Crash Love

Personnel: Davey Havok (vocals); Jade Puget (guitar); Adam Carson (drums); Dan Under, Luke Wood , Kennard Ramsey, Benoît Grey, Kenna Ramsey, Luke Wood, Nick 13, Julie Delgado (background vocals).Audio Mixer: Rich Costey.Goth-punk firebrands AFI follow up their smash 2006 effort, DECEMBERUNDERGROUND, with the propulsive blast of alterna-glam that is 2009's CRASH LOVE. Sticky with epic swaths of melodic rock and just enough swaggering goth-itude to please the emo-tweens, CRASH LOVE is less mannered than its predecessor and reveals a band exploding with a creative power pop and metal spark. Though lead singer Davey Havok's glitter-goth persona is well intact, it seems tempered here with a bit more punkish muscle and '80s pop croon. These songs have madly obsessive hooks along with a sparkling production that never sacrifices the hard rock energy at the core of each song. In that sense, such tracks as "Too Shy to Scream," with its tribal drumbeat homage to Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes," and