Album: Matt & Kim / Grand

Artist: Matt & Kim

Title: Grand

Sold as upbeat boy/girl pop, I found this not exactly what I was expecting. Kim is clearly underdeployed — not until "Lessons Learned", the sixth track, do we hear her, and just some la-la-la's at that. More variety than Matt's mildly bleating vox would be an improvement. And I have no love for the canned production sound, a few tracks (such as "Cool Ol' Fashion Nightmare") reminding me of The Russian Futurists.

That said, the album isn't a write-off – there is certainly some catchy songwriting throughout (current fave: "Don't Slow Down", whose synths make it a bit of an idiot cousin to "Just Can't Get Enough") but all-in-all, a bit of a shrug of the shoulders.

Afterthought: It's not impossible that the tunes themselves are just growing on me a bit, but after listening to their recent Morning Becomes Eclectic session, I really do think there is some quality in the production of this album that irked me, as I found the radio session to be much more agreeable.

Track pick: 6 - "Don't Slow Down"