Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 13/03/06
Label: Geffen

If ever there was a band who were destined to land a major record deal it was The Like. The all-girl, LA punk-pop trio - who look like they've just stepped out of an H&M advert and spent the better part of their teens playing Hollywood's hipper dives - were practically born in the recording studio. Drummer Tennessee Thomas is the daughter of Elvis Costello's drummer; bass player Charlotte calls Sheryl Crow and Paul McCartney's producer, Mitchell Froom, dad and singer Z Berg's father is the same A&R man who signed Beck to Geffen.

But before anyone clocks Geffen as The Like's record label and starts shouting 'fix' or their lineage has them bagged as Paris and Nicole with guitars, it would be wise to spend an hour being smothered by chic heat haze of punk attitude and LA swank that is "Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?". The three might be the little princesses of music royalty, and heiresses to a modicum of industry clout, but even a fleeting taste of their debut's nonchalant cool says that the only thing their daddies gave them, was talent. And plenty of it.

If Avril Lavigne dealt with her 'issues' by adding whiskey to her skinny latté, bummed about on a Californian beach at sunset and listened to The Go-Gos, this is what she'd sound-like. It's teenage angst with an irresistible sweetness; it's lovelorn and disillusioned, with the cutest undercurrent of optimism. It's the thud and crash of a sleazy club, with cruising sunshine choruses a mile wide. And they make it all sound so easy.

Of course it helps that singer Berg has a voice so languid and sultry that she can pull off jaded and girlie at the same time with the minimum of effort. So laidback and sultry is her purr that it's practically reduced to hushed and elongated vowels; meaning that the stadium surge of "June Gloom"'s chorus, the pogoing shout-outs of "What I Say And What I Mean" and the dark moodiness of "Too Late" could be about pretty much anything. And as any good pop star knows, a little ambiguity goes a long way.

Far from being a problem, not knowing what The Like are on about is a stroke of genius. It allows three girls from LA with an average age of 19, to be all things to all people. "Under The Pavingstones" having a twitching verse give way to barrelling chorus implies a problem overcome. Not being able to exactly pick out what that problem is means that from a rich kid surfing in Malibu to a dumped 30 something in a bar in Brixton, the bitter thrash and triumphal surge are just as satisfying, addictive and righteously cool.

    by Dan Gennoe