THE EARLY NOVEMBER'S frontman Arthur 'Ace' Enders allegedly was so driven about finding the perfect band for his songs that he went through 15 personnel changes in under a year to arrive at the quartet who play on the band's debut album, "The Room's Too Cold."
An attitude that would no doubt endear him to Mark.E.Smith (well, at least until he heard the music), but precious few others judging by the end results, as sadly "The Room's Too Cold" is very much bog-standard US emo-core, with all the whine and angst left in, and whatever raw emotion there might have been squeezed out.
Actually, the album's torn asunder by that worst of all sins: mediocrity. I mean, on the face of it, there's not much wrong here: it's competently played, well-produced and there's even the obligatory string section poised to strike when Ace and co. feel like getting really limp-wristed.
Crucially, though, there's absolutely zilch memorable songs here, for all the posturing and supposedly emotional blood-letting, and "The Room's Too Cold" ends up falling horribly betwen stools. It's got all the would-be emo intention lyrically of yer typical Emo staples like Jimmy Eat World, Rival Schools etc, but mostly wants to be Fugazi, with all the tricksy tempos that implies, but absolutely bugger all of the tension.
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Occasionally, the pulse threatens to rise. The staccato riffs introducing "Sesame, Shesame" are promising, while at least "Baby Blue" and the furious "Fluxy" will at least provoke proplonged moshpit action under the correct circumstances, but these are brief exceptions to the rule, and when they fall back on the cellos and lyrical snivelling of "Ever So Sweet" and the horribly overwrought closer "Everything's Too Cold...But You're so Hot" you just want them to shut up. Indeed, when they chorus "I don't want you to love me anymore" ("Baby Blue"), the temptation is just to scream "Oh, get a life!" at them.
Ultimately, then, Ace Enders' search for sonic perfection has obviously wrung the spontaneity out of him. "The Room's Too Cold" is every bit as austere as title implies and about as alluring as the dreadful flock wallpaper adorning the back cover. Yuck.
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