On Feb. 1 New Zealand duo Broods released their third studio album “Don’t Feed The Pop Monster”. After success in their first two albums, 2014’s “Evergreen” and 2016’s “Conscious”, the group seemed to veer off in a different direction with the overall sound and vocals on this release. Sadly, it wasn’t the best way to go.

On a good eighty percent of the album, singer Georgia Nott’s vocals are extremely distorted, which sounds absolutely awful. Taking a song from their previous albums like the popular track “Heartlines” and comparing it to “Why Do You Believe Me?” from this one is comparing apples to oranges. The only similarity is that they were from the same artist.

Nott already has an amazing voice, the distortion complete ruins it. The pre-chorus of lead single “Peach” is the best example of horrible distortion. It makes the entire chorus sound like an alien race.

The best of the worst ends up being “Old Dog”. The opening vocals sound exactly a group of annoying children instead of actual music with way too much autotune throughout the entire song. The best comparison I can make is to St. Vincent, but a really untalented version of either “Pills” or “Masseduction”.

Still, the album has some tiny bright spots. The basslines throughout the album are all easy to jam to and very memorable overall. If you can sing the bassline, you know it’s going to be good.

As good songs go, the only two great tracks are “Dust” and “ Everything Goes (Wow)”. Both sound like earlier Broods tracks, making the appeal that much more worth it. The songs are very simple in nature, but they provide fun energy for a morning run or just to start your day on a good note.

Overall, the album wasn’t the best showing for Broods. Maybe with this experimental album, the duo will realize to stick to their guns and do what they do best. No more distortion, thank you.