Bluegrass Coldplay anyone?
I was worried; I’ll admit it. The opening bluegrass strains of ‘Roll Away Your Stone’ made we wonder what I’d been sent. But it’s ok; it improved when the vocals kicked in. Yes, it’s still a modern twist on bluegrass, but it’s not as twee as I feared it would be. And yet I can’t quite bring myself to like it completely. The flat vocals don’t really appeal in any way and the lyrics are pretty simplistic. The musicianship is very impressive, especially as it’s such an unusual genre, sitting somewhere between acoustic pop and folk/bluegrass Americana. Still, at least it’s something original.
But I just can’t shake the bits that annoy me about these songs. The vocals are just too whiney, and it doesn’t help that all the interesting bits of the music happen in the breaks from the vocals. There’s no escape from them. ‘White Blank Page’ is very heartfelt, but just a bit preachy. In fact, if Coldplay went folk, this would be what it sounded like. ‘Liar’ is, for some undetermined reason, marginally better. But on the whole the EP drags, and four songs seem far longer.