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Pre-teen girls finally have their own band to swoon over. Love, romance, and, yes, hurt are expressed with a charming innocence on Deserted by Push Play.
C. J. Baran sings soft-edged lead vocals, while alternating between rhythm guitar and keyboards. Steve Scarola rotates guitar, keyboards, and background vocals, while Nick DeTurris does duty on bass and Derek “D-ROCK” Ries rocks on drums.
These four 18-year-olds from Long Island, New York start out sweetly on the opening track, “Starlight Addiction.” In fact, all eleven cuts are similar. Most of them are short, catchy pop songs without complex musical lines or strong instrumental solos. Though the lyrics encompass affection and hurt, there’s no sting and no intense anger. But don’t get me wrong. These guys aren’t totally perfect—and a girl does get dumped (though not too harshly) in “Stop Staring.” Some indiscreet fun also surfaces in “Time to Shine,” like ditching school on a Monday to “party all day” and “call in sick ‘cause we’re going all the way.” Even with that, though, all of the songs on the album are still pretty benign.
However, there is a biting break from the routine in the final song, “There She Goes Again,” which is my favorite of the bunch. This cut is also included as a video on the CD-ROM’s special features. There, you’ll also find the lyrics to all of the songs as well as plenty of band photos.
Other than the closing cut, there’s really nothing original here, but that’s okay. I’m not the target audience. However, I’d feel quite comfortable if my pre-teenage daughter fell for the songs and personae of Push Play. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they get a huge following. After all, they’re pretty cute.
