The Crying Girl EP

Three cheers for boring!
by: Tim Wardyn

The Crying Girl EP Rock label: Self-released released: 08.17.07 our score: 2.5 out of 5.0

Get The Crying Girl EP sheet music and guitar tab!

If Jeff Buckley were a little more pop, not quite as good and fronted the Gin Blossoms, then Mosquito would have been the result. "The Crying Girl EP" is a three-song teaser to the band’s forthcoming album. It’s not great, but it’s not horrendous either.

The one thing that I can’t figure out is whether Mosquito is being marketed as a band or as something else that lead singer Seamus Cullen is doing. Yes, Cullen evokes everyone from Buckley to Thom Yorke at times, but this is a band. The music itself is lush and quite catchy and at times (like the end of "The Crying Girl") is overpowered by the terribly affected and overdone vocals.

There are two problems with this "The Crying Girl EP" from Mosquito. This is supposed to be a teaser to the album. But with these three tracks, there is nothing memorable. Pop-rock with the overly affected lead singer has been done before, and better for longer. (See also Radiohead and Muse). But Cullen’s vocals are not what they are being advertised as. He is being touted as, vocally, the next thing to God and it’s just not true. There are a good 25-30 that I can think of right off the top of my head that are better and if you gave me some time, I could probably find two to three times more.

It’s not that this EP makes Mosquito sound bad, just generic. I hope their full-length has something better to offer.