With Phantom Planet moving to Fall Out Boy's Fueled By Ramen label, I have to admit I was more than a tad concerned on where this band that I quite enjoy was headed. Thankfully the label change did not include a transformation to whiny nasal Pop-Punk territory. Raise the Dead is Phantom Planet's fourth record thus far and a marriage of sorts between their two previous albums. The Guest happened to be their Pop-Rock record that spawned the monster hit "California" which was seemingly on every clip of The O.C. ever made, where as their self-titled album was their answer to the growing popularity of Garage-Rock bands such as The Strokes. Raise the Dead is the album that bridges that gap and feels like the next natural progression for this four-piece.

The album starts off well enough with the bombastic self-titled opener and "Dropped" is a stellar Rock romp filled to the brim with hand-claps and jagged riffs that will have you tapping your foot with fierce intensity. Even "Ship Lost at Sea" with its T. Rex "Bang A Gong" style guitar licks turns out to be one of the best in the bunch. Unfortunately though, the second half of Raise the Dead doesn't flow as easy. Tracks like "Demon Daughters" and "Geronimo" just don't have that start to finish pizzazz that the first half of the album is chalk full of. Raise the Dead is certainly a good album, but unfortunately it just doesn't quite live up to greatness of Phantom Planet's previous two.