A Date With Daylight

Album Review

Southern California indie rockers the Stranger's Six are one of those bands who seem poised for a certain level of teen stardom; on the other hand, Phantom Planet, the Click Five and Damone were picks to click as well, and none of those really worked out, did they? The Stranger's Six are doing little new or different with the alt rock mainstream circa 2007: while not exactly Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco, their brand of ultra-catchy guitar-based pop/rock should appeal to similar demographics. First single "Echo" and the '80s-vibed "Caged Heat" are particularly radio-friendly unit shifters, and the album as a whole moves speedily from one three-minute alt-rocker to another. Only the epic closer "I Only Sleepwalk" flirts with emo self-importance, and even it is largely redeemed by the singalong chorus. A Date with Daylight is the sort of album that might start to sound stale after a few months of MTV exposure and having its songs appear on youth-oriented TV show soundtracks, but it could also be the sound of Hot Topic circa the summer of 2007.