A new CD arrived in the journalism room, ready for review and criticism from one of the writers on staff.

I’m not sure why it was handed to me out of everyone in the room. Maybe it’s because, compared to others, I’m not a harsh critic. All I can say is that any other writer would rip this new band apart. To me, Shirock isn’t that bad;  but they’re also nothing special.

One of the first criticisms I have toward this band is that the two vocalists are married. Marriage between members of a band is just a recipe for disaster. What if they divorced? The band might not last if that were to happen.

But of course, considering the two vocalists are married, this album was full of hopeful love ballads. This also irked me. While I don’t mind love songs in general, an album full of them can get drastically boring. So they can rhyme the words “while” and “smile.” Great, what else? If an album is going to be about love, at least involve breakup songs, in between the “head over heels” type of ballads. I honestly could not tell the difference between songs “New Solution,” “Still Young,” and “I’ll Take Rain.”

My final, though smallest, complaint about the band was their originality, or the lack thereof. Many bands in the past  few years or so lacked originality either lyrically or musically, and Shirock is no exception. The whole time I listened to their album, I couldn’t tell if they were trying to be like The Killers with their upbeat guitars and peppy drums, or like Shiny Toy Guns with their male and female duets. And I’m not just comparing them to these bands in reference. The vocalists sound extremely similar to those of Shiny Toy Guns, and the instrumentalists sound like they could be members of The Killers.

Though I mostly had negative criticisms towards this band, I have to say they aren’t that bad compared to other bands out there. There could be worse, and there has been worse.

In any case, Shirock is probably one of those bands whose album is just good for a spin during a long drive home… and nothing after.