Shallow

September 5 - 12, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

**1/2 Shallow

CD LASER LENS CLEANER

(Zero Hour)
The band's name is a nasty review waiting to happen, and their 1995 debut, 3-D Stereo Trouble, courted that fate by offering little beyond the standard sound of a mid-'90s opening act: light, trancy guitar rock fronted by a prepubescent-voiced female singer. A quick second album could have sealed their anonymity, so they fight back with an interim six-song EP paying tribute to the British dream pop that brought these four Kansans together in the first place.
The initial idea was to recruit Spaceman 3 leader Peter "Sonic Boom" Kemper to remix some of their debut's best cuts, but from this tiny concept, a full-blown identity grew. The two remixes add appropriately cheesy synth textures to the group's lovelorn lyrics, the gritty cover of Kemper's "I Love You" adds sexy homo/hetero confusion to the mix, and the three new songs add some nursery-rhyme melodies to their repertoire of sung scales and chord changes. Suddenly they're so confident of who they are, they even joke about it by titling the sleepy closer "30mg of Valium."
-- Franklin Soults