The Syndicate

Err?

he means do this

The Syndicate 2.0.: Nobody cares about SAW anymore

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for being out of touch with this, I lost track of everything about a month ago when I was out of town for a conference, then you know, the site hiccuped for a few weeks, and since then I've been working like a crazy person.

Is APP the only album I've missed then? Cool. Maybe I'll listen to it today in fact.

Album Suggestion:

Listened to APP earlier this morning! Sadly it doesn't sound near as good as it once did to me, it is clearly disjointed and bloated, and the Hare story is just ehhh. I don't hate that bit's inclusion, I just don't love it either. It is at least mildly amusing.

Some really good musical moments and lyrics (I still love the wet her drawers line), and certainly one I'll listen to again, but definitely a flawed album. I'm giving it a solid 3.0.

Also, mostly for Rico's knowledge so he can update the chart if he wants, I've done a bit more re-calibrating of my ratings system as I've continued to find what feels most comfortable to me, so I've had a bit more of a downgrading for some albums.

I think the only two that have been affected since I last gave an update though are (1) The Family Crest, which I relistened to a couple weeks back, and I downgraded to 3.0, and (2) the Fishmans album, which I still love, but I downgraded to 4.5 because I'm reserving my 5.0's much more cautiously.

So my album rankings go like this: Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that new set of placements.

(Spoilers tag text, sans putting it in a quote, doesn't work in the green skin btw. It's all a sea of white inside.)

Sorry gang, but I have no time at all to keep up with this right now. I will need others to keep it rolling for the time being if it is to survive.

Jay doesn't love us anymore.

But yeah, my own schedule will make it impossible to focus on this until next week, so if people could still use this week to catch up and/or actually listen to APP, I'd propose we put things back on track starting this Sunday.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2017 3:46 pm (Spoilers tag text, sans putting it in a quote, doesn't work in the green skin btw. It's all a sea of white inside.)

Good to know, thanks! I'm just using the default white until we get the black/red combo back.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2017 1:36 pm Jay doesn't love us anymore.

But yeah, my own schedule will make it impossible to focus on this until next week, so if people could still use this week to catch up and/or actually listen to APP, I'd propose we put things back on track starting this Sunday.

That works for me. Despite being incredibly busy I thankfully still have lots of time to listen to music.

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

Lol, very nice. Your attempt was better than mine, for sure.

Listened to APP again. I suppose it's a 3.5? Numbers are meaningless

Wait, my research shows that this band has 2 self-titled albums that appear to be totally different, one from 1991 and one from 2012. The link above is for the newer one, but is that the one Epi intended or not? I guess I could listen to both

nutella wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:21 pm Wait, my research shows that this band has 2 self-titled albums that appear to be totally different, one from 1991 and one from 2012. The link above is for the newer one, but is that the one Epi intended or not? I guess I could listen to both

That is correct.

The 1991 album was the debut. I spoke with the lead songwriter inquiring about this duplicate title (among many other things), and he told me that at the time, the band believed this was going to be their last album (it wouldn't be), hence the "bookended eponymity" as it were. My pick is the latter work.

Ah, ok.

I gave the album a spin and it didn't make any impression on me either way, though I was rather distracted. I'll give it a fairer opportunity before I render judgment. It might be worth paying close attention to the lyrics too, i.e. following along with a lyric sheet. The tracks are long and purposeful, and I suspect the best way to do it justice is to be thorough. This doesn't strike me as something meant to be heard in the background.

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.

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.

After two listens, the recurring reaction from me is indifference to 7 of the 8 tracks and a strong fondness for the exception: "(Speaking In) Lampblack". That one's excellent.

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.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Sat May 27, 2017 8:52 am The Syndicate 2.0.: Nobody cares about SAW anymore

I care; I just started to feel stupid and amateurish. I don't know much about the technical parts of music, I just know what I like. It had nothing to do with Syndicate 2.0; I dropped out before that.

I will try again

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:23 am

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.

Both vocalists sing lead on that track. Weston is the first vocalist you hear. Kull sings "To me you are an island..."

S~V~S wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:50 pm

Ricochet wrote: ↑Sat May 27, 2017 8:52 am The Syndicate 2.0.: Nobody cares about SAW anymore

I care; I just started to feel stupid and amateurish. I don't know much about the technical parts of music, I just know what I like. It had nothing to do with Syndicate 2.0; I dropped out before that.

I will try again

What you like is the only thing that matters anyway! There are no wrong answers here, and no takes are unworthy of being shared.

Just finished a first listen, it was overall enjoyable with a few especially standout moments but I wasn't really paying full attention the whole time so don't really have very strong impressions. It's... long.

I played the album at work today. Entertaining background noise. I like it.

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 will try it tomorrow at work. I will have the office to myself so it will be a good time for it.

I still have two albums to comment on, which I will do this weekend now that school is out (although my opinion of A Passion Play hasn't really changed since I wrote about it almost ten years ago). I'll comment on Echolyn too, since I actually interviewed the lead songwriter years ago and then contacted him again just last summer. He sounded excited to talk to me me, as strange as that sounds. Very cool fellow.

I will be listening later today! Have to finish The Cure's discography first.

I am looking forward to this for sure. Echolyn is one of those bands I found and really enjoyed back in my trying to find prog bands outside of the 60s-70s I really liked phase, and I always thought The End Is Beautiful was an excellent and underrated album. mei is really good too. For whatever reason, I think because I was starting to move onto different genres by then, but I never have given this particular release that much attention. I think I've only heard it a handful of times and it's been a while. I remember being somewhat disappointed (only because the high standards of previous releases) but still liking it. I definitely think it'll be neat to rediscover it now.

So I listened to echolyn (2012) again, and my feelings about it haven't changed really, despite the distance from it for at least a few years. I still feel like it's a disappointment especially after Mei and The End Is Beautiful, which are these incredible and emotive records, but this album rambles a bit too much for its own good and many of the compositions fail to develop as well as the single-long song of Mei and the similar-length songs on TEIB. Even compared to their earlier work like As the World which I quite like but isn't as emotive as their later releases, I feel it falls a bit short IMO. It's a solid release, enjoyable, and I definitely like it nearly all throughout, but I just can't connect to a lot of it like I can Mei and TEIB, and as a result I wouldn't say I really enjoy it.

As such, I'm giving it a 3.0. It's good, but not amazing or anything. It'll be interesting to revisit it specifically within the context of echolyn's entire discography when I get to them alphabetically in my ratings and see whether my feelings about those other albums remains the same, but until then, that's my opinion on this album.

You are such a dick. An incredible, wonderful dick.

I am a dick, because it's time to move on to the next album.

And because I've no idea who submitted the next album. The new queue suggestions and voting process got erased. I only recall nutella submitting McFerrin and MP De La Soul.

Anywho

Quin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2017 1:31 am I'll go with Last Dinosaurs - In a Million Years

Find it here

The search function still works.

Nvmd then.

Updating...

I am very behind.

I'm only a few songs into the album, but I am hearing some resemblance to the Kaiser Chiefs. Cool beans.

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

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.

I did not like the first tract at all. I found it derivative and unoriginal. The instrumentation reminded me of every Yes album I have ever heard, and the vocals made me think of "If Queen Were Prog". It was over arranged. I like prog, but there was nothing in that song that I could not get from a hundred other prog albums.

Now the next two tracks, though, I like a whole lot. They are more organic and more original, listening to them did not feel like I was listening to an over pretentious cover band. So if the rest of the tracks are more on this line (excepting the last track, which other reviews lead me to think is more like the first track), I will probably give it a four. So far "In Memorial" is a mixed bag for me (about a minute in right now)~ I like the lyrics and the vocal delivery, and the music while the singing is going on. But the bridges are (and the da da DA da in the background at times) are a bit too Yes fanboy for my taste.

I will finish listening to it hopefully today, but I wanted to get this up while it was still fresh in my mind.

OK, onto the rest of the album.

Some Memorial evened out for me. The little bits of high proggery did not detract from the rest of the song for me. Like I said, I do like prog, but Yes is my least favorite prog sound, and the parts of this album I did not care for had a very Yes-like sound to them, and this song did not. So overall, I liked this song, it was a bit peppier than the other songs in the middle of the album without being too over arranged.

Past Gravity and When Sunday Spills were both solid, and I liked them. They were original sounding and not over produced at all. The middle of this album put me in mind of Procol Harums Shine on Brightly, which is favorite of mine, Desert Island Album for sure. Lampblack was a bit meh, not bad, but not particularly memorable.

The Cardinal & I was better than I expected it to be based on other reviews, but I still kept expecting them to break out into “Close to the Edge” at points, although nowhere near as often as I did while listening to the opening track. There is a fine line IMO between being derivative and being a solid representative of your genre. The first track was clearly derivative to my ears, the last crossed the line a few times, but mostly stayed on the solid side for me.

I give it a solid 4. It is a really good album for listening to at work, for sure. I would just start it with the second track. I might go to 4.5 if the first track were not on the album, but it is, so 4.

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.

G-Man wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2017 12:35 pm

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.

Possibly, but my opinion may be different to many proggers. I hate Yes, and parts of this sound too Yes-like for my taste. I liked the less proggy bits more than the proggier ones.

3 stars for Echolyn

I'm out of town for a week starting tomorrow and I have not, nor will have time to deliver in regular format - not that I have to feel too bad about honoring stuff, considering this was submitted by Quin. Last Dinosaurs' album was a nice 50-minute distraction, but overall they play quite the whitest bread of indie rock in the market. It's the easiest thing to pick on when there's almost no sense of variety and contrast from track to track, both in how the songs are formally shaped and how nuanced the instrumentation is. Although you might as well choose this album over their sophomore record, Wellness, which in turn is just exhausting - making you think it was made at the Florence & The Machine Academy of turned to the max, beefed up, shouty music. The best thing I felt was that some songs struck a fine balance between the instrumentation and the singing, the former being moreoever toned down. A few songs (such as the aptly-titled "Honolulu") went for the some of the same "caribbeana" playful vibes that you'd hear from Vampire Weekend (Contra) or for some echoey ambiances that struck similarities with The War on Drugs. But even such cues are suspect of being derivative, sort of. Decent 5.