CD Review: Dead to Me - Cuban Ballerina

The best part of Dead to Me's new album Cuban Ballerina comes right up front. By that, I don't mean the first track. I mean the album cover. The illustration on the cover is a gorgeous and evocative interpretation of the album's title. It's a moody and mordant image that makes me long for the days of the LP. Furthermore, I rather like the title itself. Cuban Ballerina. Trips off the tongue quite nicely, it does. That's the extent to which I feel enthusiastic about this album.

Not that Dead to Me is a bad band by any means. The music within Cuban Ballerina goes down smoothly. It's pleasant, melodic punk rock with pop frills. Therein lies the problem, though - melodic pop-punk is a dime a dozen these days, and Dead to Me aren't doing anything new or interesting with it. They're perfectly competent; the guitars are hooky and every 'ooh' and 'ah' is perfectly aligned. They're also perfectly uninspired.

Over the course of the album's twenty-five minutes, Dead to Me play eleven songs. Some of them are a little bouncier than average ("Something New"), and some of them skew a little darker ("Goodbye Regret"); the whole, though, blends into one monolithic composition. Even the high points seem like sums of their influences; lead single "By the Throat" could be an Alkaline Trio B-side, while "Cause of My Anger" makes me think of Fifteen for some reason.

Only at the end of the album is there a hint of better things - "Visiting Day" is a quick blur of a coda, but it has a fire that eludes the rest of Cuban Ballerina. While lead singer and bassist Chicken shouts about his itching blood, tremors, and aching head; the music beneath him sounds like Dead to Me has assimilated their influences and is ready to run in an interesting direction with them. Then the album's over.

Dead to Me rose out of the ashes of One Man Army, so it's not like they're fresh-faced youngsters. They're veterans. I have no doubt they have talent, and one day they might pen a whole album of songs like "Visting Day," songs that build on pop-punk tradition as much as they crib from it. As it stands now, though, I'm unenthused. There's an audience for the music Dead to Me is playing. I just don't belong to that audience. So why am I writing about it? Beats me.

Article Author: Steve Carlson

Steve Carlson, the proprietor of The Ongoing Cinematic Education of... since 2002, neither conducts electricity nor talks to reptiles. However, he knows someone who does both.

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