Statistics - Often Lie

When I see a list of really great bands on the press for a band I haven’t really gotten into enough to know, it makes me very leery. For instance, I saw Statistics being compared to Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie and even Catherine Wheel. BIG red flag. I hate to be trite really, but what we have here is another generic angst-ridden, testosterone-driven album that will appeal to really pretty 20-year-old males and the girls they're trying to pull. To be fair, I did hear smatterings of Death Cab in “Begging To Be Heard,” but it’s flat. The delivery is flat and the passion that rips your gut out in Gibbard’s work is not here. It’s more Verve Pipe than Death Cab, and I consider the former not exactly something to which one should aspire. Often Lie, while admittedly being cleverly titled, fails to reach any kind of a fever pitch or show anything deep enough to compete with the bands to which it has been compared. Statistics would be the perfect little college band, but I can’t see listening to this record again. [www.statisticsmusic.com]