Better Than Ezra, Paper Empire, 3/5

For the first time in all my years of Better Than Ezra fandom, I missed seeing them in concert. I was deeply ashamed because the band is so good live!! Yet if the tour was mainly a "here's our new stuff" deal, then I'm sort of glad I missed out. Not that I don't like the new album. There are some sweet songs on it such as "I Just Knew" and "Fit" even though I don't quite know what the lyric "I'm head over you" means. I've heard "head over heels" and "so over you" but "head over you"? Sounds like someone was stretching for a rhyme. And then there are songs that just sound out of place. "All In" (some random song about a party and people getting high and then the chorus comes in and everybody's "all in" - uh, okay) and "Black Light" (which sounds like a Franz Ferdinand copy) are the only two upbeat tracks on this very mellow album but they aren't fun and funky like "Juicy". Instead, BTE comes across as 40-year-olds who are trying too hard to be cool. I had to go back and listen to BTE songs of yore and there's just something about those tracks ("Good", "Desperately Wanting", "Get You In", "Sincerely, Me" - pretty much the whole Closer album) that stand out, that make me want to listen, that get me singing along. Paper Empire isn't that kind of album, unfortunately.