Foreign Elfest
"Blue Dirt / Red Carpet" CD
self-released
Genre: indie pop, pop / rock
May 2007 |
The problem with Foreign Elfest is the
vocals - Benj Hochfelder's voice is uninteresting and
monotonous, and it doesn't blend with the mix. There's a lack
of cohesion between the singing and the instruments. Put simply, he's
constantly out of tune with the rest of the band. These songs have
interesting lyrics and do show compositional skill ("Jumble o' Mea
Culpa," for example, has a nice guitar line but falls apart once the
voice hits) - but the vocals really ruin it all. Even backup singer
Anna Schmidt, though a bit better than Benj in terms of
tunefulness, has a warbly singing style that does her no favours. You
won't be able to listen to this from start to finish, let alone more
than once. mp3s (from foreignelfest.com):
carbon chemist
magic on blue dirt or red carpet,
violet-haired hooded candle
35%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 11 tracks, distributed by
CD Baby,
released Mar 8 2007] |
