The Syndicate

I can think of maybe two albums that I can say I'd give a 5/5 without question. A true 5/5 ought to be extremely rare.

Another fine review, Rico. I was also thinking that their sound reminded me of college rock but also a smidgen of jam band sensibilities as well. I'm pretty sure I heard some music recording majors listening to this album back in college. They were an interesting bunch.

Late as usual. My review for Woodface:

The first three tracks played well. "Chocolate Cake" establishes a quasi-college rock/jam vibe that's light and witty but also outdated (seriously- did anyone else get the Tammy Faye Bakker reference?). "It's Only Natural" does much of the same, with more pop aspirations and less name-dropping. "Fall At Your Feet" takes the songwriting into adult-contemporary territory (no offense intended). All three are fine songs and set a laid-back mood that I associate with chilling rather than actively listening. True enough, I'd lose a few tracks the first few listens because I unconsciously relaxed my focus too much.

The rest of the album covers that same crossroads between college/jam and adult-contemporary. It's much nicer to listen to than that fusion might otherwise suggest. If this is a transitional album, where the band wants to add maturity and depth to their sound, then they fooled me. The album sounds like these guys already figured out how to play fun but mature music, because none of the tracks sound forced or overdone, which can plague bands who try to add a splash of "grown-up" stuff to their set list. It sounds natural and authentic.

That said, it's not quite my thing. There's not a bad track on this album but I didn't hear anything that I wanted to call a great song. This kind of respectable effort reminds me of bands like the Foo Fighters- past their heyday but still making respectable, good-quality music. It's not going to set the world on fire but industry types and fans will still applaud the effort and the end product.

Picking three songs was difficult because four appealed to me more than the rest. My top three would be (in no particular order) "Fall At Your Feet," "Four Seasons In One Day," and "As Sure As I Am." The 4th place option was "She Goes On," and I think that;s mostly because the line about Frank Sinatra made me realize that I heard that song back in college at some point.

Overall, it's quite good and very listenable. It lacks the bite that I tend to gravitate toward but I wouldn't be opposed to hearing it again in the right setting.

G-Man Score: 3.71out of 5 (almost a B+)
Rico Score: 3.5 out of 5

I've listened to the Arthur a few times now. I like it but don't love it. I understand what Llama said about it sounding very British. It reminds me of 1964/1965 Beatles at times, with the arrangements that is.

One weird thing that struck me is how much Franz Ferdinand emulated (either intentionally or accidentally) some of this sound on their first album (I don't have any of their others). I can totally hear their singer performing a bunch of these tracks. Weird.

My review for Arthur:

Concept albums aren't a guaranteed hit for me but this one was rather enjoyable. Some concept albums get too bogged down in telling the narrative component and fail to keep the music engaging. Others fall victim to pretension, assuming that whatever statement the artist is trying to make should be understood to be of high importance. Arthur is sort of the opposite. For me, the album is very listenable though I was left wondering if the tracks aren't in full narrative order.

Track 1 ("Victoria") opens the album with a familiar Beatles-esque mid-60s British sound that is nostalgic but also not imitative. There's some tongue-in-cheek going on that I like quite a bit. It shows that the band isn't trying to make a profound statement but merely have something to say. Track 2 ("Yes Sir, No Sir") is not quite as good as the opener but still amusing. There's enough irreverence going on between the lines the uphold the lighter tone and the singer's delivery adds a dash of what I interpreted to be sarcasm. This song could have easily been overdone and melodramatic but it wasn't. Track 3 ("Some Mother's Son") is darker but it does not get preachy like many of the anti-war songs that sprung up during the most recent Iraq War. It's still got that sarcasm, which adds bite to the dark tone of the song.

So, my three-track make-or-break system says this album starts very successfully. I can see those early three songs playing over a montage of scenes depicting events of suburbia, enlistment, and war. Maybe that's what the band was going for, since the project started as the companion to a TV production that fizzled out.

I was initially not super keen about this album but it grew on me quite a bit with each successive listen. I was indifferent to two tracks though. "Drivin'" and "Young an Innocent Days" felt almost like filler and just didn't do it for me. It was hard in the end to pick three top tracks. "Australia" is the clear standout. I still can't tell if it's a straight-forward tune from the idealists mindset of someone looking for opportunity or if it's a sarcastic and condescending parody from the mindset of an old codger who thinks the kids should stay put in jolly old England. "Victoria" is a strong opener and it's leaner than some of the other stand-out songs. I appreciate that. I was drawn to "Some Mother's Son" for some reason. Perhaps it's because I took a semester-long course on the Vietnam War once and the battlefield lyrics resonate with me.

"Shangri-La" and "Arthur" receive honorable mentions. The former is a really good example of songwriting because it builds up effectively. The latter is a nice little closer that summarizes everything nicely while also being very catchy.

I look forward to listening to more of The Kinks when I reach them on my Rock and Roll Hall of Fame project. This may not be the best way to introduce someone to their work, so it helps that I was familiar with them beforehand. Otherwise, it might run the risk of sounding too much like The Beatles, given the British sound the band went for here. Youngins these days have a tendency to switch off their interest if something sounds too old to be "cool," so Arthur is certainly something that needs a few listens to warm up to.

G-Man Scale: 4.0625 out of 5 (A-)
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5


My ratings so far:

Yeah, after one listen of Whole Stories, I can tell that this genre of music is not for me. That doesn't mean it's bad. It just means that it's not for me.

Rico, I gave Arthur Brown a 4 out of 5, not a 4.5. Still mulling over Whole Stories.

Okay, question for the A Person/anyone who understands this genre of music well and knows more about what goes into this than I do:

Is Vanessa Rossetto layering different sounds incidental together or is she actually adding incidental music here and there throughout the field recordings? I can't find much of anything online about the artist or her methodology. That extra layer of context may or may not make a difference.

Whole Stories

I'll be frank right off the bat. I don't consider this to be music. Perhaps it's because I don't know enough about field recordings to identify the musical merits of them. Perhaps it's because I don't know enough about music to identify meter and form in non-traditional forms. Either way, I can only speak to what I know and what I know tells me that this is not music. Rather, it is auditory art that, at times, approaches points where it contains musical qualities. The sarcastic jerk in me thinks this is the kind of thing I would hear a glowing 10-minute segment for on NPR, leaving me to wonder what kind of strange people donate to NPR. The small percentage of me that digs weird art, however, identifies that there is a lot of effort in what Vanessa Rossetto did here. Editing and layering field recordings may seem more like a hobby than anything else to me but hobbies are oftentimes passion projects, so who am I to judge.

I wasn't crazy about the fading out to dead air only to be blasted by loud white noise every so often. If you're going to fade to silence, then I say it's time for a track break. I'm also torn on the artist's own voice appearing on the end product. Does this reveal her insecurity as an artist that she includes her own explanation of her craft? In the first track, she explains to a passerby what she's doing. The sarcastic jerk in me also can't help but wonder if Rossetto naming the album Whole Stories that includes her stating that "people need to hear whole stories" reveals a little vanity. Did she subconsciously put a subliminal message in her own project, as if she is trying to suggest to a listener that they should share this recording with others? These are all things I thought of after the fact though, so they didn't impact my thought processes during my listens.

During my listens, I grew a little weary because some of the droning, swirling, and higher-end noises threatened to mess with me. I have tinnitus- a constant ringing/high-frequency sound in the ear that can range anywhere from slightly bothersome to debilitating. I have it in both ears and it is rather mild. Some sounds, however, seem to aggravate it, causing sudden explosions of piercing ringing that drowns everything out (literally, like a bomb went off and all other sound drops out and slowly fades back in). Other times, certain frequencies start to mess with my equilibrium. At different times during this album, I felt like I was on the verge of one or the other of these maladies. It wasn't enough to make me actively dislike the album but it gave me pause before each successive listen.

Anyway, the first track seemed directionless to me. Some interesting sounds but I couldn't get a sense of any sort of intended journey. The second track was more interesting, though I was still largely indifferent. I liked the spoken portions, the stories that were told, whether they were trivial or not. The casino noises added that approaching-music quality. I can't remember which track it was but there was a sound that reminded me of The Dark Knight soundtrack, when the Joker was talking and building up to a climax. That sense of slow but haunting escalation left me longing for a sense of direction in Rossetto's album. It felt like a wasted opportunity.

Overall, this sounds like the kind of stuff that plays in arty rock music as the band slowly brings instrumentation in. It's all background noise. I can see how some people are fascinated by such background noise and wish to make it the star of the show. I didn't feel like it was done well enough for my tastes here. Perhaps if Whole Stories actually told a whole story or two, it would get a better reaction from me. It rates on the low side for me because I don't see this as music. Even as art, it doesn't engage me enough. It's an intriguing concept and could be potentially riveting, as I actually enjoy people-watching, but nothing grabbed a hold of me at all. Each time I finished the album I felt restless and needed to listen to something raucous to get my groove back.

G-Man Scale: 2.19 out of 5 (C)
Rico Scale: 2 out of 5

I like the current system. Making recent 'winners' sit out a cycle adds a layer of immediacy to the next poll, as well as preventing the number of options from becoming overwhelming.

Ricochet wrote:Metalmarsh hasn't posted in here since Week 1, yet here we are, honouring his submission.

If it's any consolation to you, Rico, my initial reaction to the first few seconds of this album was to giggle. I think I mixed up deadmau5 and Danger Mouse in my mind because quasi-ambient rave music was not what I was expecting.

This is the story of the square who lost his testicles:

Al loved to rest quietly whilst no one was watching. Sitting on a bench one day, he was surprised when suddenly a prog rock fan ran close by. Now this may not seem strange, but when Al overheard the prog fan whisper to no one in particular, "The Square must lose his testicles," well, he began to wonder.

Presently, people discussed the latest SAW pick and there, lying on the grass was Square. Other prog fans circled around the Square. They approached the Square with much gnashing of teeth.

Ostensibly motionless, the Square was trembling with anxiousness, for without his testicles, he couldn’t father children. Why take his testicles? Were SAW reviews that sacred? He hadn’t mistyped. The music was good.

Progs were not happy, and questioned the Square’s musical tastes. "You didn’t like Ian Anderson’s voice and lyrics."

"No!" interjected Square, who was scared. "I liked the music, the tone, and concept. But without vocal variety you lose track of who’s who."

But all this time, prog fans moved closer to the Square, scowling! All of them were hopping mad at Square’s disrespect- they thought themselves far superior in intelligence to all others. They wanted him gone, this ingrate. They made a demand: "Square, you must love this album called A Passion Play. Otherwise we will have to punish your sins by chopping off both your testicles.”

And Square tried to reason with the mob, "I can't love an album because you say so! It’s boring, it’s boring!" shouted Square. "But the music was good."

But the mob raised their knives. No one could ignore such lush melodies and persist.

"Maybe it will grow on me!"

But alas, Square was much too weak to fight off the prog rock fan mob.

All this time, it had been quite plain to Square that the others knew nothing of his testicles.

And as for all their biased opinions, well Square didn't care. The lost testicles were his own affair.

And after all, Square did have a spare a-pair!


A-pair!


--------------------

G-Man Scale: 3.375 (B)
Rico Scale: 3.5

Halfway through and it's been enjoyable. Of the four tracks, the longer two have been better. I'm not completely sold on the singer's voice though yet. On the opening track he sounds like Justin Hawkins without the theatricality.

Epignosis wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2017 4:45 pm

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:54 am Halfway through and it's been enjoyable. Of the four tracks, the longer two have been better. I'm not completely sold on the singer's voice though yet. On the opening track he sounds like Justin Hawkins without the theatricality.

Which one? They have two leads. Ray Weston is the lead singer on "Headright," while Brett Kull is the lead singer on "Past Gravity," if that helps.

The first track, "Island." It's a pretty solid tune but the vocals don't gel with me. I'll have to listen for the different vocalists the next time through.

I've listened to the album a couple of times now at work. I struggle to stay focused on the album because it has been a very busy week. What I have found is that the opening and closing tracks are better than the rest. The second half of the album, with the exception of the closing track, tends to lose my attention. I'm still trying to determine if I am altogether indifferent to them or if I would rate them as pleasant.

It's not in the same vein as most of my go-to music but there's no question that it sounds nice. I need to listen to it with headphones on to zero in on some final opinions.

I'll write my thoughts on Echolyn at lunch. As for the current album, it sounds like a fusion of The Strokes and all the production flourishes of The Killers. Pretty good but a tad overproduced.

Alrighty, so Echolyn, belonging to the prog-rock family, isn't the kind of music I normally gravitate to (tired of hearing me say that yet?) but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. The vocalist that I initially didn't care for on the opening track grew on me with subsequent listens. I still feel that, outside of the first and last track, nothing really grabbed me, leaving me to appreciate the album for what I could- pretty, intricate music.

Going through the old three-track guideline I have, my general principle stands true. Track 1 ("Island") is a strong opener. It's a long track, which is what I anticipated from prog, but it had a good edge and a catchy bassline. There was even a little grandiosity, which reminded me of the one Muse album I own. Perhaps my enjoyment of this track contributed to my relative disappointment in the second track ("Headright"). It's shorter and mellower. Perhaps if there had been another edgy track before it, I would have been okay with it. I guess it's too much of a cool-down too quickly. Pretty song but also the opposite I was anticipating after the solid opener. Track 3 ("Locust to Bethlehem") continued the softer sound but it was a slight step up with the brooding tone and orchestration.

Perhaps it was that sharp cool-down that took me out of the album or lowered my expectations and interest the first few times I listened. That's a bias I can't work around at this point in my music appreciation outings. After listening to the second half of the album a few times, I found it was better than I originally thought.

I was indifferent to the first track on the second half of the album but tracks 6 and 7 were pretty decent. The closer perked the album score up again. I like albums that close well. This one does. There's just a lot of lull and a smidgen of lag in between those high points. If it's not about the destination but the journey, Echolyn is not a journey worth revisiting often for me. The 'here' and 'there' are solid and the only two tracks I would really snip to take with me.

It was said that this was initially intended to be the band's last album. Perhaps that explains the somber tones running throughout. It's not an elegy nor a eulogy but there seems to be a kind of catharsis evident enough to me that I can believe the band thought this was it, setting the stage for this album's contents. Maybe someday I will explore their back catalogue and see how this fits in as an almost swan song. Until then, it gets a 'pretty good' out of me.

G-Man Scale: 3.20 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3 out of 5

S~V~S wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2017 9:49 am Ha ha, I had pretty much the opposite reaction to you so far, G Man. I am on Track 3 of Echolyn so far, Locust to Bethlehem.

Probably because you've listened to ample amounts of prog and I have not.

I think I feel a little of what Rico is saying. It's nice music, good music even. There's maybe only one or two songs that have stuck with me though. Tomorrow I will start nailing down what I think of each track. The overall album feel is light, breezy, and nice. But it also makes me want to go listen to Is This It. It's been a while since listening to one artist gives me cravings for another. Is that a bad thing or am I over-analyzing?

Alright, let's do this! For me, In a Million Years feels like a summer album- it's light, doesn't overstay its welcome, and has a very chill vibe. It's the kind of music you hear playing over road trip segments in a movie or on a TV show, or it's music you'd hear playing in the car or at a backyard party of twentysomethings. However, it's also an album that doesn't make much of a lasting impression.

As I said earlier, this album kind of sounds like The Strokes, had they borrowed all of the Hot Fuss overproduction from The Killers. In the end, Last Dinosaurs sound like a very good, generic indie rock band. Having been 17 when The Strokes debut album landed, I lived the indie rock/post-punk revival/garage rock revival tsunami through my senior year of college. As my musical tastes broadened backward in rock history, I had less time for current artists, who were quickly starting to sound the same. In a Million Years reminds me mostly of the good times of that era, though that sameness of sound does cause several tracks to blur into obscurity in my head.

The first three tracks were enough to keep me interested. I thought that "Zoom" was a terrific opener and set the tone for an easy-going listen. The guitars and snappy drums were delightful. The second track, "I Can't Help You," was adequate but fairly indie rock generic and showed that the band really likes to harmonize their vocals. Track three, "Sunday Night," was enough of a step up that I didn't feel like the album was losing momentum already. It didn't grip me like "Zoom" did but they can't all be winners, right? Track 4 was solid and evoked a poppy Strokes vibe, which I think kept me going.

The second half of the album largely ran together until the final two songs. "Repair" turned out to be my favorite song off the album (doesn't hurt to have a strong closer!) and "Honolulu" was a close second. I would pick "Zoom" as my third track to take with me, though I also really liked "Satellites." If I could arrange a samples for someone, I'd have "Zoom" play first, then "Honolulu," and then use "Satellites" as a pseudo-intro to "Repair." There's a beautiful, whimsical quality to "Repair" that made it memorable to me. The guitar (or is it bass?) that plays those descending notes throughout the song hearkens back to something I can't quite place. Maybe it's another song or a movie score. Either way, it's pretty and it stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it.

Overall, I think the music tops the vocals. The music has a lot of promise but the vocals, to me, were very indie rock generic. These guys won't be able to sing that high forever, and you can only play this idealistic-sounding music for so long before it gets redundant or you're too old and it just sounds awkward. I'd be curious to find out if the band aspired for more on subsequent albums or if they are just the kind of young band that plays their young music for a few years and hangs it up as trends change. For a debut record in the current decade, it's pretty darn good. It may not be remembered but it could be the kind of album you re-discover years later and nod in nostalgic approval.

G-Man Scale: 3.41 out of 5

Rico Scale: 3.5 out of 5

For those unaware, the mastermind behind this album, Jim Steinman, was also the creative force behind Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album (and the first sequel). Steinman actually wrote several hit songs in the 80's and some in the 90's. That's how I approached this album- basically like an 80's quasi-chick rock version of Meat Loaf. It's tongue-in-cheek and unadulterated kitsch.

Meat Loaf actually covered a number of these songs in the 90's and "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" was a huge hit for Celine Dion when she covered it. I prefer her version, though the original is good. This is going to be a fun week.

As much fun as parts of this album are, I really don't like the cover of The Door's "Twentieth Century Fox." The original is a classic and the Pandora's Box version sounds like a fusion of Oingo Boingo's "Weird Science" and Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" in all the wrong ways.

My 19-month old daughter was rocking out in the tub last night to "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)." Does this make me a bad father?

Haha. Yeah, I told my wife about that song. She doesn't see how the line "there's no such thing as safe sex when it comes to loving you" can work in any context.

Here's the video for "It's All Coming Back To Me Now." Jim Steinman wrote the script for the video. It's been spoiler tagged because it's pretty

thellama73 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 25, 2017 6:06 pm Aw man, I missed talking about my own submission. Bummer. I'm amused to see that it was roundly hated though.

I'm back from traveling for a while, by the way.

I didn't hate it. I'll try to get my review up tonight.

For the next poll, I am nominating this gem:



Album: Fun House
Artist: The Stooges
Released: July 7, 1970
Genre: Proto-Punk/Hard Rock
7 Tracks, 36:35
Available on Spotify and YouTube

Catching up with my review for Pandora's Box...

As a fan of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album, I have an appreciation of Jim Steinman's work. The dude is flat-out weird as can be but he knows how to compose a rich, enveloping song. I don't know whether Steinman takes his work as seriously as a prog-rock band might or not. I suspect he is a touch ego-maniacal but what successful music industry person isn't?

I think the debate over whether Steinman treats his work as serious-business high art or tongue-in-cheek silliness misses the point. What cannot be debated is that Steinman is a very indulgent person. He strives for the biggest and best sound possible, even if it means wrapping lush orchestrations and over-the-top bravado around the crude and common subject matter of lust.

The first time I listened to Original Sin, I thought to myself, "Most of these songs would sound better with Meat Loaf at the helm." The more I listened to it, however, I was better able to ignore the cover versions that I was more familiar with and take Pandora's Box in as a project in its own right.

Maybe Steinman still had a grudge against Meat Loaf at the time. Maybe, as the internet suggests, Steinman switched gears to the all-female ensmble because Meat Loaf was having throat and voice issues when Original Sin was taking flight in Steinman's mind. Heck, maybe Steinman just wanted to avoid creating another stand-alone lead to overshadow his behind-the-scenes work. Whatever the underlying motives for this weird wet dream set to music, Steinman still does what he does best- he makes music that is fun to listen to.

The "first track" I lumped in with the title track. Track space is sacred. Don't give a 20-second intro its own track space! "Original Sin" is a potent opener. I love the chorus and the way the high and low vocals work together. The lyrics aren't too absurd and fit the vocals- that yearning and ferocity!

"Twentieth Century Fox" irked the crap out of me the first few times. In the end, it's still completely out of place and an inferior cover but the music grew on me and I became nothing more than indifferent to it. I'm not usually a lyric-focused listener (which probably helps me enjoy Steinman's bombast like I do), but "Safe Sex" took things too far. Despite an epiphany that told me that this was Steinman's attempt at a kinky James Bond theme (all the ingredients are there!), the song still just comes across as the kind of tune that would have featured in Fifty Shades of Grey had it been made in 1989.

So, yeah, Original Sin got off to a rocky start but it really does make up for it. I think tracks two and three lowered my expectations for the rest of the album and took me out of it the first few spins. But it grew on me in time. The songs that I know the covers of were still solid on this record.

Picking three songs off of this album was tough because I could take four or five. My favorite has to be "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)." I know the Meat Loaf version well enough from Bat Out of Hell II, but I have to say that this original version is superior because of the range of the female vocalists. Second pick would be "Original Sin" because of its potency.

Third would be "It's All Coming Back to Me Now." Celine Dion had me crushing on her in 1996 and that was THE dance song at just about every middle school social/dance back in the day. The Pandora's Box version pales in comparison to Dion's but it's still a very good song here. Steinman's creepy spoken-word lead-in tarnishes the overall impact of the tune but I can ignore his yammerings. I usually do.

At the end of the day, Original Sin is good, schlocky fun. It's the perfect kind of thing to pull from for drunken karaoke if there's no Meat Loaf to choose from. If Bat Out of Hell was Jim Steinman capturing lightning in a bottle with his unrelenting indulgence and refusal to walk back any of the raunch and cheese, Original Sin is an less-successful but still appreciable companion piece.

It may be inconsistent but it still put a smile on my face. I can't argue with that.

G-Man Scale: 3.46 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3.5 out of 5

My first impression of The Mountain Goats is that it sounds like an acoustic demo tape by the band Cake before they added the trumpet and more snark and sarcasm to their lyrics. It's not bad but it started sounding samey. We'll see if that persists.

Sure, Jimmy, just ignore my submission for the approval of the Midnight Society. I see how it is.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:46 pm Whoops, my bad. I have shimmied you in there.

Pretty close to my final thoughts on the Mountain Goats already. I still pick up that Cake demo vibe and perhaps a twinge of hipster. Mixed results but nothing that I'm indifferent or worse to. I like his sillier songs better than the more straight-laced ones.

When's the new poll going up?

I'll have to work up my review for The Mountain Goats tomorrow. In the meantime, I am voting for Golden the Coward's pick and the other four that are that the shortest (excluding mine). I'm not familiar with most of the choices this time around, so I figure the shorter the better.

Feel free to drop The Stooges until the next poll if that will help keep us at more than five submissions next time around. I listen to it every other day, so it's not something I'm dying to cover.

I've fallen behind a bit. Here is my review for The Mountain Goats' All Hail West Texas.

This is the kind of quasi-folk revival music that hippie-Jesus types play in college town coffee shops. I wouldn't be surprised to hear a review of this kind of stuff on NPR. In other words, this sort of thing is something I'd have kind of sneered at behind its back. I came away liking it more than I ever thought possible. That doesn't mean I loved it though.

The closest thing from my musical wheelhouse to compare it to was a Cake demo sans all the wry humor and trumpet. I even said I preferred the humorous tunes more than the serious ones. Sure enough, I ended up eating my words and preferring the latter after all. The reason for that is probably because I am "old."

I'm approaching my mid-30s. A week from now, I'll have been married for nine years. My oldest child is going to be six in a few months. I lost a job, worried about money, felt like it was all somehow my fault, and clawed my way back up to a comfortable existence, only to find myself wondering if my life is still a mess despite all the perfect family photos adorning my Facebook page. In other words, I've lived.

The best songs from The Mountain Goats' All Hail West Texas are about the truisms faced by certain people who have lived. These people are either coasting, sagging, or spiraling out of control. Thankfully, I'm not as despondent, bitter, or frivolous as some of John Darnielle's subjects, but I get it. I've seen and been through enough to have caught glimpses of these sorts of tales in my own life or the lives of others around me.

The album starts off with a silly tale of a couple of metalheads who have their ambitions squashed by parents, teachers, and other 'old' people. They ultimately set out to make the old saying 'living well is the best revenge' their purpose in life. It was amusing and a fun opener. Track two was a peaked-too-early tale that might resonate with football obsessed Texas but its subject wasn't the kind of character I have much sympathy for. It was adequate. Track three more of the Cake vibe going for it but it wasn't as cheeky or silly as what came before, so it started that samey slide that popped up here and there on the album.

Three tracks in and I was feeling okay but not thrilled. Throughout the listens, certain tracks grew on me quite a bit. So much so that I couldn't pick just three songs. "The Mess Inside" and "Fault Lines" are companion pieces. They both feature tales of a couple who can't seem to help but spend their money in ways that might make their humdrum lives more exciting, but all they do is make the comedown harder and more depressing as their home life falls apart. "The Mess Inside" still has a glimmer of hope, clinging to that feeling of being in love early on but struggling to see it in the present. "Fault Lines" lacks any hope and is just bitterness wearing a veil of desperation, as neither party in the couple is happy yet they both lack the courage break it off.

"Riches and Wonders" is the crushing weight of realizing that puppy love is just a phase and that growing into adulthood and becoming responsible kind of sucks. The line "I want to go home, but I am home" is the cracking of the spirit of a 30-something like myself, yearning to go back to carefree childhood days when your parents were the responsible ones who made everything stick together, only to finally realize that you can't go back and to even wish for it is kind of pathetic. That was a gut-punch of a song.

The other track I couldn't let go of was "Blues in Dallas." I liked the keyboard/organ sound and the slightly religious nature of the lyrics. It's a hipster singing about finality, but it's still about finality. Another track that I liked a lot was "Pink and Blue." I'm not sure if it's about twins or just the pink and blue stripes on a newborn's hospital cap. Either way, as a father, I could resonate with some of the subtle panic.

The lo-fi aspect worked this time but I could see how this approach might get old fast. With just his guitar on most tracks, it understandably suffers from sameness in places. Another minor quibble I have is that sometimes the lyrics get too pretentious and name drop stuff that's beyond the sphere of knowledge of his subjects. It also occasionally seems to get quirk for quirkiness's sake. If The Mountain Goats evolve like Ricochet says they have, they could still be interesting. We'll see if I follow up on their recent works or not.

G-Man Scale: 3.48 our of 5
Rico Scale: 3.5 out of 5

I had my first listen of the current album of the week yesterday. Whoever comes up with all these flowery music genre names has too much time on their hands. This is contemporary R&B with streaks of Pop. I've said before that prior albums weren't my normal thing. In this case, the genre itself is one that I am disinterested with on the whole. My initial reaction was very neutral and that the album was too long. I read some of you speak of "High" as a standout track. Unless my track list was mixed up, it failed to register with me.

We'll give it another crack today.

I really struggled to stay focused on the CBR album. Several songs would go by without registering. I blame it on being swamped at work between new demands from the bosses and trying to get a few extra things done before vacation. I'll review the higher ranking tracks tonight if I can, so I can try to rip through the current album of the week before Friday.

Okay, so here's my review of last week's album:

The Heart Speaks in Whispers kicks off with a song that was nice but had a little too much of a generic club vibe for me to embrace it fully. The second track had some nice touches but it's the kind of slow, romantic song that I wouldn't normally hear save for on a Dancing With the Stars episode. The third track was a conglomeration of 80s sounds followed up by a random act of smooth jazz in the closing minute.

My three-track snap-judgement wasn't the kindest. The third track dropped off the level set by the first two. Falling action on an album isn't unheard of but it's easier to accept when one or both of the first two track perk up my ears. I would have gonged this album at that point but I can admit that, had I done so, I would have missed the best this album has to offer.

Despite being indifferent to the genre and sound as a whole, there are plenty of tracks on this album that I would call pleasant. The only track that I scored as a solid 'good' was "Green Aphrodisiac." The sexy tone worked really well for me on that one. I had trouble picking two other tracks because many were on even standing below the aforementioned tune. I ended up going with "Stop Where You Are" and "Ice Cream Colours" (despite my spell-check's insistence that there should be no u in there). The former was an easy choice because everything clicked pretty well and it had more energy that most of the others. "Ice Cream Colours" contains some lyrics that were silly to me but the overall package worked well. Nice, peppy, poppy stuff.

Two other tracks stood out to me from what would be the second half of the regular album. "Horse Print Dress" features a disco sound reminiscent of Chic in their prime and Michael Jackson's Off the Wall. The beginning of "Walk On" reminded me of "Po' Lazarus" from O Brother, Where Art Thou? Something in the percussion sounds like that repetitive chop and drag of a line of workers. It had to be intentional, but I felt like the rest of the track didn't make the most of its interesting start.

The second half of the album did lag for me. The bonus songs, save for "Ice Cream Colours," were more of the same, though I did feel that "Push On the Dawn" made for a more effective closer than "Night," the final track on the standard album.

I can probably find something good to say about almost any kind of music, so the final rating didn't surprise me too much. It's not my thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't adequate or enjoyable on some level.

G-Man Scale: 3.01 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3 out of 5

My first impressions of the Dead Can Dance album are that parts of it sound like music from The Princess Bride, other parts sound like music from an 80s-era British TV murder mystery you might see on PBS, and a few tracks are very good.

I was on vacation from last Friday night until yesterday afternoon. I'm finishing up my final score for Dead Can Dance. Then I'll tackle Circlesongs. Truth be told, the only Bobby McFerrin song I know is "Don't Worry Be Happy." Then I'll listen to whatever is coming up next week.

Giving Circlesongs a first listen. The first four tracks have been nothing short of delightful.

After another run-through of Circlesongs, I can tell it's going to make a run at landing in my top five albums for this listening group so far (at least until The Stooges roll around next week).

Toehider was interesting. While the sound is certainly different, the music didn't sound original as often as it needed to. My notes have track six as the first time I thought he sounded like he was doing his own thing, rather than playing styles of other bands that have influenced him. The first half of the album also sounded very different from the second. Subsequent listens will tell me if that's good or not. A few songs sounded, to me, like a poppier version of System of a Down. It was my first listen though, so we'll see what additional spins do for it.

Here's my stab at a review for Dead Can Dance's Within the Realm of a Dying Sun.

Despite some silly-sounding track titles and the smirk-inducing genre title (neo-classical darkwave), I found myself enjoying this album. It reminds me a little of what the existential literature-loving, self-satisfied yet quasi-depressed Goth girls I knew in high school would listen to for pleasure when they weren't listening to Slipknot, Korn, Coal Chamber, or Soulfly for the shock value and the attention that came with it. It all has a slightly-grim fantasy feel to it that is enjoyable and, yes, perhaps just a little cheesy.

The first half of the album sputters along for me. The opening instrumental part of track 1, "Anywhere Out of the World," sounded straight out of The Princess Bride or some low-budget British mystery show. I didn't think the male singer suited it right. If you hand the microphone over to someone like Annie Lennox, this could be more powerful. Track 2, "Windfall," kept with the fantasy vibe but the music, as good as it sounds, doesn't go anywhere or build to anything. It's more like ambient incidental music than anything else. It needs a pinch more punch. Things improved with track 3, "In the Wake of Adversity," but not by much. The music sounded better but it again failed to go anywhere.

At this point, I began to wonder about this album. It sounded nice enough but it lacked any wow factor. Yet. The second half of the album is cohesively and stylistically superior in my opinion. "Dawn of the Iconoclast" serves as a nice extended intro to "Cantara," the cream of the crop for me. "Summoning of the Muse" was a strong follow-up and "Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)" was pleasant although it ended the album on a bit of a whimper (though I liked the ethereal Lord of the Rings quality about it).

Perhaps the first half of the album is a bit overdone. The second half of the album has some powerful, big-sounding music going on, which is a stark difference to the smaller-sounding first half. Sure, there's a lot of echoey vocals and synthesizers but it lacks the grand scope of the second half. Maybe it's the synthesizers. I don't know for sure.

As you may guess, I would pick the trifecta of "Dawn of the Iconoclast," "Cantara," and "Summoning of the Muse" to take with me. If they'd have retooled the first half of the album to improve consistency of sound, this could have scored even high. It scored well in the end, nearly earning a B+ from me, and it stands above most of the other albums we've listened to. I read that this album was a transitional one away from traditional 'band instruments,' so perhaps later albums perfected what they started here. That might encourage me to check more of their music out but I can't say when that might happen.

G-Man Scale: 3.52 out of 5
Rico Scale: 3.5 out of 5

speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:23 pm

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:25 pm A few songs sounded, to me, like a poppier version of System of a Down.

I would listen to SOAD more, but I don't really like the vocalist.

When it comes to a vocalist making or breaking a listening experience, I can't fault anyone. In the end, music appreciation is extremely subjective. Though I am curious- do you dislike SOAD's singer's voice specifically or is it a lyrics/politics dispute? I find myself listening to a lot of radical hard rock for the music but am pretty opposed to their political and policy stances at the same time.

Also...

speedchuck wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2017 8:54 pm Hey guys.

Firstly I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this. I thought I could, but I can't. Which makes me feel sorta bad for taking up a slot, but it's here. I'll take the chance to talk about it anyway.

Toehider is (for the most part) one guy, Michael Mills. I ran into him on the Ayreon rock opera The Theory of Everything and decided almost immediately that he was in my top 3 vocalists of all time, if not my favorite. When I went to check out his original band, I was surprised to find a silly proggy rock mashup of everything I like in music. Everything. This is the first album that I listened to, and is my favorite Toehider work, and one of my favorite albums of all time.

Let me know what you think, and again, sorry about stealing a slot. Won't happen again. Promise.

Don't feel that you've "taken a spot." I think any submission should be welcome, whether it's from someone who is a regular here or just someone who drops in once in a great while. Otherwise we're just going to keep getting submissions from the same set of people every time. That could get boring.

Circlesongs

This was one of the easier albums to reach conclusions on for me. It's flat-out delightful. I usually don't focus on lyrics much but consider the vocals of albums as equivalent to an instrument. What McFerrin does here is beautiful. I read a little bit more about his voicestra concept and I'm totally open to checking out more of his work if it's anything like Circlesongs.

One of the things I like the most about this album is that it doesn't focus on one kind of sound. While I assume that none of the vocalists are singing in any real languages, different tracks evoke the sound of different vocal styles from around the world. Some of it sounds Indian, some of it sounds Far Eastern, some of it sounds Caribbean, and some of it sounds African. Too much of one of these sounds would have gotten too repetitive but the blend is superb.

The opening track is probably the standout of the whole show. It's jazzy but it's also got roots in an almost spiritual vibe that I can't quite call gospel or world music but something tangential to both. Track two highlights the contrasts between the upper and lower ends, which is nice. It's a step or two below the opener but it's still enjoyable. Track three is a step above Track 2 and shows us something different yet again. This variation to styles really made me hungry for the rest of the album. I wasn't disappointed. The only track that might be considered a let-down was the closer. Maybe it lacked something the others had or maybe the novelty was wearing off. I don't know. It was still a decent track.

The opening track is the first one I would take with me. My second-favorite track was Track 4. I was originally on the fence with this one. After learning that my wife's grandmother passed away this morning, my mind wandered while listening to this track. I was thinking of the times that Chloe (our oldest) interacted with her great-grandmother and this tune just blended seamlessly with that train of thought. I guess I sort of had a moment with Track 4 and that put it over the edge. Track 7 is my third choice. Good grief, what a chill track. It had a Lady Blacksmith Mambazzo vibe to it. I think I might add it and Track 4 to the list of songs I want to hear on my deathbed.

This album blew me away. As I admitted before, the only Bobby McFerrin song I knew before this was "Don't Worry Be Happy" and that's a little of a jokey guilty pleasure tune. The concept and execution of Circlesongs caught me off my guard. It's inviting, enchanting, and relaxing. I never would have anticipated liking an all-vocal project this much. It wasn't enthralling 100% of the time but this was a welcome dose of calm amidst a week when I came back from vacation to a small mountain of paperwork on my desk. I needed this album and it came to me at the right time.

G-Man Scale: 3.98 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4 out of 5

Now that my focus is solely fixed upon Toehider's album, I have to say that it almost feels too diverse. Has anyone else felt that way about it?

There are certainly a few standout tracks but I guess I come back to my earlier opinion that parts of the album sound more like someone who wants to play songs that sound like the bands that inspire him rather than exemplifying a cohesive style that he is passionate about playing. Another possibility that I'm considering is that I'm finally "old" to the point where much of what I hear in newer music are the echoes of bands I'm familiar with and sounds I've heard before. I don't mean to compare but perhaps I'm just becoming too set in my "they don't make them like they used to but they sure recycle a lot of stuff that used to sound fresh" ways.

There's talent here but I guess I feel like he needs to pick a direction and master it. Does that make sense?

Let me preface this by saying that I think the album is pretty good overall. I'm not sitting here rolling my eyes at each listen or calling it derivative. There are just familiar-sounding elements. That said, here are my observations:

Track 1: Blend of System of a Down and generic artsy-indie that borders on Panic at the Disco, delving into standard alternative rock chords at times

Track 2: Reliant K/My Chemical Romance on the intro, Queen (on the harmonies), The Darkness in general and the falsettos (add a splash of Deep Purple too on the penchant for high notes), Muse with the orchestral & choral part

Track 3: System of a Down meets Queen, diving into Muse again with the organ but it could be Queen flair too depending on the Queen album, System of a Down specifically on that gloomy mandolin-like part

Track 4:The Darkness meets 2005-2010-era alt-indie bands trying to bring back "epic" 80s metal licks and chords (My Chemical Romance comes to mind because I never got into that scene or sound much past them despite hearing it all on the radio)

Track 5: The opening and main riff is so close to the middle jam of "Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas to me, Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" inspired rapid-fire lyrics

Track 6: Original sounding but too ballady to sell these days. Good tune.

Track 7: Green Day circa anthemic overdose (aka 21st Century Breakdown) in the chords and structure and intentional use of non-rock instrument sounds in the percussion (marimba/xylophone thing plinking the high notes); veers into Darkness territory mid-way through with the chugging and falsetto

Track 8: Going for a Nick Cave vibe on the deep vocals?; The verse melody mirrors another song I know but I can't remember the words or song title. I'll get back to you on that if it comes to me. Pink Floyd-esque on the guitar solo. It holds its own overall though.

Track 9: Reminds me of Jethro Tull but this is rocks so much more than A Passion Play did, which I appreciate. Maybe touches of Muse on the production.

Track 10: Insert any number of schlock-metal bands or wannabe alt-rockers who want to prove they can shred like Satan.

Haha nice. I thought I picked up on the Queen references in the lyrics. Nice to have it confirmed.

I would definitely recommend The Darkness. I have their debut album in mind for a future submission here. They're cheesy, sleezy glam-metal revival, unitards and all. It's fun stuff, even if their albums are a little uneven. When they came out in 2003, my college roommate and I thought they had to be a fake band because their music video looked like an elaborate joke:



My Chemical Romance was more emo than I usually get into and I only have their first album. A very theatrical, bombastic sound there.

Actually, it seems I have My Chemical Romance's second album- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

New link for The Stooges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qannFs9 ... 6t3s3ymYrF

YouTube deleted the full-album video, so we're stuck with a playlist now.

I'll post my review for Toehider and some info on The Stooges later today.