It’s been close to six years since England’s Sneaker Pimps joined the then cresting wave of male/female programmer/vocalist duos and trios like Portishead and Mono and scored an American hit with the sultry, trip-hoppish single "6 Underground." Much has changed in the pop landscape since the mid ’90s, and the Sneaker Pimps themselves are almost an entirely different band from the chart-toppers of ’96. For starters, they’ve had a sex-change operation. The dream-pop diva incantations of Kelli Dayton are gone, and with them the sexy malaise that defined the sound of the band’s debut CD. What’s left are three studio sculptors with a yen for turntable scratching and a new singer who brings to mind the brooding David Gahan of Depeche Mode’s more downcast material. Gone, too, are the traces of trip-hop that made the Sneaker Pimps seem trendy in ’96, replaced by a synth-heavy sound that draws heavily from the new wave of ’80s kingpins like, well, Depeche Mode.

The result is a solid if sometimes cheesy reminder that Gahan and company may have been ahead of their time with the proto-electronica of all those ’80s hits. "Fuel" and "Bloodsport" pair male angst with ominous synth pulses, strummed acoustic guitars, and techno drum tones. New lead singer Chris Corner holds his own as tortured, alienated soul. And as if to prove that these Sneaker Pimps aren’t a one-trick pony, "M’aidez," with its strong guitar hood and driving bass line, turns out to be a glam-rocky lament about "life lived on mobile phones." The real questionable move here is the decision to keep the Sneaker Pimps name.