Hushpuppies: Silence Is Golden

Having recently become indie pop-rock sensations in their native France after one of their songs soundtracked a deodorant commercial during the 2006 soccer World Cup, Paris-based Hushpuppies have decided to start spreading the word Stateside with their sophomore album Silence Is Golden. With a coolly calculated pose equal to the Hives’ slick-suited allure, along with a liking (also shared with the Swedes) for the British-invasion bands of the mid-’60s, this sharp-dressed outfit certainly look the business as they go about making all the right noises. Jangly folk-rock gives way to crunching power-pop guitar on opener “A Trip To Vienna”, very nice fuzzy garage-psych organ pulses throughout and cavernous accented English vocals climb out of brooding minor-chord darkness on a couple of songs — the best of which is “Harmonium”. Surprising, then, that Silence Is Golden is such an uninspiring listen. Unfortunately, this is an album of smoothly constructed singles that are brashly melodic yet taken as a whole become predictable and unimaginative — ideal pickings for the single-download digital age.