Vue

The debut from San Francisco's Vue, formerly known as the Audience, is the kind of record that your annoying goth/art school roommate would play and play until you wanted to give them a smack. It's also the kind of record that, when that roommate finally moved out, would haunt you to the point that you'd still be humming a couple of the songs afterward. The main song you'd be humming, and hate yourself for, would be the catchy, off-kilter and lyrically dirty "White Traffic." It has an '80s "club" vibe that could be played right next to PIL or Tones On Tail. Also "good" are the tracks "Nothing Left But You" and "I'm Everybody's Funny." All the rest of the numbers are just plain pretentious and downright dreadful. Just take "Girl" with its unintentionally funny organ line, which is note for note "The Hockey Night In Canada" theme. Quite hilarious coming from these plucked-eyebrow dandies! Also exceptionally bad is the five-minute "soundscape" "Her Moods," which recalls an instrumental version of Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face." The song that has to take the cake, however, is the pseudo-Teutonic "Talk To A Model," which is so over the top it should be featured in the upcoming Mike Myers' Sprockets movie. Credit has to be given to Vue for delivering this kind of music with no apparent sense of irony.