New Infection

The Melismatics tread that fine line between "eclectic" and "schizophrenic," meaning first-time listeners faced with the band's 2003 debut, New Infection, are bound to deem it either a visionary statement or a rudderless mess. Quite impossible to pin down, New Infection is primarily rooted in hard rock, punk, and power pop, but also offers regular glimpses of new wave, indie rock, and even wackier things besides (more on those later). At their best, album highlights like the title track, the almost Nuggets-ish "I Saw You on TV," and the exceptional, melancholy "Don't Believe It" proffer bittersweet power pop/punk absorbed from vaunted Midwestern giants like Cheap Trick and Hüsker Dü. In fact, the Cheap Trick connection becomes almost too much to bear on the curiously named "I, the Undersigned," where singer Ryan Smith appears to channel Robin Zander's spirit. As for the those wackier experiments cited above, they include a slew of forgettable shoegazing numbers, a couple of barely adequate country rockers ("Hate to Say It," "Together We Will Be"), the stutter-stepping, Melvins-lite twist of "Aphasia," and the truly oddball, Devo-like concoction that is "Payin' for Gas With My Credit Card." In short, the Melismatics have delivered what's sure to become a polarizing album with their first try; they can only start making more sense from here on out.