On To Force a Fate (Lookout), the second album from
Elizabeth Elmore and her post-Sarge band, the
Reputation, she seems to be feeling fidgety, trying
out and rejecting a closetful of post-emo and alt-rock
styles with maddeningly methodical efficiency. But
throught there's a painful, labored thickness of
phrasing in the vocals and guitars (see "the Ugliness
Kicking Around") that's more dramatic than a whole
Metro full of straight-ahead thrashing.