Place in the Sun

Includes Japanese Exclusive Bonus Track .

Power pop is a catch-all term used to describe the music made by any band that knows a minimum of three chords and plays them loudly through electric guitars. Because of this, power pop is often frustratingly dim. Lit are the exception. On A Place in the Sun, Lit sound like Nirvana minus the angst, replacing it with Cheap Trick's melodic sensibility. Their slice-of-Gen-X-life lyrics are comprehensible, wryly personal musings of love, lust, alcohol, and the abuses of each. "My car is in the front yard / And I'm sleeping with my clothes on / Came in through the window last night / And you're gone," frontman A. Jay Popoff relates in "My Own Worst Enemy." Popoff sings in a from-the-gut, pure rock & roll voice that never needs to scream to be powerful or emotional. The hooks, played by brother Jeremy Popoff, are bigger than a cruise-ship anchor. There is absolutely nothing unfamiliar about any of these songs, but A Place in the Sun is one of the meatiest albums of its ilk, leaving its counterparts in the dark. --Beth Massa