(Valve)

Championing mediocrity

Amp On Fire takes the sweetness of pop and repeats it ad nauseam. Sophisticated structure is jettisoned in favour of long passages that have little in the way of meaningful changes or interesting dynamics. Double-time drums and agile, searching guitar riffs belie sprawling, haphazard song construction. For while the instrumentation is aurally pleasing – very much so, in fact – the songwriting fails to be either beguiling or revelatory. It presents the vacuousness of pop without the cleverness, and the annoying antagonism of post-punk without the deconstruction. Sera Mucha’s repetitive, oddly-rhythmic vocals sound as though she is trying to rap sweetly, but doesn’t know many words that rhyme. Blue is a more concise song, and better for it; while Audrey floats along nicely with a minimal amount of treatment. It proves the band aren’t all bad, but they really need to look at their source material a bit more closely. Do The Robot seem to be extolling all the mediocre themes of alternative and popular music, while inadvertently packaging them far better than they deserve.

JAKEB SMITH

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