Idlewild is going to be huge. Own the globe, it will. At least, that's what people are saying.

Idlewild's members are Scottish. The band sounds a lot like The Replacements. And along with a couple dozen other bands you've probably never heard of, Idlewild is being touted as the next big thing in rock and roll. My advice? Don't believe the hype.

Idlewild's major-label debut, Hope is Important, was a pretty effective rehash of sludgy mid-80s indie-punk, with catchy hooks and effectively spastic lyricism. Its next album, 100 Broken Windows, stuck with a similar formula but let the pop overtake the power with mixed results.

With The Remote Part, Idlewild seems primed to teach the world to sing. Too bad the world won't remember any of the tunes after it hears them. Although the clear standout, shimmering opener, "You Held the World in Your Arms," was a hit in Europe this past winter, it's really the only song on The Remote Part that's at all worth mentioning. The faster cuts sound exactly like Soul Asylum's "Somebody to Shove," and the slow ones are all dead-ringers for Love Spit Love's "Am I Wrong" (the song that plays over the marching band scene in Angus, for those of you keeping score at home). If you ignore the singer Roddy Woomble's ever-diminishing accent, this really might as well be a long-lost Goo Goo Dolls record, and nobody wants that. The aim this time around seems to have been to pen catchier songs, but instead, they simply slip away, leaving no lasting impression.

If you miss the heyday of mid-90s post-grunge sludge-pop (Sponge's "Molly," anyone?), The Remote Part might just be your thing. Otherwise, stay away. Is Idlewild the next great power-pop hope? Not with a mediocre disc like this one.

-- Reviewed by Paul Thompson