Songs From an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile

It's almost silly to accouse An American Movie of being overproduced, because string-driven flights of fancy and studio gloss are simply what successful well-adjusted nice-guy bands do on their third album. [#146, p.89]

Everclear's first collection since 1997's "So Much For The Afterglow" is an unabashed love letter to the '70s, when AM radio still ruled and pop music was simple, good fun.

The arrangements lurch from unplugged folksiness to orchestrated Sinatraesque balladeering to faux late-period Beach Boys. When he's backed by acoustic guitars and mandolins and creating a back-porch ambiance, Alexakis could be a cut-rate Steve Earle. But none of these gimmicks can obscure the reality that the melodies are once again a drab, uninspiring lot.

He has created a record that fully embraces the inclinations we all sometimes have to find a tune with strong enough melody to hum through the day.

While love- and life-torn Alexakis might lyrically be working familiar terrain here, he has the smarts to place his odes to abuse and regret into an intriguing assortment of different contexts, making this album well worth listening to

The new album is looser in the rhythm, has less wall of slash, relatively more lilt and funk, and more variety in the sound ... but in general the music is too diffuse.