The Burning Hour  (Audio CD) 
by Test Your Reflex

If John Hughes were still making movies like Pretty in Pink, he'd surely find a place on the soundtrack for this young LA quintet. On their first full-length, Test Your Reflex combines yearning vocals, driving rhythms, and textural guitar work. They're a little U2 ("I'm Not Sorry" suggests "With or Without You"), a little Cars (Andrew Ampaya's keyboard playing evokes Elliot Easton), and a little Simple Minds (remember "If You Leave" from The Breakfast Club?). Vocalist Ryan Levine even sings with a hint of a British accent, a trait he shares with the Strokes' Julian Casablancas. The Burning Hour doesn't necessarily sound like a flashback to 1987, but it doesn't exactly scream 2007 either, and the band mostly cites 1980s influences: the Cure, Duran Duran, the Smiths, etc. That said, they also cite David Bowie and Brian Eno, but their music is more polished and less adventurous than those 1970s references indicate. The Burning Hour makes for an agreeable listen, but more grit and time spent with risk-taking records, like Bowie's Low and Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets would do these boys a world of good. In the meantime, they're sure to find a home on commercial radio and on primetime dramas revolving around unrequited romance. --Kathleen C. Fennessy