Madasun (named after last year's eclipse "mad as the sun". I know, I know, I didn't get it either) are a bundle of contradictions. Or at least they'd like to be.
Are they singing dollybirds, or rockin' guitar grrls? Pop or soul? Manufactured or authentic? Unfortunately, while Madasun may try to straddle the gap between the Spice Girls - pretty vocals, easy on the eye - and their harder-edged, more musically credible sisters (umm, the Bangles?), they tend to end up falling between two stools. Which, let's face it, is as undesirable as it sounds.
The girls' debut album starts off well with 'Don't You Worry', which is easily the album's stand-out track. It's reminiscent of Alanis Morissette's 'You Oughta Know', in that the moody backing and bitchy revenge vocals give it a universal appeal, regardless of your taste.
Next track 'Walking On Water' is a pleasant enough "ode to positivity" according to the press release. But by the third hearing, it sounds like a definite taster of the decline to come. It really is all downhill from there on, with only 'Fine Line' and 'Sunday Morning' being anything other than instantly forgettable.
The title track is obviously intended as a showcase for singer Vicky's vocal talent's, but the arrangement and lyrics ("You don't hold me any more/we don't go dancing in the dark) are so mundane that the track passes before you even realise that Vicky's been singing her heart out for five minutes.
And while her voice is plenty good enough for most of Madasun's songs, it's really not fair to expose it to the scrutiny that a stripped-down piano track entails.
It's difficult to imagine who will buy 'The Way It Is'. Madasun's record company need to give the girls some kind of high-profile image soon, 'cos there's no way the music alone's going to sell this record. The brooding vocals and edgy guitars of 'Don't You Worry' aren't replicated anywhere else on the album, and all the other tracks merge into one poppy, souly, rocky blur. Tinnitus would make a more memorable impact on the ears.
