Album Review; The Boxing Lesson - Wild Streaks and Windy Days

The departure of planetarium-esque aesthetics and spacey sound scope from the music industry has fueled a few artists to revel in the now lonely genre. Hell it was lonely before -- the only artists I can think of are Spirit and Pink Floyd -- but now it's a dead zone. There seems to be an unassailable catalog of reasons for this affirmation: one being; if the artist(s) is not Pink Floyd, the audience tends to range in the not give a shit column. And; everyone wants to be Pink Floyd. Either reason leads the listener to detract to a very large extent, unless you only liked Roger Waters and David Gilmour in the first place.

That's the minor feeling attributed to The Boxing Lesson's new album Wild Streaks and Windy Days. The entirety of the twelve tracks, from the opener "Dark Side of the Moog" (ugh) to the instrumental heavy close of the title track, the range The Boxing Lesson could accomplish feels significantly short. It's a diminutive synth heavy record that echoes 'borrowed' or 'old,' and doesn't come forth to any range not before reached. That may be asking a lot, but when your largest influence is Pink Floyd, you're gonna have to bring something larger than this.

That being said, the album does survive with a few bright spots. "Lower," "Muerta," "Scoundrel," and "The Art of Pushing Me Away" all bring out the best in the Boxing Lesson. The atmosphere of guitars and vocal breaches show flashes of promise, but still hold back with the borrowed factor. Yet, as a whole, tracks like, "Dark Side of the Moog," Hopscotch & Sodapop," and "Hanging with the Wrong Crowd" drag Wild Streaks and Windy Days down to an unimpressive hole.

Score: 4.4 out of 10

Wild Streaks and Windy Days is Out Now. Check out The Boxing Lesson Myspace for Further Information about the Band.