Do not mistake Theoretical Girl for the infamous no wave band Theoretical Girls from the late 70s, there’s certainly no correlation as far as sound goes. The former is Amy Eleanor Turnnidge, originally from Southend-On-Sea now London, and her band the Equations. Divided is a crystal-clear recorded pop/rock with keyboard bits and some string parts, and with a strong female vocal you might expect from a Kate Rusby or similar folk singer.There are some stylistic diversions into ska and post-punk, but for the most part it’s nicely performed pop/rock, sometimes given a sweeping quality by string arrangements. Unfortunately there are only a few tracks where it all comes together in a satisfying way, ‘I Should Have Loved You More’ is lovelorn and vibrant, ‘A Future Apart’ has some flute that’s surprising but welcome, and the chorus melody and lyrics work well together "Because the more I try to move on/The more I think about you". I think the problem here is the full rock band treatment, drums have far too much muscle, the deep bass and bludgeoning of ‘Red Mist’ and ‘Rivals’ sound like another band and album. Songs like ‘Divided’ work well because they’re using softer melodic instruments like accordion, violin and cello, and Turnnidge’s clear vocal. Throughout a lot of the album you notice bits and pieces of music that sound extremely close to chamber pop, but it sits uneasily next to, quite frankly, pedestrian rock songs.There’s something here, but it’s underneath a bunch of bad choices. There’s a sad lovelorn thread to the lyrics, often the protagonist lamenting their own faults (‘Never Good Enough’, ‘I Should Have Loved You More’), the feeling of tragedy a constant. A frustrating nearly-there sort of album with some really good aspects, but frustrating ones too. It feels like it could’ve been a great chamber pop album, with violin, cello (which has a star turn on ‘Never Good Enough’), flute and accordion, but it didn’t turn out that way.Theoretical Girl on MySpace