SHEER MAG : "Playing Favorites"

Little of this band's former punk leanings remain. Instead, they are making bland jangling rock n roll. The second song has a little more of Kiss feel to it. Most of the grit in vocals comes from the production. It's like the Temu version of the Runaways. The guitar is improved here, but the vocals need to be stronger. Some of the riffs would work better if accompanied by a punchier delivery. By the time we get to "All Lined Up" the band feels more like a 70s rock cover band that is playing melodic. There is more of a disco tinge to the groove of the song, which is pretty unfocused with little to hook you in, which seems like that would be the crux of 70s rock which was always centered on the vocals, rather than just rock god guitar playing.  

It typically feels like the singer was not involved in the songwriting process and she came in after the fact and went into the vocal booth just trying to come up with something that might fit. There is almost a Southern rock feel to "Don't Come Lookin" that finds the guitarists trying to emulate the Allman Brothers. They did nail; the tone, but these days there are computer plug-ins that can do that in post-production. This album is produced in a way that is trying to capture a more vintage sound. Five songs into this album I get to "I Gotta Go" and resign myself to the fact this is an album I must endure rather than enjoy. This is largely because this has all the originality of any garage band. It however sounds like the kind of band their parents might be in rather than kids their age, which might be the ironic novelty of their band. 

The guitar is such the focus that the drums are pushed way in the background taking away most of the gas to their sound. I keep waiting for something that shows who they are instead of being totally derivative, instead, they try to be the Jackson 5 on "Moonstruck". They do get kind of proggy for "Mechanical Garden" . When the vocals come in they try their best to ruin things.  The most unfocused song so far is "Golden Hour" which tries to blend the Jack 5 vibes with the Allman Brothers sounds, which are two things that were not meant to intermingle. Lyrically the album has been underwhelming, but hits a new low on "Tea on the Kettle". Though "Paper Time" proves they are capable of being worse., The gas runs out of their creative tank by the last song. 

I will round this one down to a 5.  Decent guitar playing provides a sliver of legitimacy to what would otherwise be some of the worst songs coming from a professional band that I have heard in some time. The more biased hipster voices in music journalism might try to give this band some hype for purely narrative upkeep, that has nothing to do with what we focus on here which is music. 

pst97