I Am the World Trade Center

The romance of I Am the World Trade Center bandmates Amy Dykes and Dan Gellar disintegrated during the recording of The Cover Up, and the evidence is all over this dance-pop slab. Dykes devotes her slightly blasé, slightly-off-the-rails vocals to lyrics that imply secret lovers unveiled, uncomfortable standoffs and the bitterest of men’s room graffiti: If you’re looking for a good time, call me tonight/If you’re looking for a good time, call me, all right? Yet Dykes sounds so detached from the topic that when the title track burbles, Running through the night/From a losing fight, the dance-floor drama seems to mask a more mundane dénouement. The appearance of dishonesty is more interesting than the reality of simple disagreement, and as Ace Of Base proved with “All That She Wants,” club fodder can weep and still make us shimmy. The Cover Up achieves both. And as all those hyperactive, shiny Mega Man II keyboards glow and pulse and whoosh, sorting the whole mess out feels less important than moronically nodding one’s head like Will Ferrell in A Night at the Roxbury.