White Whale
Tusks’ debut EP exists in a grey area. It’s too quirky for the mainstream and too predictable for the indie set. It’s too competent to be written off entirely but too middling to warrant much attention. It lives in the murky region between bland and promising and in doing so ends up largely forgettable.
The album opens with “Mothers Vs. Sons” a slow piano-driven pop song that would fit in nicely with Wilco’s recent retreat from experimental music. Samir Khan’s vocals never provide much of a hook and the band’s tepid instrumentation treads too close to adult-contemporary nothingness for comfort. “The Grieving Game” provides the EP’s strongest moment with its churning keyboards and cooing backup vocals but even it sounds like a Sam Roberts castoff.
Things continue in a similar fashion throughout the remainder of the disc. The members of Tusks are all clearly talented and deliver their parts with measured professionalism but the EP lacks punch relegating it to the grey area between being a worthwhile listen and a completely skippable one.
