As far as crappy pop goes, I'd have to say that this is some of it.

Not that it is "Kill Yourself" bad, but it isn't particularly good either. Vocally, singer Chris Trapper shows obvious signs of being cursed with delusions of Vedder, and the lyrics are just...well, cheesy. Extremely cheesy. Really. The first song closes with the repeated line "I would die for you" in a rock balllad style. Sad.

Musically, Paint the Town is pretty heavily in the Dave Matthews arena, and it's actually pretty well done. The rhythms aren't exactly impressive (Wah pedal? Someone tell this guy it's not the 70s anymore), but they're not remotely bad either, and the structure is strong pop, mostly standard with a few hidden surprises here and there. As for the engineering, that's really the best part of the album: it is pretty perfectly mixed, though the bass could be lower.

Though most of the album is a write off as standard, mildly boring and poorly sung mainstream rock, there are a couple of standout tracks: In the Galaxy is a cute, minimal song with strong guitar and mandolin harmonizing, and Freedom is a good mellow acoustic song. In my opinion, The Push Stars should head in that direction, because the rest of the tracks end up sounding, well, like everything else out there. Only worse.

-Linda Partsin