Herd of Mers

"Aurora Caught Napping" CD

It's Twilight Time

Genre: pop / rock

June 23 2008

Recalling the grungy fem-fronted of rock of Bettie Serveert and The Breeders, married duo Karen and John Orsi have put together Aurora Caught Napping, an eight-song disc that has its moments but ultimately falls flat. The album's best asset is its guitar melodies, which are often quite compelling, but Karen Orsi's incredibly Serveert-esque vocals don't supply enough hooks to keep this album rolling. Combined with the homogeneity of the songwriting, there isn't much here to keep the listener engaged. Nothing is particularly awful, but none of the songs really grab the attention and run with it - "Keep" might be the closest, but its delightfully topsy-turvy melody can only do so much for this record. As it stands, Herd of Mers will need to change things up for their next record, because I can't imagine anyone other than family friends spinning this disc more than once.

herd of mers' myspace

58%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 8 tracks, distributed by the band, released 2008]