Beaten Awake - Thunder$troke

Great bands always add up to more than the sum of their parts. Given the pedigree of Beaten Awake's membership (they're ostensibly the cream of the Ohio indie-rock flock) you'd hope for a better opener than Mr Thompson (Can You Dig It?), which sounds like an INXS B-side as produced by Steve Albini. Obviously it's awful, but at least it's bafflingly awful – the subsequent tracks find the band content merely with settling into a groove of earnest, derivative guitar pop. Tremulous vocals that swerve without warning into unbelievable bombast; misjudged synth riffs; a drummer who can only play the beat to Robert Palmer's Simply Irresistible – such is the gauntlet of mediocrity you must run if you are to make it to the end of this album. I'm Not Asking for the Moon and Coming Home manage to impress by slowing down the tempo and allowing the instruments a little space to breathe, but it's too little, too late. [Mark Shukla]