Meese

Patrick Meese's friendship with fellow The Fray's Isaac Slade was handy from a getting-noticed standpoint. But now that the also Denver-based Meese's namesake band is receiving the major-label-release treatment, Broadcast will undoubtedly be viewed through a Fray-ed prism—and that brings minuses along with pluses.

Heavily pianistic tracks like "Taking the World On" and, especially, "The Medicine" are perhaps too ready for inclusion in a very special episode of Grey's Anatomy; they stick to a style that's already reached the saturation point without pushing at its limitations. Far more interesting are those cuts with more power in their pop, including the opening "Forward Motion," the driving "Out of the Rubble" and "Next in Line," with its dumb-but-catchy na-na-na-NA-na background vocals.

These guys are more than Fray clones. They just need to prove it more often.