**1/2 Addict

STONES

(Big Cat)

Something sounds familiar about "I'm stupid but I'm cool," a line from "Monsterside," the second track on Addict's debut album, Stones -- the singer's wry delivery and the self-depreciating lyric echo of the polished depression of Radiohead's loser-anthem "Creep." Like Radiohead, the London-based Addict aren't ashamed to have learned some of their best moves from the modern-rock trinity of R.E.M., U2, and Nirvana. R.E.M. taught Addict the importance of artful restraint; U2 contributed the value of sudden bursts of energetic guitar, and Kurt Cobain the power of doggedly introspective lyrics. The sermon-like songs on Stones may be prototypical alterna-rock -- even the titles ("Nobody Knows," "Black Hole," and "Teenage Angel") sound prefab -- but they're damned easy to relate to. And the moody, lingering melody of "Red Bird" adds something memorable to an otherwise likable, if undemanding, debut.

-- Katherine Brown