Any remnants of country music left in Sugarland are wiped clean on The Incredible Machine, replaced by spit-shined arena pop that puts a premium on sky-high choruses and proves that Jennifer Nettles learned just as much from Jon Bon Jovi during their 2006 collaboration as he learned from her. "All We Are" opens the album with a megaton vocal sound that would do "Mutt" Lange proud, and from there the group abandons dirt roads for the kind of smooth, breezy highways favored by Alanis Morissette and, more recently, Avril Lavigne.

Rolling Stone Live: Watch exclusive sets from Pete Yorn and more.

The results are calculated and anonymous: "Tonight," with its slow-build chorus and keening guitars, sticks slavishly to the FM-torch-song blueprint, and in the cutesy "Stuck Like Glue," Nettles adopts an odd patois — think dancehall by way of Gwen Stefani. Sugarland are ruthless in their desire to leave no radio-ready trick untried, but in the end it's too much machine, not enough heart.

Keep up with rock's hottest photos in Random Notes.

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”