It’s tempting to say that power-pop supergroup Tinted Windows’s much-anticipated debut album is disappointing, weak, or even bad, but that’s not exactly the case. The truth is, the record, a collaboration by Tyler Hanson of Hanson, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins, and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, is just really, really boring.
Tinted Windows has everything you would expect from a collaboration between the minds behind “MMMBop” and “Stacy’s Mom”: catchy melodies, tight drumming, and the occasional dramatic mid-song key change or sugary guitar solo. But the four musicians seem too eager not to tread on each other’s commercially successful toes, compromising to the point of removing any interesting or distinctive material from the album entirely. It’s the exact opposite of the problem that faces most supergroups—everyone gamely swallows their egos and leaves the leadership to someone else.
The result is 35 minutes of filler, 11 airtight, mind-numbingly unexciting, picture-perfect pop songs. The album ends with a plea to “t-t-t-take me back.” Had I actually bought it, I certainly would have done so.
