By Adam Bowman

"Your minds are being sifted by what you love, your religion, this country and your way of life are a lie. All belief is a guess. Follow your natural instinct and hate authority. Follow your childhood instinct and play your life away on the playground earth. Don't let them tell you not to sip the pleasure of seeing. Don't be afriad to refuse the old world. We're already taking over and above all love one another and another and another. Love, Anyone."

Before hearing one note, this is how you are introduced to the hook-laden intricacies of Anyone. Formerly known as Sylvia back in 1995, singer/guitarist/mastermind has seen former drummer Taylor Hawkins move onto fame with Alanis Morisette and the Foo Fighters as well as notice bassist Juano go back to his other band, Sky Cries Mary. You may have heard of them. After a name change to Anyone and the hiring of David Murray on drums and the enigmatic Static at bass, Anyone have taken the last year to gather a huge following in Orange County, California and have essentially used it to catapult both the band's chances at stardom as well as Story's filmmaking career (his documentary of Orange County, entitled "Togetherment", is apparently due out in the near future).

Despite mixing help from Godsmack's Andrew Murdock, it's not really heavy metal we're looking at here. Think of Perry Farrell leading a watered-down Tool and you've got it. There's some good groove in nearly every song, but if headbanging is the goal, check out "Hitches" and the first half of "Fly". Pretty much everything else on the album is going to appeal to listeners that want pop melodies combined with a strange mixture of sounds (the band seems to love making complex, multi-tracked bridges and interludes while leaving the verse and chorus to the more stripped-down guitar/bass/drums/vocals rock format). If you want something that still rocks, but refrains from inflicting bodily harm on anybody, Anyone will work.