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Meet The Zolas: a two-piece hark-back-to-70s Rush-esque prog-pop-rock band with a modern, more theatrical twist. The problem? There are a few.

The duo released their highly anticipated debut album, Tic Toc Tic just a month ago, and I’m already bored. At first listen, there was intrigue, but that quickly faded as I realized these guys aren’t as innovative or inspiring as I hoped them to be. The band take steps beyond pop music, but they aren’t quite over the hurdle – The Zolas seem to linger in this middle kingdom between straightforward pop and progressive, but their trendy cabaret-influenced experimental rock album sounds way cooler as a description than it actually is.

As far as pop music goes, these guys have some things to boast: catchy melodies, some interesting hooks, good drum patterns (the drumming is their strong-point), and the overall composition is cool. The instrumentals do elevate the band above your typical pop sound and they certainly carry the music, but the defeat lies within the vocals. Zach Gray’s voice is too standard, too overbearing, and his lyrics provide little to no redemption. Yes, he has the range, but his vocal placement and style just doesn’t jive with the musical counterparts.

Tic Toc Tic sounds like a Cold War Kids/Rush/Gavin DeGraw theatrical hybrid; however, the album has neither the edge nor the tightness of CWK, the musical depth of Rush, and Gavin DeGraw sucks pop. But what’s most interesting about The Zolas is their evident potential.  Zach Gray and Tom Dobrzanski clearly have skill and talent. The instrumentals approach unusual complexity and unconventionality for pop music, but the band doesn’t seem to want to go that extra experimental mile with it. Instead they’ve chosen to plateau at this thinly veiled nuanced interpretation of pop. Sure, The Zolas’ structure departs somewhat from the boring verse-chorus-verse template, and they’ve successfully created some sort of off-broadway-meets cabaret-meets radio-savvy music , but I can’t help but think that their sound is more contrived and vapid than natural or inventive. Yeah it’s fun, fluffy music, but where’s the spirit?

Even with the ability to compose and play music well, talent ultimately depends on the quality of expression and how far the bar has been raised. Again, the potential to go beyond stagy, predictable music is so strong in this album you can hear it, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t use their wherewithal to swerve off the road to commercial and do something greater…or at least use another vocalist.

Reviewed by Brittany Smith