MêléeDevils And AngelsReview

If Melee sound like their number one ambition is to a feature on the soundtrack of the OC it's not surprising. This four-piece actually hail from the titular county. They may be in their early 20s but they've already released a self-produced album that led to them being snapped up by Warner Brothers. Devils And Angels was released last year in the States, but finally it's our turn to marvel at their pop heroics.

Indeed, sounding like some superhero alias, frontman Chris Cron looks like Ben Folds' geekier younger brother while delivering every song with a control and conviction that is irresistible. What IS resistible is the way in which each song is SO slick and calculated, like a pop missile designed by computer for maximum payload yield. Current UK hit, Built To Last, takes Coldplay's piano bombast and adds a soupcon of teen appeal with lush harmonising. It's all delivered with such panache that you can't help but smile, yet this efficiency of design means that when it comes to the obligatory piano big ballad, Can't Hold On, you're already mentally picturing the lighters aloft in some enormous shed of a venue. It's a shame because the band also achieve the looks-simple-but-is-hard trick of making emotively stirring pop. And stylistically there's more to them than just straight-ahead rock-lite like the suspect Biggest Mistake (imagine McFly mixed by Bob Clearmountain). She's Gonna Find Me here is a mid-tempo country waltz that would suit a Nashville native down to the ground.

Lyrically the songs do lack bite. A cursory listen to a song like Imitation would suggest that you're listening to charmingly retro fare, pretty and pure and not a million miles away from the Feeling: with nods to Elton John and a host of late 70s legends. Only closer scrutiny of the band's website reveals that it's actually about a girl with schizophrenia known by guitarist, Ricky Sans. But this is the curse of callow youth and may yet be corrected. It's also little wonder when they claim that: ''The album is about being in your 20s in modern America. It's about our experiences right now - with life, love, friends - and asking questions about where we're going and what's going to happen. That's the whole theme." Hmm...deep stuff.

But the literal light at the end of this corporate pop package comes at the close of Devils And Angels, when the band take on Daryl Hall, and John Oates' classic, You make My Dreams. Suddenly it all makes sense; with a slight twist these boys could single-handedly revive true blue-eyed soul of the philly variety. Hurrah! Let's just hope they grow up soon enough.