Home Town Hero
“Self-Titled”
(Maverick Recording Company)
There’s a wide variety of styles to be had on this album, the first from fast-rising L.A.-area band Home Town Hero. By disc’s end, however, the lucky winner steps forward, and it’s a post-grunge hard pop sound, heavy on mind-numbingly catchy hooks (one listen to “12 Oz.” will have you wandering the streets aimlessly, telling complete strangers, “I’m in your bedroom / sippin’ on cider,” over and over again- good luck with all that). Despite flirtations with a broad range of genres, from mellow, acoustic stylings (“Everything Out of Water”) to agressive quasi-metal (“Saturday Morning”), “Home Town Hero” does eventually settle down. The band really finds its focus and brings it all together on “Who’s to Say” and “Eighteen,” the sharpest, most polished track on the album, ready to blow up radio airwaves (if I owned the zoo, that is). If these two tracks are any indication of things to come, the future is wide open for Home Town Hero.
