This is a review of "Untitled" recorded by Cardboard Cowboy. The review was written by James Stringer in 2003.

This is a good CD. I'm told nothing about the band before I slot the disc in my machine, just a pretty piss poor name and a green CD/r. The first song starts off with synch keyboard noises (saw tooth wave if I'm not mistaken) and acoustic guitar, followed shortly by cool rough vocals before the rest of the band kick in. I'm impressed so far, I can imagine on stage a bit of a swagger, shaggy hair cuts and ripped denim. Despite the song being quite simplistic as far as chord progressions go, it is catchy with early-oasis-style guitars subtly creating interest.

The 2nd track, though I haven't a clue for the life of me about what the name is as its spinning away in my machine with no literature for me to peruse, is a mellower, cooler, more chilled affair. Acoustic guitar again present, laid back drum rhythms and precious vocal harmonies with simplistic yet very effective little guitar leady bits in the background.

The 3rd and final track is in a similar fashion to the previous with acoustic guitar, sweet bass and even a piano in there somewhere. Very pretty as it is, but I get the feeling there's something missing. As the song gets towards the middle of the track it becomes very boring, it seems in a way to be a waste of a track as it doesn't embellish upon what the 2nd track has already done - its almost the same with less interesting bits. The band could do with a few more memorable choruses, although having said that, who couldn't? It's very difficult to write a killer tune and that's why small bands are small bands and have not been signed the moment they set foot on stage. From this CD the band have a lot to offer, but can still improve vastly. The songs aren't nearly interesting enough - they get away with it on their first number and to a lesser extent to their second one, but the songs run on with the same progressions and don't have those little bridge parts that bands have to break the song up so its not just the same 4 bars repeated over and over - that's why rock music is rock music, and trance music is ...shite.

Let me make this clear, it's a likeable CD but it doesn't stand out as much as it could. But definitely one to watch.