Machine Rox - Driven

Machine Rox is back and this is my third review of this one man band that actually became a duo with this release. Richard managed get hold of the female singer Aga and I was a bit curious of how things would evolve.

First off all, the advantages and disadvantages from the two earlier releases are still present. Machine Rox still have great melodies, but the vocals still sound canned and a little pushed back into the background. Seems like I say this all the time, but I want the music to be support to the vocals, not have the vocals part of the music so it all blurs together.

How about the new female singer then? She does her best job when she's the backup singer on the refrains like in "In My Head", "Lose it" and "What You See" which is also the best track on the EP. It does not work at all when she is all alone like in the track "Made of Rock". She sounds so unmotivated and soulless? and pretty false every now and then as well. It works a bit better in "Fallen", but hints of the problems mentioned still shine through.

Still, we get three solid tracks and with some polish and a continuous work in this direction, I have my hopes up for the next EP release, you can be sure there will be one. Jun 30 2010