Papercuts
May 27, 2009
I can’t say I quite like it, this album by Papercuts. “You Can Have What You Want” but I will say this in it’s favor, it does everything it sets out to do very well. It’s just the dynamics, the niches of this album, they kind of bore me. Several things spurn my boredom. The emphasis on synths, I love synths. They have a naturally warm feeling and they’re incredibly versatile, synths can be integrated into most kinds of music through modification.. But the use of synth washes, where the synth covers the track’s other instruments, put very high in the mix.. it’s prelevant in a fair amount of indie, Interpol to name one does this a lot. They do it well though.. Papercuts uses it in a rather uninspired fashion. I guess that would sum up my thoughts about the entire album. I think it’s uninspired. Insincere even.
Points:
I can’t think of anything that inspired me about this album, the vocal dynamic is the closest thing that came to impressing me though. Even under all the warm synthetic layers, the vocalist sounds rather clear. Nice trick, strong voice she’s got. Even with that, the music just doesn’t let her do anything with her voice. She follows the beats to the point of painful predictability. Chorus, verse, etc. Where’s the sense of adventure here?
Pop music is really hard to nail, and I see talent and potential in Papercuts, it’s just they seem to be getting their footing as a band at the moment. As a band, they have a good dynamic, they play off each other well ( within the restraints of cliché ) but regardless, that’s an excellent quality to have in a band. I’m disappointed because I can hear that these guys can do a lot more than what they’re doing here.
Ultimately, “You Can Have What You Want” is enjoyed best if you aren’t expecting anything but competent. It’s not going to re-invent the wheel, but it’s not going to try to do that either. Even after an initial listen though.. Papercuts seems to be capable of doing bigger, bolder things. Once they do that I’ll be behind them 100%, until then.. eh.
