From their website, “DOCTOR, DOCTOR is Hard Rock power trio playing live and recording out of the Oaklan /SF area of California. Its sound is diverse, influenced mostly by Prog, Art, and Arena-Rock bands such, with a few Pop, Jazz, and EDM notes also sneaking in. The band started as a duo in early 2020, when Alex Smoligovets and Adrian Morrison picked up some old instruments and started jamming together during the pandemic. In 2022, following a series of shows around the Bay Area, the duo started working on their next release, “Second Opinion,” which sees the band lean harder into the progressive elements of their sound. They were also joined by Karl Pfeifer on drums, who brings hard hits and an energy that Rob the Robot, their stage iPad, just doesn’t quite match.”

The EP has four songs, and “Dear” is first. The opening guitar tones are slow and fuzzy, and the vocals have an odd cadence to them. The bass work and keyboards are nice, but it takes a while before the cohesion comes together in the music. The title track has another odd sense of connection from the vocals to the music. The riff is fuzzy, heavy and groovy, but the vocals are not sung in a similar key. “Sequoia Requiem” is another song with a great bass line, and the music connects a little better, especially in the verses. Art Rock is good way to describe the music, which is pretty personal, but I question the brief heavy riff alongside the melody in the verses. It just makes little sense to me.

“The Turtle” closes what has been a very odd EP. It’s the most cohesive song on the album, although many of the tones are depressive. Still, the band shows some skill in songwriting at least. Four songs aren’t a lot to try to get to know a band, and in this case, it left me as a reviewer with more questions than answers. Of the four, only the final song had any real cohesion to it…the others were just odd.