Unlike the band’s most famous singles, “Lips of an Angel” and “Get Stoned,” Hinder’s latest release, “Take It To The Limit,” does not tempt the listener to dismember his or her eardrums.

Though Hinder’s sound lingers in meritocracy and the band makes absolutely no effort to break any new ground, the ironically named “Take it to the Limit” is actually listenable.

It’s probably not a good thing, however, that one of the more positive things that can be said about the album is “it could have been a lot worse.”

The high point of the album is the song “Loaded and Alone.”

The sing-along anthem manages to be catchy in an enjoyable kind of way, unlike many of the band’s older works.

The song is melodic, mellow and has a hair-band feel to it.

The track “Last Kiss Good Night” is a decent alt-rock tune that will probably get eaten up by the “we like rock, but couldn’t care less about music as art” crowd.

The song “Up All Night” has a later-career Papa Roach sound to it and “Heaven Sent” has an early-career Bon Jovi feel to it.

Neither song, however, will cause any wear on the “repeat one” button.

The rest of the album “hinders” the band’s ability to actually create anything particularly memorable.

Hinder needs to avoid power-ballads and “frat-guy anthems” if they ever hope to earn any respect from critics.

The ballad-esque songs, “Without You,” “Thing For You” and “Far from Home” are weak songs basking in the financial glory of “Lips of an Angel.”

Hinder is not “tak[ing] it to the limit,” but proved they can write listenable tunes as long as they write hair-metal inspired tunes and avoid the power-ballad like it’s the Ebola virus.