In an age of mediocre lyrics, bland guitars and lackluster vocals, it’s pretty hard to find an album that really signals some sort of music revolution.

Unfortunately, Linwood’s “Burn Effect” isn’t one of them.

Hailing from Cleveland, Miss., this post-grunge four-piece outfit sounds just about as good as the rest of what MTV is currently calling hard rock.

Not to say the music is terrible.

Well, not all of it anyway.

The album starts off pretty weak with “Lie to You,” which makes the band sound like just another group of angst-ridden teens.

Sadly, the melodrama is spread throughout the entire album, poisoning what could’ve been a solid, upbeat album with sappy lyrics about pain and sadness when put in the context of a relationship. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but when all 11 songs are about the same thing, it just gets really old really fast.

Fortunately, the album begins to pick up toward the end.

Songs like “The Dead” and “Circle” are the album’s saving grace.

Depressing, yes, but it is a refresher from the first few tracks of mediocrity.

The vocals on the track are pretty decent and are the only aspect of the album that is consistently good. The band says they’ve been influenced by R.E.M., and it shows through its lead singer, Bo Lindsey.

It’s almost as if Michael Stipe quit and joined up with Pearl Jam.

Except that would be totally awesome, and they would rock.

It wouldn’t be fair to say “Burn Effect” was totally awful, as that just isn’t true.

It’s just one of those albums you would listen to once every three months, during which time it just sits on your shelf collecting dust while you listen to something better.

Indiana State sophomore quarterback Chuck Dowdell found himself facing the hard rush of Eastern’s defense in the Sycamores’ 38-3 loss to the Panthers on Saturday.

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