Rooney: Rooney

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

From the pop-art Californian flag on the cover, to the sun-kissed harmonies above the breezy, fuzzy tunes, it's obvious that Los Angeles quintet Rooney sure do like the state they're in.

Their debut album exudes West Coast powerpop across its 11 tracks in a style that's barely an area code away from labelmates Weezer or last year's bright young things Phantom Planet - who had a song called California and whose drummer Jason Schwartzman is a cousin of Nicolas Cage, as is Rooney frontman Robert Carmine. Small world, huh?

If they have the style and the mapbook, then the only thing holding Rooney back is having the songs to go with them. The swinging stomps of openers Blueside and Stay Away gets things off to a vital beginning, but then the going gets patchier among the balance of the 11 tracks. The anti-Britney rant Popstars sounds a mite forced, Daisy Duke could have come off the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, and the suicide-addressing That Girl Has Love is simply mawkish.

Still, the doo-wopp chords and Weezer-isms of If It Were Up to Me are infectious, as is the acerbic lyrical humour displayed by Carmine in I'm a Terrible Person. Rooney, it seems sound better, when they're taking the mickey.

Label: Geffen