The John Butler Trio is billed as a jam band, which has a certain connotation to it: tie-dye, outdoor festivals, dreamy lyrics. The band’s latest album, however, has a hypothetically bigger focus; John Butler based April Uprising on his search to find his ancestors. You might think that this would make the album sound more adult, more outwardly-focused, more original—but then you’d be wrong. This album sounds a lot like a dozen other bands, while not managing to be better than any of them.

April Uprising kicks off with “Revolution”, which certainly shows off Butler’s voice. He’s got a nice pitch, colored by a Dave Matthews-flavored texture that lends itself well to high points and acoustic transparency. Unfortunately, the song isn’t terribly noticeable after that, and bleeds into the track after it, “One Way Road”. This one has a faster, bouncier tempo, but still ultimately gets a bit lost.

One enjoyable track is “Fool For You”, which is actually somewhat charming. It’s a bit quieter than some of the others, and has a pleasant rhythm to it.  “C’mon Now” sounds a lot like OAR, which is fine, but we’ve already got one of those. “I’d Do Anything” sounds like vaguely like so many groups that it’s difficult to identify precisely which ones, but it personates no band enough to make an impression.

There are some interesting bongo drums and banjo at the beginning of “Ragged Mile”, one of the stronger tracks on the album, though it’s a bit disappointing when “Don’t Wanna See Your Face” takes a strikingly similar tack. In the space of one album, it’d be nice to see more original ideas. “To Look Like You” sounds too much like Jack Johnson.

Overall, this record isn’t bad; it’s just not striking. Fans of the John Butler Trio will probably enjoy it, but it just doesn’t make enough of an impression to sway newcomers. When I’m in the mood for music like this, I’ll just cue up the OAR, DMB, and Jack Johnson I already own and leave it at that.