Sold Heart to the One

Sometree's Sold Heart to the One is the closest that Germany seems to have gotten to a band who sounds strikingly like a cross between Far and Sunny Day Real Estate. This is seen primarily in the vocal department. Unfortunately, the album is arranged such that the vocals seem to carry Sold Heart to the One. It sounds as though the vocals may have been mixed higher than the instruments when the final engineering was performed. That's not necessarily a horrible thing, though, because for the most part they are adequate. The problem lies in that the music is unstartling and lags behind the passion and furor of the vocals. And many times, it is these vocals which, in order to compensate for the failures of the music, overaccentuate. Passion is one thing, but the singer of Sometree goes between a pleasant, seductive whisper and sounding like he's passing kidney stones. It's all rather odd and at times ("one noem one") rather annoying. Nevertheless, it is a minor bother in comparison to what is an overall seductive and pleasant listen.