By Lewis Park
Frontman Craig Peeling describes the music of Peeler as “music to change your life.” Their debut album The Evils Of the Modern Pleasure Dance, has the ability to do just that. That is, if you’ve never had the opportunity to listen to Default, Nickleback, Staind or Audioslave. Otherwise, Pleasure Dance is another riff-rock, throaty angst-fest that celebrates the great grunge bands of the ’90s by ripping off their music and dumbing it down for mainstream radio.
True to the top-40 hard-rock formula, this album opens with a heavier number, complete with “oh yeah” screams throughout. Peeler turns down the distortion in the middle of the album and manage to write some songs that don’t rely entirely on power chords. This was a feat in and of itself, considering the low mean intelligence of most of the lyrics.
The one gem on Pleasure Dance is a song called “The Greatest Liars,” which sounds like a throwback to Desire-era U2. Another relatively high point of the album comes in the song “Phineas Gage,” which was the name of Peeling’s former band.
Peeling boasts an interesting voice and if he develops it he could one day be singing on the level of Chris Cornell. Unfortunately, his inconsistency makes Pleasure Dance anything but.