You know, I first formed a negative expectation of this band when I became aware of the fact that they gave their stylist and hairdresser equal billing in the liner notes alongside the musicians. I mean seriously, what the hell? It gave me the distinct impression that this was going to be lowest common denominator faux-indie synthpop, and I'm pleased to say that Camila Grey and Leisha Hailey delivered the goods just as I expected.

Of course, it might not have helped that they chose a band name that is the same as a recent PJ Harvey album. While it has its faults, the "Uh Huh Her" album is at least visceral, honest, and real, unlike the music that is presented on "Common Reaction", which takes a great deal of care never to say or do anything even remotely authentic throughout its whole runtime.

I know it's easy to bag synthpop as a genre for being superficial and shallow, but what Uh Huh Her have come up with here takes things to new levels. The lyrical subject matter is the same on every song; the sort of vague and formless love song beloved by second-rate songwriters the world over for decades as perfect material to pad out an album that doesn't quite have enough meat on its musical bones. It's annoying enough when musicians who have a proven track record stoop to it, but it's intolerable when a band actually tries to release a band of nothing but that. It's the musical equivalent of going to a restaurant and ordering a steak, only to be served a plate of mashed potatoes.

And the synths, oh lord, the synths. It seems that the response to any problem whatsoever during the recording of "Common Reaction" was answered by Grey and Hailey looking at each other, smiling goofily, and cheerfully declaring "more synthesisers!". Subject manner of the songs too sophomoric? More synthesisers! Every inclusion of guitar work on the album is tinny, overproduced, and makes the band sound like a low rent version of The Veronicas? More synthesisers! Recording tech bringing up his lunch from the synth overload? More synthesisers!

The result is an album that has about as deep as your average episode of "The OC", and tries far, far too cynically to hop onto the new wave revival bandwagon by cramming as many dated and hackneyed ideas from the 80s as it can onto a single disc. As far as I'm concerned, the only 'common reaction' that I can envision from this album is a wave or nausea, followed by an uncontrollable urge to turn the stereo off.