Ampline
“The Choir”
(Tiberius Records)
It took me five minutes of waiting for some vocals to appear until I realized this is an instrumental album. I’m embarrassed. Apparently Ampline couldn’t find anyone they liked enough to take the vocal reigns of the outfit, which is too bad because everything about them seems to scream, “we’re a rock band with big hair and a darkly sexy lead singer!” They sound like a cross between STPs’ guitar driven rock and Primus’ bassaliciousness. Only without a singer, which bums me out because I like to write reviews about lyrics because lyrics are hard to write.
Not that playing music is easy. I mean, the power chords that Jeff Albers plays on this eight-track, forty-five minute album seem pretty well executed. It’s not like he’s blowing me away with any Hendrix action or anything like that, but it’s still pretty clean and the riffs and hooks flow together nicely. Still, it would be nice to have some lyrics to spice things up a bit. Call me crazy or picky or whatever, but isn’t it a little sardonic to title your album “The Choir” when there’s no singing? I suppose the irony is lovely, but the rocking reaches such a fevered pitch that I wish someone would throw in a few “yeah, yeah, yeahs” and really blow the lid off this mutha, nahsayin’? Word.
