Buckcherry stormed back onto the rock scene in a big way in 2006 with the release of 15 and the smash hit single “Crazy Bitch.” Named for the number of days it took to record, 15 was the work of a hungry, hard-rocking band. Buckcherry found success with its debut album in 1999, largely due to the can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head single “Lit Up,” but just two years later, the follow-up, Time Bomb, was met mostly with indifference. The point is, there weren’t legions of fans crying out for more Buckcherry. Vocalist Josh Todd and guitarist Keith Nelson reconstituted the band with three new bandmates (guitarist Stevie D., bassist Jimmy Ashhurst and drummer Xavier Muriel) because they still had music in them and Buckcherry is who they are. And 15, which became the band’s first Platinum album, is worthy of the success that followed.

That brings us to 2008 and Buckcherry’s second attempt to follow up a hit album, Black Butterfly. Though it is by no means a bad effort, I don’t get the same vibe from it that I got from 15. Whereas 15 felt like an album the band needed to make, the work of five guys eager to prove themselves, Black Butterfly rings of musicians who might be a little too content. Melodies on songs like “Rescue Me,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Go Away” and “Rose” appear to eagerly reach for Top 40—not just rock—radio, maybe the result of the crossover success of 15’s “Sorry.” At the same time, nothing matches the infectious quality of the band’s best-known songs. The raunchy “Too Drunk” aims to be this album’s “Crazy Bitch,” but in that song’s considerable wake, everything about it—starting with the early Internet “leak” months before the disc’s release—feels calculated.

Album highlights include the distinctly Aerosmith-tinged “Talk to Me,” the acoustic “All of Me” and the dynamic closer, “Cream.” And there are other solid Buckcherry rockers, “Tired of You,” “Fallout” and “Imminent Bailout” being the best examples.

I’m not asking Buckcherry to reinvent itself—AC/DC has been making the same album for 35 years and I love them for it. But the flames from the fire that fueled 15 aren’t burning as bright on Black Butterfly.