Not A Grain of Talent In Sight (Wheatus - Wheatus)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Wheatus - Wheatus
Date:	22/04/08 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The cover track comes close to entertaining.

Disadvantages: The songs all sound too similar, the vocals are horribly whiny.

'Wheatus' is an album released in the year 2000 by the band of the same name. The band actually formed in 1998 and this is the first album that was released. Three singles were released commercially from the album; two original tracks of 'Teenage Dirtbag' and 'Wannabe Gangstar', and a cover of the Erasure track 'A Little Respect' also. 'Teenage Dirtbag' was the bands biggest success from this release, a four minute stab of pop rock which was used in the soundtrack for the Amy Heckerling directed film 'Loser'.

'Teenage Dirtbag' was the first track that I heard from this album; it had me slightly curious about the music of Wheatus but not at all in a good way. The bands vocalist Brendan B. Brown was twenty seven at the time of the release of this album, the lyric of 'I'm just a teenage dirtbag' therefore never sat particularly well with me. There's nothing I hate more than bands trying to appeal to a young audience through the use of lyrics that just don't fit. If Wheatus genuinely were a teenage band then there would be nothing wrong with this track, the vocals would still be somewhat whiny but I certainly wouldn't take issue with the lyrical content. 'Teenage Dirtbag' is a catchy track, not however in a good way; it's one of those songs that drives you mad repeating over and over in your head even though in actual fact you can't stand it. Once you hear the track once, ever it remains engrained in your brain and never will the song cease to annoy you.

As much as 'Teenage Dirtbag' annoyed me, this did not deter me from investing in this album when I spotted it in a local music shop for the mere cost of one solitary pound. The album contains ten tracks which means each track worked out costing me only 10 pence; I was mugged. This album runs for a grand total of thirty three minutes and never does the whining stop throughout this album; the best thing about this release is the cover of 'A Little Respect'. When the best thing going for an album is a cover track then you know that things must be pretty grim. Wheatus possess very little talent of their own as a band, all this band seems capable of in fact is putting together simplistic pop rock tracks which quickly become horrendously irritating.

Although 'Wannabe Gangstar' was released commercially from this album, it is I feel one of the weakest tracks from this release. Only 'Punk Ass Bitch' is more detestable than this in fact. The tracks on display on this album have no depth to them whatsoever, never does the music on display here stand out as anything but annoying and always the music is greatly grating. The lyrics are poor, little talent is displayed musically here, and not one of the ten tracks included on this 'Wheatus' album is really worth listening to. A lack of musical diversity is here shown, the songs are extremely simplistic and many of the tracks on this album sound almost identical to one another. Add to this the fact that the bands vocalist Brendan B. Brown has one of the whiniest voices going and you have an extremely irritating formula indeed.

Wheatus followed the release of 'Wheatus' with the 'Hand Over Your Loved Ones' album in 2003. The band fell out with the Sony owned record label Columbia Records around this time and the album was therefore hardly promoted. Needless to say the follow-up album was a flop, and being the ever intelligent pop band that they are; Wheatus decided to re-release the album through their own Montauk Mantis label in 2005 with a new and fairly self explanatory title of 'Suck Fony'. 'Wheatus' is not at all an intelligent album of music from the band, many of the tracks on display here sound all too similar and I most certainly would not recommend giving this album a listen. Lyrical intelligence is severely lacking here, the music of Wheatus lacks depth and 'Wheatus' therefore does not provide for a particularly enjoyable listening experience at all. Vocally I can think of few more irritating bands than Wheatus, and musically I feel that this band is probably one of the most simplistic that there is.

Summary: 'Wheatus' is a terrible début album, an utterly uninspiring release of pop rock bilge.