2.5 out of 5 Stars!

A nice album, plain and simple. Nothing here outrageously brilliant, nothing here offensively horrid, just a collection of pleasant, average songs.

After hearing the first half of the CD, however, the repetitive nature of the music on offer comes to the fore…songs are in the same key for the most part, most of them have similar rhythms, similar chord patterns, similar melody lines, similar musical arrangements, similar vocal delivery and harmonies…you get the picture. It feels like the band took their favorite song and rewrote it several times, recording each of the versions…they tried it at various tempos, tossed in another instrument from time to time hoping to add variety, revised the lyrics, and plopped on a melody that, although a few notes may have changed, retains most of the original structure. The “sameness” gets annoying after a while, and nothing truly special pops out.

If only they had experimented a bit more with their songwriting techniques and musicianship skills, this might have been an “above average” effort. ‘Fraid not.