Godyva
In Good and Evil
6.7
Female singers with decent voices seem to gravitate toward bands and music that sounded much better when A Perfect Circle put out their first record six years ago. Maybe they always did, but I sure have heard an assload of the same shit since then. Not that this makes a bad record, but it doesn't inspire me much. It's not particularly exciting, and because it's a two trick pony, the similarities between acts tend to crush the differences into non existence.
Godyva delivers simplified hard alterno/rock style music with some keys and electronica upon which the vocalist lays some rather good clean vocal performances. The voice has a husky flair and timing that many female clean vocalists don't possess, but the music underneath is too pedestrian for me to care much. Frankly I have heard this too many times to get worked up.
The production is a tad gutless, but not completely devoid of heaviness. The musicianship is average for this type of music. Shredding is not an issue: simple rhythm and punctuation being prevalent. The melodies are what matter.
Bottom line: If you have to have another female fronted gothrock suicide note writing rock band in your collection, this is a decent grab. Some of this material is moodily catchy and it's all professionally done. But if the band wants to climb out of the "just another" hole, the band backing the vocalist needs to really explore their songwriting and offer the listener something more than warmed over Perfect Circle. The music needs an identity of its own. I would definitely like to hear that record.
