Canada is not the first place that comes to mind when the subject of music comes up.

Recently though, Canadian bands such as Our Lady Peace and Barenaked Ladies have been making the transition from their home market to the United States. After two successful releases in their native country, Matthew Good Band is looking to be the next group to complete this crossover with its newest album, Beautiful Midnight.

Released in late January, the band's debut album in the U.S., Beautiful Midnight, features a mixture of songs from the Canadian version of the album and from the band's previous release in their native country.

Radio stations around the country have already latched onto the first single, "Hello Time Bomb," from the album.

The album itself is filled with a mixture of heavier songs, similar to "Hello Time Bomb," and slower acoustic songs, though none of them are immediately as catchy as the single.

With the exception of the piano and string-filled closer, "Running for Home," the album is almost all guitars and drums.

The band uses the hackneyed quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic generously throughout the album, trying to give the songs a sense of urgency and power that never seems to appear.

Matthew Good Band, named after the front man of the group, features a sound very similar to Collective Soul and Live.

The problem the band faces is that it offers nothing new from what the other groups have already done, and in most cases the other groups have done it better.

The songs on Beautiful Midnight have a very polished sound, but in some cases the feeling the song may have originally had gets lost in all the production.

A rougher edge on the music could have helped the band gain the attitude that they seem to be going for but can't find.

The lyrics on the album are mostly angst-driven tales of woe and frustration. Matthew Good seems to be angry at society, and he vents his frustration throughout the album. He attacks conformity, complacency and failed relationships, sometimes offering great social critiques but more often only managing to sound redundant.

Overall, Matthew Good Band offers up an album of alternative rock by the numbers. There are moments throughout the album where the band clicks and the songs come together, but in between is more formulaic filler than one would like.

Beautiful Midnight mines musical territory that has already been visited many times before, which is not to say that the members of Matthew Good Band are not competent at their trade. They are merely lacking in originality.

There is little doubt that Matthew Good Band is going to find fans in the U.S. much like they did in Canada, but they won't be introducing any groundbreaking music in the process.