The opening words of this, the second album from Nashville's Framing Hanley, are "She said, it's just like Hollywood and I'm afraid" and there it was - my angle.

I find honesty to be the best policy - there's a valuable lesson for you there, kids - and, if I'm being totally honest, my knowledge of Framing Hanley prior to receiving this album for review was a teen-friendly music video and a head-scratcher of a bandname. And that mention of Hollywood played right into my hands; I was itching to put hoof to key to let you all know how this album was atypical grape flavoured music aid - glossy and pushing all the right emotional buttons just like those vacuous movies that the teen target demographic are told to like. And then I listened to the album again. And again.......

Let's cut to the chase - this band and album could be massive. If they showed promise with debut album 'The Moment' then 'A Promise To Burn' offers enough to pencil them in as serious contenders for any Next Big Thing awards. Talk about being in the right place at the right time - this album has been soaked in the essence of an entire generation. Emotional, yet I dare not use the dreaded 'E' word, hook-laden, soaring, epic and ambitious (maybe not in the same area code as 30 Seconds To Mars but certainly hanging out on the border), this band could fill the Fall Out Boy-shaped hole in people's lives at this moment in time, and the Paramore one that will inevitably appear. I hear some of touring partners Red Jumpsuit Apparatus here too, but Framing Hanley will leave those guys in their wake for one simple reason - accessibility.

The melodies that seep out of every pore of this album will cling to you like a horny dog and won't let go. Every song is a potential single/download/video; you get the picture. From the massive 'WarZone' to the great 'Photographs And Gasoline', the songs throw several highly infectious chemicals into the mix and the reaction is catchiness of pandemic proportions. 'Weight Of The World' hints at power pop perfection while 'Back To Go Again' is pop punk as played out by Something Corporate. But if all this melody is the spine of the record then the flesh is an emotional, at times grandiose, landscape that places this rock record firmly in the present. If any further proof were needed, I'd point you in the direction of the album closer, the epic 'The Burn', which contains a lyric that brings this review full circle - "Let's burn Hollywood to the ground...."

It doesn't happen very often, but these young bastards have won me over. I feel way too old to be saying this but, as I breath in and try to button up my skinny jeans, this album comes highly recommended. Framing Hanley are about to explode.

www.myspace.com/framinghanley