So far this year, Brian Paulson has been involved in two rather contradictory projects. The first was engineering U.S. Maple's latest record, an album designed to meld melody and chaos in an attempt to reinvent the sound of guitar rock music as we know it. The second is Ashley Stove. In case you didn't know, Ashley Stove are a quartet seemingly dedicated to the exact opposite proposition: fortifying the stereotypes of an average indie pop band, and running the gamut of the traditional chord progressions and tempos of an indie pop record.

And yet, I say this as if it's a bad thing. It isn't, really. I'm just so floored by U.S. Maple's record that to think the same person engineered the All Summer Long simply surprises me. On the other hand, it's good for producers to be versatile, working on a wide range of different types of projects. So in less than two paragraphs, I've already canceled out everything I just said. Boy, I'm a star!

One fact out of that mess remains: Ashley Stove prove with All Summer Long that they are all but innovative. And God help me, I still enjoy them. They're mindless pop fun with a couple catchy hooks here and there. And absolutely nothing about it is offensive, unless you have some sort of moral issue with making music that isn't touted as the most inventive record since the last one. I can't remember the last time I thoroughly liked a song whose general gist could be summed up with, "I've got a crush on you," but "A Secret Secret," one of several guiltlessly enjoyable tunes here, is weirdly irresistible.

At times, specific influences or comparisons can be tagged, such as the highly satisfying Beachwood Sparks vs. Perry Farrell shootout on "Three Days Since We Spoke," or hell, even the sweet, down-home, Paul Simon-esque melody of "Blue Crop Duster." Comparisons to the high-pitched nasal vocals of the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Built to Spill's Doug Martsch, Sunny Day Real Estate's Jeremy Enigk, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, and Tripping Daisy's Tim DeLaughter are also applicable. Still, I can't come up with a reason why you might buy All Summer Long instead of any of the other artists' mentioned here.

The fact that Brian Paulson engineered it doesn't really have that much to do with it, either, except to say that you adventurous ones are better off buying the U.S. Maple record, and anyone who can't get enough charming indie pop should probably get U.S. Maple, too. To expand your horizons, you know. And then buy this. If you want. You know what I think of it, but I got it free.

-Spencer Owen