Wiretaps

Made up of ex-members of the Fall Outs and the Inhalants, the Wiretaps are a self-proclaimed garage “super-group.” The Wiretaps sound features the jangly guitar that Fall Outs’ guitarist Dave Holmes has been known for in the past, tight, minor key progressions and female lead vocals. The result is an angular, early ‘80s new wave type of sound that doesn’t hit the mark all the time. At their best, on songs like “Fast Edit,” the semi-mysterious, low rent Blondie/Elastica act works quite well. When the tone becomes a little less “retro” and less energised, like on the straight-up college-pop of “Something Good,” the Wiretaps just sound like a bunch of badly-produced REM wannabe’s. A big part of the problem here is that the dry, often off-key and just plain mundane lead vocals of Caryn Palmer just don’t elevate the music above its basic charm. The final result is an album that leaves the listener waiting for payoffs that simply never arrive.