They've got alt-rock beards and had boy band-size success. But their trousers give the Mavericks away. Sequinned and, in singer Raul Malo's case, with appliqué roses, this is couture only Nashville men could wear with confidence.

That the Mavericks actually hail from Miami should attest to their love of country music. Their hybrid sound, with its rock overtones and soul and folk influences, has made Springsteen fans embrace country and Nashville devotees dance around their Stetsons. But although welcomed by the notoriously defensive country establishment, the Mavericks have distanced themselves from the genre in favour of the hillbilly swing meets mariachi brass of their big hit, Dance the Night Away.

Success ate away at their enthusiasm and, three years ago, the band was put on hold. Solo projects followed, but now they're back with a new guitarist, Eddie Perez, and an eponymously titled album that mixes their trademark aversion to pedal steel guitar with an increasing dependence on pop melodies.

The Mavericks are essentially a good-time bar band, so it is fitting that they're nursing hangovers. Interspersing old-fashioned romance and heartache with talk of drunken escapades, they're as bullish and dated as an episode of Roseanne. They play at being spiteful on Bring Me Down, but the Mavericks are fundamentally pleasant. Paul Deakin's feisty drums chip away at the barn dance waltz of Because of You, but from singalong, Beatles-inspired refrains to a cover of the Hollies' Air That I Breathe, it's solid, uneventful, showmanship.

Malo's voice has often been compared to Roy Orbison's, but although Missing You evokes a warm, end-of-prom prettiness, when it comes to covering Orbison's In Dreams during a solo spot, his voice cannot capture the pain. "This is the cool bit where we annoy you," Malo says, before jokingly starting and stopping a selection of songs. Unfortunately, the banality got there first.