Produced by Dave Trumfio, the acclaimed producer of Wilco, My Morning Jacket, and Grandaddy, Acute’s debut, if it has one central weakness, is its inability to go anywhere new. It’s a solid album with even a few excellent songs, such as “You Could End Up in Love” and “Rip Your Heart Out,” but much of the album explores oft-visited territory, content with recycling the last decade of indie-rock into contemporary pop. The always present string arrangements, for which Trumfio enlists American Music Club and Portastatic collaborator Jason Borger, do nothing for the young LA trio, as the strings wash out the band’s already melodic instrumentations, needlessly exaggerating and complicating the band’s sound. Though the elaborate production may have been an attempted cure to improve the band’s weak sound, these attempts are only a glossy finish on repackaged goods. Acute does nothing to individualize their sound or attempt to do anything drastically different, settling instead, intentionally or not, for mediocrity.
--Wes Barker
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