Groovie Ghoulies: Fun In The Dark

Pop-punk is a risky, hit-or-miss proposition. When it hits, it's harmlessly infectious fun. When it misses, it's grating, tiresome, and formulaic. Named for a cartoon that most of its audience is too young to remember, Groovie Ghoulies is a pop-punk band from California (aren't they all) that writes monster songs with a pointedly non-monstrous sound. It almost invariably hits dead-on. Each song on Fun In The Dark, the band's fifth album, is a bubbly work of art that's more likely to induce laughter and head-bobbing than terror. The record doesn't break much new ground from its predecessors—it's just goofy horror and science-fiction lyrics backed by catchy guitar riffs—but the joke has yet to wear out its welcome. It must be hard to stay fresh with such a narrow focus, but the group manages on "Brain Scrambling Device" and "Outbreak," the latter of which is about the disease-carrying monkey from the movie of the same name. Drawing from sources as unlikely as Carly Simon ("Carly Simon") and Sonny Bono (a cover of his song "Laugh At Me"), Fun In The Dark isn't mind-blowingly original, but it's a fun, energetic way to spend half an hour.