Ludo

St. Louis’ Ludo have worked their way up from Warped Tour B-listers to modern-rock radio B-listers, thanks to an expensive major-label debut crafted with Maroon 5 producer Matt Wallace. Wallace polished the band’s emo-punk predictably, packing the group’s My Chemical Romance-styled drama into tight, Killers-inspired pop songs, but he couldn’t gloss over the band’s fundamental lack of wit or songwriting chops. “Does the fun ever start?” frontman Andrew Volpe sings, so pleased with his play on words that you can almost feel his self-amused elbow jab you in the ribs. The answer for most will be, “no, it doesn’t.”