When we first crowned the Rolls' demo tape a Futures king some six years ago, they were a considerably different band. Like many young musicians working through their infant stages, the Rolls were noodle-y home-tapers, inspiring our mitial comparison to Happy Flowers and Sebadoh. In the time since, the Chicago-by-way-of-New York trio has blossomed into an all-out pop outfit, documented quite succinctly by production guru Kramer on the eight-song No Place I'd Rather Be. The recording's first four tracks - "Silence," "Girls & Dead Philosophers," "Alicia" and "(When I'm) Sitting Here On Mars" - are its most immediate and friendly, crisply injecting twangy, mid-tempo pop-rock, á la X or Let's Active, with some confident playing. The most admirable thing about the Rolls is their strict adherence to a late '80s-style college rock aesthetic, eschewing a disillusioned vocalist and equally dissonant sonics in favor of clear, fun, infectious pop music. It's nothing too fancy or fashionable, but given the expectations of New York's music community, the Rolls' music is refreshingly un-ironic.

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