On the Record: The Zutons

Artist : The Zutons
Album : Who Killed...the Zutons (Sony Music)

After the legacies of all pop music past have been mined and exhausted, Brit-pop these days seems worn out.

Every band dubbed the "next big thing" is unrefreshing, if not dull. Every outfit that emerges from the scene hardly breaks any ground and the tunes they carry is a variation from the Rolling Stones, the Beatles or the Clash.

Need proof? Last year's Franz Ferdinand debut was barely palatable by year's end. The Zutons' debut album, Who Killed...the Zutons, will likely face the same fate.

It is not that bad, but after listening to it several times, anyone will get the impression that this group will not last very long, like the one-hit-wonders the filled the charts in the 1980s. Aside from hardcore fans, no one will bother to buy this album two years from now.

The Liverpudlian quintet's half-hearted effort to mix jazz, funk, country and soul leaves us guessing as to where these lads are leading us.

The sleek production holds back all sonic arrangements and leaves a yawning vacuum only to be filled by David McCabe's crooning -- and it's no wonder that the Zutons shine the brightest only in the countrified Railroad and the folk-ish Not A Lot To Do. Although another key track would the self-parodying Zuton Fever.

As for the rest, they are just fuzzy. And not in the cute, pop-y, cuddly way. -- M. Taufiqurrahman