Ahh the harsh mistress that is 'Modern Rock Radio'. Unless you hail from the land of hope and glory or your Uncle owns Clear Channel, then international bands will have a hard time making a name for themselves. Over the past few years, quality (non-U.S.) bands have failed to make their mark on the main stage because of such shortfalls. Australia's Powderfinger and Denmark's Kashmir are two such examples.

After a few albums, if these bands haven't cracked it by then, they tend to say, "Fuck It", and focus on their own territories. New Zealand trio The Feelers have been plying their trade down in their neck of the woods for about seven years now. Previous album 'Communicate' had an over abundance of radio tracks that it made you wonder why everyone was hailing Chad Kroeger as the Second Coming. Earlier on in their careers they even scored a place on the 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' soundtrack which usually is a good foot in the door, however the guys obviously didn't read the script before agreeing to the deal. Rookie mistake.

Third album 'Playground Battle' sees the group at an obvious crossroads. They can either continue to record quality radio rock tunes for the rest of their lives (knowing full well they are only going to impress radio programmers in their homeland and stubborn fans) or branch out and develop themselves as musicians. I'm not saying they should do something rash like sack the bass player or give avant-garde Jazz a whack, just to challenge their abilities.

Sadly, apart from coming up with the innovative notion of turning up the amps on a few of the tracks, 'Playground Battle' is an album that lives in the same world (and I dare say the same town) as 'Communicate'. Sure they sound a little pissed like in 'The Fear' ("Don't play the tortured artist with me, or you can pack up all your bags and then leave"), and angst is a good start, but we're not actually knocking down walls here are we?

If it is any indication, 'The Fear' is actually one of the stronger tracks on the album, allowing vocalist James Reid to take flight during the soaring chorus. The run in the middle of the set with 'Labyrinth', 'Supernova' and 'All Connected' also fares well, but as already stated, it isn't anything we haven't heard from them previously.

Things start to turn silly with 'Fallout Shelter' where they mimic the waffle Live have been throwing around on their past two albums. God help us if lyrics like, "Imagine Lennon, if he was not the only one", are an indication of their future direction.

It's definitely a frustrating situation, for both the listener and the artist. The thing is, there is not a heck of a lot us listeners can do about it.