Record Label: Parlor Records
Genre: Indie
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com

The first track is soothing lo-fi with soft, slow, echoey vocals. I dug it at first, but then got sick of the distorted, drawling vocals by the 2-minute mark, and expected the worst for the rest of the album.

Happily, The Protocol find their stride on the second track, a rocking, driving indie pop-rock tune. The rest of the album keeps mixing it up with various styles from southern rock riffing on “Moment” to the carbon-copy Hives-like garage tune “Click.” Not very cohesive, but it’s all done very well, with pop-laden hooks, catchy choruses, some decent riffing, and clever lyrics.

The vocals, though, consistently have this sunshiney echoey effect on them, which strikes me as bar-rock amateurish. These guys have the chops to be straight-ahead rockers, and even though they’re a bit over the place with different styles, I don’t think “gratingly echoey and drawn-out vocals” should be their common thread. Still… some very good tracks on here.

Bottom Line:
Notable Tracks: Click, Cannibal, the interestingly rhythmic Who Decides?
Overall Rating: