It’s fitting that Remy Zero’s brooding modern rocker "Save Me" has become the themesong to the WB network’s demographically and æsthetically simpático teenage-Superman series Smallville. The exposure may well have saved the LA five-piece from the cutout bin, but it’s a small wonder no one discovered them sooner: The Golden Hum, their third album, is full of sweeping and accessible big-rock numbers that evoke the anthemic qualities of U2 before Bono discovered irony. You do have to excuse an uncomfortably large number of brow-furrowingly earnest laments about the human condition, but there’s enough jangle-pop hookcraft here to make up for the overplayed angst. Familiar totems are everywhere, from the ringing R.E.M.-ish guitars of "Impossibility" and the dynamic title track (which brings to mind "Creep"-era Radiohead) to the Travis-style folky Brit-pop ruminations of "I’m Not Afraid." Remy Zero’s reach occasionally exceeds their grasp, and every so often they come across as too studied in their application of familiar modern-rock devices, but it’s hard to find a song here that doesn’t make a strong melodic impression.