Lovedrug

“Love” and “drug” are two words synonymous with the late `60s counter-culture movement, much like flowers, which just so happen to adorn the packaging of Lovedrug’s album Everything Starts Where It Ends. Psychedelic, right? Well, no. Lovedrug aren’t the next Dungen, pounding out psych-rock tracks that sound like they emerged from a time capsule buried at The Monterey Pop Festival; instead, they are merely a slightly artier version of an alt-rock band. The group’s finer snippets recall Muse or even early Radiohead, but at their worse all you get is radio-friendly fodder that packs about as much punch as Maroon 5. Scary, right? Yes.

The album opens with “Happy Apple Poison,” a song that tries to lock down a funk groove for its verses, but totally destroys the vibe with an attempted stadium rock chorus. The vocals get echo, the drums get the big `80s treatment, and the guitars sound like they have more layers than an artic explorer. “Pushing the Shine” comes next and may manage to be the best song on the record thanks to its Muse-isms. The big wavering vocals, a bit of a dance beat, and some aggressive guitars make the song stand out before another “big rock” chorus buries all that was worth hearing.

Lovedrug may have had a half-decent album if the rest of the tracks followed the path cut by the first two, but sadly they had other ideas in mind, namely a Fray/Keane fetish that translates into piano-led ballads like “Thieving,” “Dancing” and “Doomsday and the Echo.” Each of these songs is soft and safe, playing out in true dentist-office-rock form.

”Love” and “drug” are two things that have led to the creation of numerous songs worth hearing, yet apparently when put together all they manage is a batch of boring and often lifeless rock songs.