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Soft Tigers - Gospel Ambitions

One of the most intriguing elements of Sydney's Soft Tigers is the fact that they are almost completely removed from classification and direct comparisons. Gospel Ambitions moves through genres at an alarming rate, switching styles with every track, making the band's sound almost impossible to pin down. Soft Tigers genuinely seem to be one of those rare bands that melt together creativity, ability and pop sensibility in an interesting and appealing way. Unfortunately, their debut record contains far too many cringe-worthy moments to be enjoyable.

The record's highlights mainly occur when the band combine unique imagery of Australian suburban life painted over a wide variety of obvious influences and quirky ideas. When their offbeat lyrics and stories of everyday small town living are put together with clever arrangements it's incredibly enjoyable. Tracks like their breakthrough single M.A.R.I.A, as well as Creation and Makin Love are not instantly memorable but also very nicely packaged ideas rendered in the form of pop music. The rest of the tracks are either poorly executed 'hip-hop' numbers - Karate and Mr Icecream - or slow moving puberty ballads. The latter are definitely less skipworthy than the whiteboy rap moments but still not enough to make this an album that you would want to listen to on repeat.

There is little doubt that Soft Tigers have some work to do on perfecting their sound. While Gospel Ambitions has occasional moments when everything comes together perfectly there are too many instances where their offerings come off as sloppy, lazy and half-assed.