CTRL - Fragmentary Moments

Alright, let's get started. CTRL is a band that debuted in 1998, and have been making music oriented around synthpop ever since, and listening to them is like traveling in a time machine. They definitely have influence from the 70's scene considering the synthpop genre, and this works for the most part, but I do have complaints as usual. What do you expect? I'm a critic. I have to say what's good and what's bad.

Now, 14 years later since the start up of their career, they release 'Fragmentary Moments', a full length release that's not too bad, nor too good. It kind of just settles squat right in the middle. And what I mean by that is, yes, CTRL does what they do best, which is make more synthpop, but they really just don't push the album that extra mile to make it even better.

What's good is that the actual tunes to the tracks are decent. Not anything especially great that makes me flip shit, but still good. They do a swell job of catching my attention at the beginning of the album with "Falling Stars", as it's a very synth oriented track, and remains pleasant to say the least throughout.

But then each track afterwards kind of just doesn't do much for me. They are decent tracks, all with nice beats and the such, with the main focus on the synths sometimes accompanied by simple drums or guitar work, such as in "Rising Now" and "Faltering". But, as I said, it just doesn't really do much more to improve from the beginning.

And I also have a qualm about the vocals. Sometimes, it just sounds as if whoever may be singing, be it Brad MacAllister or any of the other two vocalists, try and make themselves too nasally. I suppose it sort of is a trademark within 70's inspired music, but I just don't like it. Not one bit.

So, what we have here is a simple album, albeit a decent one, that rises in the beginning but just refuses to go any further than that. I mean, some songs sound really promising in the beginning, such as The Moment, but eventually fall through. I can't say they aren't incomplete songs, because they simply aren't, but I suppose that they could have just used a little more juice to them. If there was a bit more meat to the songs, I could probably see this album being ten times better, but that's not the case. The meat just isn't there, and what we're left with is an already gnawed on chicken wing. And no one likes sloppy seconds. Feb 24 2013