The Vitals:

Label: Plastiq Musiq
Genre: Synth-pop
Number of Tracks: 11
How to Obtain: www.plastiqmusiq.com, www.20goto10.us

Factor Scores:

Production Quality: 7.0
Programming and Arrangement: 9.0
Entertainment Quality: 8.0
Total: 8.0 - Great

Dual Core's Take:

20goto10 were (they broke up in November) a synth pop band distinguished by a self-consciously human, emotional approach to synthesizer-based music. They pursued this goal with analog equipment, expressive vocals, and an emphasis on songcraft. Their final release is an 11-track concept album, Elizabeth, Haunted By Ghosts.

Although not as immediately accessible as what is heard on pop radio, it definitely is a pop concept album more than an album of dance tracks. Looked at as pop, or maybe rock, it is unusually substantial. In return for being slightly inaccessible, it has something to offer on repeated listens.

The mood is dark, without becoming tedious. The only driving dance track on the album is "A Strange Victory". Other contenders are "Don't Need to Sleep" and "Waiting for the End to Arrive", the former being too slow and the latter having a slightly unsteady feel, from a dance standpoint. The album is dominated by slow and mid-tempo songs with a pleasingly emotive and churning feel.

The slower tempos and cyclical, yet changing rhythms are perfect for the subject matter. The album explores human fear, employing the story of Elizabeth Nichole Hobbs, an adolescent girl who lived in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts. She should not to be confused with Abigail or Deliverance Hobbs, Elizabeth Parris, Elizabeth Proctor, or Elizabeth Howe, who were all figures in the Salem witch trials of later years. Rather, Elizabeth Nichole Hobbs is a more obscure historical figure who followed a trail of what appeared to be human teeth into Salem's woods and ultimately disappeared.

It works. The album communicates a range of constantly changing emotions, never loosing an underlying macabre gloom, even when individual songs are taken out of the "concept album" context. Knowing even a little about the events the songs refer to makes its more intense moments downright creepy—just the way they should be. There are moments where vocal treatments, verbal anachronisms, or awkward lyrics distract from where the album seems to be leading, but overall, it is cohesive and coherent.

Any time an artist is overt about looking backward in time, be it for style, content, technology, or image, they take a chance. Regardless of the artist's motives, the work can be overwhelmed by nostalgia in the audience's head. You can blame this on the artist or the listener, but it's always there. I had to listen to Elizabeth repeatedly to get past all of the older tunes that the dated synth sounds and vocal effects reminded me of and to just hear 20goto10. After listening to most of the album straight through for the first time, it wasn't any of 20goto10's songs running through my head. It was "Riding on the Metro" by Berlin.