The Cortinas’ pounding, belligerent independent singles (“Fascist Dictator,” “Defiant Pose”) offered no clue that these first-generation English punks would cut such a mild- mannered major-label album, on which the few confrontational gestures sound forced. True Romances reveals the Cortinas as simple rock’n’rollers with a taste for primitive, good-time R&B/pop-rock and endearingly yobbish vocals (e.g., “Heartache” and the jolly “Ask Mr. Waverly” — remember The Man From U.N.C.L.E.?). Nonetheless, halfway through, the record decays into bland forgettability.