American Hi-Fi: The Art Of Losing : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Stacy Jones moans, "I've been getting by on nothing" halfway through The Art of Losing, he achieves the album's one honest moment. Two years removed from the novelty hit "Flavor of the Weak" ("He's too stoned/Nintendo"), this Boston crew is still searching for its identity. Lacking that, American Hi-Fi borrow liberally. The fake-hip-hop/punk track "Nothing Left to Lose" name-drops Jackie Chan, Dennis Rodman and Jackson Browne, throws in the "nah nah nah nah" chorus of the J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" and still sounds distressingly like Good Charlotte. Elsewhere the group presents its facsimiles of grunge, garage rock, power pop and, on the title track, a homage to Kim Wilde's Eighties anthem "Kids in America." It all begs a question: Who the hell do these guys think they are, anyway?

KIRK MILLER
(From RS 918, March 20, 2003)