Whigs whigged out

Mission Control includes Arcade Fire, The Rapture, Modest Mouse, Interpol, The Shins, Coldplay and My Morning Jacket songs. Unfortunately, this is not a compilation, but The Whigs' sophomore album. This group is bewildering in that its influences seem to consist entirely of white rock acts from the year 2000 forward. All in all, it's like much of today's fashionable non-radio rock music, but without the surprises, idiosyncrasies and inspiration. As such, being essentially a diluted form of seemingly all-current music, it's a nice barometer for the "sound" of our particular moment in time but isn't much for listening. \nNothing goes at all awry for this album's entire 40 minutes, and that's the problem. There seems to have been little thought given to this project as a coherent album: The songs could be played in any order, with no thematic arc to move things along. The Whigs beats along in absolutely perfect 4/4 time, mindlessly, heartlessly and without nuance. Though its lead singer has some panache, his words can only drift awkwardly when placed above such polished, unaccommodating backing. The first and only moment that really feels sincere begins, as an afterthought, in the final measure of the final song "Mission Control." \nThis album is the sound of technology -- in the form of pitch-shifting, error-correcting, over-compressing studio technicians -- swallowing up what humans really sound like when they play instruments together. Heavy compression strips the dynamics so much that the sonic atmosphere from song to song is nearly identical. One gets no sense of physical space, of air, of a room populated by living, breathing things. Though The Whigs are mediocre lyricists, melodists and songwriters, no justice was done to its music through such tasteless engineering. When the band titles a track "Production City," it isn't kidding.\nThe Whigs have an OK shot at being a tight live act and touring for a few years. It also has a bright future in making big royalty money by schlepping these tracks to commercials for intermediate-level sedans. By then, we will have forgotten all about this album. Pop it in if you'd like something loud in the background to go in one ear and out the other.