2 out of 5

Label: Lovitt

Produced by: Aimée Argote, Jonathan Fuller

Man, I hate that Kurt Ballou recorded some of these tracks.  Harumph.

So I guess I think maybe I heard a rockin’ track from Des Ark’s “Loose Lips” debut album on a compilation, and then semi-promptly ordered up the disc.  Argot had a lovely snarl, and the song was mighty aggressive with a unique hook while maintaining something of a weird pop edge in its approach.  The album art was a little reminiscent of 31Knots, which set me on guard for some reason, and yeah, I was mostly faced with an album of semi-generic indie femme acoustic rock stuff, excepting my single and maybe another song or two that pulled a similar trick.  Y’know, the Cranberries’ “Zombie” of the indie world, luring us in with a song quite unlike the majority of the others, except “Lips” didn’t really have much else to keep me there, whereas one could argue that Cranberries listeners could jump on board via other songs (the group having been established) and discover Zombie as an oddball track and I have no idea why I’m talking so much about The Cranberries here.

But anyway, I did dig that track, so I filed the album into “listen later” and then right away totally didn’t listen to it.  I stumbled across “Don’t Rock the Boat” in a used bin for cheapies some time later, and figured why not, and maybe fresh ears would rekindle blah de blah do dingle doo.  But it’s pretty much the same experience.  Argot sings about the female experience – to my ignorant male ears – which, yes, means they are stuffed with penises and doritos – and you can hear some definite passion there, but it’s the kind of passion I feel like appeals to a 14 year old female me.  And the times you don’t hear passion, you hear a really affected “delicate” voice or a weird articulation that’s either an accent (hey, she’s got onea’ them things over the e in her name) or some type of prep before she breaks out into a louder register, but sounds, for better or worse, as affected as that creaky-voice thing and underlines the somewhat generic indie thing going on here.  Yes, “Ashley’s Song” brings the rock again, but it’s incredibly reminiscent of “Loose Lips” rock track, and then there’s a song called “FTW Ya’ll !!!”, so really, that’s like automatic docked stars.

Obviously I have some this-ain’t-my-genre prejudice going on here, but I fully acknowledge that this is a well composed and played album, with Argote handling the majority of the instrumentation and nary a note feeling out of place.  However, I feel like it’s a very generic example of the genre, with one wacky track to show her wild side; meaning: there are much stronger, more unique voices working in this field.  But if you found your way into the scene via Des Ark, then perhaps it’ll strike home for you.  It’s quite a miss to me.