Cesna

Cesna

The good news is that Cesna's million-dollar modern rock could be on any major label imprint -- Interscope, Maverick, Epic. The bad news is that Downward Mobility could be on any major label imprint. Everything is working for the relatively new Austin fourpiece: their handle, their debut's production and art design, their solid if unspectacular live performance. Anthony Jones' Prozac vocals are appropriately alienated, and Eric Vasquez's clean, steely guitar infrastructures support alternately brooding and bashing rhythms. Welcome to the well-oiled machine. It's all there, except, of course, for the songs themselves. The group's first offering to radio -- as outdated a concept as that's become -- is a strong one, "Good Morning Hello," a landslide of moody guitar lines with a chorus worth working on. With a little corporate A&R, it's a hit. Vasquez's laser-show riffs buoy the title track as Jones' Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) vocal taunt defines the subject matter. Toward the end, "Truth Serum" is worthy of doctoring, too. That of course is the, um, downfall of Downward Mobility, the fact that it sounds like a demo atop the stereo pile of some Hollywood sharpie. With precious little personality to match.