Something Real & Here, Here and Here

Meg & Dia widen their sound — and their audience's eyeballs — with Here, Here and Here, an album that blends radio-ready pop/rock with emo flourishes and tongue twisting, sexually frank lyrics. "Your eyes are dusty dirt porn magazines," sings Dia Frampton. "I'll take your pants, you take my hair, and let's dance." In keeping with that sly come-on, Here, Here and Here doesn't shy away from much, be it the "skeletons in [Dia's] bed" or the anthemic grandeur provided by producer Howard Benson. He piles the music high with strings, Technicolor guitars, keyboards, and the occasional "Crimson and Clover"-styled tremolo effect, sometimes amplifying the songwriters' emotions to a hyperbolic extent. Such moments threaten to topple the band's foundation, which needs structural support rather than the sonic turrets, spires, and flying buttresses that Benson so gleefully loves. Meg & Dia are left to come up with a track list that warrants such epic treatment, and when the group does deliver, the result recalls a slightly edgier Eisley (complete with closely paralleled sibling harmonies) with Warped Tour appeal. As before, Meg & Dia pepper their strongest songs with clever turns of phrase, from the seafaring love ballad "One Sail" ("My love rests in a shipwreck with a compass in his head/I'll wait for him like a vulture waits for bodies") to "Agree to Disagree" ("There's something about giving up that sounds so bittersweet/I'll think I'll throw in the towel right now...but fold it nice and neat"). The latter song shuffles along with a country bounce, but it's also dominated by a honking harmonica, as if the listener wouldn't be able to make the connection without a clichéd, rootsy instrument at the forefront. Meg & Dia don't need that kind of help; rather, they need room to grow, to stretch their legs, to make their own mistakes without layers of aural fondant coating their sound. When left to their own devices, however, the girls still sound promising, which makes Here an enjoyable listen despite its flaws.