25th Apr2010

KFC – Double Down

by nickwan

I just got back from KFC with Ryan Tamborski (one of the other owners of 402 Productions) and had a Double Down. I decided that it was so… life changing that I’d review it.

So, if you haven’t heard (and I know you have), the Double Down is basically a double chicken sandwich with bacon and with no bun. If you haven’t seen the rip-off Mac commercial that they shot for this thing… here you go:

I’m full.

The way to eat it, as depicted by the commercial and by default, is by just grabbing the wrapper and going for it. This proves annoying, so I resorted to just man-handling this thing. First off is the oily slick you get on your fingers. It’s kind of like the feeling you get when you wipe sweat off your forehead on a hot day. Think of that, but touching food and then eating that same food. The cheese, which was supposedly pepper jack, was more like white American cheese with colored specks dusted around the cheese. The secret sauce, aptly named “Colonel’s Sauce”, was more of a way to disguise the spicy tang you were supposed to be getting from the cheese. Rather than spicy, it was more tart and mayonnaise-tasting. The bacon itself was just run-of-the-mill microwave-tasting bacon. Not crispy, soggy from the mayo-ish sauce, and salty. The chicken itself was moist, but was way too much chicken. It was like eating a sandwich that has too much bread… except instead of that bread taste that drys your mouth out, it’s a oily, greasy, breaded chicken breast that fills your mouth. Between these two filets are the soggy, wet, and flavorless taste of cheese, bacon, and sauce. About half way through was enough for most regular human beings with no souls, but I am no regular soulless human. I have to be sub-human and have negative soul. I owe soul to the world. If I ever gained soul, it’d just set me back to soulless. And if you finish one of these, which I did, you too are negative souled. At the end, the tastes that lingered the most were the breading from the chicken (mostly a salty taste), a filmy taste from the processed cheese, and an almost jerky taste from the bacon (yet again, salty). Texture wise, it was nothing like eating an oversized chicken nugget. It was more like eating over-salted Shake ‘n’ Bake chicken, let it sit for a day, and microwave it together with some processed cheese and tough bacon. Oh wait, that’s kind of like what it was. Oh wait… that is what it was.

–

People who would like this: ideally, no one. In actuality, people who are really high. There is no way you can be sober and enjoy this. The flavors are impossible to like. The sauce makes it almost sour tasting. Intoxication of some sort would make this a great food. However, KFC’s Double Down is more pricey than something off of Taco Bell’s menu. This is definitely not “bang for you buck” from KFC. It’s bang. But in the end you feel cheated. Other people who would like this: people who want to play pranks on people. Buy this and make someone eat it. It’s a good prank because afterward you can always point and laugh at the friend you have who ate the Double Down.

On a side note, try eating this in a secluded place like… your room with your lights off or a closet. Being seen eating this is the scarlet letter of fast food.

If this were an album, this would not get anywhere near close to good. So, in the spirit of my other reviews…

Category : Complete Miscellany
Tags : , ,
1 Comm
19th Apr2010

NW Reviews: matt pond PA – The Dark Leaves

by nickwan

Maybe one of the more overlooked bands of the past decade, Matt Pond and his group is kind of like Ben Folds of the indie scene. Some might remember this guy from shows where he was the supporting act for some other headlining band. Some might remember one of their last seven albums, six of which were released in the past decade. I last heard of these guys after seeing them play with Straylight Run years ago. I bought their album Several Arrows Later and loved the sound. And now?

matt pond PA has this lovely lyrical being to the music. Sometimes, throughout this new album, Mr. Pond totally sells me his stories. I am in there experiencing what he is. There is nothing simplistic about the way he’s talking about very simple things: girls, love, sex, etc. But since the last time I heard matt pond PA, I asked myself whether or not this album is exceeding my expectations. And I don’t know if it has. It has wowed me with words. But I really am off with the music, maybe?

Lyrically, you know by now, it’s grand. I won’t continue on about the lyrics, so just listen to them. For a current music vibe, this album harps upon exactly what is out there right now. This usually is a con, but matt pond PA doesn’t seem to have made many strides towards a different sound outside of their own… and they’ve been around since 1998… so here we are twelve years later and his sound is still current for the scene. In that is a pro all on it’s own.

What’s different between matt pond PA that I knew back in 2005? Not much. And that’s not just me. Typing in “matt pond PA” into YouTube comes up with a lot more hits for their songs off their seemingly-most popular album Several Arrows Later. That’s not to say YouTube is a credible source… but matt pond PA isn’t putting all those songs and videos from their five year old album on one of the most popular sites in the world. Fans are. And fans love that album. But what has matt pond PA accomplished with this new album? More of the same. And even less of the same. Back in 2005, with their other album, they never road along in someone else’s bandwagon. This new album seems to dive into some of the stale-indie folk rhythms for songs, making an ill taste in my mouth since this band could probably do a zillion times better than what they’ve put out this new year. There are flashes of brilliance musically, with songs like “Running Wild” and “Brooklyn Fawn”, but are sometimes cancelled out by the cheap vibe of “Specks” and “Sparrows”. Here’s a football analogy: Peyton Manning had two rookie wide receivers in Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon. Absolutely none of his offensive linemen were first round draft choices. So, Peyton Manning is basically what took the Colts to the Super Bowl. Without him, and we all saw the games they lost when he wasn’t playing, they lacked production. That’s a lot like matt pond PA. Lyrically, this album soars. Everything surrounding the lyrics and vocals is just second place. Without the lyrics and vocals, this band’s music would be lacking heavily. Although, vocals do have a premium on casual listeners (much like the quarterback of a Super Bowl team), the supporting cast of music and arrangement should at least make an attempt to match the genius of it’s vocal counterpart.

–

People who would like this: people who live in Brooklyn. Others who would like this: die-hard mpPA fans.

As “The Dark Leaves Theme” from this album chants… it kills me to admit that this is a bad album. I swear it started out strong  and begged a potential breakthrough yet again. But lyrically was the hull and lacking of musical creativity half way through the album was the iceberg. I won’t say mpPA is sinking, because they haven’t really done much to be considered a “bad” band… but I won’t say they are making any positive strides with this album. More of the same of what is out there, and less of the same matt pond PA that I heard five years ago. This album is worth the listen for the lyrics… but for everything else?

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
46 Comm
03rd Apr2010

NW Reviews: We Were Promised Jetpacks – The Last Place You’ll Look

by nickwan

When I was in high school, a teacher of mine named Mr. Yaeger would hand us our books and tell us, “Now, before you read anything about this book… what can you infer from just the cover/art work/title/etc?” Being a disciple of his studies, I try to take his approach to albums as well. Usually, I’ll start with the title name. The Last Place You’ll Look. Not to be confused with the last place I recently looked in (which would physically be my car [and would virtually be my external hard drive]), the question does arise… where is that last place I’ll look? As I begin to ponder this question, the album begins and ends and Mr. Yaeger is somewhere out there proud of his accomplishment.

The first place I thought of when listening to The Last Place You’ll Look was my friend Sebastian’s old dorm room. That’s where I first heard Beirut. Before that, I could remember listening to some old bootleg Tim Kasher recordings of what would end up being songs from Album of The Year. Then I thought of some Bon Iver and Rachael Cantu and a ton of other artists that We Were Promised Jetpacks reminded me of.

Then I came to this odd realization that the last place I would look for an album like this would be behind all of these other albums I’ve heard before this one that sounds similar but are for some reason “better”. Dissecting the tracks, instrument for instrument, strum for strum, leads me to the conclusion that piecing these songs together the way We Were Promised Jetpacks pieced them together isn’t necessarily the wisest decision. Sure, I’ll give them the fact that this is the music to their personal Last Place soundtrack, but as the title suggests… this album might be the last album you’ll find from this genre, and not in a good way.

Portraying the sounds from this album in the scape of the last place I’d ever look in my life is an interesting notion. The album itself lets a lot to the imagination when themed in such a way. The songs themselves take on more of an apocalyptic tone when you apply such ideas, and thinking of these songs in that way is maybe not necessarily the way the songs themselves were written. Some songs, such as “Short Bursts”, on the second and third listen take on different poetic meanings. At first, literal meanings would be appropriate to envision. At other times, maybe the story of the song extends out to that last place these guys might look. At other times, maybe just the mood is the last feeling I’ll have in that last place described. With that, the biggest pro for this album is the appropriately themed album with an appropriate title. They aren’t cheating me out of meaning, and that in itself is a lot more meaningful than a lot of the music being shoved out there. I mean, if Weezer can get away with Rainn Wilson naming their last album Raditude for no reason other than “Rad” plus “Attitude”, then I would hope the antithesis of mainstream pop would come up with something slightly more meaningful. In doing so, We Were Promised Jetpacks delivers rhythms and rhymes that mean much more to me than much of the crap out there, and I haven’t even looked in the last place I would have looked yet.

Lyrics and themes and all these things are really nice… if only the music didn’t flatline. I’m talking doorknob dead. How many times can these indie bands rewrite their own albums over and over again? Is it just me or am I just not inspired in writing the same songs again? I really don’t find the music captivating. At times, brilliance… but at those same times, I find myself reaching back in that external hard drive and pulling out other songs that remind me of the same brilliant parts that WWPJ have written. Most other times, I’m tired of it. Luckily, five songs isn’t enough to warrant a complete lashing of creativity, so I’ll just leave it at that. Another big con I had was variance. It’s the same sort of variance I got from TV on the Radio on first listen. Even then, impressive but didn’t leave an impression like it could have. To this day, I don’t understand why people enjoy TV on the Radio as much as they do. To TV on the Radio’s credit, no one is doing what they are doing musically. Not so much for We Were Promised Jetpacks, but the same ends applies… don’t you just get bored with this unvaried music?

–

People who would like this album: boring people. People who would be better off as writers of novellas than of albums. People who are sick of post-rock and want to zone out to some background drone music with lyrics. Other people who would like this: those kind of people who end up reading a majority of a book at the bookstore in those comfy chairs before even thinking of buying the book.

The album is good for the concept… but the music is what we buy albums for. And I can’t just keep giving out “Good Album” ratings to these albums who are just uninspiring writers. It breaks down like this: if you aren’t changing my mind positively about the music you perform, why would I listen to your album again? And if I don’t, then how is it a good album?

You can moonwalk, but you aren’t Michael Jackson.

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
66 Comm
08th Mar2010

NW Reviews: This is Our Fight – Don’t Hold Your Breath

by nickwan

When someone recommends me an album, or I get sent some EPK from some small label/no label band or artist, I really try my best to give them credit where credit is due. But sometimes… I have to play the devil. Judge and jury indeed.

This is Our Fight, from Gaitherburg, MD, is in the category of “uh?” and “um… no”. If this came out in 2005, back when Set Your Goals and a zillion copycats from Northern California flooded Gilman’s, I’m sure this band would end up on a tour with one of these bands, if not signed to some hardcore label of some sort. Unfortunately for that entire era of hardcore-pop-punk, it has been tossed to the way side. Some bands are still scratching for a chance, while others are just unchanging because… well, that’s what they are. Then there are these types who are too late for recognition past a local scene and not enough wow to make a splash past a self-promoted tour. Maybe somewhere, at a festival or something, they’ll make some friends and maybe land a bigger tour and possibly sign and get some recognition like You Me at Six has in the recent times. Until that big break, here is some notes on their first official release.

I would like to start by saying naming your first song “Get Pwned!” not only is slightly embarrassing but makes me think “our fight” is more like a Mortal Kombat fight rather than an alley way brawl. Also, the song itself talks about not getting in your way and if you do you should watch your back or else a gang of kids who wear slim fit jeans and love Underoath will come and fight you. As much as I love hardcore and most things surrounding hardcore, as far as production goes… forced one-liner shout outs are now up there with auto-tune with me. If some band came out with an album like this with primarily auto-tune vocals and double the shout outs, I might crap myself laughing. Unfortunately this time around, I’m just embarrassingly looking around to see if anyone can overhear what’s coming out of my headphones.

But not all is lost. Like how stereotypical punk music has the overly-amazing bassist who can shred, stereotypical hardcore pop punk has the randomly out of place awesomely-technical guitarist. Although there is a major difference at times. Rancid’s Matt Freeman is clearly the prototypical bassist, and most bassist’s favorite bassist who plays with a pick, but for all the Matt Freeman copycats in the world, there are infinitely many more sound players who just are out of place playing in a punk band. Such as This is Our Fight. Although every hardcore pop punk band would love that hybrid guitarist who has a strong hardcore backbone and an eclectic guitar style with staples in punk and metal, only few sprinkle around and have a touch of tasteful riffing. Take in account the “hit” song from This is Our Fight, “Easy AM”. Pinch harmonics wailing in the beginning at first is surprising, but then… over played. Although your homage to the late Dimebag Darrell is well received, please remain tasteful. The effect is there, and it caught me by surprise. The song itself, not as much. And the repetitive nature of each riff only embeds more ill-feelings, I feel.

Every musician in this band would be a star in a separate band suited to their talent. The drummer seems dynamic enough to play in some straight up hc punk band. The guitarists seem to jive well together to form their own metal band of some sort. The bassist is just a straight up bassist, nothing exceptional. The vocalist has a good range and can fit into something less… well, less this. And that’s the pros.

The music choice is the con. If this band was just a straight up run-of-the-mill hardcore punk or hardcore metal band then there would just be a mediocre review for a mediocre band. This band decided to throw in a style that isn’t really fitting, nor does the music elude to a new or fresh style of the not-so-fitting music created. For example: you have a room of classical composers. They are all musically intelligent and know all sorts of things about their instrument of choice, techniques, and even all sorts of different styles. They all, however, levitate towards some sort of classical style… let’s just say it’s baroque. So, you have a room of baroque musicians and then they all listen to acid jazz and think it’s the coolest thing ever. Will they be the best acid jazz musicians? No. Will they even be good? That’s up to interpretation. But they definitely will be mimicking the acid jazz style for a while. As goes This is Our Fight. Mimicking, not innovating. Painters trying to become sculptors.

–

People who would like this: people who love You Me at Six, people who wish You Me at Six and New Found Glory had a bandgasm together, people who wish Set Your Goals turned into a hybrid version of You Me at Six.

As far as this album overall goes, it’s not great on the ears for people looking for new music. Also, when you have two songs start with the same note (“Brutallity of the Balto Bear” and “Pandas” both start on G) it’s a producing no-no, as well as a tracklisting no-no. Avoid at all cost. But there were a lot of things seemingly to avoid with this band… sorry to say, lads.

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
1 Comm
23rd Feb2010

NW Reviews: Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself

by nickwan

I don’t know if the title says it at all, but the Bay Area’s watered down version of The Cure, Xiu Xiu, has produced another awkward-rock album. The sad thing about this album is that there is a crowd for it… and at times, I see myself actually liking some of it.

First off, how can you enjoy Jamie Stewart’s voice? Unlike Robert Smith of The Cure, Stewart doesn’t seem to possess the dynamic nature that Smith possesses. Without the random squeals along with purposely-forced singing stresses, you just have someone who sounds like they are trying too hard to be a Robert Smith-type singer. And yet. Why are there times I enjoy it?

Somewhere around 3:05 is the song “Dear God, I Hate Myself”, the title-track from their newest album. The first half of this video, from 0:00 – ~3:05, is a PERFECT dichotomy of what to HATE from Jamie Stewart. Now, don’t be fooled… his album isn’t just him on a guitar acting stupid and playing as if he’s trying to learn the guitar on stage. There are other noises. But plenty of the album is this awkward-rock thing that bands like The American Dollar are trying to move away from (with legitimate reason, right?). The other half of the dichotomy is what I enjoy though… this almost forceful angsty weird singer-songwriter stuff that definitely breaks the mold of what singer-songwriters are trying to pull off. Yet again, the song itself isn’t just Jamie Stewart singing along with his distorted guitar shouting “Dear God, I hate myself!” but rather accompanied very nicely with his studio band. And with that, there is some light at the end of this album.

It’s got some nice, practically pop, rhythms thrown in to the fray of noise and sounds. With that, it’s listenable and enjoyable if you’re into scavenger hunts during your listening time. The unpredictability makes the album fun while you enjoy some random beep-boop sounding electronics along with the random guitar or drums thrown in. I find myself nodding to a song that I definitely hate. That says something right?

This album, as with other Xiu Xiu albums, will never translate to a decent or representative show that showcases their songs. I could never see this being enjoyable to watch live as much as it is enjoyable to tap my foot and rip my hair out while I sit at my computer. Although, like his albums, his shows (and songs that he plays with band in tow) are hit or miss. And I do believe that if it’s a coin toss for an enjoyable show, then it’s definitely a con in my opinion. As far as the album is concerned as well, even though it seems as if the style and tone of the album is very honed in on a certain sink of music, the album lacks depth throughout. The weak presence of a different side of Xiu Xiu on this album is tragic, since the album itself does have glimpses of promise throughout. It’s as if someone cut up 12 decent songs, put the parts in places where they shouldn’t have been put, and popped out this album. Is it good? Is it bad?

Well, unfortunately for the art-rock scene, Xiu Xiu isn’t doing anything new. Xiu Xiu is leading a charge into a dark closet with the door slowly shutting behind them. And for everyone following them in, good luck. As for me, I had my ear pressed to the wall and enjoyed what I heard at times. I’m just glad they are in the closet and not pushing out. I wish I gave a “Okay Album” review, but when I first thought of rating albums I knew I didn’t want to have a crappy sliding scale rating system. Black and white. Either listen to this album or not. And if I had a choice, I wouldn’t. So, sadly…

Although, I’m only one person. Just like Bat for Lashes showed, TONS of scenester bloggers will love this album, surely. So, to leave you with something alright… here are two live videos of Xiu Xiu, in full band form, playing. I personally was a fan of “I Luv the Valley OH!”, albeit the crappy quality of audio. The second video is definitely one of those “miss” type songs… but you might like it. Let me know what you think!

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , , ,
54 Comm
17th Feb2010

NW Reviews: Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2- Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool

by nickwan

Shane Kalantari Week continues with another choice pick, Rob Zombie. He picked this album seemingly because of the song titles. With song titles like “Jesus Frankenstein”, “Mars Needs Women”, and “Werewolf Women of the SS”, how could you pick against this for a week from the person who eats ice cream with sriracha?

If you’ve never heard Rob Zombie before, congratulations. It’s the kind of music people play in their heads before they vomit. There was a website that used to be popular called stickdeath.com, and they had a lot of Rob Zombie featured. I personally would rather be deep sea diving while Rob Zombie plays live, but in this case… I have to listen to 48 minutes of this crap:

If you watched that video, just think of that song times 11 and that’s what I had to do today.

You will laugh a lot if you can sit through a bad set of songs and can pick out the horribles from them. That was a plus for me. Also, the lyrics are very laughable… in a “is Rob Zombie 7?” way.

Many. Lyrics suck. At first it leads you to think it might be a concept album… it isn’t. Some thought it was going to be something fierce, bleeding metal-esque… but it wasn’t. With lyrics like “Mars needs women, angry red women” it’s hard to give this something more than a Pabst blue ribbon.

People who would like this: people who suck, people who like treating their girlfriends like crap, people who like The Fox 101.7. Others who would like this: hopefully no one. Maybe someone who is wasted drunk and mistakes their favorite band, Slipknot or Mudvayne or something, for this.

Relay

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , , , , , ,
8 Comm
06th Feb2010

NW Reviews: New Found Glory + Dashboard Confessional – Swiss Army Bro-mance

by nickwan

Have I not been center-justifying my images lately? Sorry, format-nazis.

NFG and DC have been doing their things respectively for a very long time. From their Florida origins to their days shared on Fiddler Records, both bands seem to be connected at the hip even though most don’t know it. Recently, NFG and DC were to go on a tour this winter but after Jordan Pundik’s mom went through a medical emergency, the tour was simplified into an acoustic jam-session… WITHOUT this split EP on sale. But, this week it was released… and is it worth it to buy a record player to listen to this?

First off the bat, the Twitter-hype for this album was intense. Following either Chris Carrabba or Chad Gilbert while they were recording these songs made everyone wonder what these things would sound like. Oh right, I should explain what “these things” are. Dashboard will cover two NFG songs and vice versa. So, epic right? Well…

The first songs I heard were the NFG set of songs. Let me tell you, it sounded promising as they covered “Swiss Army Romance”. Slightly cheesy intro with the acoustic guitar turning into an electric guitar. If you’ve ever listened to any of NFG’s From the Screen to Your Stereo cover albums then you might have an idea of what this sounds like. It’s not hard to guess what they would do… fast pop-punk upbeat progression laced with random break-down-y sounding things, and a hardcore throwback breakdown to end. It wouldn’t be fair to say they didn’t really have to try too hard to make this song… but thinking of what they had to to… which is learn the song (easy), NFG it out (easy), then fancy it out with some lead guitars (somewhat easy), the song itself isn’t to hard to reproduce. But still fun I suppose. NFG’s second effort with “Saints and Sailors” was a little more “Dashboard and distortion”. Not too much variation from the original song to this version until the bridge where it goes “I’m not laughing, and you’re not leaving”. At this point, my skin goosebumped, and not in a “this is amazing” way. More in a “there’s a hair in my soup” way. Chad Gilbert gets HxC with it and screams out the bridge like he wrote it. Sadly, it’s on par with Eddie Cuddy’s forum post he made about metalcore bands covering pop songs. Ugly.

Dashboard’s attempts were definitely more lo-fi than I expected. Although expected since Chris (I think) did all the instrumentation on his own for this. Starts off with “Better Off Dead”. Definitely a “make out song” vibe about it, with the very indie ProCo distortion volumed down in the background for the chorus. Is he using an TR-808? What is this?! Anyway, drum machine and hipster distortion aside, it still sounds like Chris is about to crack when he sings. And he’s edging on the side of “old”. I guess when you play a tour with Bon Jovi, you’re considered old or a band from The Fox 101.7. Either or. Oh right, the song. It was nice, but the lo-fi vibe makes it sound… lacking? As with the last song, “All About Her”. It definitely sounds as if this album was thrown together. And that’s sad because if you followed these guys on Twitter, you would know that this was pretty fun sounding as far as the recording process goes.

It’s fun! It’s seriously your bro-mix. Pop punk and make out music? You could jam out with your bros in your Geo Metro before you get to a house party, then after a few games of King’s Cup you can pop on some DC and set the mood. RIGHT BROS!?? HIGH FIVE!! In all seriousness, the only other pros to this was that there was a tour that made this split linked in any other way. And I’m almost glad it didn’t get sold at the tour.

Aw, I always hate doing cons for bands I love. NFG and DC have special places in my heart. But alas, truth and justice must be served. This album, unless you REALLY REALLY REALLY love pop punk or making out to the same two songs, is crap. Lucky for me, I love these guys so I find it enjoyable for nostalgia and fun purposes mainly… but musically it makes me want to squirm and vomit simultaneously. The major con to this was probably execution. In theory, two of your beloved bands covering each others songs is like a dream come true. Back in the day, what if Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin did a split EP and Pink Floyd covered “The Ocean” and Zep covered “Comfortably Numb”? That’d be the greatest thing ever right? Okay, now let’s say that happened and it sucked. Would you still like it? I’m not saying NFG or DC are legendary like Floyd or Zep, but in many people’s minds… it’s a similar thought.

People who would like this: people who listen to “____ goes punk” albums. You know those albums at Best Buy… “Pop goes Punk volume 493249″ and “Rap goes Metal volume 666″. If you seriously listened… no. No. If you seriously BOUGHT something like that before, go ahead and waste your money on this. Others who would like this: die hard fans, fans of king’s cup, people in cover bands trying to figure out how to be original, people who like four-wheeling and making out at the same time.

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , , ,
74 Comm
11th Jan2010

NW Reviews: You Me at Six – Hold Me Down

by nickwan

I thought this music died. But then I realized that where good music exists, there has to be bad music to contrast. And seemingly this album is doing it from first to last track.

Please entertain yourself with this YouTube video of them. Embedding was disabled and I couldn’t be bothered with looking for one that could be embedded. As YouTube user oliversulley has said, “it looks like theyve just tried to fill this songs with as many clichés and random sayings as they could”. You betcha.

You Me at Six, also known as youmeatsix, youme@six or ym@6, has popped up here and there on the “related music” swash with the likes of The Academy Is…, Taking Back Sunday, and a slew of then-scene bands. This “then-scene” was the scene that everyone who is into Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear used to be in. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This is now the scene people turn their back on and shun liking, only to be made fun of when people scroll through their iPods and iTunes playlists when music like this is even visible. As far as what this music is all about now: played out. Regardless of what is “in” now, this kind of music isn’t original anymore. Nor is it nice to really listen to when you’re just sitting back and trying to write a review (…hm).

The album itself is nothing less than predictable. Lyrics written for the primary purpose to be chanted along with, cheese-filled choruses, and that randomly decent bassist who takes this music way too seriously when he could legitimately be in some amazing jazz fusion band (what?). The album is obviously well produced, but hard to say if it was over produced since the band itself has sold itself to a certain market since their 2008 release of Take Off Your Colours. The best way to describe this music would be… that music that ends up being the background music on MTV shows. I bet you $100 that one of their songs were featured on The Hills or some crap like that.

There is some silver lining I suppose. I bet if you had a van filled of drunk people who were into pop punk in high school, questions like “hey, who is this?” or “what the hell is this? New Found Glory?” oh, on the contrary ex-scenesters, don’t offend NFG by comparing them to this. I guess that wasn’t really a pro, was it? To have, yet again, a stereotypical cop out for a stereotypically bad band, the bassist is good. Isn’t that like… the cop-out of the century?

Many. It’s a rehashing of past songs and albums! What isn’t wrong with that? I honestly think they stole the “Don’t Stop Believin’” cover from Fox’s show Glee during the back up vocals for their song “Liquid Confidence”. Listen to the podcast to hear what I’m talking about. As far as specific bad things about this album: none when listening to this from a production stand point. Everything is tip-top. Even the musicians are decent. But as far as song writing and lyrics go, it’s trash. I could write lyrics that have the same emotive quality as the lyrics Josh Franceschi have composed for this sophomore stunner. And boy, did it stun.

With little originality, and precedent albums that are tons of times better than this showcase of songs, it’s hard to even justify this as a good album. If I lived in Weybridge, Surrey in England and this was the local band that got big and I was into one of their ex-girlfriends, I might be a little more lenient with this review. Sadly (much like this album), I’m disappointed that music like this is still thought of. I guess thinking of other played out music (grunge, nu-metal, 80s metal, hyphy), people still write and play these kind of genres as if they never went the way of disco. But like disco, this will soon be that music people make fun of you for if you are more than into it for more than novelty purposes. And like all other novelty albums than come my way…

Their site

Their MySpace

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
77 Comm
11th Nov2009

NW Reviews: Bat for Lashes – Two Suns

by nickwan

What is this? What are you, Bat for Lashes? It’s part sexy, part entrancing, part horrible, part amazing. I am always thrown off when those artists who “hide behind a name” end up being only one person. Like onelinedrawing for instance. That’s just Jonah Matranga. Dashboard Confessional was once just Chris Carrabba. Bat for Lashes is just some girl named Natasha Khan. Is she just some girl?

Well, from what the concept album suggests, she might be two girls. The album is based around this girl she has named Pearl, which turns out to just be herself. The concept is that there are two realms of life and although one walks in one avatar, the other avatar is just as lively somewhere in you. The story itself, yes, might be a little lame… but does that make the music lame?

Over the years, some very strong alternative pop singers have hit the scene and definitely have proverbially rocked it. Feist, for example, had a giant hit with that counting song… but she also had a wonderful album to counter the quirky poppiness that Apple loves to promote in their commercials. Does Bat for Lashes have that same effect? Maybe if this was the mid 90s. I get two vibes from this album… someone who should have made it back when the Lillith Fair was still popular with Fiona Apple and Melissa Etheridge and this other vibe of Evanesence gone synthpop. And that’s not really a great combo.

Pros: she can sing well, and the music fits the voice.

Cons: the voice she has is Amy Lee but more girl power.

People who would like this: people who LOVE musak. You know. That stuff you put on because you hate the sound of silence, but you don’t really listen to. Some people enjoy throwing on a neutral album everyone likes… like a Blink 182 album or The Beatles. Some people throw it on a shuffled playlist. Others throw on musak, that stuff no one really listens to but it’s there. This album is a musak album. It shouldn’t be there. But if it is, not many would mind it.

As far as minding this for my list? Sorry Khan, you got nice… er… vocals… but you don’t have a nice album. At least nice enough for this year. Go back in time far enough and you’ll be a queen.

badalbum

Category : Music, Record Reviews
Tags : , ,
0 Comm
Pages:«123456