Artist: Something Corporate Album: Leaving Through the Window (MCA Records)

The boys in Something Corporate probably thought they were being ironic when they named their band. Irony, however, does not appear to be this California-based fivesome's strength.

Rather, their debut album, with its piano-based rock, shows them to be more comfortable with straightforward, young adult angst.

To its credit, the band really nails the feelings of that summer after high school and before college: saying goodbye to boyfriends and girlfriends, drinking in the park with friends and thinking about no one and nothing but yourself and what is happening in your life.

A track like Drunk Girl, with lines like I kissed a drunk girl yes I did/Kissed a drunk girl on the lips, should be humorous. Instead, it degenerates into a whinefest, with vocalist/piano man Andrew McMahon singing, I know you don't care about me ... Do you even remember?

As a piano-based rock group, Something Corporate will inevitably draw comparisons to the late Ben Folds Five, and you can hear similarities in tracks like Cavanaugh Park and Globes and Maps. I guess you could say Something Corporate is Ben Folds Five without the intelligence or humor.

This unchallenging, artless yet slickly packaged album will appeal to preteens on up to young twenty-somethings. Anyone older will be bored by the cliched sentiments on offer. -- David Eyerly