Dirty Sexy Knights In Paris

Album Review

Are you a fan of post-grunge music and also enjoy classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin? Do you prefer your guitar rock performed with the soft-loud technique and enough soaring harmonies and slick production to keep the music from sounding too raw? Do you enjoy mainstream alternative rock even if the band doesn't sound particularly original or spontaneous? If you answered yes to these questions, there's a good chance that you'll enjoy Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris. Produced by Gavin McKillop (Goo Goo Dolls) and featuring everything from a sitar ("Rain") to a 22-piece orchestra ("When I Drown"), this carefully crafted recording combines new material with revised old songs from the group's independent album, Papa's Dojo. Vocalist Jason Boyd sounds somewhat like his older brother, Brandon Boyd (Incubus), but you can also hear the influence of other groups (Soundgarden, for example) in his band. Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris offers its share of hooks and it manages to convey a fair amount of energy despite its overly polished sound (although not quite enough energy to merit naming the album's first song after it); however, the music sounds somewhat generic and the band does have a tendency to substitute volume changes for soulfulness. Nonetheless, this is a respectable piece of product that holds up well against similar albums. The enhanced CD features multimedia computer files in addition to the regular audio tracks.