Madcaps — Juice

Montreal-based Madcaps' new collection Juice is decent, but would benefit from a little more breadth, both musically and lyrically.

The songs are mostly straightforward, no-nonsense rockers that come off a little generic. To their benefit, Madcaps also incorporate brass instrumentation like saxophones, which give the music a broader, jazzy feel. This "big band" type accompaniment is best heard in "Hurt You" and "Gotta Get Ready," which benefit tremendously from the brass. Lead vocalist Frederic Pellerin has a great command of his voice and it compliments both the rock and jazz aspects of their music.

Madcaps still have a few missteps that need correcting. The real problem here is the lyrical material, which is rife with clichés and can get overly repetitive on a couple of tracks, particularly "Just Like Your Mother Made It." Sometimes it feels like the lyrics were written for the sake of rhyming over content, but there's some enjoyment in Juice if you can get past this bump.

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