I'm getting quite sick of hearing this familiar thread in music: somonedecides to write a melody, throw some neat effects over it, add asplattering of acoustic instrumentation in and call it a great songthat borders on the experimental. The truth is, music like Enik's isbecoming more and more predictable all of the time. There's nothingcourageous or creative about changing the sonic template of rock musicby adding cabaret elements and electronic palettes of noise. When theshit hits the fan, the only thing that can save a record like this oneis good song-writing. Enik has an obviously enormous range ofinfluences that cover a spectrum from classical and jazz music to thestuttering and sick beat-heavy compositions of electronic music. Theproblem with this six-song EP is that it never leaves its influencesbehind and strikes new ground; it never does anything but try toemulate something far too familiar. This fact leaves Without a Barkfeeling flashy and without substance. "Chaos the Drug" is a goodexample of how bad metaphor, melodrama, and overproduction can kill asong. Forget that Enik is actively trying to combine a near-metal vocaltendency with dramatic washes of erratic percussion, typically brokenkeyboards, and something like a bass guitar stuck on two or three notesand way overplayed; the whole of this song sounds half-assed. It's asthough the vocals were meant to be deep and meaningful, but they comeaway feeling as badly performed as some of Alec Baldwin's earlyattempts at being an actor. There's passion in Enik's voice, but hisdelivery doesn't exactly match up with the music. "Tired Heads" suffersfrom a similar problem. There's a bare piano part being rolled alongeasily undernearth a toy drum machine sound while Enik croons away likehe's talking to a child that's asleep in its baby carriage anyways. Ifeel like I'm being lied to when I listen to this. Quite frankly Idon't believe in whatever whimsical notions Enik might have and that'senough to spoil these 24 minutes of music for me. Without a Barkis most predictable in its attitude and arrangement: Enik wants to bedifferent, so he employs a wide array of musical styles to hide thefact that he doesn't really have any ideas that haven't been used upbefore. Predictable in its diversity, painfully derivative, and lackingaltogether in some appeal that exists beyond its influences, Enik haswritten an album that will appeal to a lot of people stuck on badradio, bad television, and bad soundtracks, but there's nothing aboutit that makes it stand out from the sea of releases already doing thesame damn thing.Read More
