Poor Rich Ones

Winners of the Norwegian Spellemannsprisen award, (which is about as prestigious a trophy as a Buick hood ornament on these shores) Poor Rich Ones have arrived to conquer North America with their introspective dream pop. Sounding like Placebo lead singer Brian Molko took a "If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude in his war against the quiet pop/rock styling of Coldplay and Travis, the band present themselves with the interesting approach of slow songs played with fast song arrangements. While this really works in some cases, (namely "Habit” and "Milwaukee”) the music ultimately fails to summon up all that much emotion. Like porn edited for TV, on Joe Maynard’s Favorites, Poor Rich Ones leaves it feeling too obvious that the climax has been left out.