Barcelona

Seattle soft-rockers (or, as they are oft referred to, “melodic rockers”) Barcelona have a predicament: the project Absolutes, born out of the piano and vocal stylings of lead man Brian Fennell, uses talented musicians and a solid formula for toe-tapping music but in the end leaves the listener unsatisfied.

The first track, “Falling Out of Trees,” starts strong but by the end feels like a closing track without a climax. This same phenomenon haunts them throughout the record. The best example of this is “First Floor People” where the song builds and builds (sigh, a string section, can’t you save that for your sophomore record, you maximalists?) but never really breaks (see: Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie). The album closes with “Please Don’t Go” which basically treads the same ground, building but never leaving me wanting to get up and get into it.

This record scrambles through a sea of ambient guitars and rhythmic piano – with a touch of very nice melodic writing – searching for its real “ah-ha!” moment but never really finding a clean route to the top. Sadly the parts that are particularly sharp, like the soft wailing guitar behind the textural keyboard part in “It’s About Time” or the terribly catchy verse in “Lesser Things,” are bookended by forced choruses or breaks with all the drama of an indie art film and none of the pith.

Don’t get me wrong, “Lesser Things” has a strong chance of getting some radio play and “Colors” is a nice track (although I likely say that having enjoyed Gin Blossoms as a kid) that woke me up from the meandering in the middle of this record, but it seems like musicians with some chemistry and a vocalist with a voice perhaps too Chris Martin at times (this band will certainly get its share of comparisons there, as well as to Maroon 5) decided to make this very pop radio friendly. The concepts could be presented as sharply as Jump Little Children but instead the points of light are covered by a blanket of parts that could be as easily delivered by Kelly Clarkson.

Ultimately I would tell you to avoid this record and maybe just check out an MP3, or a better version of the band, but chances are you’ll hear them anyway, thrown in with the faceless army of packaged groups without faces, groping for their “Yellow.”

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