Virtual Jungle – Self/Titled / 2005 Lucio Records / 14 Tracks / http://www.luciomusic.com / Reviewed 20 February 2005

The slow opening to “Vritual Jungle” opens up after a few minutes into a dreamy type of pop that underwhelms in its rote nature and mediocre presentation. The track shows an individual who has absolutely no idea which direction ey wants to take this disc. This is not someone who is revolutionary in the way ey jumps through genres, but someone who tries a little too hard in being “everything to everyone”. This same ennui follows Lucio through the second track on “Virtual Jungle”, “Flying” – just because someone can play a metric crapload of instruments does not mean they necessarily have to in the space of a three minute song. Creating an environment completely non-conducive to the inflection ey puts on eir vocals on “Flying”, Lucio’s desire to infuse the track with R&B falls completely on its face. “How Far Would You Go For Love” is the first track that could be reasonably be labeled a success for Lucio, and even that is very mild. The differing arrangements and jazz-feel to the track struggle against the Santana-esque guitar line (haven’t we heard enough bland guitar wank-o-rama solos in the last decade) and schmaltzy Latin influence.

Striking out completely with “Casual”, Lucio again has a spastic attack on the track in putting differing snippets and styles of music into eir songs, without putting anything in the day of context to link the fragments adequately. As the disc spins on, nothing that Lucio can do makes the album any more palatable, whether it be the falsetto tones achieved during “Lost and Found” or the Nintendo-sounding over-distortion of eir guitar on “Regret”. Everything that is negative about this disc (and there is a lot) is just the utter sincerity that is continually found on “Virtual Jungle”. There is no concern by Lucio to create a general “sound”, whether it be on the larger disc as a whole or even during one song. The aforementioned “Regret” sonds as if everything was Cakewalked – none of the instruments on the track mesh or work together, surely a problem encountered because Lucio insists on creating everything eirself. Lucio just solidifies a good axiom to keep in mind; if someone is trying to create the work of an entire band by eirself, chances are good that the album will blow harder than Rush Limbaugh.

Top Tracks: None

Rating: 1.7/10