The Mendoza Line: Fortune

The Mendoza Line Fortune plays more like a three way split cd than an actual album. The tracks rotate in sets of three between Bob Dylan sounding male vocals set to folk-ish guitars, female vocals set to contemporary country and then a more traditional indie band sound with both male and female vocals, and a hint of alt. country in the song writing.

None of it is bad, but none of it is fantastic, and the back and forth between styles makes for an uneasy and confusing listen. It might not be such a distinct difference if the songs didn’t switch off the way they do.

All the same, the pieces themselves are all very nice to listen to, even if they don’t flow as well as they could. The vocal work is excellent and the instrumentation is well-executed. Some of the songs seem to be very well written while others seems to be very mediocre, which again leads to the impression that this CD isn’t even the same band.

There are a few rare tracks though that contain the multiple vocal personalities and these tracks shine above all the others. Hopefully in the future we’ll hear more of this sort of thing from them, but in the meantime, Fortune isn’t half bad.

- Chris Smith
Mendoza Line (Bar None)