10.17.2008

Carolina Liar, Coming To Terms (Atlantic, 2008)


Chad Wolf grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, but he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a pop singer-songwriter. As he was shopping his demos around, he teamed up with a group of musicians from Sweden who had also found their way to California. Carolina Liar consists of Wolf on vocals, Jim Almgren Gandara and Rickard Göransson on guitars, Johan Carlsson on keyboards, Erik Hääger on bass, and Max Grahn on drums. Coming to Terms is the band's debut.

On first listen, it might be easy to dismiss the opening song and single "I'm Not Over" as formulaic power pop, but it's the kind of song that winds up lodging itself inside your brain and staying there. I was hoping the rest of the album would be similarly effective. Unfortunately, for the most part that isn't true. Other than "California Bound," none of the other songs are catchy enough to make up for not being particularly creative or imaginative.

On Coming to Terms, Chad Wolf and Carolina Liar show enough promise to suggest they could make their share of hits. But this album just didn't have enough consistency to hold my interest, and I can't recommend it as a whole. There are two songs worth downloading, but the rest of it is dispensable.

Overall grade: C


reviewed by Scott


"I'm Not Over"

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