arlier in the year, when The Pattern’s EP Immediately was still ringing ears from last year, the group seemed to be poised for a position as one of the bigger bands in the new rock revolution. A tour with The Hives and Mooney Suzuki should have strengthened that even more, but when Real Feelness came out in August, it seemed to get pushed aside, for some strange reason, instead of getting thrown into the baskets of bandwagon-riding consumers everywhere.

Led by the owner of Lookout! Records, Chris Appelgren, The Pattern have everything needed to become rock ‘n’ roll gods. Though they have more punk in them than any of those involved in the current wave of rockers, The Pattern still rock harder than The Strokes, put the energy level of The Hives to shame and have found the melody that The Datsuns are missing.

The whole time Real Feelness is on the stereo it is near impossible to not nod your head, shake your knee or tap your foot. They claim they want to provoke a reaction from the crowd, and that reaction appears to be, most commonly, uncontrollable spasms.

Most impressive about this album is how Appelgren has lightened up on his vocals. For every song on Immediately, he adopted a snarl that made Johnny Rotten sound like a choir boy. Thankfully, he has transformed that into a voice that is really quite nice, with a lot of pop potential.

Even though they may not be the types to welcome gold records and spots on the radio following Nickelback, they do have a sound that has the ability to fit in with the current addition of rock to the radiowaves. Singles “Fragile Awareness” and “Nothing Of Value” have just the right amount of melody to catch the attention of spoonfed listeners. Three chords, the right amount of carelessness in the attitude and those irresistible tambourines with the drums make them deserved hit singles.

However, there is one major flaw with this record, and it isn’t revealed until the very end. For some reason, the band decided to stick on a ballad as the final track. The Pattern have a great thing going as a full-on rock band, so it’s shocking when they go Phil Collins on us. And it’s not as if the song kind of sneaks in without notice. No, it sticks out like ‘nads in panties.

Regardless of its closing tenderness, Real Feelness rocks for 11 songs, which is enough for most people. Why be so greedy and demand that 12th track?