TOMMY LEE

Usually, for quite understandable reasons, we pass over mainstream releases. But as the saying goes, "never say never" — the MTV-ization of the entire country has reached us too. It arrived in the form of TOMMY LEE's new disc, "Tommyland: The Ride." The title itself, sounding almost conceptual, puts one in a fairly optimistic mood, yet those rosy expectations fade the moment the disc hits the player. What we get is poppy American rock, boasting neither melodies nor drive. The tracks are frighteningly similar to one another, and even the "star-studded" conglomerate of vocalists — Chad Kroeger (NICKELBACK), Andrew McMahon (SOMETHING CORPORATE), Nick Carter (BACKSTREET BOYS), and others — is powerless to do anything about it. Tommy himself appears before us in a white jacket and white top hat — just like the toad on the cover. Except while the illustrated toad is brilliantly rendered, the image of the glamorous Californian silently declares: "Rock and roll is dead!" What remains is money. Money and multi-million-copy runs of surrogate.