20,000 Streets Under the Sky

Marah sound like Springsteen—a lot like Springsteen. Is that any reason to write this Philadelphia quartet off? We don't think so. At their best, they capture the emotional turbulence of growing up in a way Springsteen himself long ago got too old to bother with. There's genuine warmth to the romantic tales of wharf rats, drug dealers, star-crossed lovers, and lamented pizzerias on Marah's fourth album. Over the loose jangle of guitars, flute, and harmonica on "East," frontman Dave Bielanko's gruff evocations of the grimy cityscape as a "gilded kingdom" play the Boss card pretty hard, as do dramatic (OK, pretentious) lyrics like "As we crash through heaven's tollbooth in our fleeting getaway car" (from "Freedom Park"). Elsewhere, "Sure Thing," with its rumbling bass line and whistling organ, leans on Phil Spector's girl-group soul, and "Pigeon Heart" imagines a roadside hootenanny transplanted to a stoop in Philly. There's something uncomfortably backward-looking about Marah's musical instincts, but at least they're looking back at something worth seeing.