Zek Lightning

Monotone vocals and bar after bar of two-chord repetitions gives this release a Joy Division kind of personality. Although the tracks, for the most part, keep that raw post-punk charm alive, the songs here just aren't varied enough to hold my interest. Don't get me wrong, I love that mopey stuff just as much as the next black-wearing, crucifix-loving, red rose sniffing über goth, but most of these seven tracks don't seem to really go anywhere. The Cure meets jazzy sounding guitar work fits in well with Zek's words, and the lo-fi production (courtesy of long-time collaborator Nat Rabb) is cool for the first several tunes, but my curiosity waned more and more as the album continued. Ironically, things finally pick up a bit by track seven, unfortunately the last one on the disc.