THE POODLES

So you think you're slick? Nah, you ain't slick. Now THE POODLES are a different story; they're slick; really, really slick. We're talking the kind of high gloss, melodic hard rock slickness that would make even the surliest bastards excuse their enjoyment of "Performocracy" as a guilty pleasure. Get in line at the courthouse early because the number of guilty verdicts about to be handed down by the robed authorities is about to skyrocket.

Yes indeed, with their fourth album the Swedes reveal a knack for penning tune after tune of big-hooked rock, making up for the sugary and the cliché — as if that really matters — by writing consistently solid tunes that vary in shape, but almost always leave an impression. The choruses are typically pop-oriented and/or brightly bursting, but the band smartly varies the arrangements to keep the flow interesting. The best of the bunch is front loaded, as "I Want it All", "Until Our Kingdom Falls", and "Father to a Son" bring the strut and the beef, painted up in bright colors, and topped off with unforgettable melodies. "I Believe in You" sports the albums toughest riff-groove on the verse and contrasts it with a contemporary pop chorus, bolstered by some sharp harmonizing. But it is the bombastic "Cuts Like a Knife" that wins out above all others for a chorus that is enjoyably familiar, as is the case with many of these tracks, and simply impossible to forget. Though the quartet doesn't include a full-time keyboardist, the keyboard work across the album incorporated in ways designed only to enhance the melodies and offer accent lighting.

The album's second half contains a standard ballad-esque cut called "As Time is Passing" that isn't quite as memorable in its BON JOVI trappings, though isn't bad, while moments of "Love is All" has the feel of a poppier EVERGREY with guitar parts that approach classic U2 in sound. The rock returns in harder form on "Your Time is Now", "Vampire's Call", and one of the album's more middling cuts, "Action!" A little cowbell goes a long way on "Bring Back the Night", another track that offers a good example of the band's preference for matching muscular verses with big pop-rock choruses. "Into the Quiet Night" moves toward SCORPIONS' power balladry, albeit with bubbly keys, in part because of structure and in part due to a vocalist in Jakob Samuel who channels Klaus Meine through EDGUY's Tobias Sammet, which is pretty much the case throughout the album. Though a demo version, a decent bonus song in "Don't Tell Me" doesn't exactly sound like a rough mix.

The simple fact is that if you're a fan of the poppy end of hard rock, then you really can't go wrong with "Performocracy". It's done well and even those who wouldn't often be in the mood for a band like THE POODLES would be hard pressed to deny that "Performocracy" is the result of a group that knows exactly what they're doing and ends up delivering a quality product because of it.