The Ones: The Ones

The debut, self-titled album from New York City club-pop trio The Ones has been a long time in the making. Unfortunately, the disc exudes its innate out-of-dateness. The big push for this record is centered around a track called “Flawless”, which has been around since 2001. In the music world, that was a lifetime ago. In dance music, seven years is an entire eon. It probably sounded fresh at the time and is a fun yet chilled-out head-nodder. The song would be well placed in a commercial where chic and lovely 20-somethings flirt and flit about the perimeter of a swimming pool at midnight. It would also be great in a mix, segueing from electroclash to microhouse (remember those genres?). Unfortunately, The Ones couldn’t sound less like a mix of varying styles, ideas, beats, moods, and tones. It all sounds exactly like “Flawless”. Almost every track is around six minutes long — which is just a bit too lengthy an exposure to this middling material. There’s nothing particularly unenjoyable about this record, but it does have a way of engendering listener fatigue. From a late night party album, that’s the last thing you need.