Artist: In Praise of Folly
Album: Means/Ends
Label: Lujo Records
Tracks: 13
Length: 43:21

The voice is the instrument that the Good Lord blessed everyone with. It is also the most versatile of instruments. There has always been something about the voice on an album that can make it or break it. Particularly on indie rock albums a sub-par vocal effort can condemn an album to the job of gathering dust on a forgotten shelf.

So it is no surprise then that the dual vocals on “Beliefs Otherwise” excited me. A full album of that crack of energy along with the vocal fencing abilities displayed would constantly be in demand of my cd player. For better or worse, however, In Praise of Folly does many different things, and this constant juggling of musical personas means that “Beliefs Otherwise” is more of an anomaly than a standard.

The rest of the vocals are fair. They have their ups and downs, but it is on songs like “Afluenza” where they are at their worst. When a song slows down and become just a simply strummed acoustic ballad where the vocals have to carry momentum it just doesn’t work.

If their cd was to be split in two, however, there would be the electric songs and the acoustic songs. On a fairly consistent basis the electric output is interesting and worth hearing. When they do the slower, acoustic songs it sounds too much like they’re trying too hard. On this track they want to be Andrew Bird, on that track Bright Eyes.

Considering how many uninteresting singers are popular among the indie rock faithful, it is likely that many readers will appreciate this album. However, for the acoustic stuff I think I’ll stick to other artists like Andrew Bird.