“Sometimes I just wanna get a little crazy,” O.A.R. frontman Marc Roberge proclaims not long into the band’s Wind-up Records debut, King. And if that’s true, the singer must be getting his ya-yas out elsewhere, as there’s little delirium to be found on the seventh studio disc by this college-fave jam-rock act. Indeed, most of these strummy feel-good ditties-aw-shucks song titles include “Gotta Be Wrong Sometimes” and “Taking On the World Today”-make Jason Mraz sound like some kind of avant-garde noisemaker. That lack of adventure doesn’t mean that O.A.R. (whose name, as it happens, stands for Of a Revolution) comes up empty on King. “The Last Time” rides a head-nodding reggae groove and features some nice work by the group’s sax man, Jerry DePizzo, while catchy lead single “Heaven” suggests what might result from an after-hours jam on Maroon 5’s current tour with Train. Anyone looking to get a little crazy, though, should consider hitting up the new set by that wild man Gavin DeGraw.
