The Next Round starts off promisingly enough with the opening chords of "I Found Out," sounding something like an updated version of the classic Celtic tune "Irish Washerwoman." Unfortunately, the band starts singing. Toss the Feathers' problem of pairing trite, pop-40 cliche lyrics with sometimes brilliant Celtic-influenced melodies is glaringly obvious on the opening track, and it continues all the way through this album. Lyrics like "Since you walked out of that door / You walked out of my life" are not the type of lyrics that are going to win any praise from anyone, except perhaps Mariah Carey's songwriters. "Waiting" follows this formula, as does "New Day," a pair of songs that are as sappy and overwrought as their titles suggest.

"Kepple Hole" is one track that works and, not surprisingly, it's an instrumental. Starting as a slow flute air, the pace picks up with electric guitar and fiddle adding a discordant air of frustrated energy to the track. "Hop Tow Three" is a truly odd bird, another instrumental, but one that skips between a traditional drum-and-guitar rock solo and a bagpipe-and-fiddle pairing. The two movements sound out of sorts with each other when heard in sequence, but the third movement of the piece combines the two quite effectively and adds flutes and whistles for good measure. It's something of a cacophany, but not at all bad.

Probably the best track on the album is "Greenhouse," the third and final instrumental included here. The electric guitar and drums lay down a confident groove, and then the fiddle kicks in with a wherever-I-want-to-go attitude that echoes reggae rhythms despite being unmistakably Celtic in origin. Thoroughly infectious, this track proves that the Toss the Feathers mission of writing all their own music is a worthy one -- just one that's unfortunately proved to be out of their reach more often than not.