Indianapolis group The Spin has all the makings of a good band. Fine musicians, great pop sensibilities, even a catchy little name. These points shine through on a few tracks of its debut album, On the Line, but there are some deep flaws with this album as well.\nThis album could be divided in half. One half has a nice, multi layered rock sound with some great hooks that make listeners want to break out the ol' air guitar, decent piano parts (when it doesn't sound like pianist/ keyboardist Steve Banik took too many Quaaludes) and some of the lyrics aren't half bad either.\nThe main problem with the album is the production. Most of the time the music covers up the singer's soft voice that, at times, echoes John Mayer. On certain tracks it becomes painfully clear that this band hasn't yet decided what it wants to do. Consequently, at times it ends up sounding like a wannabe Steely Dan. The Spin does have potential, but that isn't evident with On the Line, so it might be worth it just to wait for the second album.
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