Sticky

Although issued on an Australian label, Sticky is actually the product of a New York-area band that started in the mid-'90s (with roots in the late-'80s L.A.-area group Kudzu), though this 2003 album is the band's first full-length release. It's an affable mix of girl group-influenced new wave in the Blondie style with a bit of bubblegum pop, power pop, and singer/songwriter folk-rock, female vocals often spotlighted in both the lead and harmony. The material isn't as lightweight as many such groups offer, though, and if the mixture of post-9/11 ruminations and disappointed romance in "I Don't Know Anything at All" aren't totally congruous with the relatively easygoing music, at least it avoids the earnest, forced hand-wringing of too many songs alluding to such events. Likewise, not too many tunes on these kind of albums start with the lyric "f*ck me with no protection" ("Invitation") or with a woman singing "I finally figured out why she likes me," or make a passing reference to a song by the obscure indie pop group the Vaselines. It's pleasant stuff, focusing on the basic pleasures and consternation of love and greeting the changing moods of the passing days and seasons with a chin-up sense of wonder, but it's not so original that it catches fire.