If it's 'Brokes,' fix it

Neo-'60s folk-pop purveyors The Magic Numbers are back with Those The Brokes, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2005 self-titled debut. And, in a nutshell, Brokes reminds me of the subject of my first great adolescent crush: pretty, but dull.\nIndeed, just by scanning information from Allmusic, Amazon and iTunes and being familiar with the band's sound (or its influences), one can predict what'll be wrong with Brokes before even listening to the album. Take the following into consideration: (1) the band makes sweet, sunny, laid-back AM radio pop likened to The Mamas & The Papas; (2) Brokes is more than an hour long with 13 tracks; (3) seven of those tracks are more than five minutes long, three are more than six minutes! In other words, the band has taken their success to mean not just that listeners want to hear more of them in terms of new songs, but that listeners want to hear more in terms of sheer running time. The Magic Numbers' debut was not a tight, rigidly disciplined affair (how could it be?), but it's a greyhound compared to Brokes' ponderous bloat. And, we're not talking about prog rock or orchestral chamber pop here -- long songs that change things up, twist in new directions, feature bold hooks, etc. -- we're talking about mid-tempo tunes with male-female "woo-ooo" harmonies and innocuous lovey-dovey lyrics. Thus, starting with the fourth track, "Carl's Song," nearly every successor overstays its welcome by at least a minute. And given the subtlety of the differences between some tracks, much of the album's middle blends into one vast puddle of indistinct prettiness -- the result being that, for an active listener, "laid-back" slides into "comatose" (at least, until 11th track, "Runnin' Out," briefly jolts you awake).\nIt's a shame, since, judging by the first three songs, things didn't have to be this way. The ending chorus of "This Is A Song" is kind of lame (seriously, "This is a song / these are the words"?), but the momentum and hooks are engaging; "You Never Had It" delivers the goods that many of the other songs promise, except in under three minutes; and "Take A Chance" is a very fun, lighthearted dance tune (and, unsurprisingly, the album's first single).\nAnd don't discount the loveliness of the harmonies here, Brokes makes for nice background music. Just don't expect much more from it.