Review: VCR “s/t” CD

Here's some wacky synth-driven rock with a lighthearted sort of feel. It's not so bad because it comes off as more fun than the hipster kind of shit that's going around these days, and they definitely go farther overboard with the 80's sounding synths all over the place. It's basically a couple of synths, plunky basslines, drums, and lightly shouted male/female vocals with hints of singing - sort of like obscure 80's new wave stuff or something. The songs are midpaced to mildly fast and fairly straightforward in structure, tending to stay under three minutes. I wouldn't call the material catchy per se, but it's getting there. Some of the persistent rhythms get overbearing and irritating, namely in the first half of "DVD", but the darker melodies and singing vocals in "We Are VCR" are awesome. Some of this stuff, especially the lead vocal performance, vaguely reminds me of Faith No More circa "Introduce Yourself", but of course there are no guitars, so it's nothing in that vein. "Bratcore" is another pretty memorable one that has a solid structure and vocal performance that stand out, so maybe it's more direct? I don't know, but it's enjoyable. The recording is pretty strong as well. Of course the keyboards are massively dominant, and I think the other instruments need to be balanced against that a little more, but the dry distance they're getting with the vocals works pretty well. Letting the basslines get more prominent would really accent the rhythm section better, though. Visually it's very stripped down with nothing but simple line designs and crisp text with pink fades underneath, kind of having an 80's video game packaging look or something (just more minimal). No lyrics or anything are included, just lineup information and that kind of stuff. I'm not really into this type of thing, but this band has more potential than most. If they can shed all of the hipster sounding stuff and go in a total 80's direction I'll be all over it, because that's a sound that's hard to replicate at this point, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss all that stuff from when I was a kid. I'll be curious to hear more from this band. I can see why people get into this because it's pretty amusing material, and they're approaching the point of being pretty good songwriters, so... there's something to be said for the strengths of this work... even though it's not something I could listen to regularly.