and fairly clever lyrics to produce a consistent album that practically dares you not to join the club. Led by the infectious single "Freak of the Week," whose verse seems to marry XTC's "Mayor of Simpleton" with the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star," the album rarely lets up, offering one strong, simple, hooky tune after another.

On the downside, a certain false showiness seeps into every track, largely due to singer-guitarist-co-producer Butch Walker's over-the-top vocals. While some of his sound can be rationalized as sheer joyous energy, the fake British accent and drawn-out vowels quickly get annoying. And, frankly, those coy '70s references in the lyrics also get on your nerves, cute as they may be ("I can't cope with this scene," he sings in "Every Monday").

Still, something more interesting lurks beneath the bubbly blast of the Marvelous 3's music: a willingness to have fun and laugh at themselves while doing it. In "Until You See," Walker sings, "I watched you build a castle on the beach one rainy day/ I saw it fall apart and roll out with the tide/ I think there's something metaphoric that I'm trying to say. …" Hey!, they just want you … to want them.