It's not a label, it's an empire. Jack Johnson's 'Brushfire Music' record label, that is. It's an empire that's slowly planning on taking over the music world using acoustic guitars, Bermuda shorts and fake tanning solutions as weapons, strategically placing acts across the globe to wear down the populace, so that when the time comes to detonate the A-Bomb (Apathy Bomb), it'll be far too late to oppose. The latest brigade is Animal Liberation Orchestra, a Californian band whose second album Roses & Clover is nowhere near as potent a missile as their label boss's latest dreary bilge, but which is still remarkably mediocre. ALO are the kind of band who write uptempo songs about their supposed heartache, and bellyache about how the girl of their dreams doesn't know they exist; but goshdarnit, you just know that they'll not only get the girl in the end, they'll procreate and have their spawn sing backing vocals on their next album. With elements of ELO, Dave Matthews Band and a less-enticing Maroon 5, Animal Liberation Orchestra are an out-and-out daytime radio-friendly pop band, and they're unabashedly brazen about it, too. Like The Fray's 2007 debut, piano and keyboards play a big part in ALO's sound; also like The Fray, most of the 45-minute long album is offensive in its humdrum approach to music (Empty Vessel, All Alone and Maria providing particular 'blah' moments). Plastic Bubble ("Livin' in a plastic bubble, and it's good") could easily soundtrack a Disney ad consisting of nothing but large, grinning mouse heads floating in black space, and even the less-hateable songs are exercises in self-indulgence. The pros? Lead singer Zach Gill does have a strong and soulful, if unimaginative voice, and many songs admittedly embody a sunny vibe - nothing wrong there. The cons? This is totally unconvincing pop music to shrug shoulders to, from a band that could feasibly fill stadiums one day. Your role as a music fan is to fight such mediocrity for as long as is humanly possible, or we're all done for.
