There’s a Bright Eyes song from recent years called ‘Soul Singer in the Session Band,’ highlighting the despair of being an understated and unrecognised talent in your field. It springs to mind when listening to this EP from ‘Baxter,’ who combine the singing prowess of Popstars / X-Factor stalwart Jamie Tinkler (no, me neither) with a smattering of vaguely known musicians to create the ultimate pop-rock fusion.
What you have is a series of accomplished musicians and someone who can clearly sing, combining to create something that they would love to believe is subversive – a reality TV pop wannabe making credible music. But pop stars seeking approval have been doing this sort of thing for years, adding guitars and arrangements to somehow make them more valid. The point is, you throw syrupy vocals over anything and it instantly makes it completely asinine. This is the next logical step for those who enjoyed Leona Lewis’ cover of ‘Run.’
It’s cruise ship rock. Tinkler should be wowing the crowds of Butlins as we speak, whilst the others should be putting their talent to good use. Each song is the same disappointment – you can hear some nice riffs and impressive drumming going on underneath, but you’re permanently being interrupted by the bland, fist-clenching, stage-trained and completely false crooning that destroys any credibility that is being conjured up from the back. If they sound like anything else it’s the eponymous band from California Dreams.
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Special mention for this press release, though – it’s brilliantly written and it did fool me into expecting something more than is on display over these four tracks. If nothing else comes of this venture, I hope the writer of these press releases has a glittering career ahead of them. A phenomenal display in turd polishing, and it would have worked were it not for the product. A shame.
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