Album Review :
BadEnders - Driving

Artist: BadEnders
Album: Driving
Label: None (released independently)
Release Date: August 31, 2007
Review by: Eric Pettersson

Tracklist:
1. New and Improved
2. Possum
3. Masquerade
4. Don’t Tell
5. Cry for Help
6. Cold Feet
7. Drywater
8. The Lights

Indie/Rock/Experimental. Or so says MySpace. This four-piece out of Dallas, Texas, could be enjoyed by fans of such bands as The Appleseed Cast, Copeland, or Radiohead.  The vocals are spacey and can become ethereal when harmonized. The slower songs like “Possum” and “Don’t Tell” lace piano and acoustic guitars over the usual mildly distorted guitar. Upbeat tracks like “Masquerade” give variety to the record, keeping moderate fans of indie interested. For extreme fans of the chill side of indie, these might get skipped, but that doesn’t necessarily make the whole album worth skipping. Fancy guitar effects and electronic sounds coming from the keyboard give another flair to this newcomer to the scene, but what really sets them apart is the intriguingly different closer, “The Lights,” a song built almost entirely on haunting dual vocals, an equally haunting thin piano melody, and a steady drum, as if it were ripped right out of a dark 80s pop record (Tears for Fears, Petra, etc). This is the track that gets stuck in my head, although the driving flow of “Cry for Help” will get me rocking in that smooth indie kind of way.

7/10

MySpace