Sort of like Weezer on a four-year delay, Harvey Danger had a huge single in 1998, shot to one-hit wonder status, faded into obscurity, released a brilliant second album to a modest cult following, and promptly imploded. Then, after a four-year hiatus, the band reemerged with a new member (again, like Weezer) and released a Christmas EP (see, um, Weezer, 2000) to an even smaller bunch of fans. Now comes the reunited full-length, and, much like Weezer’s, the album is an unremarkable batch of oversimplified, unfortunately boring songs. Jeff Lin’s idea that his former post-grunge band should highlight their piano skills (“skills” being a stretch) rather than distorted guitars leads Little By Little… down the ostensibly more “mature” path of wimpy power balladry. Sean Nelson’s vocal sneer still carries the band, but set to what sounds like Ben Folds doing ‘Paradise City’ (‘Little Round Mirrors’), his spoken grit just feels out of place. Basically, when this sentence is over, you can go back to forgetting about Harvey Danger like you peacefully did for the last seven years.
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