Cirrus: Counterfeit : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Long Beach, California's Cirrus have had their music peppered throughout popular culture in everything from MTV's Real World series to the film Zoolander over the last decade. All that exposure might sound like a good thing, but in fact Cirrus were the perfect act for licensing because its music was anonymous. No more. With Counterfeit, the quartet has mastered the art of the song. The opening "Boomerang," featuring vocalist Laura Derby, is a seductive groove on the down-tempo tip, while "Straight Laid Out" is more of an old-school techno beat complete with digitized vocals. If anything, Counterfeit gets a little too song-happy, spending too much time dabbling in an array of electronic styles rather than perfecting one sound. Still, winning tracks like the sunny hook of "You Are (Panacea)" and the hip-hop flavored breaks of "Ghettoblaster" show Cirrus are ready to stand up and be counted.

STEVE BALTIN
(July 2, 2002)