Yes, these are the same infectious blokes who rampaged onto U.S. shores with their equally infectious mini-hit “High,” which sung of the pleasures of going out and getting stoned with your friends. God bless them for that, and for including the song on the soundtrack of one of the many pseudo anthemic teen movies of the last few years, Can’t Hardly Wait. So, with all this exposure and radio friendliness, it’s only obvious that Feeder would waste no time ushering in their sophomore effort, Yesterday Went to Soon, complete with, as the press release states, “power chords and powerful hooks.” Goody.

Not that this statement is a lie. Far, far from it. The songs on Yesterday Went Too Soon, the good ones and the bad ones, are good and bad for the same reasons: they all sound a little the same, a little like each other, a little like something you’ve heard before. No matter. Were you expecting the band whose major hit to date was “High” to reinvent the wheel? Naah.

So like good, and often lame, bands do, Feeder draws on their influences. The album’s premier keeper, “Radioman,” is a beautiful acoustic ditty, blending Blur and Collective Soul into an odd mixture. “Dry” reeks of Radiohead, and “Paper Faces,” the solemn closer, is simultaneously Oasis and The Verve. And you know what? They’re all stellar.

Yesterday Went Too Soon is no masterpiece, but it should eschew all talk of sophomore jinx and one hit wonder. Hell, after an album this decent, these boys deserve to go spark up a phat one.