There is nothing wrong with taking a minimalist approach to making music, especially in this day of polished, slickly produced "American Idol" karaoke superstars.
The minimalist approach has worked for countless bands over the years, just ask any Weezer fan.
The new album from the Berkeley, California band Hidden Tracks, The Sweet Sound of Excess, fails to carry the low-key flag. The only excess on the album is that of boring rock.
The Sweet Sound of Excess walks a fine line between socially conscience political punk rock and sweet-sounding nonsense filled bubble-gum pop. However, it fails to successfully use any of the good qualities of either genre.
The album begins by making fun of pop music on a quickly annoying number called "Billboard."
"I want to be your break-through artist/want to be the talk of the town/I want to be that air guitarist/I want to get my nose so brown/I want to be your whore/I want to be all yours/rock on the radio/rock in the video/rock the commercial" vocalist Lee Ballon sings in a flat monotonous voice that is backed by way too many "oooh, aahhs" to make anything he is singing believable.
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Overall, the problem with the album is not the simple music, it's that the vocals and lyrics don't ever go anywhere. Minimalist bands like The Minutemen or The Meat Puppets played extremely simple, nonproduced music that would throw in unexpected screams or political lyrics that would make the listener think. Even the plain quirkiness of Pavement was successful. Pop bands with harmonizing vocals such as the Beach Boys or the Barenaked Ladies employed sweet vocals and moody music to leave the listener with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Hidden Tracks does neither. The band is stuck between two genres of music and fall short of both.
Instead of quality, the listener is stuck with cheesy lyrics such as, "I read the clouds today in your eyes" from "Relationship Future," a song that has nice vocal harmonizing but no catchy hook, no warm feeling. On social songs such as "I'm Sick," the band's members attempt to give sarcastic commentary on a plastic society with lyrics like "TV, it keeps me satisfied," yet the edginess is absent and the listeners are left wondering if they actually meant it. If they meant it, they would probably sound emotional or pissed off.
There are three good things about Hidden Tracks and The Sweet Sound of Excess. First, are the songs' introductions. Most of the songs lead in with intelligent, syrupy sounding guitars and beats. Second, the band has a free MP3 a month club on its Web site, which seems to be a good idea to get music out there and interest some fans without giving it all away. Many musicians could shed their greedy, rock-star image with a program like this. The third positive attribute of Hidden Tracks is that its album has no hidden tracks. Twelve boring songs was about all this reporter could handle.
