Mercurius – Come On In

Reviewed by James Tabbinor

The press release for this debut album from Mercurius claims that they have a fresh sound that is ‘purposely meandering off the course of current music trends’ and I’d have to agree. Yes, this album does have a sound that is different to what we hear on the radio these days, but only because it seems to have revisited the trends of pop/rock from a decade or so ago. It sounds very outdated, purely because at times the lyrics sound as generic as those of Oasis, other times the lead guitar sounds like a cross between James and The Charlatans, it all combines to create the feeling that you’ve heard this record before.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible, but it isn’t great either, it’s just frustratingly competent and I’m afraid to say at times a bit formulaic. I’m not saying that on an album each song should be strikingly different from the one preceding, but there’s only so many times you can listen to a song that begins with hard hitting chords and riffs, brings it down for a slow middle eight, then returns to hard hitting chords and riffs. Lather, rinse, repeat.

‘Comfort Zone’, which I’m led to believe will be the debut single, is alright but to be honest the standout track on this album was ‘Confidence’, because it did sound different, at least to the rest of the album, and admittedly there was sporadic glimpses of this freshness throughout, but never consistently enough to warrant the claims of being ‘distinctive’ and ‘original’. Decent they are, groundbreaking they ain’t.

3/10