Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

We’ve all had those CDs, where the first time through, it’s doesn’t quite grab your attention, but you give it a second and third chance, and eventually they grow on you, right? Unfortunately, the Tally Hall’s Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum reverses the formula. The first trip through the CD turned up a strange and beautiful world where Beatle-esque songwriting stood side by side with amusing frat boy raps and wacky, They Might Be Giants styled romps. A little reggae here, a little trip on a Caribbean cruise there, some absolutely pure power pop fun elsewhere, and the first glance at the Museum produced an image of a varied, wonderfully mixed blend of all things quirky and wonky (their term) rock. But subsequent spins and closer inspection of the produce turned up wrinkles, and awkward mash ups of those various styles (and more) masquerading as music. That’s not to say there aren’t a few gems sprinkled here and there throughout the museum, it’s just that I liked it quite a bit on the first spin, and less and less the more I listened to it, to the point that by this time, the CD as a whole is an annoyance.

The museum tour begins with “Good Day,” which gained notoriety in 2004 when it won a BMI Music Foundation John Lennon Scholarship Award, and was later featured on The O.C. Opening with a layered vocal, and serious Beatles influence, “Good Day” starts the proceeding on a good note, which carries over into the power pop frolic of, “Greener.” Things start falling apart after that, though, with “Welcome to Tally Hall,” built on amateurish wanna-be comedic rap, “Can I get a T/and if you hit me with an A L L Y/then you’d see why the Hall is here for y’all.” The next track, “Taken For a Ride,” opens up with digitally obscured vocals, and a melody recalling the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme.

Later on, there’s reggae infused pop, an ode to Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and all sorts of different song stylings, including the all too short, They Might Be Giants-influenced “The Whole World and You.” These guys aren’t untalented, they’ve got the chops to pull off the various styles. It’s just that every once in a while, there’s too many things going on at once, or they just go off the rails. Case in point, the song, “Banana Man,” which has Cantor affecting a faux-Caribbean accent and the band breaking out pseudo-island rhythms in an embarrassing mess.

My personal favorites on the disc just might be “Be Born,” a gentle bluegrass-style track, and “Just Apathy,” which opens with a simple piano backing and a plaintive vocal from Cantor before. However, it’s entirely possible that these two tracks out especially because they bracket “Banana Man.”

Bottom line, there are gems to be found on Tally Hall’s debut disc, which has been out since late 2005, but it’s hard to listen long enough through the chaff to get to the good stuff. Far be it for me to slag my fellow University of Michigan graduates, but Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum isn’t a destination I’ll often be revisiting.