French Kicks — Two Thousand

The subtle charms the French Kicks trade in are pretty easy to come by these days. There are a ton of other acts on the market peddling the Kicks' brand of sensitive indie rock. Unfortunately, the band do very little to differentiate themselves on Two Thousand. The only real memorable part of this album is the inside cover of the CD sleeve, which features one of the band members slicing a carrot. Taproots aside, the music of French Kicks falls on the wrong side of bland. There's nothing wrong with the calm melodies that tunes like "Knee High" and "Also Rain" provide, but beyond some inventive keyboard fills, it all seems pretty hollow and mostly forgettable. Perhaps the problem is vocalist Nick Stumpf, who sounds a bit too much like Bono or Travis' Fran Healey for most of this disc.

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