Grade: B-
The Bloody Lovelies aren't bad, just not nearly as good as band members claim.
When people have something to sell, it's common practice for them to showcase their goods in a positive light. The Bloody Lovelies is no exception.
By perusing the band's Web site (www.bloodylovelies.com), it would be easy to conclude that bandmates Randy Wooten (vocals, keyboard), Eric Holden (bass), Craig Macintyre (drums) and Lance Konerth (guitar) think they are the best thing since, well, the last best thing. Unfortunately for the band, this isn't quite the case.
Some Truth and a Little Money, the band's first full-length album, is an exercise in mediocrity and yet, on some level it works.
There is nothing fancy about the album. The music is arranged well, and most of the songs are likeable, but nothing stands out.
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It's like listening to a fairly intriguing lecture on a topic that doesn't bore you to death given by a somewhat interesting professor.
Vocally, the band suffers from Wooten's unremarkable style whose strength is neither in singing nor writing. Wooten's vocal technique is nasal and flat - an all too common combination in today's music. The album also gives the listener a severe sense of dÇjÖ vu. Some of the songs sound familiar, yet they're new, a possible effect of the homogenous sound of the band.
It can be difficult to determine when one song ends and another begins if you're not looking at the track number.
Despite the repetitiveness of the album, the Lovelies do have a knack for harmonies, and the production values of the album are above average for a young band. Also, a few songs alter, but don't quite break the mold and stand out as tiny little mounds above the flatness of the album.
"You Don't Love Me," the second song, is easily the best thing on the album. It is a catchy tune with some interesting melodies but clichÇ lyrics. "I pictured us sweetly/ Together and all by ourselves/ I drew it completely/ Forever but time only tells/ You are the goddess, the night and the river divine/ You are the silence that causes the stars to align/ But you had to lie to me/ And you don't love me/ Baby you don't care."
Other songs worth mentioning are "Hologram," the upbeat opening song, and "A Million Years From Now," a delicate ballad with some cosmic imagery. "We'll still be shinin' a million years from now/ Like old starlight that's just reaching us now/ We'll be shinin'/ A million years from now."
Unfortunately, the three best songs on Some Truth and a Little Money are still not enough to boost the Bloody Lovelies past anything more than mediocre status.
