More Amor needs more work

More Amor

Thanks?

Rocks Like: The Ready Set, The Maine, The Rocket Summer

Grade: C+… More Amor

Thanks?

Rocks Like: The Ready Set, The Maine, The Rocket Summer

Grade: C+

More Amor might mean “more love,” but as the band’s latest album Thanks? suggests, what it really needs is more time to figure itself out.

Straight from Las Vegas, More Amor is a tiny electronic duo. Its latest album — or “mixtape,” as it bills itself — is an attempt to lure in a wide swath of indie-rock fans. Unfortunately, the result is a bemusing stalemate.

The mixtape has potential — or at least, it had potential before More Amor decided to try appealing to every musical genre. This is, as you might have guessed, not a very cohesive album, as it jumps quickly from beachy pop to the darker and more forceful “Miss Martyr” to a basement-party themed “Sloppy Little Kisses,” an electronic bit about fending off unwanted interactions with drunk girls at parties.

In addition to its disorienting variety of styles, the album is also needlessly alarming: The bridge of “Miss Martyr” is literally the duo yelling to a dubstep loop in the background. It’s clear that these two don’t have a firm grasp on exactly what kind of band they want to be — catering to as many fans as possible, they merely confuse the listener.

It’s best for a newcomer to approach this mixtape, which is available for free at moreamormusic.com, as just that: a collection of individual songs, not an album.