Elocation

On the heels of 2002's enormous hit "Wasting My Time," Default took another shot at platinum by releasing Elocation, an album of predictable mainstream rock. Things get off to an uneven start with "Who Followed Who?," which finds the group nicking the powerful drive of the Bangles' "Hazy Shade of Winter" and gluing it to any old Nickelback tune. Speaking of the latter, Chad Kroeger helped put Default on the map and naturally is back to help out, co-penning "Throw It All Away," which aside from its title is one of the few tracks worth salvaging here. Not so for "(Taking My) Life Away," co-crafted by Bryan Adams colleague Jim Vallance and layered with the same type of formulaic chorus that bolstered "Wasting" at radio. Sadly, there's little originality in palatable numbers like "Movin' On" and "Throw It All Away" -- mostly because lead singer Dallas Smith sounds like an anonymous mixture of the aforementioned Kroeger, the Offspring's Dexter Holland, and Creed's Scott Stapp. Sure, the band plays as astutely as, um, Creed or Nickelback under the watchful eye of producers Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam, Rhythm Corps), Butch Walker (Sevendust, SR-71), and Kroeger. Although Default's bastardized cover of the Jeff Buckley classic "Cruel" is brave, it's also misguided, leaving the simple devotional tune "Without You" as the most memorable on Elocation.