Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Dr. Manhattan, the Wauconda, Illinois quartet, bears little resemblance to its apparent namesake, the brooding, almost omnipotent, atomic-powered character in THE WATCHMEN, Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel. The band’s self titled debut is an interesting if not totally endearing debut, the sound of a band still somewhat feeling its way around, reading the fine line between artiness and commercialization.

Quite honestly, these guys seem talented enough that they can have both if they want it. Case in point: “Baton Rouge,” which reminds me of something that Squeeze might have done back in the day. Dr. Manhattan throws an accordion into the mix of its basic guitar/keyboard/bass/drums foundation, but eschews the temptation of turning the tune into a zydeco number. Instead, it joyfully degenerates into a sloppy singalong that fades into…“Minds Like Ours,” another singalong, which in turn becomes a post-punk, angst-laden romp with a percussion-laden, “Whole Lotta Love“ type interlude near the end. The majority of the tracks on DR. MANHATTAN are by turns anthemic or bombastic, as if their influences range from The Clash and latter period Green Day (“Big Chomper, Big Chomper”) to uh, Plain White Ts (“Tracey’s Buns”). If there is a deficiency here, it’s the band’s inability to consistently craft solid hooks, which in turn makes it difficult to get a handle on some of the compositions, at least so that they’ll stick in the mind for any length of time. They attempt to compensate with some interesting flourishes, however, and successfully so, particularly on the manic “You Put The ‘I’ In Team,” which sounds like it could have been built around a fragment left over from Jefferson Airplane’s AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER’S sessions.

Dr. Manhattan isn’t afraid to have fun, and doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously (the liner notes credit management with “wall punch,” and the CD is just ambitious enough that you can almost hear the sound of fist hitting drywall on a track or two). The band is on the WARPED tour this summer, and should fit right in with the goings on.