SI TODO HICIERA CRACK

Here's a disc full of cheerful and instantly appreciable songs, likely to resonate with the pulse of your blood the first time you hear it, and drive you mad through the same summery enthusiasm five plays later.

Crack have done a lot of work on their melodies, and all the songs have catchy moments strong enough to be chartable. Every cut on "Si Todo Hiciera Crack" is breathlessly lovely and uplifting - perhaps the songs aim to take you to such heights to disguise the music's lacking depth?

Maybe that's too strong, but it's fair to say that because Crack's music is so memorable in the first place, nothing is really gained through repeat listens; take the triumphant melodies of "Amantes de le Irrealidad" and realise that there's nothing interesting going on behind them, or else savour the restless joy of the title suite, and come to acknowledge the drab and unimaginative chords it has been drizzled upon.

The musicians themselves are certainly capable, and seem to have a variety of influences. There's a lot of Camel-ism going on here, both in elevator-jazz-pop and bad-solos-over-galloping-bass modes, and I can't say I'm a fan of their work, so it's a little cloying when it's copied so well. Still, this album has superior melody to anything on Mirage. What I do enjoy is the occasional Oldfieldian nod that takes place in the guitar playing. Additionally, the bittersweet moments reminiscent of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso are worth listening to the whole album for, although I dare say that the italian band would have taken more advantage of the group's skills. As it is, "Si Todo Hiciera Crack" is initially enjoyable, fading to nothing special.