I don't really know what I was looking for when I first listened to Edgewater's fourth disc, We're Not Robots. Wait, now I remember. See, I'd recalled at least some interest in a track they had on the soundtrack to The Punisher, but I couldn't remember anything about their style of music, so in a minute I had before going out I randomly clicked through the 10 tracks on the disc. The Cliff's Notes of the CD, so to speak. I'm almost positive that of the 30-40 places I clicked (if you figure 3 or 4 clicks per track), I heard approximately 2 chords.
So when I sat down for a full listen, I was hoping for any signs of creativity in the writing, or at least a third chord. The good news is, the extra chords were there at least; I'm still not sure about the signs of creativity part. There are a few bright spots, like the atmospheric end of "Rock is Dead," the off-time chorus in "I Can't Breathe," or the main theme of "Caught in the Moment," but a lot of it feels like rock-by-numbers: distorted guitars here, clean guitars here, melodic riff, big chorus, the occasional trendy scream.
I guess that the overall good news for the CD, despite a feeling of genericness, is that at least it's well-done genericness. The songs are catchy, and there are plenty of examples of how to use the same modern rock elements to much worse output. I think it wins an award for most mis-titled CD of the year, as "We're Not Robots" would imply stepping out much further from the modern rock mold. All told, this is a pretty middle-of-the-road modern rock CD; check out "Caught in the Moment" and " S.O.B." and see if it's up your alley.
