After two gold albums and a slew of No. 1 singles, Avalon has cemented itself in the hearts of fans, not to mention the playlists of Christian radio stations. And that’s not without good reason. This two-guy, two-girl group has four outstanding voices and a knack for covering songs with hooks that stick to your brain like flypaper. It’s a solid formula, and Avalon mines it extremely well.

Oxygen, the group’s fifth album, finds Avalon taking a few ill-advised detours into boy-band territory, but that’s unlikely to make a whit of difference to fans. Produced by able veteran Brown Bannister, the 11 songs resonate with appealing melodies, giving them a virtual lock for widespread

Avalon falters a bit, though, when it dips into the well of boy-band production clichés. In too many places, Oxygen flows on computer-programmed backing tracks—a malady that’s become all-too-common in this genre. Where "Never Givin’ Up," "The Glory" and a few others are revved mainly by A-list session players (including greats Leland Sklar on bass and Luis Conte on percussion), about half the album tries to groove on sterile drum machines and R2D2-style bleeps and blurps. "Make It Last Forever," for one, sounds like any of a dozen programmed songs over-populating the radio—even processing the vocals through the same warbly effect Cher used on her last hit to try to sound hip. With voices as strong as Avalon’s, it’s an unnecessary bow to pop fashion.

Aside from "The Glory," lyrics, too, are a general weakness, though that’s less Avalon’s responsibility than it is the album’s songwriters. "Do you wanna fly/There’s a higher high" on "Make It Last Forever" rhymes nicely but says little. In other words, don’t turn here expecting the kind of meaty thoughts one would find from the pens of, say, Margaret Becker or Steve Hindalong.

Still, those hiccups have little chance of derailing the Avalon juggernaut. With four or five easy radio hits on hand, fans will breathe this Oxygen for a while.