Tiny Masters Of Today – Skeletons

The notion of children in a rock band immediately provokes sceptiscm. When it comes to Tiny Masters Of Today, consisting of 15-year-old Ivan and his 14-year-old sister Ada, it’s easy to overlook their more obvious failings. After all, their first album had guest appearances from the likes of Karen O and Russell Simons, giving the young duo a dose of invaluable credibility.

Yet that debut still had its critics, partly due to gross fatigue with young MySpace sensations. Skeletons attempts to prove the critics wrong, and the grimey Drop The Bomb makes for an impressive opening track. The tinny guitars and electronic beats are accomplished, and the sound is a more mature one than the debut Bang Bang Boom Cake.

Back when Tiny Masters were still prepubscent kids, the world of social networking praised their efforts. But the suspicion remained that this was due to their age. Now is a better time to judge their efforts – if you’d never heard of the band before and heard a song like Two Dead Soldiers on the radio, you’d have no idea that they were so young.

However, interest wanes as the album progresses, and boredom sets in as the mind starts to wander. All their songs are just over two minutes long, but even this brevity isn’t enough to save Real Good, in which the vocals prove immensely irritating. Even the one longer track, Big Stick, is let down by its dire lyrics.

The overall effect of Skeletons is akin to being poked and prodded by a bratty child for over half an hour. Short snappy songs should be able to keep the listener interested. Instead, it makes them sigh, as it’s all been done before.