Spotlight Kid - 'Departure' (Club AC30) Released 25/09/06

There is a fine line and a big difference between heavy music and noise. Unfortunately Spotlight Kid seem to have put themselves on the wrong side of that line with their debut album 'Departure'.

Formed in 2005, Spotlight Kid are friends Chris Davis and Katty Heath. Davis used to be part of band Six By Seven, and started writing his own material after the band parted ways. After a while, friend Heath, whose commitments with her band Bent had been fulfilled, agreed to join him in recording an album. Apparently Davis knew all along how he wanted the album to turn out, but it would be great to know what his exact aims were; this is a very blurry album. It is wish-washey and noisy at the same time, and most definitely bland and repetitive. The same musical ideas repeat throughout the album, there is very little change in tempo and what lyrics there are aren’t defined enough to make tracks stand out. On top of this the production is very poor; the guitars tend to drown out every other sound anyway. So underneath that layer of sound there could hidden be musical genius, but you just wouldn’t know.

For example the guitars drown out most of Katty’s vocals, which are few and far between in themselves, and also musically repetitive. The fact that the heavy guitars drown her out makes it extremely hard to make out what she’s singing, and has the result of making them sound very whiney and annoying. In terms of comparisons, this is a bit like Deftones without the guts. If you like the more instrumental Deftones tracks, such as Passenger' on 'White Pony', there is a chance that this album might work for you as driving or background music. Everyone else should bypass this album however. There is nothing to be seen here.