Top Ten Idols

Broadcast Day

TTI Records

Recommended…

Top Ten Idols

Broadcast Day

TTI Records

Recommended if you like: Semisonic, The Smiths

Number one, you might be humming a Top Ten Idols song right now. Number two, you might be just taking their CD out of your player right now and placing it in your “super cool local groups” CD wallet. Number three, you might even be next in line at the tattoo parlor, ready to have TTI inscribed across your back, Sublime style. OK, chances are you stand a chance of being guilty of number one, probably haven’t committed number two, and, band members’ girlfriends aside, are quite sure you haven’t even considered number three. But with a name like Top Ten Idols, they may soon enough have you counting down the list.

Pittsburgh’s own Top Ten Idols have quite a steady reputation going for them, despite minimal radio help. Year after year, they shine at the Graffiti Rock Challenge and deliver memorable live performances around town. If you follow the local scene even loosely, you’ve probably been in their presence. And if you’ve heard them, they probably did what few Pittsburgh bands can do – stand out. Their catchy instrumentation and pop glamour are both extremely evident live.

On their new album, Broadcast Day, the band’s lyrics finally get the chance to really shine. Often not as clearly heard at live shows, the words live up to the billing the band likes to attach to their songwriting abilities. It’s actually the music that’s the album’s biggest problem. It has a slow start and everything doesn’t sync up until track four, “You’re No God.” Once up to speed, however, TTI delivers until the end of the disc.

Broadcast Day’s best performance actually comes from outside the band. Caitlin Reilly’s backup vocals on “Last Call” and “Savannah” really polish those tracks, and it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t appear elsewhere on the album.

Despite the colorful list of lyrical influences in Day’s liner notes, which range from “a stripper in Altoona” to “a cute, little, old guy with severe Alzheimer’s disease,” the album mostly sounds melancholy, “Take Back The World” being a notable standout. Still, on a scale of New Kids on the Block to Cat Stevens, TTI’s Bern Steinbacher is probably somewhere around a Semisonic when it comes to songwriting. That’s the reason why you might formally introduce yourself to the Idols at a records store in the near future.