Duncan Sheik’s album Whisper House is his first release since he made the leap from one-hit pop wonder with 1997’s “Barely Breathing” to winning a Tony Award for his work on the Broadway musical Spring Awakening in 2007. Unfortunately, he has run into a sophomore slump for the second time in his career as he returns to the realm of musical theater. The trouble with success is that either the next album is an improvement or it falls short. The improvements are often overlooked, whereas falling short is regarded as a failure, regardless of its own quality on an absolute scale. Whisper House winds up being the latter, falling just short of his previous endeavor and never quite delivers on its full potential.

Whisper House falls somewhere between being a soundtrack and a standalone concept album, although Sheik has stated that a stage production is in the works and wrote the music with the stage in mind. The album sets out to tell the tale of a boy sent to live with his aunt in a haunted lighthouse in Maine during World War II after his father dies in battle. The story of the son’s grief is told through the eyes of the ghosts in the lighthouse, with Sheik and guest vocalist Holly Brook serving as the ghosts and narrators.

For what is intended to be the soundtrack to a stage musical production, the ten songs on the album feel very disjointed. On their own, the tracks are largely mediocre. They often sound so musically similar that it can be difficult to tell where one track ends and the next one begins, except for the catchy tracks “The Tale of Solomon Snell” and “Earthbound Starlight,” the only drastically different songs on the entire album. In spite of musical similarities in the tracks, the album still does lack the cohesiveness lyrically that would keep a stage musical flowing, something that he has previously shown himself capable of doing in Spring Awakening.

Even with the failings as an album, Whisper House still shows great potential to become a solid musical if it ever does reach the stage. The story is a unique experience, and the music may fit well once there are actors and dialogue to tie themes together. But until the day that it reaches the stage, Sheik doesn’t succeed at either telling a story or being worthy of a listen.