Emerging from the house that Hootie built, Breaking Records, comes Orlando-based rockers Virginwool and its freshman effort, Open Heart Surgery.
While the band doesn't "blow" as much as a majority of Orlando's musical sons, i.e. most of the boy bands inundating pop music, they aren't entirely good.
VirginWool
Open Heart Surgery
Atlantic/Breaking Records
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They're Matchbox 20 meets Hootie meets Bon Jovi meets sporadically sucky.
Virginwool has a strong pop sensibility, perhaps too strong, which radiates from Open Heart Surgery. Admittedly, some of the tracks have irresistible hooks that even the most discerning of listeners couldn't shun. "Nevermind Her Hips," "Climbing Boulders" and "Goodman Vibe" fit this bill to a tee, while another track, entitled "I Think Her Mother Loves Me," becomes cloying and agitating beneath its overly catchy riffs and so-called attempts at wit and humor.
The rest of Open Heart Surgery's tracks fall into the scorned lover, my girl wronged me, ill-fated love category, which, while I know as long as there's still heartbreak there will be musicians chronicling it in uninspired songs, it becomes a little tired.
Eight of the album's 12 songs follow this heartache motif; yet still retain their happy radio-friendly sound, and frankly, it perturbs this reviewer to no end. If a band's trying to convey sadness, loneliness and isolation, they should at least try to sound sad, lonely and isolated. Otherwise, the music comes across as conflicted and mildly stupid.
Lead singer Jordan Pouzzner is essentially Bono Lite, his voice sounding a tad bit too much like the U2 frontman's, just simply not as good. Fellow bandmates guitarist Gar Willard, drummer Brett Cook and bassist Adam Loewy are merely passable, not terrible but nothing entirely new or innovative, stock players in your prototypical modern rock/pop band.
While not as painful as the album's title might suggest, Open Heart Surgery is fairly mediocre through and through. Some might wish the band were still virgins to the record industry.
