The Soft Pack -The Soft Pack [7.0]

Rating: 7.0

On their self-titled debut, The Soft Pack, who hail from the sunny state of California, don't sound like they have much to be glowing about.

But that's part of their plan. Yeah?

Through and through, the album is grungy, rabid, and more indicative of a band that knows its way around a garage pretty darn well. Words are wailed, as though thrown up like fists to authority, and the music's chucked out, quick and dirty, like an unforgiving insult. Lo-fi garage-rock is the oil that drives The Soft Pack (formerly called The Muslims; you can see why they changed their name), and they channel their genre forefathers with a precision that's almost suspect.

Tracks like "Pull Out!" and "C'mon" are propelling and punchy — there's no sleeping through them. The aggression, the crunch of the guitars, is seriously contagious; one can only imagine that singing along to such songs would probably feel like being at the front lines of a protest. And in instances like these, you see the true appeal of this San Diego group: they see the prize, they go after it, no if's, and's or but's. A sound so rattling, is a bit endearing...cute, even. At the very least, it's stimulating for the average angst-filled listener or the kid who just wants to rock out to two minutes of noisy yelping.

However, the record has another side to it. When The Soft Pack find themselves a little less inspired, it shows. A few of the songs, like "More or Less" and "Answer to Yourself," feature pretty monotonous vocals. Although the tracks are catchy in the melodic sense, there's some important depth lost when the lyrics are sung so nonchalantly. There are also certainly moments when chord-rehashing gets tiresome, and each track fades into the next without much thought given to variety. The debut's low points are when it feels like it hasn't much need for urgency.

When there's a fire, the band's hot. Other times, it's just smoke.

-M.Geslani

Record Label: Kemado
Release Date: February 2, 2010