If you like -- and I mean really like -- Nine Days' first single, "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)," then you might enjoy the rest of "The Madding Crowd," the Long Island, N.Y., band's major-label debut. That's because every song sounds like the cut before it: Eve 6-style pop minus catchy lyrics and punk backbone.
Nine Days' crime is bringing to market meaningless, radio-friendly (hear it on WXXL-FM 106.7) rubbish. This is surprising for a band whose website smacks of self-importance and pseudo-intellectualism. (Con-sider that the CD's title is taken from Thomas Hardy's early novel "Far From the Madding Crowd." Could a literary reference be much more obscure than that?)
Even a sample from Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" can't keep the ill-fated snoozer "Bob Dylan" and all the rest from a bargain-bin destiny.
