Recovery Council: Plan-Do-Check-Act

With touches of Lemonheads, a less aggressive Buffalo Tom, or a calmed down Nirvana, Rebeca Qualls under the guise of Recovery Council, returns to rock us with her love of Scientific Systems Engineering. Or at least that's what she's telling us. Somehow the lovely Rebeca thinks her grunge-lite, lo-fi, jingle jangle has a lot in common with her profession in science and having absolutely no idea how one scientifically engineers systems, who am I to argue...? Musically however this is plain fare, served up honestly and with verve. Although not quite enough of the latter to raise Plan-Do-Check-Act above the sort of hum along ho-hum that neither offends nor excites.

Vocally Qualls possesses an interesting drawl that certainly draws you in and has a cool melodic quality that suits its surroundings without having any great range or variance. Actually that kind of sums up P-D-C-A neatly as this album is never bad, never boring and individually each song has enough about it to suggest that with a little honing and the odd change of attack, Recovery Council could be on to something. Although whatever that thing may be never quite becomes clear as the guitars drone and drone and the drums keep the simple stuff extremely simple indeed. It's hard to criticise, this I would guess is exactly the vibe aimed for, with basically no aggression, bite, or indeed obvious enthusiasm oozing out of songs like "Always Sunny", "Pushover" or "Resolve", which, if you're not careful, all come and go without you ever really noticing.

I'm not quite sure which process in the list of Plan-Do-Check-Act was skipped on this album, but at some point the excitement control needs to be cranked up quite severely. Otherwise Recovery Council could find themselves under scrutiny from the body from which they take their name...

Track Listing
1. Bromide
2. Pushover
3. Outclassed
4. Resolve
5. Reform
6. Recourse
7. Always Sunny

Added: February 1st 2013
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Dot Ultra Records
Hits: 1897
Language: english

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