Cobra Starship — Hot Mess

Hot Mess

Fueled By Ramen/Warner

Ian Gormely (CHARTattack)

09/10/2009 11:56am

After Fall Out Boy introduced R&B tropes to their spit-shined pop-punk anthems, no band took the idea and ran with it like Cobra Starship. And while their previous two records were far from perfect, their best tunes successfully married the mosh pit to the dance floor.

But on Hot Mess, the band's third full-length, they've all but abandoned their punk roots. Guitars are buried under heavily processed synths and drum beats while lead singer Gabe Saporta continues to play the role of jilted nice guy and lecherous old man.

This would all be perfectly fine if the band had just written better songs because nothing's worse than pop music that's not catchy. Only the Leighton Meester duet "Good Girls Go Bad" gets the blood pumping. The rest of the album just feels like we're listening to the American Apparel set's version of the Jonas Brothers.

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