Lexia - Eyes Set To Kill presents: Underground Sounds

Lexia - Eyes Set To Kill presents: Underground Sounds

2010, BreakSilence Records

Eyes Set To Kill lead vocalist Alexia Rodriguez steps out on her own, this time working under the name Lexia on Eyes Set To Kill presents: Underground Sounds.  The album is a blend of pop and rock with a focus on a big, full sound underwritten with dance beats alternating with mostly acoustic tracks.

Underground Sounds opens with “Basements”, a straight forward bit of dance pop.  Lexia’s voice is pleasant to listen to, but sounds very lightweight here as if a lot of production craft is being used to fill out her sound.  “Basements” is a solid opener, but not the sort of dynamic lead track you might expect.  “Climbing Up The Walls” is a dark, disturbed and simple arrangement.  The vocal line is messy, with Lexia sliding around notes as if she were walking on ice.  “Over” is a song of loss that ends up sounding whiney.  Lexia has nice tone to her voice but shows no vocal discipline here; notes are not hit cleanly and it’s too prevalent to simply be stylistic.

“Come Home” confirms the pitch issues as a real concern, and the energy level here is thoroughly flat, with Rodriguez sounding as if she were singing on autopilot.  Lexia turns the corner on “Memories”, one of the best moments on the album.  Lexia shows more discipline here than previously amidst a stripped down, near-acoustic sound.  Lexia sticks with the stripped down sound on “World Outside” and the improvement continues.  The pitch issues aren’t entirely gone but Lexia shows distinct improvement.  Unfortunately the wheels come off on “Reach”, with Lexia getting sloppy once again.  Lexia closes with an acoustic version of “Come Home”, an improvement over the original but still quite messy in a ballad that’s decidedly uninspired.

There’s not much else to be said for Underground Sounds.  The songwriting is bland at best, and Lexia (Or Alexia) Rodriguez simply doesn’t have the breath control or vocal discipline to sing consistently without sliding all over the melody line.  You can hear in the short three-note trills that she sometimes does at the end of a phrase that she has a distinctly difficult time with pitch. Lexia has an interesting voice worth exploring, but lacks the training needed to make it viable.  There’s not a lot to recommend here.

Rating: 1 Star (Out of 5)

Learn more about Lexia at www.myspace.com/lexia or www.myspace.com/eyessettokill.  Underground Sounds is available as a CD or Download.  The album is also available via iTunes.