hether Paris, Texas' metamorphosis from melody-challenged emo unit to super charged pop rocket on Like You Like an Arsonist is a good thing or not is debatable. You might make the case that the band had finally begun to improve on its so-so approach by their third release, 2000’s Brazilliant. On that EP, the combination of the rough/pretty guitar battery and Scott Starpe’s smarmy vocal started to gel into something interesting, and the result was five strong songs that begged for deeper maturation.

But between that release and this one, the guitar cleverness got toned down a bit, the vocals got polished and the melodies got snappier. Paris, Texas now sounds much more eager to please and they do so with an approach that’s far less emo and more hard rock. It’s definitely an improvement over their pre-2000 releases, but listening back to Brazilliant I can’t help the nagging feeling that the band may have been onto something more satisfying overall, if not as radio-friendly.

Truth is, those concerns are probably a result of having too much time on my hands to ponder such things. It was only after the fifth or sixth pass through Like You Like an Arsonist that the possibility of it being anything less than a complete victory even occurred. Until then it was just a block-rockin’ slab of hot and heavy pop that slaked my thirst for anthemic choruses, and towering walls of guitar. From the moment “Bombs Away” swelled in with its trilling guitars (reminiscent of the guitar-as-bagpipe sound of Big Country, only nastier), and almost disco-fied beat, Paris, Texas would have had to stumble badly to lose me.

Well they don’t, which is good. The surrender of identity isn’t such a big deal primarily because Paris, Texas sounds so inspired aping the Foo Fighters melodic metal but also because they could have just as easily returned to their original agenda of okay, similarly derivative emo. Scream sellout all you want, but if you’re gonna sellout, this is the way to do it

The big, dumb rock thrills these Wisconsinites have discovered result in material that is immediate and tailor made for air-guitar pyrotechnics. “Rebel Radio” is so deliriously fun and catchy that you’d have to be the most boring of cynics to raise an eyebrow over the sudden shift in Paris, Texas’ aims. Though the bands instincts slacken a bit toward the end, they go out with a bang on the soaring “Gemini”, sounding quite a bit like Cave-In’s recent epic pop releases.

The bands’ motives sound honest to me, like they just got tired of their insular emo world and wanted to share the exuberance of a crowd-rousing chorus. That’s a perfectly understandable desire and they do a good job satisfying the appetite for hard candy. A bit more originality wouldn’t hurt though. If they can find it and continue to hone their newfound love of melody then Paris, Texas will truly have achieved progress.