Testcard - Lines

Testcard hit the ground with an album of unimaginative, poorly produced electropop. Sounding like a extremely lame child of The Faint, the album takes the late 80s pop blueprint and... well, doesn't really do much with it except make it sound like it might have been made fairly recently. Where they do pick up though is their promo packaging. Seemingly inconspicuous as if just another digipacked CD, flick it open and it unfolds into a huge unidentified map with a railway line marked in red and several housing areas and a large central park. Attached on the rear of the map are the CD and a list of directions to follow alongside the usual sleevenote banter. It's all very mysterious with no indication where the map might be of and to where the directions lead but this is part of the allure. Shame the album's not up to much.