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 by antiGUY
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Elva Label: Interscope Rating:

Tracks: Mean Girl Up All Night Sound Siren How You Feel Blame It On Me Seein' Red  Nick & Phil Hellborn Geronimo Rescue Me Actress, Model... Raliegh (Soliloquy Pt V) Babylon Raliegh (Soliloquy Pt VI) Rest Of My Life Elva (It's Alright) Evolution

While their last studio effort, the self-titled Unwritten Law CD stay pretty true to the brand of power-pop now commonly known as punk-pop, this time around the band branches out a bit musically. 

The opening track, Mean Girl, is pure alt-pop ear candy that throws out a punkish undertone and a hip-hop flavor. 

"Up All Night" is a heavy guitar driven tune that shows why this band can be taken more serious than some of their more popular contemporaries. 

"Sound Siren" is classic Unwritten Law brand of punk-pop. 

With "How You Feel" the band mixes up reggae and power-pop to create a new classic with a "big-rock" chorus and slow melodic verses. 

"Blame It On Me" kicks things into high gear with hard driving guitars that falls more into the classic punk camp than power-pop. 

"Seein' Red" is one of the finest modern rock power ballads to hit the scene in years. It's got an addictive chorus but also nice multi-textured transitions and melodic verses that make this a real highlight of the album. 

"Nick & Phil" is the first of a few humorous phone calls included on this disc. 

"Hellborn" is another hard rockin tune with plenty of distorted guitars.

"Geronimo" another alt-power-pop gem with a memorable melody line. 

"Rescue Me" crosses the line into metal and just before it completes the crossover it grabs onto a ska feel and then mixes it with power-pop. 

"Actress, Model..." post-grunge power-pop at it's best. 

"Babylon" the punkiest songs on the CD starts off with a killer guitar and keyboard lead and rocks out in a classic Offspring fashion. Good stuff!  

"Rest Of My Life" is a beautiful acoustic ballad that really stands out here with unforgettably addictive vocals. 

"Elva (It's Alright)" a cool alt-pop tune with a Foo Fighter feel, definitely a stand out tune on this CD. 

"Evolution" is a modern punk influences rocker that concludes the album on a nice and heavy note. 

As you can see there is a lot of music here to enjoy and the nicest part is that all the songs show us a different side of the band. This isn't like your prototypical punk-pop CD where all the songs offer very little variation from each other.  Don't make the mistake of grouping these guys in with the likes of Sum 41 or Blink-182, they leave those groups in the dust and have more in common with bands like The Living End and Body Jar. 

This is the album that Lit wished they had written as the follow up to their platinum plus debut. Hopefully, if the stars line up correctly and radio program directors have any sense "Elva" could be the album that breaks Unwritten Law wide open.