Mediocrity dressed up in decent talent appeared before my ears today in the form of The Cardinal Sin. Hailing from Minneapolis, members Becky, Jon, James and Mark play well, but their music lacks a distinguishable spark. Their pop punk songs are almost predictable in arrangement. Despite their obvious developed individual musical talents, they come off sounding undeveloped as a unified sound. "Light Years Behind" is an upbeat, safe song. The absence of edginess makes the song perfect for nice background noise when you just need something, anything to listen to. The song does not express a lack of talent whatsoever, but does not inspire any particular feeling. I want to feel something when I listen to music. My mind only imagined a blank slate devoid of any color or design. "Light Years Behind" came up short in the vivid expression category.
"Good For Nothing" contained tight guitar riffs that unfortunately overpowered everything else in the song. The vocals sounded muted and strained. The percussion was lackluster. The first word I thought of during this song was noisy. It is just plain loud and gritty. There's no clear direction or theme within the relationship of the instrumental parts and the lyrics. Sadly "Good For Nothing" is not good for very much at all.
"The Saddest Song" is difficult to listen to. The vocals are devoid of a pleasant tone, while the guitar riffs sound rushed like they are racing against the percussion. I found the most fault with the vocals because they sounded forced and nasally to me. Nothing stands out in this song because so much of it seems so sloppy.
I am not very fond of The Cardinal Sin because I do not feel they have a well thought-out sound yet. I commend them for their decent effort, but their music sounds generic and garage-band-ish. Even the sounds of the instruments were flat and one-dimensional. They lost my interest.
Listen for yourself here.
Thank you for reading. Shuffle on.
Photo credit: http://www.purevolume.com/thecardinalsin/photos/1325163
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