On Boom Crash Opera's debut album, the Melbourne, Australia quintet plays heavy drum-driven dance-oriented rock much in the manner of INXS, but with just enough angst and bombast to live up to their name.

Wide-screen sound characterizes the crisply produced (in part by Jimmy Iovine) Crazy Times, even though many of the numbers are pushed by acoustic guitars. There's a dash of U2's spiritualism here and the Alarm's romanticism there (especially on the anthemic "Dancing in the Storm"), a couple of bright big-beat dance-rock numbers, even a Zeppelin-style riff or two thrown in for good measure. Not a bad record, but the band has yet to establish a vision of its own.