Teddy Geiger - "Underage Thinking" (Columbia, 2006)

Teddy Geiger was supposed to be the new Jesse McCartney. McCartney, the star of the WB's teen pop sludgefest "Summerland," found his way onto the pop airwaves in 2005 thanks to songs like "Beautiful Soul." Now Geiger, who was to play a backup role in CBS's highly touted thirtysomethings drama "Love Monkey," hoped he'd find similar success for his solo album Underage Thinking. Unfortunately for him, the critically acclaimed show was dumped by CBS after a handful of episodes when no one watched. But here comes the album anyway, and if Geiger's banking on this making him a big success, he's deluded. This album, while competently produced, is nothing but easy listening pop in the veins of Howie Day, Ryan Cabrera, James Blunt and John Mayer. If you like your cheeseball piano pop regardless of whether the singer has anything to say, Geiger might be up your alley. For the rest of us, avoid this album like the plague.

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