And it better be ready to sustain that intensity. It’s one thing to rip off a monstrous guitar solo, quite another to be blazing away for the entire course of an album.

Anyone who wants to take on that challenge, my hat’s off to ‘em. A for effort, B+ for balls. More rock bands should have the guts to throw it all on the table like this. But it doesn’t guarantee passing marks.

The Music comes fairly close on this sophomore effort, Welcome to the North. The first impression is a toe-curling one. You’re punched in the face almost from the opening notes (a 20-second intro tricks you), but the same-titled opener also reveals the band’s serious flaws. At over five minutes, there’s not nearly enough of a fully-formed melodic song to keep you from glancing at the clock. The next one, “Freedom Fighters,” takes care of that, a nicely-structured number with even energy and supportive, short solos.

But another glaring problem showcased by the opening cut is something that a lot of fans hail as The Music’s major asset: that voice. The voice of Robert Harvey. That’s “Harvey.” Not “Plant.” If I see one more comparison to that quirky castrato squealer who was the peculiarly perfect vocal match for the instrumental thunder of Led Zeppelin, I’m going to have a communication breakdown. Harvey does n-o-t sound like Robert Plant, okay? He’s much closer to Starship’s Mickey Thomas, or, truth be told…Geddy Lee. Please, no rush to judgment, but that is a problem.

The good news is, Harvey doesn’t always sound so thin and weird. On “Bleed from Within,” he guides nearly the last half of the song’s six and a half minutes through what is mostly a drum solo, but more a percussion cruise, with some inspired equivalent of rock scatting. The bad news is, he takes a similar short run in the middle of “Breakin’” and it sounds like he’s on helium.

Three songs in a row that slow the tempo really shine a light on their songwriting shortcomings (and faulty judgment in choice of gold-
credentialed producer Brendan O’Brien). Then “I Need Love” turns out to be a decent tune, but -- dang! Harvey wails the chorus like a gerbil squeezed too hard.

Enough! I’m being hard on the hard-working guy, and if you love his singing, you’re probably going to wear this disc out. Live, I’ll bet these guys are amazing. The Music do take chances and crank rock harder and with more skill and power than most faceless bands out there. With some better songs and some cigarette and whiskey conditioning for Harvey’s vocal chords, it could be a whole different ball game.

P.S. – I’ve got to say it: if anybody can explain to me a good reason, true or imagined, for putting two minutes of dead air in the middle of a 12-minute song that is the least interesting of them all, you can have my copy of the disc. You probably deserve and need it more than I do.