KEY POINTS:
Herald Rating: * * *
Label: EMI
Verdict: Band strike rough patch on mediocre third album
There are points on this, the middling effort by the Auckland rock quintet, when you do start to worry about just what it is that frontman Milan Borich has caught in his throat?
Is it too much existential longing on songs with titles like The Soul Is A Whore causing involuntary laryngeal contractions? Are the band's 80s urges causing a nostalgic emotional lump? Furballs?
Because his tendency to hit the screech button does begin to sound overwrought and is something of a tune-killer, a touch that might sound ragged and rock'n'roll'n'all, but which seems out of kilter with the rest of Pluto's relatively sedate delivery.
Combined with those stylistic nods to the Live Aid era (granted, one which many acts are extracting good mileage out of) the effect can be disconcerting - especially on the likes of Nineteen Sixty Three which is about 20 years off in its title. The song might start off in the stately manner of U2's New Year's Day but it soon comes on like it's been invaded by the chorusline of the Rocky Horror Picture Show with Borich as Riff Raff. Which isn't as much fun as it sounds.
There are a few other tracks, Waiting Watching especially, which owe much to that rock era of clarion guitars, swirling synthesizers, and busy basslines, while the aforementioned The Soul Is A Whore, suggests a spot of Bauhaus-ish electro-goth. And while we're in trainspotter mode, isn't the riff to Polaroid Girl a variation on Deep Purple's hoary metal chestnut Black Night?
Fortunately among all that there are a solid core of songs that stand up nicely, including ballads like the lovely, dreamy Forgiveness and similar down-tempo tracks Chemistry, and the closing Night Light.
But too much of Sunken Water feels oversung and underdone. Their previous two albums shone with creativity and distinctive personality - heck even their hit Long White Cross survived the indignity of being the theme to Orange Roughies - but on this feels like they're coasting and croaking.
