Late last summer, I reviewed In Limbo by the Brooklyn all-female group TEEN. The album was flawed and some of the material was a bit stale. But for the most part, I liked it. It was a debut that held a lot of promise for things to come from the group, especially with the album opener Better. This year, we got a short little follow up to that album…but sadly it is not better (Pun completely intended. And I apologize).

The band did away with a lot of the stuff I didn’t like about their debut, including the road-to-nowhere ballads that I didn’t care for. Every song here manages to feel energetic, and they surprisingly never overstay their welcome. There are some cool guitar riffs, some energetic percussion, and a new sense of direction that was somewhat not there before. TEEN improved in this regard, but sadly, that’s about the only place where they improved.

The best adjective I can use to describe this project is “Messy”. Every one of these five tracks comes across as unorganized and afraid to truly settle. A lot of it sounds dissonant, but I don’t think it’s on purpose. For some reason, Teeny Lieberson’s vocals come across as less commanding and more confused. On the debut album, she sounded like a fierce and controlling lead vocalist. Here, on tracks like Carolina, she sounds uncomfortable and unsure. Without her command the rest of the music falls apart behind her. I really like the guitar on this project,  but the weird synth work on every song just feels tacked on to make it fit with the “TEEN Sound”.

In fact, my biggest gripe with this project is for sure the synth work. Perfectly OK pop songs like Circus are absolutely ruined by the obnoxious synth-work. The synths just repeat scrambled and ugly melodies over and over and over again. Plus, while the synths on In Limbo really helped amplify the emotion and lyrics of some songs, here they act like more of a hindrance. Plus, a lot of the synths feel completely unnecessary. Cannibal is a perfectly nice song with the light guitar and cool clapping percussion. Does it need the scrambled synth ambiance in the back? I think not.

Overall, Carolina is a step backward for this group. Even without the horrendous and lazy synths, the EP still doesn’t bring anything really interesting to the table. The only track that is remotely near the caliber of their debut is Cannibal, and even that feels like a bit of a throwaway. Carolina is just really underwhelming and pretty mediocre.

Summary: I hope Carolina is a collection of throwaways, because the lazy synth work and uninspired vocals ruin songs that were already only OK to begin with.

Choice Cuts: Cannibal

Leftovers: Circus, Glass Cage

2/5

Stream Carolina below. Carolina is out now on Carpark