MOLESKIN - Voluntary Inventory (Of Not A Very Nice Everyday Life)

Moleskin - Voluntary Inventory (Of Not A Very Nice Everyday Life)

11 songs
41:40 minutes
****
Evergreen

Bandpage

If there is one thing I really hate, it’s writing an unfavourable review of a young band’s music. Unfortunately Moleskin hardly give me a choice. Maybe I can feel better once I remind myself of the fact that they have been found already in 2004 and released their first EP Generator three years later.

Voluntary Inventory (Of Not A Very Nice Everyday Life) doesn’t even start so bad, and even though the opener Back To Ashes and the following Unclear lack any originality, the upbeat nature of their hybrid rock still comes across disarmingly charming. Moleskin seem to have a lot of influences, from Seventies rock bands (Led Zeppelin) to the Nineties grunge (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) and stoner (QOTSA) hypes. This in itself would be all very good, but the band is unable to find their own sound, instead switching between their different styles without ever finding a consensus somewhere in the middle. Things can get really bad with the vocalist whose performance on the ballad My Resurrection hits more wrong than right notes, especially in the higher registers. Another problem is how they shamelessly steal parts from popular songs, so that at times you believe hearing Tom Morello’s guitar, the intro to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck or even some early Guns N' Roses guitar melody. Such a behaviour is even not excusable for an aspiring high school rock band, and even less so for a band which has been around for six years.

Until a couple of years ago, French music has had a really nasty reputation outside their hexagonal country, but recently there have been enough ambassadors of rock (Noir Désir, Phoenix, Gojira and many lesser known bands) to prove the rest of the world wrong. If Moleskin want to reach out to a bigger audience, they would first have to send their singer to a vocal coach, or just hire a new one, and then start working to find a signature sound.

If you still feel like checking out Voluntary Inventory, you can start by becoming a Facebook fan of Moleskin which will allow you to download the album for free. This generous act of generosity is of course laudable but also helps especially debuting bands to get their music out into the world.

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