The cover of Vesta Varro's debut exhibits a bleak, barren landscape, lit only by a single lamppost placed strategically in a cornfield. If there's one piece of sleeve art that sums up a record more aptly than Exit Here this year, I'll eat my iPod; the only difference between that grey depiction and the album itself is that there is no beacon of light or redemption to be heard within the turgid confines of this Limerick quartet's inaugural offering. Formed in 2004, the Shannonside band have been steadily building a profile for themselves since, winning support slots with the likes of Editors, The Thrills and Bell X1 - a campaign which culminated in them winning the National Student Music Awards in 2006. They make much of the fact that Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook is a fan, but can you really trust the opinion of a man whose tinnitus is probably worse than Beethoven's was? There's very little here to be positive about; Vesta Varro, and especially lead singer Damien Drea sound like they're desperately trying to emulate a particular sound, but haven't yet decided what that sound is. The result is a mish-mash of downbeat, morose tunes that are dismal to the point of inanity. Songs here fall into two camps; the more rock-oriented tracks with added power chords that sound like a rip-off of Feeder and Therapy? (Yellow Rooms, Reaching Out, Newborn Child), the more melancholic attempts at heart-rending indie ballads (Weighted Love, the awful soft metal anthem Believe) and the taut, clipped riffs of I Agree and Babies, tracks that so desperately want to sound like Editors or Radiohead, but fail spectacularly on both counts. Drea's watery vocals sound lost in the mix 99% of the time, but his bandmates' indie-rock-by-numbers soundtracks don't help matters in the slightest. Exit Here? If you've any appreciation for your sanity, you'll have left a long time ago.
