Buckcherry Dredges Up Riffs From Rock’s Past

Hey! You wanna [expletive] rock?! Take a trip down this L.A.-based quintet’s own personal Highway to Hell, a.k.a. the gritty, swaggering “Ridin’.” Er, wasn’t that AC/DC’s road? Well, did you really expect the makers of the 1999 retro-rocking hit “Lit Up” to give us something [expletive] original?

Nothing on Buckcherry’s [expletive] sophomore collection (in stores Tuesday) approaches the raunchy guilty pleasure of that tune, although the tracks have plenty of raunch. In fact, the tediously explicit “Porno Star,” with its leering, T. Rex-style guitar vamp, is among the finer musical moments.

Once again, the players recycle their favorite [expletive] hard-rock and metal riffs, while singer Josh Todd throws the usual gutter-level sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll shapes. (OK, there is a sensitive power ballad, imaginatively titled “Without You.”) It’s hard to say which is worse, the blatant culling from their betters--Aerosmith, KISS, David Bowie, the Supersuckers, etc.--or the faux insight of such numbers as “Whiskey in the Morning,” based on Todd’s battle with alcoholism.

Still, “Time Bomb” is all very [expletive] rawking, and its abundance of four-letter words will doubtless make the kids wanna crank it up to 11. So, parents, be warned: Dig up those old Thin Lizzy albums before it’s too late!

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