Lots of electronics, not enough music

Dead Media\nHefner\nToo Pure Records\nIt takes more than a cool album cover and a catchy name to be a great band. But that hasn't stopped Hefner from trying. The band also proves that decent musicians with an original sound don't always equal good tunes.\nHefner's sound is packed with synthesizers, keyboards and British accents. The problem is so many electronic elements are mixed in the music that it sounds more mechanical than human. The keyboard lines are pretty minimalistic and the guitar and bass are usually pushed to the background. On rare occasions, the guitars add a lot of life to the tracks but remain buried for most of the album. Though there are occasionally some tasty lines, the dull, inhuman sounding vocals make them easy to miss. The subdued delivery fits Hefner's computerized sound but sacrifices too much soul. \nAt its best, Hefner is reminiscent of poorly written Squeeze songs and at its worst it sounds like a video game with vocals that are sporadically out of tune. Besides that, well there are a few good reasons you don't hear many Moogs these days. For a band so proud of its numerous synths and so dependent on its sound, it's surprising that Hefner does little with them to make the music more interesting. There are no emotional solos or funky synth sounds. I can't even recall one song with a cool bridge section. As a matter of fact none of the songs really stand out in my memory at all.\nThe band definitely has its own identity, just not one I would be proud of. The forgettable far outweighs the good music on this disc, but at least Hefner is not afraid to try something new and these are somewhat competent, though boring musicians. As often as I bash teen-pop and trend tag-alongs it really hurts to say this, but it wouldn't hurt to just throw one or two hooks in there would it?\n

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