Humanoid

Eyeliner-heavy, German teen pop quartet Tokio Hotel's third (and second English language) full-length is a significantly louder and considerably darker affair than previous outings. While there's little doubt that screaming teenage girls will still stand front and center at the foot of the stage, this time around the band has set its sights on the "First Person Shooter" male demographic, baiting the hook with enough generic sci-fi imagery and Depeche Mode-meets-Fall Out Boy melodrama to fuel one hundred angry bike rides home from work. That's not to say that the results aren't effective. HUMANOID, as predictable and generally harmless as it is, is immaculately crafted thanks in part to longtime producer David Jost and a handful of A-list engineers. Between the Auto-Tune heavy first single "Automatic" and the Arcade Fire-lite stadium anthem "World Behind My Wall," one can almost envision the elaborate stage show being planned for the next MTV video music awards. And while Tokio Hotel may not have matured enough to hang with the big boys yet, they are most certainly the dark horses pacing up and down the Disney fringe.