Rubber — Self-titled

By Lauralee Myers

Some albums are boring, fluffy or just plain bad the first time you listen to them. More often than not, these disks prove useful as drink coasters or eye-catching reflective mobiles, but not much good for listening purposes. Other albums, just need to be battered against your ears a few times before you realize they actually are worth your time. It turns out Rubber’s self-titled debut CD is one of the latter.

Rubber is an album made with little direct outside influence. The songs are self-written with the exception of "Sunshine", the album’s first single. The energy and enthusiasm are evident even in more sedate songs such as "Pool Party." The sound is a strange brew–touching rock, alternative, pop, and even country-esque categories of music. This eclectic mixture works well as the group seems able to combine these diverse sounds seamlessly.

The disk’s only drawback is that it is less than 40 minutes in length. This makes Rubber an unusually short party, but think of it as concentrated, damn good music you can always put it on repeat.