Three years ago, The Veronicas-identical twin sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso-took their homeland of Australia by storm with their brilliant and phenomenally successful debut album, The Secret Life Of The Veronicas. Now a dramatic new sound marks The Veronicas' musical coming of age on [title]Hook Me Up[/title]. Their pop punk leanings have given way to a more sophisticated electro-beat feel, though still marked by the sisters' signature harmonies and vocals, and innate pop sensibility.

1. Untouched 4:14
2. Hook Me Up 2:55
3. This Is How It Feels 4:11
4. This Love 2:58
5. I Can't Stay Away 3:26
6. Take Me On The Floor 3:30
7. I Don't Wanna Wait 2:59
8. Popular 2:42
9. Revenge Is Sweeter [Than You Ever Were] 3:42
10. Someone Wake Me Up 3:33
11. All I Have 3:12
12. In Another Life 3:47
13. Goodbye To You 3:12 (USA bonus track)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014DAIB8/?tag=imwan-20

Here's the press release:

The Veronicas' New Album - Hook Me Up -- in Stores on September 16th 2008

Last update: 1:35 p.m. EDT July 28, 2008

BURBANK, Calif., Jul 28, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Hook Me Up, the second album from The Veronicas, is due in stores on September 16th, 2008. Sire Records released a digital version of the album, a dance-friendly electro-rock sizzler that showcases Aussie twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso 's expert songcraft, organic vocal chemistry, and sophisticated sensibilities, to iTunes in May 2008.

The eye-popping video for "Untouched" -- the first single from Hook Me Up -- debuted at No. 10 on TRL's Top 10 Video Countdown on MTV on July 16th. The video has been added to MTV Hits (in medium rotation) and The N Network, and is enjoying a spike in main rotation on MTV. The Veronicas will also be featured as an 'Incoming Artist' on the Fuse Network in August.

Hook Me Up represents a stylistic leap from the girls' 2006 debut The Secret Life Of... by swapping the latter's pop-punk leanings for Hook Me Up's dance friendly, beat-driven feel. "It's been more than two years since we wrote the first record so our musical tastes have changed a bit," Lisa says. "We've been living in Los Angeles where we got into the whole electro-pop rock scene. When it came time to write the new album, we were really inspired by it musically." Adds Jess: "We didn't want to make a record that was the same as the first. We definitely wanted to create a different sound for ourselves and reinvent The Veronicas."

Hook Me Up was recorded in Los Angeles, where Lisa and Jess are now based, with a host of top notch hitmakers, including Shelly Peiken (Christina Aguilera), Greg Wells (Mika), John Feldmann (The Used, Good Charlotte), Billy Steinberg (Madonna), and their Secret Life collaborator Toby Gad, who also wrote Fergie's 2007 hit "Big Girls Don't Cry."

"With Toby, we'd gossip and tell him all the drama in our lives," Lisa says. Adds Jess: "That's why a lot of the songs we wrote with him come across as emotional and dramatic. I'd have to say this record is even more personal than the first one, which was hard because the first record was very much us." The collaboration resulted in eight tracks, from "Untouched" to such razor-edged epics as "This Is How It Feels" and "Revenge Is Sweeter," through to the funky "Take Me On The Floor" and "Popular." "It's a very upbeat dance record, though there are a few ballads on there," Jess says. "It came out exactly how we wanted it to, so we're stoked."

In their native Australia, The Veronicas have watched Hook Me Up achieve double-platinum status with sales of 164,000 and spawn the girls' first No. 1 single with the title track. The Veronicas debut album, The Secret Life Of ... sold more than 300,000 copies, scored three of their five Top 10 singles, won a slew of awards (including a coveted ARIA), and made the Brisbane natives, now 23, international stars.

Hook Me Up is the beginning of a new chapter in The Veronicas' stateside career. The Secret Life Of... was released by Sire Records in February 2006 and debuted at Number Three on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. Named an AOL Breaker band and called "Australia's rockingest twins" by Blender, the girls were also praised by Entertainment Weekly for making "most of their female pop-rock rivals seem like jugheads." Indeed, critics agreed that the Veronicas were "the real thing," as the New York Post put it.

The Veronicas recently completed a Verizon Wireless-sponsored 20-city tour as very special guests of chart-topping British songstress Natasha Bedingfield. They also earned raves for their club shows in Los Angeles and New York. As Blender.com noted of an April show in Manhattan: "These girls can sing. And they flip off rock-star moves with the ease of stadium-trained pros." For more on Lisa and Jess, please visit their official website at http://www.theveronicas.com.

And here's the video for "Untouched" which was mentioned above:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NLs3odG2Kc[/youtube]

Wow... I didn't know this hadn't been released in the states yet... and how convenient, just a couple of weeks after the "accidental" leak of Jess's topless photo....

Bump ~ the USA domestic release has been brought forward to August 26th, and it will include a bonus track.