Credit: Ben Breier

It’s bands like The Sharking that make me wish people would use their creative talent in music more often.

The sounds of this new band are the product of Mark McGrath’s vocals, and any basic West Coast rock band. The irony of this is: The Sharking is from Boston.

The album turns out upbeat tunes, but nothing crazy. It’s just a basic drum, bass, guitar and vocal orientation.

The good aspect about this simple orientation is that it sounds solid, and not sloppy at all.

The bad aspect about the simple sound is just that – it’s simple.

Basically, I wasn’t impressed.

The Sharking, especially the singer, sounds similar to Sugar Ray, so I’ll have to give them some credit for that.

I have a wonderful memory of my first concert, Sugar Ray, complete with sexy Mark McGrath singing and sweating on stage, so any song that reminds me of that gets some thanks.

It’s one of those albums where you go, “Well – I like it, but it’s kind of plain.”

When I turned off the album, it did not stick in my head. I guess it wasn’t that catchy.

The beginning of the song “Listen Up” sounds scarily similar to The Kinks “You Really Got Me,” (you know the lyrics, “Girl, you really got me now”).

I actually thought I was hearing a Nissan commercial it sounded so much the same. After the sampled intro, the song sinks into a ska/pop combination of tunes.

The songs have a few dramatic pauses in them, which always add excitement to any song. However, nothing cool happens to break the pause.

The music always goes back to the same beat.

When it seems like it is going to get exciting, it just sinks right back into the same beat that is in any popular song.

Honestly, I think the drummer probably got bored playing these songs.

If you get this album for free, take a listen, but if you have to pay for it, save your money.

– Erika Kreider