Meteor

While most contemporary power pop acts seemingly subscribe to the notion that all cultural progress came to a halt after the release of Big Star's Radio City, the Shazam are one band not afraid to pledge allegiance to the bigger pop/rock sounds of the late 1970s and early '80s, and on their fifth album, Meteor, they've literally put their money where their mouth is by hiring Reinhold Mack (professionally known simply as Mack) to produce. Mack was behind the controls for albums by Queen, Billy Squier, Sparks, and Electric Light Orchestra in the '70s and '80s, and here he gives the Shazam the sort of big, punchy, and polished sound that by all rights would have made them radio fodder had it been recorded at a time when radio still cared about rock & roll. With its crunchy guitar sounds, booming drums, and layered harmonies processed within an inch of their lives, Meteor is the closest thing to a Queen album the Shazam will ever have the chance to make, but in its heart it has a lot more in common with Sparks — for all the slick popcraft, this band can't resist letting their smart-ass sense of humor rise to the surface on tunes like "Hey Mom, I Got the Bomb," "Time for Pie," "Disco at the Fairgrounds," and "NFU" (which stands for "Not F—ked Up Enough"), and in some respects, Meteor seems like a knowing parody of '70s rock rather than a for-real contemporary pop/rock epic, with bandleader and songwriter Hans Rotenberry having a hard time not snickering at his own joke. In all honesty, the joke is pretty funny, and from a musical standpoint, the Shazam are more than solid enough to make these songs work in the studio, and the melodies are well served by Mack's epic-scale production. But at the same time, it's hard not to think that the Shazam missed an opportunity by not playing a bit straighter on Meteor — they could have created a gloriously mammoth rock album instead of just making fun of one.