** GETAWAY CRUISER

(550 Music)

If a band's music has loads more personality and presence than their singer, there are two solutions: bury the singer in the mix or get rid of him/her entirely. That's the situation with the otherwise promising electro-rock outfit Getaway Cruiser, but on their debut, they turn nondescript singer Dina Harrison up in the mix and let her commandeer a dozen tracks with her unwaveringly bland warble. It's not that she's bad, just indifferent -- which is almost worse, because it's boring.

And that's too bad, because there's a lot of music to like here, as songwriters Chris and Drew Peters (who also play the bulk of instruments) fuse the slinky guitar raunch of early-'70s-era Stones ("Not Yet Gone," "Come To Say") with a battery of late-'90s technotronica touches that suggest Garbage's dance-music-with-guitars hybrid. With a guest rap by the Fugees' Pras, a cover of Tony Toni Toni's "Let's Get Down," and deep-shag production by the Butcher Bros., this could have been something to get down to. But in the end, Harrison's voice just becomes something to get away from.

-- Jonathan Perry