Are you ready to rock … stupid?

Andrew W.K. certainly is.

Songs such as “It’s Time to Party,” “Party Hard” and “Party Til You Puke” – notice a trend? – are dumb and one-dimensional.

However, it’s difficult not to grin and throw a metal sign in the air when W.K. is blaring out of a stereo turned up to 11.

Driving keyboards accentuate punchy guitars throughout “I Get Wet,” serving as the instantly catchy background for W.K.’s idiotic yet instantly memorable lyrics.

“We do what we like and we like what we do/ So let’s get a party going, now it’s time to party and we’ll party hard,” W.K. sings during the orgy-of-fun anthem “Party Hard.”

Sure, it’s moronic and it smacks of late ’80s cheese metal. But a the same time, it’s refreshingly cheery and honest in a genre currently dominated by gloom and detuned guitars.

-Jon Dahlager

The British Invasion: Part Two has been a long time in the making. Bands like Oasis and Blur have tried to step up to the challenge only to end up failing miserably.

It looks like the next in line to try and conquer the States is the Lostprophets, a six-piece group that cites two of its primary influences as Anthrax and Duran Duran. An interesting mix to say the least, but it is easy to hear the influence of both groups on the album.

On songs like the album’s title track and “And She Told Me Not To Leave,” the dual guitar attack of Mike Lewis and Lee Gaze is devastating, but at the same time the group has an amazing sense of melody and incorporates some pop hooks that could make Max Martin weep. Vocalist Ian Watkins’ voice is eerily similar to Mike Patton from Faith No More and at their best, Lostprophets sound like a 2002 version of that very band.

On “The Handsome Life of Swing” and “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja” the group weaves metal funk and pop just like the boys from Faith No More use to do.

But at their worst (“Still Laughing”) the Lostprophets sound disgustingly like an Incubus tribute band, and right now the world has plenty of Incubus, thank you.

As you listen to “The Fake Sound of Progress” you can sense that the Lostprophets are on the verge of something. This album is pretty good, but the door is open for great things from them; let’s see if these Brits are up to the challenge.

– Trevor Fisher