CLOCK UNWOUND

I have really mixed opinion about this album. The one hand, I like their song writing, playing and arrangement. I really like that they use so many different instruments in their arrangement! And mix and sound quality are definitely above average. Now, why 3 stars only? You know, there are some things like passion and drive. This record lacks both. It's precise and exact, but somehow sterile. And vocals, a girl and a boy.... The only good thing about the vocals is there are not too much of it on this record. The rest is bad. Very bad. Both male and female vocals are very weak. Nice, but weak. Emotionless. None-engaging. Monotonous. Muffled. Cold. And, on top of it, they are buried in the mix. I suspect (and hope!) that coldness and lack of emotions that plague this otherwise very interesting record caused by poor mix problem. And maybe their vocalists are good, and were just buried in the mix? I'm not a big fan of live records, but I really want to hear this band live to see if they are more emotional than on this record and if they really suffered of cold production and mix. Overall, this promising record sounds like it has been created and recorded by androids. Almost perfect harmonies, arrangement and sound, nice sounding voices, but everything is cold and a bit dull. Don't get me wrong: I don't have anything against androids, especially if they look like Daryl Hannah :). But I hope those guys are not androids and their next record will really shine! P.S. I found some of their live performances on YouTube. They confirmed my opinion: the band is very good, but their vocalists are really weak! Female vocalist is ok, but no more, but the male vocalist is just horrible.