Marvelous 3: Hey Album : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The Marvelous 3 ain't the Beatles or the Buzzcocks or even Cheap Trick, but they've got joi de vivre to spare. This Georgia trio has produced a major-label debut that plays as exuberantly as a Teletubby. Sure, the group's hard-soft dynamics and power chords are so worn that they're almost sprouting holes. But saucy lines like "I'd like a little compassion with a side of mayonnaise" ("Over Your Head") and "You lost your mind/I lost my keys" ("Let Me Go") infuse them with a fresh pop spirit.

Frontman Butch Walker sounds more West London than Deep South; he isn't shy about citing his influences, but he uses them creatively. On "#27," Oasis get a sly lyrical nod as the guitar lick revisits Prince's "When You Were Mine." On the anti-radio hit "Freak of the Week," Walker's New Wave guitar riffs are so euphoric that they practically ping-pong off the Marvelous 3's low-key rhythm section (bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Slug).

At times the music becomes too drunk on its own effervescence. With its "do-do-do" backup vocals and cloying refrain of "You were cool as hell like e-mail/But still timeless like a letter," "You're So Yesterday" tries so hard to be a classic chart topper that it falls off the grid. And the labored nod to mod-speak in "Every Monday" ("I was fucked up by five/Talking nothing but jive") is enough to make Austin Powers blush. But nothing can dim Hey! Album's relentless good cheer. (RS 806)

NEVA CHONIN