Tender Forever
Issue #26
The Soft and the Hardcore (K)
By Kristina Francisco
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 1:00pm
From the earthy roster of the Pacific Northwest’s K Records comes Tender Forever (née Melanie Valera) and her debut, The Soft and the Hardcore. By turns electro-tinged, at others simply acoustic guitar, The Soft and the Hardcore> is an album giddy 10-year-olds would make in their pajamas at a slumber party: at first fun and amusing, but ultimately immature and boring.
Valera seemingly aims for The Soft and the Hardcore to be like labelmate the Blow’s electronic outings, but unfortunately, she lacks the Blow’s talent for making play sound like actual music. Like a child first discovering a drum machine or a Casio, several tracks off this debut are basement-party dance songs with weak beats underlying Valera’s voice — undeviating from track to track and unvarying from line to line. Other songs have Valera singing over simple acoustic guitar, though there’s no drama, excitement, or emotion.
In the end, The Soft and the Hardcore doesn’t try to be anything more than a pop album, but cute can only go so far. As the record wears on, Valera’s vocals, beats, and guitar begin to wear thin. Without much difference between one track and the next, all of the songs meld into one, none distinguishable or memorable from the next despite the changes from guitar to electro. As part of the usually reliable K Records scene, one can only hope that Valera’s talent will yield another effort less bloated with unimpressive tunes.
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