I listened today to a couple of singles from The Xcerts; a Scottish 3-piece “distorted Pop” band. cThe songs come from their LP “In the Cold Wind We Smile,” which was released in March of 2009. The two-song EP, available from Amazon, is a Jeckyl and Hyde affair.

The first track, ‘Nightschool’ is pretty uninspired. It strives perhaps for U2, but sadly comes closer to Garage Band. The transitions form verse to chorus to bridge are creative, but the verses and chorus themselves are retreaded material. The mortar is cool, but the bricks are pretty drab.

The second track, on the other hand, is six minutes of towering, anthemic ballad that is well-produced and evocative. ‘Home vs Home (The Blueskies Remix)’ is a new take on track #2 from “In the Cold Wind We Smile.” I went and listened to the original version, since this is a remix. The album version of this song is cut from the same cloth as ‘Nightschool.’ It didn’t do much for me. On this remix however, The Xcerts have slowed the song down, added some reverberated guitar, and auto-tuned lead singer Murray Macleod’s voice (for effect, since he has no problem hitting notes.)

The new take on this composition is frankly beautiful and I wonder whose creative vision drove the improvements in this track. I listened to the rest of the Amazon samples of “In the Cold Wind We Smile,” but not having actually listened to the whole disc, I won’t comment on it other than to say there seem to be both pretty, thoughtful ballads and college Pop songs on the full-length release.

As for the single release I listened to, I can highly recommend half of it. Check out ‘Home vs Home (Blueskies Remix).’