Poster Children: New World Record

As a general rule, bands don't get much more endearing than Poster Children, the unabashedly geeky, fun-loving, subtly new-wave-inspired rock group that has put out four or five hit-worthy (and hit-free) records in the '90s. After losing its major-label deal, you'd think the Champaign-Urbana band would finally be free to do whatever it wants—to remove some of the excessive polish from its sound and goof around a bit more—and that's more or less what it's done on New World Record. The problem is that Poster Children's greatest attribute has always been its ability to turn that over-the-top slickness into a necessary component of its sound, and New World Record suffers mightily from aimlessness and rougher production. (It's the first album the group has produced itself.) A few tracks, including "6x6" and "Straightline," recall the overdriven anthems that made the band great, but there are too many go-nowhere goofs like "Ankh" and "Mr. Goodnight." Even at its least inspired—and New World Record fits that bill—Poster Children still possesses a lovably nerdy charm, as well as the promise that most of these songs will sound great live. And, true to form, the group threw in a generous assortment of screensavers, videos, and even a multimedia game. But the music itself sounds like an afterthought, and that's too bad.