*** Lazlo Bane

II Transistor

(Almo Sounds)

This debut album by a Boston-based four-piece (due in stores January 28) is different from the slew of other pop-rock albums by guy bands carrying on about their favorite inanimate objects. The Presidents of the United States of America or local up-and-comers Underball may offer a refreshing holiday from significance, but they can also make you feel trapped in Boys' Town, where everyone relates better to toys and bugs than to his own emotions or other people.

For Lazlo Bane frontdude Chad Fischer, this is the way he relates to emotion. The nostalgic corn about his brother's GI Joe comes packed with a dark Freudian twist; a lost bunny teaches him about sickness unto death; he can yearn for his "Buttercup" and "Flea Market Girl" only because they're safely behind bars and a picture frame, respectively. If these odd lyrical conceits occasionally falter, the tunes are there to carry you along with whatever it takes: fast acerbic guitars, cute-and-catchy choruses, even a surprise visit from Men at Work's Colin Hay on his own "Overkill," an inspired cover from back when pop-rock guys still wore their quiet anxiety on their sleeve.

-- Franklin Soults