Arms Around a Stranger – Acute

While listening to the full-length debut by Acute, 2007's Arms Around a Stranger, it becomes obvious that the members of this Los Angeles outfit are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves -- the fuzzy pop hooks of Weezer ("You Want It? Take It! It's Yours!"), Cars-esque new wave ("The City"), pre-Document R.E.M. ("Saint"), cheery piano pop ("Trouble"), etc. But it's not a mere ripoff of these aforementioned bands/styles; the Acute chaps (including members of Poulain, Now It's Overhead, and Ozma) have thoroughly processed these influences through their own musical blender, with an emphasis on lush pop songcraft. With the advent of such media tools as the Internet and iTunes, a new band often needs a mere handful of memorable songs to build a good buzz. However, Acute go about penning memorable alt-pop the good old-fashioned way -- alt-pop that lasts the full duration of an entire album. With the majority of up-and-coming rock bands seeming to be primarily concerned with getting their look just right for photo shoots rather than penning an album's worth of memorable songs, Arms Around a Stranger shows that Acute are one of the few exceptions. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide