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With one single scarce exception, Luka Bloom’s new album, Tribe, lulled me to the verge of slipping into a coma. Ok, Luka Bloom is a pitch perfect musician and his songs are always meticulously crafted, but for the most part this album crawls along at a snail-slow tempo. It never really shifts into second gear.

Tribe is great for a meditative relaxing rainy afternoon at home when you have nothing to do but relax and stare into space, but if you’re listening in a car you’ll find yourself off the road and in a ditch before you know it.

It is the music of coffeehouses, dimmed lights, chill atmosphere, but it never really gets going. Most of the songs sound very similar. The one obvious exception to that would be the track Homeless. This amazing song is about Luka’s fascination with a homeless man in Hollywood and how, in this age of commercialism and materialism, here exists a man who has nothing. The track is beat poetry at its best and a far cry different from anything else on the album.

On many of the tracks the lyrics are repetitive -- often to the point of becoming annoying. There are also three short instrumentals sprinkled throughout the twelve tracks. All in all I thought this was a very mediocre album lacking much in originality. While reciting beat poetry however, Luka Bloom is one cool cat.