Okay, let's get the scary part out of the way right away: Sometimes, due to their combination of extra-crunchy guitars and eighties-style power pop, The Stereo wind up sounding a lot like Journey, or even Survivor.

Yes, you read that correctly. Journey. Survivor.

At a time when a band's influences can never be too obscure or too exclusive, The Stereo have openly adopted a sound that mirrors the state of radio art, circa 1983. Are they, perhaps, angling for gigs at suburban summer festivals? It's a mystery. Mind you, The Stereo sound equally like The Foo Fighters, albeit with one notable exception: I don't get the urge to rip the disc out of the player and fling it off the nearest cliff. The production on Three Hundred is a bit more raw, the attitude a bit more earnest, the songs a bit catchier and the mood a lot less self-indulgent. From "Devotion" to "Divine", rock fans will find much to love and adore, starting with stacks and stacks of crunchy riffs and barely a keyboard in sight. If Bob Mould had spent his formative years hanging out at the Mall of America, this is the record he'd have made. So put your Eighties embarassment aside and crank up The Stereo -- after all, it's not as if they sound like REO Speedwagon.