Good albums should always strive to raise questions for the listener. It challenges us. It keeps our minds sharp. It makes us feel like part of the whole artistic process.

One specific question rises to mind on hearing Wheatus' 2005 release Suck Fony: what the hell was Sony Records thinking?

But maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. We need some historical perspective first. Back in 2000, Brendan Brown and his band Wheatus were new kids on the block in the world of rock and pop. Knowing just how hard it can be to make a noticeable splash with so many other established acts, Wheatus made the completely understandable decision to leverage their way into television and movies to maximize their exposure. As their self-titled debut was being released, the band found their first single, Teenage Dirtbag, included on the soundtrack for both Dawson's Creek and the Amy Heckerling film Loser. Underdog geeks across the country rejoiced as the song put loveable losers up on a pedestal and embraced the song as a personal anthem. The song's blend of bubblegum pop and solid rock made for something truly infectious and help to turn Wheatus' debut into an underground success.

Three years later, Wheatus wrapped up work on their sophomore release, Hand Over Your Loved Ones. The songs featured the same infectious energy, the same geeky-rebellious spirit, and the same hook-laden blend of bubblegum pop and straight-ahead rock. And Sony had no idea what to do with the album.

Frankly, I don't get it. Maybe Sony wanted an album that would fit into a safe category that had already been explored by other successful acts earlier in the year. Maybe they wanted a raw piece of garage rock like the White Stripes' Elephant. Maybe they wanted some friendly, positive hip-hop like Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Maybe they wanted something edgy and experimental, like Hail to the Thief. Who knows what Sony wanted, but it apparently wasn't the sweet, sugary power pop that Brown insisted on producing for Hand Over Your Loved Ones. Rather than taking the time and effort to nurture these songs and to find inventive ways to bring them to a whole new audience who might otherwise be unaware of the band, Sony shook their heads and washed their hands of Wheatus. Sony quietly released Hand Over Your Loved Ones with no marketing campaign to go along with it whatsoever, and they proceeded to let it die on the vine.

With no backing support from the label, this would normally have been the end of Wheatus, but Brown knew what he had was too good to give up on. After some protracted negotiations, Brown managed to buy back distribution rights for the ten songs from hand Over Your Loved Ones. With the legalities out of the way, Brown regrouped, recorded two new songs to add to the set, and released the new collection of twelve songs on his newly formed Montauk Mantis label with the brand new title Suck Fony.

So then, was Sony right? Was Brown just a self-indulgent, out of control artist who would never make another dime for Sony? You wouldn't think so from listening to Suck Fony. As soon as the disk starts up, the music hits the ground running with the bursting-with-energy The Deck. It's solid and layered, with loud, crunching guitars and shimmering keyboards vying for our attention amongst the bright sparkly of splashy cymbals. There's something plastic and artificial about the sound, but I mean that as a good thing. Take the old bubblegum pop hit makers like the Archies, Edison Lighthouse, or the Bay City Rollers, plug them in to an electrical outlet overflowing with way too much juice, and let them run rampant, and you'll get an approximation of the sound on Suck Fony. Sure, The Deck may not make all that much sense, with lyrics like:

♬ now I'm not a DJ, I play one in real life,
you've heard all my records, the hits cut like steak knives,
role out the red carpet, like leaves through the winter,
now I'm not a DJ, I'd sure like to be ♬

but with the song's roots as a revved up bit of bubblegum pop, such self-important nonsense is not only acceptable, it's to be expected.

From there, the album flows through a string of anthemic, hook-laden power pop gems, most of which appeal to the loveable losers and downtrodden misfits in all of us. Listen to Anyway. Brown's sweetly nerdy, slightly nasal tenor voice pokes out from a tangle of crashing cymbals and bubbling keyboard to proudly proclaim:

♬ OK so I'm a jerk and I'm a weirdo
and even if I'm lucky ill amount to zero
but i thought that you'd love me anyway
I'm so not even worth it, but baby no-ones perfect
yeah, I thought that you'd love me anyway ♬

Even the more emotionally painful moments on the album approach their subject matter through an optimistic geek's perspective. When confronted with the fact that he's been the victim of infidelity in Lemonade, his only reaction is to retreat to the warm, old-age fantasy of:

♬ I wanna be eighty on the porch
drinking lemonade with you
and it's all that I can think about
since you told me that you cheated ♬

In addition the to the geeky, off-kilter sentiments of love, there's also a healthy streak of snot-nosed rebellion. Songs like Fair Weather Friend and The Song That I Wrote When You Dissed Me use the band's energetic blend of solid rock and bubblegum pop as canvas upon which to spread some pent-up vitriol over having been kicked around and cast aside a little too often. Likewise, the group's cover of Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot raises a musical middle finger to capture Brown's frustrations with major record label politics. The added layer of intrigue with the song's new gender bending simply adds a little fuel onto the fire.

Given Wheatus' rocky relationship with Sony Records, it's not surprising to see this streak of angry rebellion on the album. Surprising, though, is that many of these defiant songs were written and recorded for Hand Over Your Loved Ones, long before Brown and Sony Records came to blows over the band's fate. Of these songs that could be viewed as an attempt to spit in Sony Records' face, only the cover of Hit Me With Your Best Shot was recorded as an afterthought to bump up the song list when Hand Over Your Loved Ones was reborn as Suck Fony.

Suck Fony isn't an absolutely perfect collection. Self-indulgence rears it ugly head occasionally on the album, most notably at the end with the rather sophomoric humor of Dynomite Satchel of Pain, followed by two unnecessary remixes of The Song That I Wrote When You Dissed Me. Some might be put off by Brown's voice, complaining that there's no need for him to push his high tenor into an androgynously falsetto zone so often. Ignore those people. They don't see the sense of character and individuality it brings to Brown's vocals. Others might complain about the albums occasion habit of treading across crude lyrical territory for a line or two on some of the songs. Don't listen to those people either. They don't know how to have fun at parties.

So yes, there are a few flaws, but plenty of other album found massive success with far worse problems. Sony may not have been sitting on a gold mine when they chose to let Hand Over Your Loved Ones wither away and die, but there was at least a solid vein of semi-precious metal. Nowhere is the evidence stronger than on Freak On. The song is like freebasing sugar, what with its light, bubbly synthesizer riffs and crunching electric guitar power chords. It's a light, fluff song, but it's it pure slice of summer goodness served up warm and tasty on a plate. It's the kind of song that movie executives would sell their firstborn just to get it included on the soundtrack for a light-romantic comedy or lowbrow teen romp. Sony could have easily leveraged the album into another underground hit like Wheatus' self-titled debut, but they dropped the ball.

And it's a shame, when it comes down to it. 2003 was the perfect moment for an album like this. Fountains of Wayne had just re-invigorated power pop with their Welcome Interstate Managers. Hand Over Your Loved Ones may have been a bit more plastic and bubblegum in its sound, but it nails the exact same energy and free spirit perfectly. Fortunately, Wheatus found some small degree of justice with the release of Suck Fony. Now let's hope that next time they get the respect they deserve from the start.

Recommended: Yes