To Each...

For A Certain Ratio's debut album, the group dropped much of the bleak dance-punk of early material in place of what sounds like a shallow attempt to seize the baton dropped by gloom giants Joy Division after the death of Ian Curtis. Though Simon Topping's trumpet work occasionally lifts To Each over the crop of contemporary synth-popsters, the album is a bit too mired in its own misery to make an impression on listeners. ~ Keith Farley