The Donnas: Spend The Night

The Donnas' combustible mixture of saucy come-ons, nasty put-downs, and elemental pop-punk hasn't changed drastically during a career spanning five full-length albums and waves of frequently condescending media hype. But it has evolved, as the San Francisco women's raw simplicity—their debut album, American Teenage Rock & Roll Machine, came out while they were still in high school—has given way to slick proficiency that accompanies an increasingly glammed-up look. The group's past couple albums have improved with The Donnas' musical evolution, but Spend The Night makes the lyrical formulas seem clearer than ever. Virtually every Donnas song boils down to sentiments no more complex than "I like you" or "I don't like you," split fairly evenly, with the latter once again accompanying the wittiest and most memorable lines. ("I apologize for all the noise / I just had to tell all the boys / that you'd rather have a Mai Tai / than a tall glass of Bud Dry.") This is a band that doesn't seem to know how to be sappy, because even affection is couched in snide sarcasm: On "All Messed Up," a clear-cut "I like you" song, Brett Anderson sings, "I must've had too many Diet Cokes / 'cause I'm laughing at your stupid jokes." Accompanied by thick riffs, bright choruses, polished production (apropos for a big-label debut), and even the occasional guitar solo, the mixture of sweet and sour makes for an endearing package. But for all The Donnas' ongoing charms, Spend The Night tempers them with a faint whiff of predictability.