Is naming an album Miss Roboto clever or terrible? The answer lies in the music, I suppose. If they sound anything like Styx, there's a problem (granted, that's something of a problem regardless of the album's title, isn't it?).
Petland has been building the new-millennium equivalent of "street cred" at garageband.com ("e-cred"? "Web-cred"? "Inter-cred"? Never mind.). Their sophomore long-player finds the band indulging their pop-rock-by-way-of-electronica bent in the creation of a semi-concept album that is not nearly as self-conscious as that description implies. The "concept", such as it is, seems to involve a boy creating a robot girl and then either destroying or being destroyed by or somehow fusing with her (the album ends with a nice and, under the circumstances, creepy cover of "Under My Skin").
The music sometimes reminds me of the Pulsars, another rock group with shimmery guitars, high harmonies, an obsession with robots and a knack for insanely-poppy hooks. Fortunately, the band hasn't let the "concept" override song-by-song quality. They open with a '50s sci-fi movie voiceover of the kind that has, by now, been done to death. Still, it's more appropriate on this album than on most of the records on which such snippets appear. The first track, "Human", is a terrifically catchy blast that features the memorable lines, "We know the trouble you're in/You're so human, but in the end/Everybody knows the robots win." Even amid the deliberate kitsch, the processed voice that delivers the last line sounds vaguely threatening. "The One" sounds a great deal like Garbage, and proves my theory that said sound works much better for one track than for a whole album. "Ivy" is thoroughly winning, combining syrupy vocal harmonies with an interesting and syncopated drum track and high, sustained guitar lines.
The disc isn't all highlights. "Hive", for instance, employs a contrived-sounding verse that is saved by the chorus, while "Automatic Sheep" features a sublime verse that is dragged down by a chorus of distorted power chords and more key changes than seem absolutely necessary.
Overall, Petland seems to be doing a better-than-average job of balancing electronic tricks with traditional pop instruments and structures. More importantly, they know a good song when they hear it -- even if they do have a tin ear for album titles.
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