At 18 years of age KHIERSTIN is a former model now turned rock ‘n’ roller. Or I should say KHIERSTIN is a distinctly American brand of rock ‘n’ roller with faux petulant vocals that try too hard to put rawness into the singing (she lacks passion) and a backing band with an over-fondness for effects pedals. KHIERSTIN looks like Courtney Love if the latter were given a make-over by the local PTA.She hails from California and her dream for pop stardom has been financed by her mother selling off the family home, despite having 6 other children to raise. Thanks mum, where exactly are we going to live now?
‘Lost In This’ is a 5-track EP showcasing this new “rock chick”. The net effect of listening to her music is to assume that KHIERSTIN won some regional final of American Idol with the prize being a chance to record tracks for the new series of The O.C. I never realised that rock could be quite so bland and uninspiring and so mid-tempo. Never before in the field of rock ‘n’ roll has mid-tempo sounded so mid-tempo.
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KHIERSTIN even attempts a cover version of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ and despite the laudable intent to make it sound different it’s also a good idea to make it sound good and not like some innocuous filler track. The title track is OK in an average way but the three last tracks sound like they were originally written as teen pop fodder until someone realised that Avril Lavigne was now flavour of the month and so decided to rearrange them for mainstream FM rock. The production is strangely distant and life-less as if the music was recorded in a different studio to the one the producer sat in with KHIERSTIN’S vocals added as an after-thought.
Depressingly ordinary, clichéd and forgettable: her siblings had better get used to motel food.
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