CD Review -- Soul Decision

& & by Mike Corrigan & & & &





Oh really? The big news with Vancouver-based Soul Decision (according to their press release) is that this trio actually writes their own material (wow!) and plays their own instruments (golly!). Aside from what this says about the low expectations currently found within the pop music industry, it's unclear exactly why anyone -- let alone highly visible performers -- would want to take credit for authoring such tripe. If these breezy, air-headed, slick to the nth degree tunes were actually written by a committee of hackneyed, boring old farts (as is the case with a vast majority of the bubbly pap filling the airwaves these days), it would be easier to forgive. But when lead pinup, er, singer, Trevor Guthrie opens No One Does It Better with the line: "Ooh it's kinda crazy/I've been thinking maybe/gotta get you out of my head," you've got to wonder if he is honestly considering a long-term career in music or if he's merely satisfied with his lot as a member of the latest disposable, cutesy-boy vocal group of the second.


I realize pre-pubescent girls are the targets here (I'd be very surprised if anyone over the age 12 or in possession of a modicum of taste is actually buying this stuff for themselves) and that Top 40 radio stations all over the country need to fill up airtime with something. But damn, how much pointlessly gooey and insipid spun candy schlock can regular digesters of commercial pop stomach before they hurl in collective disgust? Will music fans ever grow tired of being pandered to so crassly? If No One Does It Better goes platinum (and for all I know it has already), we'll have an answer.