Believe it or not you’ve probably already heard a song by this little-known rock duo from Brooklyn. In fact it’s probably safe to say that you’ve bobbed your head to the first single off of their second album, “Daylight”.  Yet you have no idea where you’ve heard it but it’s ingrained in your brain like your ATM card’s PIN number. Well, here’s why:

Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino joined powers in 2004 creating the simply named indie pop group that found fame by selling out to an international booze company. Their second album, Grand, dropped in early January 2009 but the group’s national interest didn’t rise until much later. For all of you Goths, Emos, and Alanis-loving women and gay men should be forewarned: Grand is incessantly happy, constantly upbeat and has enough pep to keep even the perkiest cheerleader smiling.

While for some this combination of giddiness and hyperactivity equates a good album, here it falls short. The first song on the album is the notorious “Daylight” which serves as the hook-and-line for the rest of Grand. It’s irritatingly catchy, addictive even. But what follows is a one-note album where every song seems to hark back to the previous; each benign lyric simply reflects a deep seeded ADD issue.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some bright spots on Grand. “Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare” and “Don’t Slow Down” will get your foot tapping. The latter sounds like an ode to the old days of The Beatles, sans the charm and whimsy. All together though, having three notable songs out of eleven doesn’t an album make. Avoid “Cinders”, the ninth song on the album at all costs. Its redundant use of synthesizer could cause your teeth to grind together hard enough to cause a migraine. By the time your iPod hits “I’ll Take Us Home” you’ll really wish they mean it.

Grand, like a lot of album’s these days, wraps it up with a remix of its first single. Of course most other artist’s employ a final remix as a possible improvement on the original. The “Daylight Outro Remix” actually manages to harm its predecessor. Its dampened speed drags the fun and frenzy out of the song and leaves the listener wondering why this remix was even included on the album at all.

Overall the name of the album is misleading. Grand doesn’t deliver on its promise and even the happiest of listeners will find its overwhelming chipperness exhausting by the time the album’s short thirty minute running time is up.