6, the appropriately titled sixth album by Providence, RI's Barnacled, starts off well enough. The lilting "Cloud Pump" alternates between cartoon-ish whimsy and full-throttle vamping, with little room for complaint. The group, an amalgam of electronics, saxophones, guitars, percussion, and an accordion, soon move to territory less becoming, with a short interlude and the disc's third track, the languid "Sea Hag," a slowly rolling track that hints at Mediterranean melodies and Eastern European sensibilities. This isn't so hard to take, but as 6 continues, there's little of what makes the disc's opener so fun, though "Garbage And (Garbage And Fire)" entertains with some of the same verve. Barnacled seem to favor a composition-by-committee approach that features tunes penned by each of the group's members, and this may account for some of the album's "purveyor of many tasks, master of none" feel, as the group try their hand at various jazz forms, noisy freak-outs, and an almost vaudevillian romps. It's when their at their most rollicking that Barnacled are at their best, but even the sheer explosive energy of "France Attacks" feels a bit flat at times. The six interludes that separate the tracks on the album, "Why Have You Forsaken Me, Colonel Klink? (A-F)," don't show the group in their best light, and, unfortunately, seem little more than speed bumps between the discs longer tracks. 6 contains an interesting mix of NRG-inspired riffage and what could easily be classic film scoring, but doesn't muster the molten force of the former or pathos of the best of the latter often enough to make it totally solid in either regard. Not a worthless effort, by any means, but 6 fails to live up to the promise that its best moments expound. I must say that I have a feeling that Barnacled's live show, however, may very well be well worth catching.
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