Colouratura: WTF Was That?!

This is a tough album to review. There are several songs that I like, and several that I don’t. I almost always listen to CDs in full and rarely use the skip function on my player. Not with this one.

Colouratura is a three-piece, Ohio-based band. All the members (Ian Beabout, Nathan James, and Derek Pavlic) are multi-instrumentalists. I don’t know how to classify their music. They call themselves “an art-rock trio� on their Bandcamp page. I suppose that’s fair. They have elements of prog, elements of “alternative rock,� and elements of pop. In short, you don’t really know what to expect from one song to the next. With one exception: the music is consistently interesting, though sometimes it seems a bit eclectic in an almost contrived way. The use of wind instruments adds a lot to many of the songs. The same with Mellotron on a few others.

The vocals are the downside to the album. From the liner notes, I take it that James is the primary lead vocalist. At times, I don’t mind him. He can be a little Zappa-esque, which is fine by me. But at other times, he sounds like a guy who would have fit well on your average Sub Pop release from the 1990s. No thanks.

The album was recently remixed and released on vinyl and digitally. I listened to it online. I can’t tell much of a difference in sound from the CD version. The biggest change is that my favorite song on the album, the largely instrumental “Sleeping Giant,� has been shortened from about nine minutes to a little more than five minutes to fit the vinyl format. That was a mistake. They would have been better off cutting one of the other tracks.

I can’t recommend this album. But I also can’t say to avoid it. I got enjoyment from about half of it, and it might float your boat.

Track Listing
1. WTF Was That?! (1:47)
2. Toy Soldiers (3:50)
3. Flim-Flam Man (5:21)
4. Side Hustle (2:36)
5. Lousy Smarch Weather (4:24)
6. Away (4:35)
7. Palace of Blood (5:47)
8. SIMR (3:19)
9. Sleeping Giant (8:48)
10. The LSD No-No (5:06)
11. Mothman (6:14)

Added: August 29th 2024
Reviewer: Aaron Steelman
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 295
Language: english

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