Play 90 second soundbite of 'No-one Cares' @ 'CD quality'
My initial thoughts on Ten Fifty are that there's still some way to go yet guys! Ok, there's only two tracks here to go on, 'No-one Cares' and 'Sounds Familiar', but it seems clear to me that Ten Fifty need to work a bit harder yet to really pull it off. The two songs tend to lack anything that sets Ten Fifty apart from thousands of other 'rock' bands. Saying that, the recording isn't actually as good as it could be either and the result is that much of their energy is lost somewhere in the mix. And, yes I think there is an energy to Ten Fifty, they just need to find a way to let go and really bring it out when recording. The songs are a bit on the weak side and perhaps track two, 'Sounds Familiar' sums up what's on offer here.
I'm not one to put musicians down and always try to be positive when asked for my opinion. Ten Fifty aren't youngsters - and with that in mind they should be able to find a sound that sums them up in a moment. This demo doesn't do that!! It's still early days yet for Ten Fifty - I tend to think that they're not ready for the studio yet. I think that the four of them should continue to record their songs in this way but just for themselves and use the recordings a means of reviewing their own work with a view to revisiting and reworking things. They should try to listen to their songs with completely open minds and try to remove themselves from the whole thing to see what they would think if it was some other bands' stuff. That way they'd stand a chance of finding that little bit more and help them put their own stamp on the songs.
There's potential here ok and I get the feeling that Ten Fifty could be pretty awesome in the live scenario - the guys can play and they seem to work together as a unit quite well. The main problem is with the quality of songwriting and then the finished, recorded product; the former need to be a bit more thought out and robust so that Ten Fifty have their own, unique identity, the latter requires time, patience, bloody hard work and perhaps some outside help.
It's a tough old world out there and I'm sure it hurts real bad when you put loads of effort in to something like this demo only to have some wordy old git telling you all sorts of things that you probably don't want to hear and maybe don't agree with. Anyway, I really hope Ten Fifty stick at it and take time out to get things really sorted. At the moment Ten Fifty sound far from being the finished product. It's still very early days yet in the development and growth of Ten Fifty and these guys are old enough to know what to do next - I really hope Ten Fifty take my criticism in the way it's meant; as constructive comments to help Ten Fifty move on up a few notches and become a really decent outfit that could, one day, just blow you away - on disc as well as on stage!
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