Little Heart's Ease the new album from Royal City is disappointingly lackluster and boring. While any of the songs alone would be enjoyable to listen to, the album has no variety whatsoever. If you're not paying close attention you might not even realize when a song has ended and the next one has begun.The band is comprised of guitarist Jim Guthrie, drummer Lonnie James, sound engineer Simon Osborne and singer/songwriter Aaron Riches.

Upon first listen, Little Heart's Ease seems like it's going to be a good album. The first song, "Bring My Father A Gift," is mellow and enjoyable. But by the album's third song, it becomes clear that there is absolutely no variation in style.

Having a defined and recognizable sound is not the same as making repetitive music, and unfortunately Royal City falls victim to the latter option. I listened to this album three times, hoping that maybe a song would stick out that I could talk about as being different or just more noticeable than the rest, to no avail. I didn't even make it through the third and final listen.

The songs for the most part are comprised of a singer, a guitar player and sometimes a harmonica and drums. However, there is no variation in melodic structure, and Richie's voice is droning and monotonous. His voice isn't expressive, and his vocals do not help any of the song build to any sort of peak or climax.

"She Will Come" is probably the song with the biggest build up, and even that happens close to the end of the song. But instead of building up lyrics as well, it's just a body of noise and ends in a strange arrangement of instruments.

Most songs also start off with guitar intros that are hard to distinguish from each other, and the actual performance is uninspired.

According to the record label's Web site, the band added a harmonica and more drums for their latest album. I cannot imagine how boring their last album was without this. And frankly, the drums don't do much to help this time around. While the White Stripes make it with just a guitar and a drum set, Royal City cannot do the same. The songs are completely unimaginative; there aren't any break-outs that show developed musicianship.

The shame of it all is that if a single resulted from this album, people would probably be curious about the band, as each song could stand on its own. But the lack of variation makes Little Heart's Ease truly unpalatable. Royal City just needs to be more creative, put some more effort into their song writing to come up with songs that are distinguishable from each other.

While a single from Royal City might catch my attention on the radio, Little Hearts Ease is not making it into my CD collection. Maybe it would be useful putting kids to sleep in a nursery.