The Coloursound – Reclaim (Lazyeye Records) ****

The great thing about reviewing music is that I get to hear a lot of bands that normally might not make it onto my radar otherwise. There is so much music out there that it is difficult to hear everything. Add to that, the fact that there is so much out there that doesn’t even deserve an initial listen let alone multiple plays and what you have is music overload. What I’m getting at here is that once in a while I get a disk that manages to strike a chord with me and makes me realize that there are in fact some gems out there. You just have to sift through a lot of dirt to find that diamond. New York’s The Coloursound is just one of those bands. I received their latest CD Reclaim and although it only contains 6 tracks, it has managed to stay in my playlist since I received it.

The Coloursound is one of those bands that takes bits and pieces from other styles and tries to make it their own. Some might say that their sound isn’t very original (and I might agree to some point) but my argument to that would be “what has been original in the last 10 years?” Isn’t it enough to just be entertaining? Reclaim is just that; good, solid musical entertainment. The album (or E.P. if you like, since it is short) opener Slowdown is really infectious and has a great alt-rock/pop mix. It also has a little bit of The Beatles thrown in for good measure. How could you possibly go wrong with that? In fact, the whole disk is filled with this type of style and each track has its own distinctive hook. If I had one complaint about Reclaim, it would be to make a slight change in the song order. The title track is the last song on the album and I would have put it in the middle. It’s a mellower tune and I think it would have flowed better in the middle instead of the end. That minor quibble aside, I like this disk from start to finish. Maybe sometimes less is more. They only put 6 songs on it but all 6 are winners.

Greg Olma