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Bandees, Sonic Kitchen

by Glenn Fullington
02/02/2008

Sonic Kitchen is raunchy sugar-pop chalk full of retro and energetic songs from Bandees, the pop duo anchored by Stephen and Patricia Ann Dees. But retro isn’t original anymore and their energy is spent rehashing pop-rock staples.

This is a good album, don’t get me wrong, but it seems to be an amalgam of every successful pop ingredient thrown into the same dish; full of flavor but way too many of them.

The music is tight and well structured. Both Patricia and Stephen lend their vocal talent to the album, each with their own stylistic appeal. Alberto Cruz takes care of the percussion with precision and fervor. The overall equation should work, but the band hasn’t made it past their post-punk 90's sound to generate anything outstanding.

“Music Box” stands out as a psychedelic composition complete with Beatles references. “Hand in the Fire,” the shortest song on the album, is a bluegrass ditty that should have been longer. “Monkey Boy,” a lively garage band gem, follows it. The last half of the album stretches out better than the first, offering more variety, but never strays far from the Bandees power-pop character.