A long time ago, in a galaxy far away known as the '70s, a network called PBS followed an American family around and then showed us all what went down in a 13 week series titled, amazingly enough, "An American Family." The family was upwardly mobile, upper middle class, and all sorts of crap happened to them, probably due to having a camera follow them around all over the place. The husband and wife separated on camera, and one of their sons, a mousy little twit named Lance, came out of the closet... well, it showed them all coming out of a closet at one point or another, but he REALLY came out of the closet. He started a rock band that never went anywhere and the last I saw of him he was a correspondent of some sort for MTV, that equal opportunity employer for everyone except straight white males. Anyway, the name of this family was The Loud Family.

There is presently a band called "The Loud Family" which has just released what I believe to be their sixth album, "Attractive Nuisance," and their second with their latest lineup. The laws regarding truth-in-labelling must have been suspended for the release of this album. They are not all that loud, nor attractive. Nuisance? Well, that works. One out of three ain't bad.

"Attractive Nuisance sounds like a soundtrack album without the cohesiveness present on most projects (and yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm being ironic here). Some of it ("720 Times Happier Than The Unjust Man" anf "Nice When I Want Something") sounds like Smashing Pumpkins jamming with Yes while both groups play in different keys. Other tracks, such as "One Will Be The Highway" and "Save Your Money," show some promise as failure is roughly snatched from the jaws of success by the whiny, sounds-like your-kid-brother vocals of Scott Miller. "Blackness, Blackness?" I hoped for maybe a turned around version of The Youngbloods' hit of a thousand years ago, "Darkness, Darkness." No such luck.

"Attractive Nuisance" is not a total loss. Demonstrating the truism that even a broken clock is right twice a day, the band manages to wrestle the microphone away from Miller and give it to keyboardist Alison Faith Levy on...well, on two tracks, "Years of Wrong Impressions" and "The Apprentice." Ms. Levy is of sufficient vocal and songwriting talent to overcome whatever other deficiencies the band has (and on the strength of this effort, their name is Legion). Hopefully she will continue her solo career while she persists in slumming among her present company.

The press release accompanying "Attractive Nuisance" promises that "...it's going to grab you like good pornography." Gee, I've never had good pornography make me painfully aware of my own mortality while putting me to sleep. Guess I've been reading the wrong stuff.