OK, start with
the Dresden Dolls. Replace the piano with a cello. Replace drummer Brian Viglione with someone not nearly as good. Now strip the songs of all of
Amanda Palmer's self-aware wit, humorous one-liners, and
Brechtian seediness. Finally, get rid of the tunes. What's left is a neat encapsulation of the tiresome debut album by the cello-and-drums duo
Polly Panic. Singer and cellist Jenette Mackie deserves massive conceptual points for
Painkiller's blend of severe modern classical experimentation and emo, but the execution is often excruciatingly bad. The problem is not in the cello playing, which is both technically impressive and admirable for the ways in which Mackie tries to experiment with the sonic range of her instrument. Listening to a set of Mackie alone with her cello and the electronic devices she uses alongside it would likely be a musically fascinating evening. Mackie is, however, a terrible singer who seems like she's going for
Diamanda Galás but hitting closer to that goth chick from
Evanescence, her lyrics are high-school angsty in the extreme (more than one song mentions Sylvia Plath), and her grasp of pop song form is kind of weak. Plus there's the aforementioned rotten drummer. Put it all together and the results are pretty much the exact opposite of the album title. ~ Stewart Mason