Wooden Shjips - Dos

Man, oh man. This album should be good. It looks cool. The guys playing the music look cool. The name is suitably non-committal to suggest they don't crave audience by association - that's cool. Not to mention the accompanying press spewing forth high praise from some of the biggest names in modern media hyperbole.

Pretty disappointing, then, when it emerges as five mildly interesting exercises in some kind of hybrid between psychedelic stoner and Krautrock - sort of a wasted BRMC half-heartedly covering Joy Division. It's decent enough music but is just too cool for school.

Some nice guitar licks stave off abject boredom, yet the overall impression is one of a side project - a practice-room jam extrapolated to the nth degree via press hype, hippy mystique and a few pairs of shades. It's background music played between bands at a gig, encouraging loud chatter until someone with some fresh ideas actually comes on stage.