The “London-based” rockers Vega4 begin their CD “You and Others,” with “You and Me.”
“You and Me” begins as an almost promising first track to hook the listener into their British pop rock music, a hit in today’s popular music scene.
“You and Others” carries the same mood and spirit throughout, with less-than-creative tempos and drumming.
The songs run together in such a way that the listener is easily trapped in the band’s linear sound.
Garret “Jacknife” Lee who also has produced U2, Bloc Party, and Snow Patrol produced “You and Others.”
Vega4 does not compare to legendary U2, but their sound is suspect of an obvious producer influence.
Expect to read the lyric book and to begin a lyrics analysis on Vega4’s lyrics.
“If a train crashed into our garden, would we notice the noise? Would it make us sit up and turn off the TV?”
Lyrics such as these seem designed to confuse the listener. The song “Traffic Jam,” begins with these lyrics, but continues with lyrics which seem completely unrelated to the rest of the song.
The names of the songs throughout the CD such as “You,” “Bullets” and “Paper Cuts” are unimaginative and lack depth.
The content of the songs better draw in the listener because the names of the tracks are certainly not strong enough.
Vega4’s claim to fame is their song “Life is Beautiful,” which was featured on “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “One Tree Hill.”
“Life is Beautiful,” all 6 minutes and 16 seconds of it, isn’t the band’s strongest song, but the heartbroken, clichéd life-is-over lyrics are perfect for the tone of the ABC and WB’s (The CW) drama series.
Track 5, “You,” is their best song.
The melody in the verses carries the song nicely into the chorus, which then leads into an overdriven guitar solo breaking the characteristic of the song, creating a nice bridge, leading back into the chorus.
The CD finishes with “Boomerang,” a less than climatic track, unless the droning tempo, and the lyrics: “Turn on all the lights, Make it louder, Shock this heart to life, burst it open,” spark a fire in the imagination of the listener.
The CD’s artwork is just as boring as the tempos of the songs.
A collection of photos taken in a forest where the trees have no leaves on them is on the CD jacket.
Inside, grey backgrounds where the lyrics reside include more pictures of trees with tape wrapped around them.
The center of the CD jacket is a picture of the dark forest, but tape has been placed on the trees to spell out “You and Others.”
This is quite dramatic, since the last picture is of the tape having been torn down and placed in the same effect of a high school “TP-ing” of a friend’s house.
“You and Others” is available on iTunes, and available as Mp3 downloads for five dollars on the band’s official Web site.
For more information visit www.myspace.com/vega4 or www.vega4.com.
Dustin Smith can be reached at dsmith9@ulv.edu.
