Location:
USA, CA

Category:
Electronic

Try if you like:
Roxette, Savage Garden

•   Eat
•   Sail

R00K is a new duo out of California. In their own words: R00K offers a distinctive mix of alternative, electronica, and soul, combining sophisticated songwriting and sleek digital production with live performances by some of Oakland's finest session musicians. Sera had potential but along the way the duo of Jonathan David Baker and Bradley James Falconer lost their focus. R00K is a pop band, despite what their bio states. Electro-pop to be more precise. I don't get any soul out of their music whatsoever.

 

One of the best pop tracks on Sera, "My Head Hurts", is lacking very much in the lyrical department:

"Why am I such an angry bitch, you won't scratch my motherfuckin' itch"

right before they get into the repetitive chorus:

"My head hurts (x3) My motherfuckin' head hurts"

"Cruel" just ends up being an annoying mess. And "1000 Times" does not develop at all, becoming just plain annoying with it's "I have died a 1000 times, when I was young I died 1000 times a day" over, and over, and over.

Strangely, the group finds their best track in the cover of the old hymn "Amazing Grace". Honestly a track worth seeking out.

I had a very hard time with Sera. It was an album that I knew had potential but I just couldn't find it. Times when they lyrics were half decent like "Eat" just lacked in substance. Then on tracks with the substance they were lacking in the lyrical department. I really think this group has potential. First off, they need to be able to edit the crap out. If Sera had been edited down to 35-40 minutes and some more attention to the details were given to the remnants then we would have seen a much stronger album. The vocoder or whatever it's called that they use on multiple pieces like "No More" just becomes annoying, even though it's a short track. 

I would suggest that R00K either work on their lyrics or bring them down in the mix so the attention isn't on them in the forefront for their next effort. They seem to have the production and such down pat. As for Sera, I don't know if they will find much of an audience.