Boomkat

Boomkatalog One

Genre: Crop-up pop

Next of Kin: Evanescence, The Donnas, Stacie Orrico

One out of five stars

There isn’t much about brother-sister duo Boomkat that isn’t annoying.

From song titles like “Yo!verture” and “B4 it’s 2 L8” to their generic party beats and airhead lyrics, Boomkat’s first album offers nothing of redeeming value. Like the audio equivalent of a Baz Luhrmann movie, Boomkat’s sound is loud, obnoxious and in-your-face. But the music of these siblings has even less substance.

Boomkat singer/rapper Taryn Manning hasn’t starred in any of Luhrmann’s films, but has acted alongside both Brittany Spears and Eminem in “Crossroads” and “8 Mile” respectively. Unfortunately, rubbing elbows with those artists has failed to improve her style. All that Manning brings to Boomkat is the pretty face on the CD cover.

On the album’s second track, “The Wreckoning,” she complains, “You don’t give a shit about me,” but on the album’s remaining 12 tracks, she fails to prove why anyone should.

No one should particularly care about her brother either. Kellin Manning’s combination of hip-hop beats, party call-out samples and scratching produce a soundscape that might rock the house at a middle school party, but would seem lame anywhere else.

On Boomkatalog One’s most annoying track, “Crazylove,” Taryn lists all the things that she has (you guessed it) crazy love for. I hope for her sake that acting and supporting her no-talent brother made the list because I can’t imagine her doing much else in the future.

Published on April 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm