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S/T SPLIT DOUBLE CD

Hidari Mae (great acronym) is placed first among the two CDs, for reasons unknown. While sounding fragile may be endearing to some, there is a line where that fragility becomes overdone. Hidari Mae crossed it, and went into the realm of boring. With vocals that sound like a character from Sesame Street, and tempos that parallel the effect of low-batteries on a cassette tape deck, I advocate strict bedtime use of this CD, if any use at all. At first I wondered why this was a double CD package instead of simply 12 songs (six from each band) on one CD. Listening to Speed Not Steel provided a possible answer to this question: they didn’t want to be brought down. While by no means hard or fast, this CD has energy and life, in comparison to comatose Hidari Mae. Their songs utilize instruments such as harmonica and violin in wise places, and the orchestration at times resembles something from The Fire Theft. “I Lost the Battle” and “Floating,” are my standout picks for their sincerity, brilliant melodies and song construction. The final track, “Days Away,” is dragging, but it is ok to have one exceedingly slow song ending a CD. Having six (Hidari Mae) is redundant. Speed Not Steel gets the nod of approval, and hopefully people have the foresight to listen to it first out of the two CDs. If not, they’ll be asleep before the good stuff ever reaches their ears. [LUJO] JAMES WETZ

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