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In a marketplace that offers thousands of new CD’s each and every week, what makes the Juliana Theory stand out from this sea of new plastic? Well, after two spins through the CD and a complete run-through of all the material on the accompanying DVD, I’m not quite sure if there’s much. They appear to be a real ‘band’ in the truest sense of the term (which is cool), but they suffer from a paucity of personality (which isn’t). There’s lots of energy in the material on “Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat”, but there’s nothing fresh here to attract my attention or make the band rise above. Judging from the evidence, their musicianship is fine, but they don’t appear to be instinctive musicians, which is to say that they sound like a bunch of guys in search of a suitable genre. They sound too obsessed with making a good impression, which drains their songs of humor, spontaneity or personality. Worse, it destroys the originality that seems to be lurking beneath the opaque surface of their arrangements. Juliana Theory is a band that wants to believe in its own potential, but fails to convince me why I should. There is a slight trickle of self-doubt that creeps into virtually every track, as if they are second-guessing the marketplace, or trying too hard to please their potential fan base.
The album starts off with promise. “This Is a Love Song…for the Loveless” has well-written changes and decent lyrics. “We Make the Road by Walking” also stands up to repeated listenings, but ear fatigue starts to set in by track 3 or 4. Thousands of ‘potential stars’ (and decades of musical predecessors) are the band’s competition, so plowing through chord changes while singing about a bitter break up is not particularly intriguing, especially if there is nothing unique about the presentation. Lacking in personality, I can’t sympathize with the protagonist, and I start thinking that maybe the girl was right to dump this guy for his inability to communicate properly. The “Making of” video that accompanies the CD is brutally revealing, but painfully boring, with nothing of consequence to attract us into the fold. The bandmembers act as if they are almost afraid to talk to the camera. Four bonus songs appear on the DVD as well (with absolutely no video accompaniment) but unfortunately, none of them warrant repeated listening. “Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat” isn’t bad per se. It is actually good in a technical sense, but it rarely shakes the complacency that renders it as a near-generic collection of bitter break-up songs.
Grade: 
 
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