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The New Transistor Heroes
[Grand Royal]
Rating: 8.6

When the first track started out with singer Manda Rin (if you're reading this, please, please, please marry me) yelling out "Hey you! Fascist man, working on your master plan," I rolled my eyes. "Just what this world needs," I thought, "a Scottish bubblegum pop band with Rage Against The Machine- style Politics For Dummies lyrics." That feeling faded quickly, however, when I just sat back and listened to the rest of the album. While there are a lot of mean bits in "Popstar Kill" and "Tell It To The Kids," there doesn't seem to be any real animosity included, and the vast majority of the album is very cute -- sweet without being sickeningly so. Yet another coup by Grand Royal.

-Jeremy Stomberg

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RATING KEY
10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
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