Hockey, the newest buzz band from Portland, Ore., make a compelling case that technology has made music an oversaturated medium. Although their name is far from Google-friendly, they seem to be relishing the Internet's ability to swarm them with new influences. As a result, their debut LP, Mind Chaos, is a muddled hodgepodge of styles that occasionally approaches brilliance but rarely achieves coherence.
Lead track and first single Too Fake"" is more or less a prototypical Hockey song: a tolerable verse leading straight into a powerful and infectious chorus without any sort of transition. Lyrically, ""Too Fake"" is a stretch, ostensibly satirizing groups that tailor their image and sound to a perceived market demand. But if the rest of their album is any evidence, they're also guilty of trying to cover too many bases and fail to hit home on any significant level.
What really sets Hockey apart from their electro-pop contemporaries is the onstage (er, onstereo) bravado of lead singer Ben Grubin. The most telling song on the album might be ""Wanna Be Black,"" because while most of the band seems to be taking cues from LCD Soundsystem and MGMT, Grubin can't seem to stop listening to David Ruffin (of the Temptations). Even when he's talking about his fixed-gear bicycle, Grubin is little more than an out-of-place Jamie Lidell.
And right after Grubin's exposé of sorts is ""Four Holy Photos."" Featuring harmonica and a more grisly Grubin, it sounds like they're trying to be the next A.A. Bondy.
That leaves three distinct personalities on Hockey's palate, and don't think they don't know it. They approach each style with a frustrating lack of commitment, swiping at each verse-chorus-verse with an irritatingly half-hearted effort. They generally write either a great chorus (""Too Fake"") or a great verse (""Song Away"") and then punt the rest of the song.
It's one thing to be a poor lyricist, but repetitive hooks like ""Tomorrow's just a song away"" and ""I've got to learn to lose for a while"" render most melodies completely unsubstantiated. If anything, the hapless chorus on ""Work"" - ""It's too much work, work, work, yeah / Yo, it's too much work for me"" - is an excuse explaining the lack of originality and song depth. In the end, that's what's most frustrating about Hockey: their vast reservoir of untapped potential.
It'll be interesting to see whether they decide to follow their lead singer and become an edgy soul band, or if they'll continue their musical path toward LCD Soundsystem and blend in with all of the other burgeoning electro-pop acts out there. Although I don't think they're at the forefront of their genre yet, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say, depending on which path they choose to follow, they could easily end up being the next big thing. Even if Mind Chaos doesn't become the album of the summer, it has more than enough bright spots to serve as an adequate ""look at us!"" flag. They might be just one album away from superstardom; but if they ever want to create that one true gem, they're going to have to try harder than this.
