Until its shallow posturing gets to be just too much, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is fodder for a decent game of Spot the Influence. Singer/songwriter Gregg Alexander's admittedly well-crafted project is indebted to the vaguely funky pop-rock of World Party. But despite airplay for the single "You Get What You Give," he isn't tuneful enough to make his empty social pronouncements stick as more than fleeting entertainment, and when he starts dissing his hooky betters Courtney Love and Beck as "fakes ...
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Until its shallow posturing gets to be just too much, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is fodder for a decent game of Spot the Influence. Singer/songwriter Gregg Alexander's admittedly well-crafted project is indebted to the vaguely funky pop-rock of World Party. But despite airplay for the single "You Get What You Give," he isn't tuneful enough to make his empty social pronouncements stick as more than fleeting entertainment, and when he starts dissing his hooky betters Courtney Love and Beck as "fakes," there's little to do but laugh. At him, not with him. --Rickey Wright show less