For as much ballyhoo as the media has made about the underground’s rediscovery of pop, it’s not the earth-shattering development that it may seem at first. Sure, for the first time in a generation, kids have picked up on the pop tradition, but, they fail to mention, it’s in a few limited ways: with bands who want to be Weezer, bands that want to be The Get Up Kids and, most enterprising of all, bands who want to be some squirrelly combination of those bands.

Considering the environment from which it springs, The All American Rejects’ debut album is that much more surprising. The band bears all earmarks of a bunch of wannabes (songs about girls and broken hearts, wet-mop hairdos that make The Strokes look presentable, members who aren’t even old enough to legally purchase a beer), though its output is anything but predictable. Weezer? Get Ups? Throw those ideas out the window. The Rejects have rejected most of their generation’s infatuation for their own identity.

Instead of the fiery power-pop or soppy-mop emo, the Rejects delve into a sound that’s got all the oomph, force and guitars of Weezer-era power pop, but has a lot more depth. Be it with miniature doses of orchestration that hints at everyone from Phil Spector to Elvis Costello ("Don’t Leave Me" and "My Paper Heart"), or with its use of keyboards not as a centerpiece a la piano or synth pop, but as an accent ("Time Stands Still"), The All American Rejects isn’t just hair of the dog for the Weezer hangover that nearly every other band of its stripe these days suffers.

That’s not to say the act’s a bunch of lily-livered weenies, however. With forceful, if sometimes hokey and canned, drum-machine programming, boisterous, fuzzy guitars and harmonies that are inspired by old-school masters such as The Beach Boys and The Who, the Rejects don’t use their extra-power pop aims as a soggy wet blanket, but as a change of pace from the spunky pop it’s so good at.

While the Rejects don’t have a four-star album in them yet, they’ve got youth on their side. With a little more honing and skill in working their hooks, the duo has the potential to become pop luminaries in a couple years – if it doesn’t get caught up in any of its own hoopla.