Album Review: The Years - Into The Fever

Amid dreamy sequences of mild disco beats and high drama dynamic shifts, you'll detect more than a whiff of boy band from this Canadian smooth-pop outfit. Kevin Lyle's soulful vocals try too hard to be sultry, instead conjuring an incredibly generic pop sound. The combo of this affected technique and their meaningless lyrics (“She's got high-heels on/She's a bad girl and she knows it”) inform an overall worn-out quality. Despite romantic tones and a full, hazy texture, their attempted poignancy just feels plastic. You can certainly hear the strings being pulled behind the scenes.