Review: Diffuser

Diffuser
““Injury Loves Melody””
(Hollywood)

Having established the measured, proper amount of indie-cred as Flu 13 (a detail repeatedly cited by their glossy, excessive press kit, which includes big, real, b+w photos, stickers, volumes of corporate mag clippings and postcards all bound up in a fancy off-white folder made of neet-O textured paper that you probably wouldn’t spend the extra dough for at Kinkos), Diffuser re-enter the arena ready to rock you over the mainstream airwaves.  While not a “bad” album, it isn’t really any “good” either.  Diffuser nostagically clings to bits and pieces of their jangly, slightly off-kilter indyisms, but blatantly attempt to seduce the anonymous, gawking Mtv audience in the well established Weezer meets Foo Fighters format.  Regardless, the songs are competant, albeit contrived, and one of them might manage to fight its way upstream to fertilize the egg of the corporate whore and help give birth to yet another one-hit-stillborn.  They might father something that could possibly make it out of the hospital if they actually take some risks on their next album.  The final “hidden track”, which is a spoof on 80’s glam-hair pop, seems to be indirectly commenting on the choices they have made more than it seems to be a hip guffaw at the expense of yesterdays posers.  Not really recommended listening, but if all goes well for Diffuser (and Hollywood Records inc.) you won’t have a choice.