Intake

On their debut full-length, Dallas band Intake wear their influences on their collective sleeve—be they Muse, Mutemath or even the Latin influence that can be detected in most songs. That last part makes sense; three members of the band are Columbian. One song on the album is even sung completely in Spanish.

So what do you get when you merge all of these influences into one collective effort? If nothing else, a record that's interesting, promising and ambitious.

The first clear fact here is Jonathan Camacho, the band's lead singer and producer, has got some pipes. He seems to channel both Brandon Boyd on modern alt-rock tracks like "i...and YOU", and even Bono on the melodramatic "Better Day." Meanwhile, "Hostile Nostalgia" almost sounds like a Muse B-side that was written while on tour in South America, with its swirling synths, Latin bongos and chorus drenched in bombast. Ethan Martin's guitar work also runs the gamut from a standard modern-rock sound to the jangly syncopation of indie rock.

The melodrama bit does grow tiresome, and the record includes one too many songs driven by echo-laden vocals. But in the end, the good on Moments+Definition does outweigh the bad.