The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack [Review]
When The Soft Pack (at the time still called The Muslims) released their self-titled 12-inch I thought to myself, “This is garage rock.” The San Diego-based band had no intention of reinventing the genre. In fact, it played more like a Best Of. No surprises, but everything you could ask for in 10 garage rock songs, all in one place. Fast forward two years and the band is once again releasing a self-titled album, this time under their new, less controversial name The Soft Pack.
The problem with doing something so — I guess — unoriginal, is that you need to completely nail it. Unfortunately, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, they missed the mark here. Matt Lamkin, whose nonchalant vocals have always been a part of the band’s apparent Cali vibe, sounds much more like he doesn’t care at all versus being too cool to care. It’s really hard for me to call the lyrics uninspiring because I’m well aware that’s sort of what they are going for, but strictly going through the motions doesn’t become acceptable just because you admit to doing so. There needs to be something to justify repeat plays of the album that isn’t “because I’m reviewing it.”
Of course, if The Soft Pack come to town I would be more than happy to pay the 10 bucks to see them live and not just because I want to hear them play their old songs either. I can see this record translating much better in a live setting. Partly because it’s a little overproduced, but after seeing them at Don Pedro’s I have a feeling they can pull these tracks off. As long as they play Extinction too. Answer to Yourself, one of the better tracks off the album, is embedded below.
The Soft Pack ‘Answer to Yourself’ from Felipe Lima on Vimeo.
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