 
What I’m thinking is how ridiculous you three look in the photos the come with your CD. All taken in the same rustic but posh mansion (in or around Los Angeles, right?), the same come-hither look in your six eyes, and a different outfit for every classy snapshot. But they’re not your clothes are they? No, the stylist brought them; you can take a few articles home but they’ll be charged to your account at Geffen that’ll be deducted from your advance along with the video budget and whatever else. So the Like play soft Pop Rock and not much else (emphasis on the “pop”). Some hooks and big choruses, sure, but I can’t see how or where they’re going to fit in. This band is harmless and if there is anything the music biz is NOT about right now is harmlessness. Except for John Mayer. Maybe that’s their angel: They’re the worst dressed band since Foghat, but they’re the only harmless group in rock today. If anything, there’s a good chance that UPN or WB TV will pick up one of these songs as the theme for some teen drama…but then the CDs will some with a sticker on the cover that says: “As heard on…” and nobody wants to be known for that…or do they? So maybe they could be known for something else: at first, it was only “You Bring Me Down” that sounded so much like Radiohead’s “High And Dry”, but then almost every track thereafter sounded as if the band spent a good deal of time soaking in The Bends before hunkering down to write this record. The Like is like a softer, less arty Radiohead. No, The Like like Radiohead. Anyway, sugary sweet, honey soaked, too perfect vocals teetering on the edge of Edie Brickell. (Wow, great sentence.). “What I Say...” is the obvious first single (because the second song on major label releases is usually where the debut single is put...sometimes it’s the first or third track) but to these trained and finely tuned ears “Falling Away” (buried deep in the CD at track twelve) should be the first since there seems to be actual emotion and personality in the song. The rest of it is void of all that and hypnotized me with dull singing and arrangements. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t see this band working. Within two years’ time they’ll be in such a financial hole with Geffen that their parents will have to mortgage homes in order to get a lawyer with a big enough shovel. Which is too bad because no one likes to see musicians get hoodwinked, but it happens every day. That label has already has a history of contract entanglements. Just
ask Neil Young about his Geffen days; they tried to sue him for not
being “commercial” and releasing records that were “uncharacteristic
of previous recordings.” Holy crow! Had Geffen not done any research?
Most people figured Geffen signed him because he wasn’t commercial.
By the way, these stories and a whole lot more can be found in Jimmy
McDonough’s biography on Mr. Young, Shakey, one of the best I’ve
ever set my eyes to. It had me buying every Neil Young record that I
didn’t already have, even the shitty ones on Geffen. - Andrew
Lau
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The Like