IN BRIEF : ** 1/2 Boom Crash Opera, “These Here are Crazy Times,” Giant/Warner Bros.:<i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic). : </i>

The best songs on this Aussie band’s second album sound like an apolitical Midnight Oil. The political songs sound like average INXS. Catchy stuff--even rocks good at some turns. But what’s the point of an apolitical Oil or a political INXS?