Mercyside

Mercyside's label, Mi5 Recordings, gives Jennifer Brunetti (the voice behind Mercyside) a 13-page bio on their website, which seems a bit of overkill for an artist who has only this debut album to her credit. Truth Is basically comes across as pretentious pop rock buoyed by a techno injection that never really alleviates the CD's dated feel. Producer Ted Mason brings some sophistication and variety to Mercyside's sound, but Brunetti's weak vocals simply cannot carry a whole CD. If you make it past the awful '80s rock-inspired opening song, the out of sync "Pink Sea," the second number, "Truth is," makes the best use of Brunetti's airy voice, which unfortunately doesn't get any livelier than this.