Unabashedly tepid.

That more than sums up this 5 song debut EP from New York's The Natural History. The group brings absolutely nothing new to the table in their ever watered down "real rock and roll" genre. They sound like Radio 4 [who in turn sound like Wire and Gang of Four], but not nearly as good [which is pretty bad, since the last Radio 4 album was a stinker].

Singers Max and Julian Tepper try their best to create a mixture of Julian of the Strokes and Jack of the White Stripes, with mediocre results. The best part is, their one-sheet tries to pass them off as "blending the melodicism of Elvis Costello with the experimentation of XTC." Maybe they sent me the wrong CD, because all I hear is cut rate New York hipster rock. Pass on this.

MP3s
Telling Lies Will Get You No Where
So He'll Say