2Cellos

A cover band can breathe new life into a song and make you fall in love with it all over again. 2Cellos could just be that band. Luka Sulic and Stjephan Hauser give an array of sounds in their second album, In2ition, that might cause one to have a hearing seizure.

These classically trained cellists enlisted the help of artists like singer/songwriter Elton John and guitarist Steve Vai to work on In2ition. Sulic and Hauser continue the concept of creating rock/pop music through cellos. However, in spite of this star power, In2ition becomes such an annoyance that one would rather hear 100 children trying to get the attention of their mother: “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mummy. Mom. Mommy. Mom. Mama.”

There are a few songs that are catchy and a great rendition of their originals. Rihanna’s “We Found Love” for instance is a decent interpretation, because it doesn’t change the original composition, and gives the listener elements of addictive pop music.

One of the best tracks is the duos version of Coldplay’s “Clocks.” The track starts exactly the same, so one would almost expect Chris Martin to start singing. Most definitely the star of this track is the impressive Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who pretty much takes over the entire song, pushing the cellos into the background.

2Cellos tried to change a genre of music and make it cool by covering rock/pop songs and including big name artists, but the overall result was a failure to understand that, like corporations and ethics, some things cannot go together. If one has a playlist labeled ‘shitty cover bands’ go ahead and pick it up, otherwise save $12. Mom.