Betty and Veronica Kick Up Temporarily Hotter Fusses

Rock evolves accidentally. In other words, random bands get popular, and "rock" henceforth becomes whatever they say it is. For the all-female Canadian cartoon bubblegum quartet Lillix, rocknow means a sort of Archie-fied Avril Lavigne. Their own personal "Sugar Sugar" is "Sweet Temptation," produced by Jeff Saltzman (he of the Killers' Hot Fuss) to mingle serious teenpop transcendence with the ongoing new-wave revival. The rest of this sophomore set may be filler, but hey, that's the indigenous bubblegum approach, and there's a few good second-tier tracks, including two almost-as-good new wave/dance hits (good drummer!), the meaty Martha Davis/Motels refrain in "Little Things," the '60s/'70s soul rip on "Wishing Well," etc. Only four real bland-outs here, but filler being filler, I am only calling this thing album of the year if it retails for a "New Artist Spotlight" price of $9.99.