By Darryl Cater

Then Again is cut from more or less from the bland but bubbly Hootie and the Blowfish mold--straightforward suburban semi-acoustic pop rock with predictable lyrics.  The CD sleeve includes a picture of these five photo-friendly Illinois frat boys crunched between the cushions of a sofa, drinking beer from bottles and, presumably, watching TV. I'm guessing football. As with Hootie, from whose image football is inseparable, there's a somewhat agreeable lack of pretense here. These guys are more concerned with creating pretty sounds than upending anybody's worldview, setting fire to the conventional boundaries of Art or inciting anybody to riot. The songs primarily emphasize catchy hooks, pleasantly jangling arrangements, and a certain amount of safely cathartic emotional venting. The album is called "Throwback," and while there's no 1950s rock and roll, the music does seem to recall more innocent days.

Some of the sounds are indeed fairly pretty. Lead guitarist Jim Wechman, who began the band as an acoustic duo with Jayson Polad, can spin some occasionally gripping solos. The melodies are undeniably hummable ("Waterwings" and "Original" are particularly catchy). The album gets more appealing when the band stops aping AC radio long enough to imitate Soundgarten. This sidestep of predictability is much appreciated.

Many promising instrumental intros kick in with some ear-catching acoustic jangling or emotive piano. Too many of them, however, threaten to fall apart whenvocalists Wechman and Ruzicka begin their untrained warbling (one distinct dissimilarity from the above overstated comparison to the Blowish: none of these boys are particularly polished singers).

Most of the songs are basically boring, retreading ground previously tread by more polished bands--but there's no reason Then Again couldn't become, say, Deep Blue Something with a little more practice.

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