Breanne Duren: Sparks

Breanne Duren
Sparks
self-released
2011-05-03

Breanne Duren hopes to stake out diva territory with her five-song EP, Sparks. She can certainly sing, though her particular brand of little-girl vocal stylings won’t appeal to all listeners. Lead track “Gold Mine” is catchy enough, with her lilting voice trembling over a dense bed of keyboard and guitar and the requisite pounding snare. Unfortunately for Duren—and us—it’s the best song on the record, meaning it’s all downhill from there. “No One Else” is Vocoder hell, while “Catapult” comes off as generic dance-floor doggerel. “Daydreams” is equally by-the-numbers, right down to the tinkling keyboard intro. Closer “Summer Days” aims for sway-with-your-hand-in-the-air territory, and even succeeds to a degree. However, despite this semi-success, there’s nothing here compelling enough to convince anyone to take off that other record–whichever one you’ve got–and listen to this one instead.

RATING 3 / 10