BOMBS AWAY

OK, OK, so the faces we used in Record Rack last week to rate albums were stupid. While we launch a study to come up with a better symbol for rating the records, we’ll go with the old standby of 1 to 4 checks. Translation: = “Great Balls of Fire”

= “Good Vibrations” = “Maybe Baby” = “Running on Empty”

“STAND UP.” Del Fuegos. Slash. In just three albums in as many years, this Boston-based band has gone from, as a song title put it, a “Nervous and Shakey” garage sound to this record’s smooth R&B.; It’s almost as if the Rolling Stones went straight from 1965’s “Now” to 1976’s “Black and Blue” without making a “Beggar’s Banquet” or “Exile on Main Street” along the way. But the Stones did make those belly-of-the-beast classics, fully earning their soul stripes. The Del Fuegos, on the other hand, just can’t invest these songs with much credibility. The main problem is Dan Zanes’ voice, which has twice the ugly of Mick Jagger’s but none of the nuance this material cries out for. Compounding it, the playing generally suffers from facelessness.