A Treasure Chest of Duds

Artist: Acrylics

Album: Lives and Treasure

Label: Friendly Fire/Hot Sand

Release Date: March 1

Grade: C+

Just about everything to do with Acrylics' debut album, Lives and Treasure, can be described with various interpretations of the phrase "a mixed bag."

The Brooklyn-based band draws heavily from a number of different influences. Lives and Treasure as a whole is stylistically diverse, and, most importantly, each of the album's 10 tracks are largely hit-or-miss affairs.

The album begins promisingly enough. "Counting Sheep" starts things with a dreamy keyboard part, which is joined shortly by vocals from Jason Klauber and Molly Shea, the band's twin guitarists, singers, and songwriters. The track manages to incorporate both interesting percussion and synthesizer effects without costing it the mellow, drowsy quality it begins with.

"Molly's Vertigo," the second track, is another solid effort. Though the song as a whole is fairly simple, snappy lyrics and Jake Aron's bassline keep things interesting.

Beyond these initial songs, though, things start becoming a lot less consistent. Track number three, "The Window," sounds like the band doing its best impression of Arcade Fire. Unfortunately, the song is boring and unremarkable.

Things only go downhill from there. "Sparrow Song" sounds like a spring morning rendered musically, if done so by an insipid indie band. "It's Cool Here" bores listeners from almost the moment it begins and seems to drag despite its short length. "Tortoise Shell Shades" is a filler track, if ever there was one.

Some songs are even mixed bags within the context of themselves. "Asian Pear" begins as a cheesy rhyming exercise in slow-ballad time before it gathers momentum out of seemingly nowhere and expands into a lot more. It's a shame the song couldn't start the way it ended.

There are certainly some bright spots on Lives and Treasure. The title track is solid, and "Nightwatch" easily boasts the album's fullest and most dynamic arrangement. These prove to be the exception rather than the rule, however, as the album records more misses than hits.

Lives and Treasure is certainly a unique album; one has to give Acrylics credit for not painting by the numbers, but this fact alone can't carry the band's debut effort.

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