When Paul Simon’s solo album was first released it was heralded as a ground breaking masterpiece, and I couldn’t agree more. This album really shows a fantastic ability to try something new, the varied use of instruments and styles creates an amalgamation of amazing songs all superbly unique. With fantastic rhythms and beats that have a clear heritage in tribal music that at points is directly sampled, light rock melodies and the soft gentle tones of Simons voice combine beautifully in these songs that lyrically attack and embrace concepts of life, death and love as well as highlighting issues prevalent at the release and that still hold now. At times these songs can become crowded with all the instruments and backing choirs become crowded such as the chorus of I Know What I Know. Also I find that the ups and downs of the differing tempos, sometimes with in just one song, make the album a little disjointed. Diverging from these few and slight criticisms it must be said that the points that are god are simply exceptional blowing those critiques out of the water. The music is not just music it here, it is a tool of discussion, it is artistic expression, it is a symbol of youth, it is a example of amazing talent. The lyrical content is nothing to be sneered at with their intellectual comments amongst wonderfully catchy verse and choruses. I think however the thing that stands out most about this album that whilst being artistic, expressive, explorative, innovative, intellectual and a musical masterpiece it is fun. The songs are irresistible and have you moving with their tunes whether you want to or not, their light nature and fast beats put a smile on your face, and the lyrics happily embrace the silly and nonsensical. The perfect example is You Can Call Me Al; though not necessarily the best on the album (my personal being Gumboots) it encapsulates the spirit of this album. What is the spirit of this album? Life!
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
This Is War, Well Actually It's Just An Album
This is War, the album from Thirty Seconds To Mars flows as one continuous narrative. Real skill is demonstrated in holding each song singular whilst having running themes and sounds. The ideas of revolution are clear yet are mixed with enigmatic andalmost riddle like lyrics. The sound is one of heavy rock proggressing past the limitations of it's genre. Heavy focus on percussion gives the album strong rythem and beat with guitar and synths producing varied sounds and sensations on top of these solid foundations. Each section is layered to give a rich and thick product for our ears. On top of these praises it has the sound of a generation with it, in it's lyrical context as well as the rough sung chorus baking with the sense of the rable.
A fantastic album showing willingness to experiment and explore and taking this band beyond previous limitations.
A fantastic album showing willingness to experiment and explore and taking this band beyond previous limitations.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
K.O.
There is little cooler than taking your band name from Street Fighter. Hadouken! are a band that I will admit I would have never have listened to in my youth but I have chosen to now, to challenge my preconceptions of certain styles of music, an my preconceptions have been knocked out.
Listening to the For the Masses album I discovered an energy found in only a select group of musical genres, I also found an odd snse of humour. Though I will admit that I find it difficult to listen to the album the whole way through I found it powerful and catchy with songs like Ugly getting easily stuck in my head. The down to earth, aggressive lyrics share a number of concepts of comedy and realism with bands such as The Streets. The music is hard and fast and something easy to freak out to. But in the end it's all a bit too much, some songs descend in to mere verbal violence and noise that is poorley put together. Yet still I find myself flicking back to the odd song. Overall the album is average at best, but there are some fantastic songs and ideas, it merely needs refining. Plus for all the criticism, these are songs I would welcome on the dance floor of a club being more imaginative and honest in their aggression than some of their counter parts. Appraoching this album I expected to hate it all, labelling it "chav crap", but it is good and I do enjoy it. It is still chavy music, I'm just not sure thats a bad thing now because this album is really, really fun,
Listening to the For the Masses album I discovered an energy found in only a select group of musical genres, I also found an odd snse of humour. Though I will admit that I find it difficult to listen to the album the whole way through I found it powerful and catchy with songs like Ugly getting easily stuck in my head. The down to earth, aggressive lyrics share a number of concepts of comedy and realism with bands such as The Streets. The music is hard and fast and something easy to freak out to. But in the end it's all a bit too much, some songs descend in to mere verbal violence and noise that is poorley put together. Yet still I find myself flicking back to the odd song. Overall the album is average at best, but there are some fantastic songs and ideas, it merely needs refining. Plus for all the criticism, these are songs I would welcome on the dance floor of a club being more imaginative and honest in their aggression than some of their counter parts. Appraoching this album I expected to hate it all, labelling it "chav crap", but it is good and I do enjoy it. It is still chavy music, I'm just not sure thats a bad thing now because this album is really, really fun,
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
My Critical Romance with My Chemical Romance
I am going to make a staement I know many will disagree with, and then I will attempt to make a justification many will not careto read, but there is a reason behind all this. I have recently become frustrated with the inability of some to understand the difference between music appreciation and enjoying some music. To love a genre or a number of bands is one thing, to love music is another. So it comes to a radicle statement to show people a difference. It was difficult to chose the right band and in hindsight there are others that may have been better but I chose this one due to the dislike it has from many parties. I will stress now though, to appreciate is not to like, though I admit a part of me does like this band. Here is the statement:
My Chemical Romance is one of the greatest post mellenium bands out there.
My Chemical Romance is a band that since it's formation in 2001 has succesfully released 4 albums and in roughly 10 years have gone from playing in an attick to being world famous and playing at Reading and Leeds. more importantly they have managed to show great ability and talent and have been sufficiently rewarded in equal measures of love and hate.
Their first album; I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, is a punk rock album, it is rough and the band is far from perfect. Released on a small label this album got the majority of fans not from sales but from myspace. The songs contain a raw passion to them and though Gerard Way's singing is far from what it is now the fact that it contains more screaming than singing fits its more punk sound as well as its anger, and this definitely an angry album. Playing a few gigs the band did not overly stand out, their music wasn't top notch nor did they have a style or theme to call their own, but they had potential. This potentail caught someone's eye and they were taken on by label Reprise Records who had them tour with Avenged Sevenfold.
Under new management they refined their sound and found that more than anger they had something a lot of teenagers had, have and forever will have: angst. This angst and emotionality was the focus of second album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. This album differed grealty and the band finally had that style they could call their own. Way expanded his singing ability beyond the shouting of the first album and found a style that whilst expressing emotion was also understandable. In this album the sound becomes more defined and uniqe, stepping away from the punk rock of previously, retaining a heavy sound but allowing for more complex melody. Lyrically this Album was also superior, the last being filled with frustration this one was filled with the same frustraion more patiently disected and contained themes similar to many of love, loss and getting the shit kicked out of you. They also began to devlope a style, probably under guidance from the new label. sticking to shirts and ties and relating to their material as well as taking leads from groups like AC/DC they took the school boy look and then added a pinch of the Cure's makeup box. There was then a spell of great succes and touring, well deserved from in truth a simple but well made second album that took a lot of the passion of the first that made them get noticed and shaped it better.
The Third album moved further than this and was almost a revelation, the band having gone away for just while had looked at their influences, looked at themselves, and looked at the future. What we got out of this was an album with far deeper lyrical content, a strange 80's hard rock feel, and a diveristy within the song styles. Each song was unique from another and all contained a far higher level of ability from the musicains. Way has changed little though the screaming has all but gone and in a number of songs he shows a true talent for singing, demonstrating this through slower songs. This album shows a clear developement and movement of ideas and abilities, it shos something often lacking in other bands, it shows true progress. It also shows and ability to adapt and change and to still retain distinction, as well as a bringing with it a new look that quickly caught on with the masses. Utelising their influences and diversifying within their songs this album lifted the band further, The Black Parade represented the best of the band, though some feared it would be the peak. By some argument it was a peak as from this the band didn't so much as step forward advancing the sound they new but rather took a step sideways. Taking a new look the band adopted sounds and techniques that had far more influence in synth rock and elctro. This album became more about a fun and fast electric sound and again heralded a different perspective of lyrics, moving away from angst they found hate for more than just bullies but for bigger things and express this in comments on distopian society of their invention. the songs are cleverly linked together and within the videos created for them there is an odd story played out surrounding the revolution of youth. This album is importantly different, it shows scope and again the ability to change, adapt and try new thing.
What makes this band great is that time and time again it has shown an ability to progress and improve as well as taking on new sounds and diversifying, something few bands new and old have done many stagnating in their one genre with little experimentation. Also one thing I like about this band is that even in their angsty teenage emotional sounds they manage to be fun, to have rythems to dance to and to make me nod my head and sing a long. They are one of the best bands out there at the moment and I truely beleive we will see further good coming from them.
My Chemical Romance is one of the greatest post mellenium bands out there.
My Chemical Romance is a band that since it's formation in 2001 has succesfully released 4 albums and in roughly 10 years have gone from playing in an attick to being world famous and playing at Reading and Leeds. more importantly they have managed to show great ability and talent and have been sufficiently rewarded in equal measures of love and hate.
Their first album; I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, is a punk rock album, it is rough and the band is far from perfect. Released on a small label this album got the majority of fans not from sales but from myspace. The songs contain a raw passion to them and though Gerard Way's singing is far from what it is now the fact that it contains more screaming than singing fits its more punk sound as well as its anger, and this definitely an angry album. Playing a few gigs the band did not overly stand out, their music wasn't top notch nor did they have a style or theme to call their own, but they had potential. This potentail caught someone's eye and they were taken on by label Reprise Records who had them tour with Avenged Sevenfold.
Under new management they refined their sound and found that more than anger they had something a lot of teenagers had, have and forever will have: angst. This angst and emotionality was the focus of second album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. This album differed grealty and the band finally had that style they could call their own. Way expanded his singing ability beyond the shouting of the first album and found a style that whilst expressing emotion was also understandable. In this album the sound becomes more defined and uniqe, stepping away from the punk rock of previously, retaining a heavy sound but allowing for more complex melody. Lyrically this Album was also superior, the last being filled with frustration this one was filled with the same frustraion more patiently disected and contained themes similar to many of love, loss and getting the shit kicked out of you. They also began to devlope a style, probably under guidance from the new label. sticking to shirts and ties and relating to their material as well as taking leads from groups like AC/DC they took the school boy look and then added a pinch of the Cure's makeup box. There was then a spell of great succes and touring, well deserved from in truth a simple but well made second album that took a lot of the passion of the first that made them get noticed and shaped it better.
The Third album moved further than this and was almost a revelation, the band having gone away for just while had looked at their influences, looked at themselves, and looked at the future. What we got out of this was an album with far deeper lyrical content, a strange 80's hard rock feel, and a diveristy within the song styles. Each song was unique from another and all contained a far higher level of ability from the musicains. Way has changed little though the screaming has all but gone and in a number of songs he shows a true talent for singing, demonstrating this through slower songs. This album shows a clear developement and movement of ideas and abilities, it shos something often lacking in other bands, it shows true progress. It also shows and ability to adapt and change and to still retain distinction, as well as a bringing with it a new look that quickly caught on with the masses. Utelising their influences and diversifying within their songs this album lifted the band further, The Black Parade represented the best of the band, though some feared it would be the peak. By some argument it was a peak as from this the band didn't so much as step forward advancing the sound they new but rather took a step sideways. Taking a new look the band adopted sounds and techniques that had far more influence in synth rock and elctro. This album became more about a fun and fast electric sound and again heralded a different perspective of lyrics, moving away from angst they found hate for more than just bullies but for bigger things and express this in comments on distopian society of their invention. the songs are cleverly linked together and within the videos created for them there is an odd story played out surrounding the revolution of youth. This album is importantly different, it shows scope and again the ability to change, adapt and try new thing.
What makes this band great is that time and time again it has shown an ability to progress and improve as well as taking on new sounds and diversifying, something few bands new and old have done many stagnating in their one genre with little experimentation. Also one thing I like about this band is that even in their angsty teenage emotional sounds they manage to be fun, to have rythems to dance to and to make me nod my head and sing a long. They are one of the best bands out there at the moment and I truely beleive we will see further good coming from them.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Friday, 12 August 2011
simple beauty
Music has many forms and to appreciate music is to appreciate that all its forms are beautiful even if you feel that some hold a greater beauty than others. One form of music which I personally believe holds some of the greatest beauty is one that is simple; it is defined by its uncluttered and clear nature, its lack of lots and its celebration of little. Minimalism is a branch of classical music, though its roots go far back with some modern day composers citing Bach as one of the first it really began to flourish in the late 19th and early 20th century with what I would see as its peak coming in the 70s. However this is not a dead form and continues to grow and be explored and its influences are greatly felt in the repetitive structures of dance music, one definite child of this inspiration is Daft Punk.
An interesting fact is that many of those who are pioneers of this fantastic style do not like to be associated with the name of minimalism. It seems patronising and many seem to think that less is easier. But the masters of this art make it clear that just as less is no easier it is also no less powerful. The sounds are pure and clear, the rhythms perfect in their affect. Though there may be relatively few notes they carry a great amount of emotion and meaning with them. These compositions run through you in an almost cleansing way. I first came to know about this style at a young age through the introduction by my father to Philip Glass and the film Koyaanisqatsi. His compositions fit perfectly with the images to portray a world lost. However since then I have fallen in love with many of his contemporaries and influences; from the classical Arvo Part to the experimental Steve Reich. This is a style unappreciated by many and I hope this encourages many to go find some fine examples of this refined beauty.
*I realise this was breif and it is intended to be, I plan to follow this with reviews of artists both mentioned and unmentioned.
*I realise this was breif and it is intended to be, I plan to follow this with reviews of artists both mentioned and unmentioned.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Cheyenne Plains: A Demo and a Couple of Gigs
First things first I will admit in this review of a local Aberdeen metal band that I am good friends with the guitarist and I am biased.
Cheyenne Plains is a four piece ensemble that play a cool mix of classic rock and metal. Their influences are evidently well spread and each member is definitely talented. They are currently offering free downloads and a three song CD at just £1 they’ve also been playing little gigs in the city (Aberdeen).
So what is there to be said of this band that is beginning to move forwards and take clear steps in a very positive direction? Well let’s talk about the demo. It is a bit rough and in honesty the production and clarity of sound is not great, but not everyone has access to the equipment or software to make perfect recordings. The songs are all well chosen and highlight the powerful vocal talent as well as showcasing the talents of the other band members. However the three songs do sound a tad similar as often metal songs can, and at points there is a certain lack of crispness that makes it sound more like a live recording than studio work. There is definite room for improvement but it is an extremely good start.
Moving on to live performances I have seen 2. At both they have played well, not choked and managed to incite applause from the crowd. At their last gig there was however a distinct lack of crowd and need for other bands, one band playing a set with nothing else is a bit odd and can put punters off. At their earlier gig however they did one thing that impressed me greatly, towards the end of their session they had a technical difficulty, an equipment malfunction. Many young bands would finds this crippling and simply call the set short, however with a little rearrangement the band played on showing perseverance and adaptability, two very valuable traits. During their shows they also did not shy away from talking to the crowd, there was a little showboating in the solos, and more importantly the solos had live flare which I liked a lot.
Of the band themselves there are issues, some of the songs do sound similar and there could be great diversity between them, there is also the need for diversity from the genre of metal, though they have their own sound the metal genre is very big and bands really have to push for some signature. I would also like to hear some songs that better show off the fantastically talented drummer and bassist. Diverging from this they do have a very nice sound, the drum beats set a fantastic rhythm and pace, the bass is a little funky and really gives the songs strong foundation. The guitarist is extremely talented and the singer on support also shows great skill, his singing isn’t too bad either with a mid deep sound that is strangely satisfying though practice needed in some higher octaves.
Overall the best thing about this band is that it has fantastic potential. All the members are highly talented and work extremely well together. Yes they’re not perfect, yes there are improvements to be made, but I have faith. For a band so young they are doing very well and I believe very soon we will see something amazing.
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