Forgiven? We'll see

Yesterday, the Los Lonely Boys released their third album, titled Forgiven. I listened the sound clips, and it sounds a little harder-edged than the last one, but I'm still not sure about it.

When I bought their first album, I loved it. It had a good blues-rock vibe with sprinkles of Latin music as well as great harmonies. The lyrics were a little cheesy, but the guitar playing absolutely rocked.

I bought their second album, Sacred, last summer just before seeing them perform live. It has some good songs, but overall I don't like it as much as their first one. Sacred seems too mainstream, too harmonious, too . . . something. It certainly doesn't have enough catchy riffs compared to the debut.

I listened to Sacred again a few times yesterday, and I still haven't fallen in love with it. There are a few songs ("Roses," "Oye Mamacita," "My Way") that I enjoy a lot, but there are some that I just don't. The latter are found mostly in the second half of the album. They seem to ditch the rockin' riffs for pop melodies. These pop songs are fine, but they don't really stand out and beg to be put on repeat. Even the slower, melodic songs on the LLB debut were repeat-worthy.

As much as I want to get the new Los Lonely Boys album, I'm just not sure if I should. I don't want to get burned again. Sacred isn't an album I'd miss too much if I lost it or sold it. I might wait until it appears on last.fm so I can listen to the whole thing before buying. I think it's too soon after Sacred for another LLB album. Sacred only came out two years ago.

The Los Lonely Boys have a great album in them, but I think they need to figure out what sound they want to go with and stop trying for the safe, radio-friendly hits. None of their lead singles have been rockers.

If I do buy Forgiven, it had better be good. If it isn't, I won't have any problem keeping the best one or two out of three and cutting my losses. I don't know why I'm being so critical here, but I don't like to get burned by my album purchases.