Better Than Ezra was a band that I had sort of a knee-jerk distaste for early on, As the Alternative thing was starting to sputter out, there were a handful of bands (we called them the sound-alike bands - Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Hootie). that were still clinging to the Alternative bandwagon, but pretty much playing an interchangeable brand of middle-of-the-road-radio-friendly pap that has put me off all of those bands, however rightly, ever since.

That was until I got my hands on a promotional copy of BTE's 2001 Album Closer. An album that surprised me with it's unpretentious pop-smarts, that wound up making a showing on my best-of list that year. I saw a greatest hits collection pass by without much interest, but when I saw Before The Robots I decided to check and see it the boys were getting any Better.

The album gets off to a very good start with "Burned" one of those hooky, pop gems about the regret that arises from love gone missing - especially in the 20/20 focus of hindsight. BTE serves notice right off that they haven't changed their approach much, but have definitely been perfecting it. After losing their record deal amid a label bankruptcy mess, they've found a comfortable new home at Artemis Records and has returned the favor by turning in an album with the kind of songwiting acumen that reminds me of a cross between Semisonic and Fountains of Wayne.

And this is to say nothing of Kevin Griffin's ever ripening vocal prowess - he really is a great singer and seems to get better and better at wrapping his rich tenor around poignant chorus turns. Strangely the best song from Closer has been refurbished and plopped back down in the middle (and as the first single) of Robots. "Lifetime" has been cleaned-up and those great lines "that REM song was playing in my mind/ And 3 and a half minutes, felt like a lifetime," sound better than ever. I'll have to admit that when I first heard the song, I thought maybe BTE had released back-to-back greatest hits albums. I started listening to the rest of the songs searching for familiarity. Not the case - they're just running a great song back up the flagpole - no harm in that - as far as I'm concerned.

Griffin plays it a bit naughty and baudy with tracks like the overtly sexual "It's Only Natural," and "Juicy" - vamping things up a bit for the sake of variety. But it's when he concentrates on writing killer hooks, as is the case on - "Breathless," "Our Finest Year," "Lifetime," and "Burned" where you can put the disc on and prove to pretty much anybody that Better than Ezra is a lot better than they thought.