Tyro
Audiocards (Mute 9133)

If "Happiness is a Warm Gun" had been the biggest single of the 60s, Tyro is what Blondie would have sounded like. Jagged guitars, angular melodies, bloopy synths, and frost-girl vocals combine for an unrelenting round of merry-go-round nausea.

Which isn't always a bad thing, but in a few spots, you can tell that this band is capable of writing excellent pop – they just won't. That sort of willful weirdness is what indiepop folks like to think of as "integrity," but I just think of as "stupidity." Enjoy life in your monophonic ghetto, Tyro.

Audiocards is hardly bad, but it's not particularly good, except the almost-brilliant "Over the Moon." Too much of it sounds like a high school band infatuated with late-80s Yes.

As with way too many creative people I know, this band spends most of its time refusing to live up to its potential. Sure, everyone's a genius. Well you know what, anymore? Fuckin' prove it!

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Marilyn Quarters