Ehhh, I'm torn on this. The vocals are great and some of the music rocks, but if there's one thing that pisses me off it's hipster sounding keyboards, and this thing's littered with 'em. The music is basically quirky rock 'n' roll with some straightforward midpaced chord progressions and melodic lead lines that sometimes have an 80's thing going on, which is of course heightened by the oft new wave trappings of the synths, but I'm just not into most of this stuff. The heavier rock runs or hints at angular indie playing are cool, though. And the vocals are great yells/dry singing with a distant ring, and I'm all for that. Like I said, some of the music is good, but the fucking keyboards, man... I hate that shit. It comes off as trendy and senseless, especially since their presence does nothing but detract from some otherwise rockin' tunes (see "It Makes Me Sexy When You Say That" especially - a solid song destroyed by goofy keyboard nonsense). The synths kind of double the guitars in "Diamonds of War", making them less obvious, so that track comes off as fairly effective when all is said and done. The title track has some nice female backing vocals and memorable vocal arrangements, so despite my distaste for most of the music (sans the more involved and rocked out stuff, which I dig) I still like it better than many of the other songs. The recording is a little muffled and dry, which works superbly for the vocals, and it sounds pretty decent as a whole, but I'd like to hear more brightness elsewhere. The guitars are up front and that's good, and the percussion sounds okay, but the rhythm section needs more breathing room. Also, the guitar tone is a little unnatural and overly heavy for this style, so some of the more prominent riffing has a strange bite. The layout uses imagery of old stereos and brightly colored squares that kind of looks like a simple 70's-ish design or something like that. The lyrics aren't my thing really, sort of combining sarcasm and fun stuff with abstracted personal material or something, from lines like "Woke up today, living in a desert world," to, "We rock like Moses," so... go figure. I'm not that into this but I'd love to hear the vocalist go to town in a better band. Hell, this EP would've been better without the keyboards, so...
[Pop Faction]
Running time - 13:39, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Diamonds of War, Smash the Superstition]
Pop Faction - http://www.popfaction.com
