Play Louder
2007
Voxtrot
About This Album
Voxtrot's eponymous debut LP doesn't quite match the frenetic energy and unencumbered potential of their previous EPs, although it still shows a band with a clever knack for memorable hooks and a musical maturity that belies their relative inexperience. The immediate difference between Voxtrot and their Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives, Your Biggest Fan, and Raised by Wolves EPs is the ill-advised string section, which turns Ramesh Srivastava's already hopelessly cornball (although still endearing) lyrics into the utterly maudlin and at times gag-worthy. His already pronoun-heavy lyrics are meant to engage the listener with a sense of universality, but "Real Life Version" -- featuring only a piano and the aforementioned string section -- is so schmaltzy it wouldn't look out of place on a Dan Fogelberg record, or the big kiss scene of a romantic comedy film. Therein lies the rub with Voxtrot; as frequently as Srivastava's lyrics can annoy, he's still a unique songwriter in today's emotionally reticent indie landscape, so whenever the band hits their stride the results are tremendously lively and refreshing. Most of these marks are hit on the first seven songs.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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