The Fury - Infinite Jest

Genre rock Publisher East West External Links Official The Fury Website Official East West Records Website

The Fury's five song debut EP Infinite Jest falls somewhere in the middle of punk, glam, pop, alternative and dance for suburban fifteen year old boys who shop for their angst at Hot Topic. One glance at the album art tells you almost everything you need to know about the band. The cover features a very young girl's leg covered in pink fishnets with her French manicured fingers pulling at one stocking. Does that sound hot to you? Then you should definitely check out their MySpace friends list. My point is, the band tries desperately to blend punk and slick pop into one genre and there are some things that, by definition, just do not go together.

Listen fellas of The Fury, I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but according to your bio you are from TOLEDO, OHIO. So, just stop it with the faux British accent that is never more apparent than on the opening track "Better Off This Way." Even Brits don't sound that British when they're singing.

More than one review out there mentions The Fury in the same breath with David Bowie. Well, from what I can gather the reason for that comparison is the track "Parody of the Masquerade." That is where we find vocalist Jeremy Lublin doing his damnedest to sing and enunciate like Bowie and the instrumentation has elements of keyboard-based campiness-but still, that comparison should be illegal. While we're on the topic of Lublin's vocals, let me add that for the most part they are so screechy and off key that even if the lyrics were thoughtful or meaningful or expressive (which they aren't) I would never actually be able to concentrate on them because his voice is so distracting.

"Nation, Forgive Us" is supposed to be a teenage rebellion song, starting off with crashing drums and barked vocals that allegedly demonstrate the song's anger, but it never sounds authentic about being pissed off and it won't be inciting any teenager with a brain any time soon, just like the EP itself won't be inspiring me to tell anyone I know to bother buying it.