American Hi-Fi - Art of Losing (CD)

All Music Guide

Former '90s alt.rock utility man Stacy Jones brings the gleaming steel wool of his American HiFi out of the box once again with Art of Losing. The album arrives after a curious live offering, which seemed to exist solely as an opportunity for Jones to fulfill a Live at Budokan fantasy. Nevertheless, fans of the 2001 hit "Flavor of the Weak" will find Art of Losing and its title track lead single worthy followups. It's appropriate that "Art of Losing"'s slick, reconstituted punk jerk found its way into a Coors Light ad its chants of "Hey ho/Let's go/I'm gonna start a riot" and "One two/Fuck you/Don't tell me what to do" take the packaging of punk for mass consumption to macrobrewery levels. Impossibly, the similarly processed grit of "Breakup Song" is a straightup knockoff of blink182's "First Date". Jones includes another namedrop of Cheap Trick here, too; the production inserts hand claps, layer after layer of harmony vocals, and the thousandfoot high guitar tone typical of songs mix...ed for radio. In fact, this is the sound that guides both Losing and American HiFi, a band that's been designed and built for success in threeminute increments. "Nothing Left to Lose" splices played out hiphop phrasing ("Holla back y'all"; "All the bitches in the back" into smarmy Jackson Browne and Undertones references as the guitars chug and ring referentially; "Teenage Alien Nation" and "Beautiful Disaster" feature more bombastic riffery and meticulouslyplaced potty mouth from Jones. Elsewhere there are the requisite ballads ("Save Me" and "This is the Sound" think a louder Goo Goo Dolls), but Art of Losing is rounded out mostly by a jumble of Fwords, cheeky pop culture references, namedrops (Built to Spill? My Bloody Valentine? Mentioning them doesn't put you in the same league), and more buzzing 21st century new rock alternative helped out considerably by production chicanery. American HiFi truly is the flavor of the week. - Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide Read more Less