"Young & Professional" by The Siren Six!

I realize that this is going to be an unpopular opinion, especially to those people most likely to be reading this, but here it goes anyway. I really have to say that I think Built To Spill absolutely bite. Driving around for work today, I brought a few CD's knowing that I was going to get to listen to some tunes whilst wasting my time driving around southern Orange County. (Beautiful country. Just beautiful.) I brought along three CD's. The first was Built To Spill "Live".I've had this album for a year or two, but haven't really listened to it a whole lot. It was reaffirmed to me again as to just why that was. All during the album I just kept thinking, 'When did I slip Phish into the CD player?' With the exception of the vocals which have the required amount of whine and slight off-key-ness for that true indy cred, the music is drawn out and boring. The solos should have been called so-longs (ha), because they were so long that after about 2 ½ hours of listening I realized that I was still only on the 3rd track and all that I had to show for it was 2 ½ hours of wasted time and 12 solos that comprised most of those 3 songs. I kept listening though, searching for that ever-elusive melody. But, sneaky as melodies can be, it managed to elude me through the whole album. But enough about "Live", that's really not what I intended to talk about here.

After that, I threw in Built To Spill "There's Nothing Wrong With Love." I've had this album a bit longer and recall having been into it when I first got it. I even remember trying to get a few of my friends into it but they just shrugged it off and said that it wasn't their bag. 'I'll show them. I can be as hip as the next guy!' Well I have to tell you, if liking Built To Spill is one of the requirements for being as hip as the next guy, I'm afraid that I'm not cut out for the race. While "There's Nothing Wrong With Love" is quite a bit better than "Live", it's still pretty boring. The solos aren't near as long and there are a few melodies to be found here and there, but I just can't fight that close-but-no-cigar feeling I get when I listen to it. But "There's Nothing Wrong With Love" isn't really what I intended to talk about here either.

After my lengthy bout with Built To Spill, I spun a guaranteed winner, "Young & Professional" by The Siren Six! The opening track hooks you so hard that even if the rest of the seven song E.P. sucked, you would listen in the hope of catching a glimpse of that initial genius. Lucky for you, every track is a winner. I know that's bold, but deal with it. I'm not one to categorize music, or at least I'm not very good at it, but I almost get a feeling of early Police on some of the tunes. It may be the ska influence in the band, but I'm not sure that that's it. There's more urgency in these songs than the Police had, which keeps you moving right through the whole E.P. and when it starts over, you have no desire to do anything but listen to it again. I won't say that this music is "power-pop" but it definitely shares some elements with other bands that may be lumped into that category. The hooks are definitely there, the songs are all up-tempo tunes that keep you moving, and the singer is kind of cute (not that I'm into guys or anything). I'm not going to break down each of the individual songs or anything, I just really appreciated the feel that this CD had and I hope that one of the members of the band reads this someday. If you do, I want you to know that you put out one of the sleeper favorites in my collection. Sadly enough, I don't believe that this CD is available any longer. If you can find a copy of it, pick it up right away. I'll be honest with you, rarely do I shout out, "I want to listen to The Siren Six! today!" But when I do put it in, I always say to myself, 'Why don't I listen to this more often?" And that's one of the biggest compliments I know how to pay to music.