Peek-A-Boo

"Who the hell are the Boo Radleys?" was the question posed by a baffled young man on our way to the Boo Radleys/Better Than Ezra show on Monday night at the Cat's Cradle. With sly smirks across their wisdom-filled faces, the music experts, Paul (Mr. Mercury Records and quite a studly brother from Kappa Sig) and Maneesh (of Speak of the Devil-fame), replied: "umm...a Brit-pop band, little dark, with a touch of Spinal Tap." "So, what the hell does that mean?" asked their still-puzzled friend.

Ambiguity-that is what the Boo Radleys are all about. They are not your ordinary British wankers, who sing in their pretty-boy voices and make teenage girls' hearts flutter. The band's leading man, often called the "Egg Man," evokes the image of an adorable Igor with his closely shaven head, which only adds to the Radleys' idiosyncratically cryptic air.

Being a closeted favorite of the American audience, the Boo Radleys harken me back to Lee Harper's To Kill a Mockingbird. Very much like the object of children's fascination, "Boo Radley," the band's new album, C'Mon Kids, draws the deepest curiosity from the inner-child of its listeners.

The undercurrent that skirts throughout each song is almost cabalistically esoteric. The entire album is like a big game of hide and seek-in every corner an unexpected treasure lay waiting to be discovered; the treasure that melds the purest extracts of sundry bands...

Their first and title track, "C'Mon Kids," sounded like Oasis after someone had pissed in their Cheerios. "Ride the Tiger" wasn't as musically "grrrreat" as the mighty Tony would say. What was the word? Flaky? Maybe slightly gilded with saccharine rather than pure sucrose....

The ferocity manifested in "What's In the Box?" was like the super deluxe decoder ring found amidst the enriched wheat product. The track's unrelenting energy paralleled the pulsating, enervating punk of my favorite band, Jane's Addiction. "Fortunate Sons" imported the new blanched trip-hop style coined by Beck-adding to their chameleon-like quality.

C'Mon Kids is a deviation from the Boo Radleys musical norm. The tracks within it are praiseworthy yet subconsciously sycophantic in scope. The Radleys seem to be trying entirely too hard to please everybody and as such are spreading their true musical talent a little too thin-kinda like the nauseatingly sugary icing on the free birthday cake you get at Denny's.