Phantom Planet - The Guest

I bought this album when I was in the two best choirs at one of my alma maters. We were on tour and were given a much more generous daily stipend than I needed. I pinched my pennies and bought this album along with Nirvana's Bleach. I remember listening to The Guest and Bleach back to back over and over as we were shuttled from performance to performance. This was before a certain show called The O.C. (remember that show? People acted like it was going to be the new 90210 at the time and then it dropped off a cliff. I saw one episode and that was all I needed) overplayed "California" to the point that nobody who owned a television would be caught dead listening to Phantom Planet (I would argue The Rembrandts were similarly buried because they wrote the theme song for Friends. Their self-titled album was really really good, but you wouldn't know it because the last track was "I'll Be There For You"). I gave this album the better part of a decade off because I just couldn't handle the way it was being pushed. When I dusted it off a week ago (yeah, I listened to it right before my computer disaster) it sounded surprisingly great, and I'm including "California" in that statement. The Guest is a little more polished and obviously radio-ready than Phantom Planet is Missing, but it's still a solid album with a surprising number of good tracks.