*** out of *****

Is it a signal that even Bad Religion's members are a little tired of the hardcore/skate-punk grind that its members' side projects veer heavily away from the skate-punk formula upon which the band built its career? Brett Gurewitz played around with industrial music with Error, Greg Graffin's tried on the trappings of an old-timey Americana rocker, and, now with Kidneys, Brooks Wackerman's taking a vacation from the Bad Religion gospel.

The Bad Religion drummer steps out from behind the kit and handles nearly all the instruments on his self-titled solo debut. And while he builds from the punk foundations that his band members so markedly eschew with their solo work, Kidneys is still miles away from the sounds of his full-time band. Tapping into singer/songwriter type compositions and jacking up their energy with a pile of classic power-pop guitars that touch on everything from Television to Pavement, Kidneys doesn't just give Wackerman a chance to show off full arsenal of songwriting and performance skills, it grants him the license to dispense of the baggage and expectations so tightly wrapped up with Bad Religion.

That's a good thing, and not just because the world needs another Bad Religion clone like it needs another bid for the presidency from Ralph Nader. Wackerman's able to craft a punk tune that's not built to recreate teenage kicks, but use the style as a bid for maturity. Although his voice isn't quite strong enough to carry Kidneys on his own, his tunes are agile enough not to have to rest on his vocals. With mildly lo-fi production values adding a touch of grit to the album, Wackerman barrels through a power-pop/punk blend that gleefully leaves punk standards in its dust. Several unabashedly pop tunes ("Fissury" and "De Lemur") opt to explore melody rather than power, a choice that pushes Kidneys straight into the world of loving ear-candy from everyone from Big Star to The Posies. "Problematic," a loose and rather unstructured acoustic arrangement buoyed by light string accompaniment, shows off a softer, forgivable, if forgettable, side of Wackerman's songwriting. "The Engine" and "Problematic" tap into big, crunchy guitars that have more in common with the post-grunge alt-rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Hum than anything we'd associate with the California punk underground.

It's hard to get a clear grasp on what, if anything, unifies Wackerman's solo work, other than a penetrating desire not to repeat his bill-paying band's sound. That's a good idea, even if it seems a little half-formed on Kidneys' debut, making it more of a curious footnote to the Bad Religion story rather than a chapter of its own.

[Aversion]