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SCMP Reporter

Rooster

Rooster

Brightside Recordings

(Sony BMG)

According to the sticker attached to the front of Rooster's eponymous debut album, they're 'premiere monsters of rock in waiting' (Rip and Burn), 'poised to set 2005 on fire (Sunday Times) with  a 'suitcase full of great tunes' (Total Guitar) that are 'air-punching stadium rock gold' (Q magazine). Must be good, you might think.

Not necessarily. Rooster are, as the album's cover picture of the good-looking foursome with coiffured curly locks, jeans and faux heavy metal T-shirts suggest, a boy band masquerading as serious rockers. Britain's supposed future rock heroes are the new Savage Garden.

Chart success is guaranteed with their mix of soft rock ballads and hard-driven, but essentially poppy, stadium anthems. There are some hard, half-decent riffs scattered around and a couple of radio-friendly tunes.

But if Rooster really want to be Aerosmith or Bon Jovi, they'd better crank up the  flashes of ability and get  rid of such cheesy balladry as Deep and Meaningless. There's more to being a rock star than merely mimicking old stagers. Rooster just go to prove you can judge an album by its cover - just don't trust the stickers.



Rooster