Wakey! Wakey! // Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said the Last Time I Saw You

Terrible band name. Brilliant album name. This is a group headed up by a tall man with a beard called Michael Grubbs, who grew up in Brooklyn and worked in touring musicals before starting to make his own. He chummed up with a guy who worked on One Tree Hill and got his tunes on there as well as getting a small role on that very same “it’s-no-OC” show. This collection of 13 tracks, with titles such as Feral Love and Dance So Good, are kind of what Americans think Indie is nowadays. Basically it’s Coldplay meets Keane meets John Barrowman, in a crazy melange of love songs directed in a rather insincere fashion. Nothing that hasn’t been heard before, it’s just all a bit overdone and showy, despite the fact that this Grubbs fellow obviously has some skill as a musician. It’s a pity he didn’t keep it simpler and more real. Dull, I’m afraid.

4/10 Lizz