Everybody remembers their first album purchases.

My first was Nirvana's Nevermind. My second was Green Day's Dookie. Looking back, I am relatively proud of my 8-year-old self (and my apparently laid-back parents).

The third record I ever purchased was the Presidents of the United States of America's self-titled debut. This is also the first album of which I was retroactively embarrassed for buying.

I certainly have fond memories of rocking out to songs like "Lump" and "Peaches" in my bedroom fort, but it's objectively not a very good album.

Since then, both I and the Presidents have tried to grow up a bit. You'll have to take me at my word in regard to my own maturation (which, I must admit, has not been all that substantial in these past 13 years), but for evidence of the Presidents of the United States' attempt at progress, there is the band's newest release, These Are The Good Times People.

First of all, not every song sounds exactly the same anymore. There's a little bit of stylistic variation to keep things a bit more engaging, at least relatively speaking. It's not a wildly diverse record, though; some of the tracks burn a little slower than the others, but they mostly run together.

Then there's the instrumental variation. Even though it's not more than a harmonica and a few horns once in a while, it's a substantial leap from the parts of the drums, bass and guitar the band actually used on its debut.

On top of that, the Presidents are just better musicians now. You won't mistake it for Van Halen, but the band has evolved past junior high school musicianship. Somebody's been practicing.

While there are more similarities than differences between the band's first and newest albums, there's a little more effort from the Presidents of the United States this time around. These Are The Good Times People tries to be more than just novelty rock and, even though it isn't, the ambition alone is somewhat encouraging.

Really, though, the band doesn't stray too far from its roots. These Are The Good Times People's main asset is its likeness to the Presidents' eponymous debut from over a decade ago. The songs are simple -- musically, lyrically and structurally -- but they don't take themselves seriously enough to warrant anything more. If "Weird Al" Yankovic stuck to originals and played mostly in bars (and was stuck in a time warp that forced him to never experience anything past the mid-'90s), this is about what he'd sound like.

The fact that this is the Presidents' sixth record works two ways for the band. On one hand, These Are The Good Times People makes me plenty nostalgic for my childhood, and honestly, if this were a debut album, I probably wouldn't listen to it twice. On the other hand, the band has shown very little growth in more than a decade, and that has to cost some points.

It's a catchy record, but it's just not that good. It's almost kind of embarrassing.

Grade: D+