Inner Frequency

If there is a good side to the term "corporate rock," local quartet Inner Frequency may have claims to such a region. Singer Cara Young and the rest of the band look marvelous; the hair is perfectly disheveled as each member does his/her best to look seriously contemplative. Yep, Inner Frequency has a look straight out of a consultant's guidebook.

The same goes for all three songs on this sophomore EP as well. The production is slickly top-rate; Young's vocals purr along as the music defines the word "professionalism." And the influences are definitely from the late '80s, as "Big Talker" and "Satellite" recall the cold new wave of The Motels and Missing Persons. But the emotionless way Young raps out her complaints about an old lover in "Big Talker" pretty well sets the scene for the rest of the EP.

Yet, even with its sleek, well-groomed presentation, the songs on Surge do somehow manage to live up to their name. Like a band playing a political fund-raiser in the basement of an investment firm, Inner Frequency is shamelessly commercial. Even so, the fact that Young and crew can create even the smallest spark of unconventionality in such a niche is remarkable in itself.