Artist review: Vicki Cicala

Vicki Cicala -- Vicki Cicala [EP]
By Jeanie Straub
ColoradoMusicBuzz.com

I was one who did love-to-death Pat Benatar and Quaterflash way back when I was running home from the school bus stop with my girlfriend from across the street in rural Boulder County; we were running home so we could watch the new cable channel called MTV. Now, however, it is 2010, almost 2011 and Vicki Cicala’s four-song EP -- a “smash-up of ’80s pop, metal and folk rock coupled with beautifully haunting vocals,” as her myspace page puts it -- tends to just sound dated. (It feels like you’re watching a TV show where no one has any cell phones yet.) Ms. Cicala certainly does have a strong voice, a voice I could listen to longer if this were simply an ’80s-influenced CD. But to just be transported back to the ’80s -- I just want to change the channel, move ahead to something new, innovative. You need to be something more than a throwback; you need to integrate, to add something new to the mix to sustain interest here. Even the lyrics and guitar licks feel tired.

Recorded and produced by Trevor Huster

myspace.com/vickicicala