In their effort to deliver a more 'mature' sound on their second album, Manchester's The Courteeners instead give us Falcon, an overly safe, bland dadrock affair that relies too heavily on repetitive, unimaginative choruses and very little on authenticity and heart. The band apparently drew a lot of inspiration from touring America while writing the songs that make up this record, and it shows in quite a negative way as they extract all of the vapid, overdone cliches that made UK acts like Coldplay and Snow Patrol such a success in the U.S.; the bloated emotionalism of the chorus that is just begging for a crowd singalong, hackneyed lyrics that accompany simple, pedestrian chord progressions, and an underlying desire for their songs to be anthemic without the spirit and soul that is required. In the end, these tracks sound hollow simply because they are-it's songwriting by the numbers and quite frankly I'm surprised that Liam Fray, after fatuously titling the first song on Falcon 'The Opener,' didn't just continue on naming them 'The Second Song' and so-forth. It's really that uninspired an album.Speaking of 'The Opener,' it seems that Fray's all-too-obvious shout-outs to America's two largest cities during the songs endless coda is nothing more than a desperate plea for radio play in L.A. and New York, as well as an overly eager attempt at capturing a wider U.S. audience simply because they acknowledge the States in the lyrics. I don't know how the folks in Dundee and Doncaster will take to the song, but I can't imagine that getting name-checked in this stale song will result in an influx of tourism for them. The contrived, Coldplay-esque piano balladry of 'Take Over The World' lost me as soon as Fray uttered the boldface lie of "I've never written a cliche before" in the first verse. But for those that continue to listen, the 'Viva La Vida' aping "Oh Oh Oh" chorus could be considered a blatant musical theft of the massive London quartet, if the song ever registers on their radar.I just didn't find one song on Falcon that featured a musical style that another band wasn't already doing far better; be it the soulless boogie of 'Cross My Heart & Hope To Fly,' which tries to cram the earnestness of Elbow within the staccato guitar riffs of the xx, or the Franz Ferdinand-lite of first single 'You Overdid It Doll.' I don't see why someone who is after this type of sound would turn to a band that is so obviously pirating the sounds of other bands-especially when those bands aren't breaking a lot of new musical ground themselves. 'The Rest Of The World Has Gone Home' is a half-assed sob story that tries in vain to mimic the fag-in-the-mouth careless posturing of Babyshambles, without the audacious, drug-addled back story of course.If you're able to get beyond The Courteeners all-too-familiar musical arrangements, Fray's grating, facile lyrics are equally cringe inducing. Take this gem from the atrocious love song 'Last Of The Ladies': "Something is easy then it's not worth the reward/Like remembering the list of bands that I wrote on the chalkboard. I'm not saying you're New Order but I think you know what I mean/And I'm into the way that you're into me like a scene from the silver screen." I just don't know what to make of that drivel-are these names of bands on the chalkboard a list of bands that he's ripping off? And is it an insult or a compliment to not equate a woman with New Order? It's just a mess really, and ultimately not worth deciphering. And by the time the album closes with 'Will It Be This Way Forever,' an insipid stab at the dark moodiness of White Lies, I'm left wondering what I can quickly listen to that will make me forget about the mind-numbing sounds of Falcon. Unfortunately, just about anything is an improvement over this watered down, recycled brand of arena rock.