Mecca Normal
The Family Swan
Kill Rock Stars
Giving an album like The Family Swan a bad review is hard – it’s obvious that a great deal of passion and energy has been poured into it and, being released on an indie, it doesn’t have a flashy PR campaign to save it from negative press. That said, I really can’t stand this record. At all. It’s a singer/guitarist duo, except the singing feels like my brain is itchy and it’s the resulting angry cranial noises, and the guitar is painted thick as cement (and is about as aesthetically appealing). It’s music I can envisage being written out on a porch with flies buzzing in the air and chickens scratching the dirt – that feels like the inspiration for much of this. And if dreariness and monotony were a goal – if this was meant to be a “cruel-to-be-kind” type of affair for the listener – then Mecca Normal have succeeded, but I don’t see the point.
I could go on, but I don’t want to resort to savagery. Mecca Normal are trying hard – I just don’t “get” it.
Kill Rock Stars: http://www.killrockstars.com
