Not many would agree with the view that a band is only as good as it’s lead singer, but it can’t be argued that the special ingredient each singer adds to the recipe of the music greatly influences the flavor overall. Just look at Morrissey with The Smiths, or Jim Morrison with The Doors.

It is therefore sad to listen to Prepare The Preparations, by Ludo, which gets let down by the lead vocalist. Not that Andrew Volpe isn’t pulling his weight, quite the opposite, rather, he’s trying too hard. His singing takes over the songs, with the music being well and truly in the background. The album, as a whole, comes off as a solo effort, as opposed to a cohesive attempt with equal input from the whole band.

Although there are no songs here that will get the chemicals in your brain running, there are a few worth listening to. “Robots Vs. Cyborg” has a promising, fast-paced distorted start and some powerful drumming, but Volpe’s robot singing puts a complete stop to that party. And “Skeletons On Parade” can only be described as pirates playing heavy rock. The unpredictability of this track makes it an album highlight, if only for its novelty value. This doesn’t save Ludo however. Most of the tracks are horrendous. If the artistic extravagance of “Overdone” doesn’t make you cringe a little, “Battle Cry” will guarantee to make you turn a healthy shade of red as it is a poor, pretentious attempt to induce some kind of invigorating feeling within the listener, but completely fails.

Overall, Ludo’s biggest crime is that their music is too generic: if they’d taken the originality from “Skeletons on Parade” and injected it into the rest of the album, it would achieve more.

Conclusion: Rock music for pirates with extremely low expectations.