Over recent years indie-rock has been called a lot of things: uninspired, tired, a rotting corpse. Then, every once in a while, an indie-rock band tweaks the formula just enough to get people interested again. Well, Egon aren't that band, and while no one should apply any kind of Darwinian survival of the fittest model to music, they wouldn't last long on the Galapogos Islands.
Phonetic Disasters kicks off with a galloping number entitled "Good Cognition." A rolling drumbeat is followed by a slightly discordant chord pattern and affected ho-hum vocals. Hardly worth getting excited about. Egon's problem isn't that they aren't original, it's that they seem stuck in a rut, unable to commit strongly to anything. Take the lyrics, for example; most listeners are unlikely to have anything other than an apathetic response towards lyrics such as "You should have thought about it with your head/Allowed all your emotions now it's through/Now I can't but want to/I'm programmed to want to." While this sort of directness works at times, a full album of it doesn't. The more compelling lyrics mostly sound awkward. The two token instrumental numbers are just that, the token instrumental songs.
The songs on Phonetic Disasters would likely translate better in a live setting. But, I'll give credit where it's due, tracks such as "Self-Avoidance" may grow on you, and Phonetic Disasters is a pretty cohesive beast. I guess it all depends on what you want; if you are out for some pleasant, background indie music, look here, if what you require is imagination and inspiration, look elsewhere.
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