After releasing their giddily glitchy laptop pop debut album, Things.Yes, the young Italian duo M+A underwent a fairly drastic sea change. No longer did their music sound like Mouse on Mars dosed with copious amounts of High C or Plone on 45. Instead, they decided to turn off the laptops and get real on their second record, These Days. The duo's sound is now super-slick, shimmery, and not at all processed-sounding. Along with real drums, there are guitars, strings, and vocals on every track, and while Things.Yes was danceable in a jerky way, this album is meant for dancefloors. While quite a few tracks are frivolous fun in a post-"Get Lucky" fashion, all disco balls and swirling dresses, many others come across like a pumped-up Phoenix, from the vocal phrasing to the song structures to the overall feel and sound. When they aren't getting down in a French fashion, they get a little funky, Beck style; "B Song" and "Slow" sound like Odelay outtakes that come complete with pseudo turntable scratches. They even bring the tempo down a couple times for ballads that also sound like quiet storm Phoenix, especially on the super-pretty "Game." The varied moods and tempos make for a well-rounded album that shows without a doubt that M+A are skilled producers with an ear for smoothly ingratiating sounds and a couple of catchy tunes in their back pocket. Like the bubbly "When," for example. What they don't have is much originality or style of their own. They bite Phoenix so hard it's almost embarrassing, and the Beck-alike tracks are the worst kind of idolatry. Even when they try to do something different, like adding slowed-down rapping and b-boy funk to the otherwise smoothly saxy "New York There," it sounds desperate rather than innovative. Leaving aside the fact that their original sound was much more interesting, what they are doing here has been done so much better by other people that there's very little reason to check These Days out. Judging by the complete lack of new ideas on display here, there's also little hope that M+A will ever escape the looming shadow of their chief influences and come up with something unique. As it stands, These Days is only recommended to people who have worn out their Phoenix albums and are dying to hear something exactly like them, but not as good. Too bad, since Things.Yes held so much promise.