Young Love

Linkin Park and Evanescence achieved massive success in the earlier half of this decade for two reasons: inflated, therapy-session-worthy you've-got-your-stadium-rock-in-my-techno hooks and angst-ridden, anthemic sentiments universalized to the point where listeners could locate themselves and their own unique problems therein. Young Love, an NYC band fronted by singer/songwriter Dan Keyes, is working in a similarly radio-friendly vein, yet dares to generalize. Due out in January, the group's self-titled debut is concerned with, well, young love — the quest for, the pitfalls and pleasures of. Synths and hormones bubble, guitars chords and apartment doors slam, beats and hearts break like it's 1985 all over again. A heroic pop sweetness inflects even "Give Up," in which the protagonist winningly whines about an ex who won't let him go: "You make it so hard," Keyes moans again and again during the chorus. Whether that line is a double entendre is up to you and the assorted remix mavens, teenage girls, and executives tasked with selecting music for romantic comedies, who will likely make Young Love totally inescapable in 2007.