There once was a time when Graham Colton walked the same halls we walk today, there also once was a time when he was omnipresent on the Dallas music scene. You could spy him standing against a wall at a Howie Day show amongst whispers of “is that Graham Colton?” It’s true he was hard to miss, and though it might be harder to see him often nowadays, we can all hear him now on his band’s universal records debut, “drive. On “drive’ the Graham Colton Band has assembled 11 irresistibly catchy tracks. Some are undeniably catchy, and some maybe a little too catchy. The only down side to “drive” is that it’s a little too squeaky clean, a little too perfect, and a lot of the songs sound like they’re just waiting to be thrown into the background of an episode of ‘The OC.’ The songs are also greatly lacking in lyrical consistency, with lines such as “you make me wanna smoke a cigarette/you make me wanna be someone else” from the album’s 6th track, “Cigarette,” you can’t help but wonder how hurriedly these songs were written. Somehow that’s also the beauty of this record, it’s not too frilly, not too pretentious. With just the right doses of sap and rock ‘n roll riffs, “Drive” is a CD few of us can resist.

Rating: three out of five ponies.