Album Review Round-Up (April/May 2012)

Posted on May 8, 2012 by bgibs122

With finals finally behind me, I can start breathing life into this site again. Sorry for getting so behind. Anyway, in the past few weeks, there’s been a number of high profile releases, so thought now’s a good time to catch up.

Jack White – Blunderbuss
It’s been weird seeing the promotion for Blunderbuss, with Jack White on posters and stages all on his lonesome (and on the album’s blue album cover). But, after listening to it, Blunderbuss couldn’t be anyone else’s record. The shortest thing I can say about it is that it sounds the way you’d expect a Jack White album to sound; blends of folk, blues, and rock with vintage-yet-current production. But Blunderbuss is able to sound comfortable instead of complacent. While these are familiar elements to White, he puts them together in new ways; for someone with as big a back cannon as him, nothing here sounds like a rehash. “Love Interruption” stands up as one of his finer acoustic numbers, and album mid-point “Weep Themselves to Sleep” is an unquestionable high. A common complaint is that Blunderbuss doesn’t rock as hard as some White Stripes diehards wanted it too (there’s as much skillfull piano here as there is guitar soloing), but “Sixteen Saltines”, the Obvious Rock Single here, is one of the better straight ahead rock songs I’ve heard this year. Running surprisingly low on filler, and high on sharp musicianship and lyrics, Blunderbluss never blunders, and will probably be the only album this year that your rockist friend loves. 4.5/5

Marilyn Manson – Born Villain
It seems that for the last nine years, Marilyn Manson’s worst enemy hasn’t been the media,  but Marilyn Manson. Every record since The Golden Age of the Grotesque has been billed as a reinvention or rebirth, and Born Villain is no different. But, while those records retrospectively didn’t take off, Born Villain makes a noble attempt. Unfortunately, it takes awhile to get to that attempt; the album is frontloaded with rockers that, while trying very hard, fail to leave an impression (“Slo-mo-tion” marks the cutoff). There’s more inspiration on the album’s back half, including the utterly pissed “Disengaged”, which is anything but, a Mechanical Animals-y “Children of Cain”, and a dementedly fun cover of “You’re So Vain”. The album’s much longer than it needs to be, and shows how Manson became the irrelevant industrial king on a rusted throne when it misses. But, at the same time, Born Villain hits harder and thrashes in the right direction. Which is why Marilyn Manson will bill their next album as their comeback, 3/5.

Norah Jones – Little Broken Hearts
Female singer-songerwriter might be the hardest genre in which to make yourself stand out, especially over time. If that theory holds true, then Norah Jones might be exhibit A, having fallen quickly out of the public eye after her world-taking debut Come Away With Me. Two albums later, she sounds refreshed on Little Broken Hearts, which takes the jazz songwriter closer to indie pop territory. The album sounds like a Norah Jones album filtered through producer Danger Mouse’s characteristically murky atmospherics. According to Jones, Danger Mouse helped her develop these songs, and they sound like collaborations; “Say Goodbye” combines Jones’ deft vocals with DM’s rhythmic sensibilities, and his production style keeps some of Jones’ slower numbers interesting. From a lyrical standpoint, Little Broken Hearts is an unambiguous Breakup Album, but the writing never really delves into self-pity or shallow bitterness. Unfortunately, the line between songs smoldering with mystery (“She’s 22”, “Miriam”) and plain old boring (“4 Broken Hearts”) is a thin one. But, all the same, Norah Jones and Danger Mouse made a sorrowful album of indie-meets-jazz headphone tunes, 4/5.

B.o.B – Strange Clouds
“I used to dream of success/Now success is inadequate/It seems the bigger I get/The more they get mad at me” Such are B.o.B’s opening lyrics to Strange Clouds, which left me thinking “Not another ‘fame is hard’ rap record“. But, in Atlanta-native B.o.b’s defense, he had a hit bemoaning fame before MBDTF’s lead single or Drake’s first album dropped. Anyway, like debut album The Adventures of Bobby Ray, Strange Clouds is a hard album to pin down because to B.o.b’s credit and determent, the dude tries to do everything. Let’s start with the good news: there is much more B.o.B on Strange Clouds; his guests don’t take up nearly as much room (and credit for the success) here as they did on the debut, and as far as punchline rappers go, he hits with a consistency to die for. The money-is-no-object production works, whether working with all instruments on “So Good”, or the stuttery synths of “Out Of My Mind”. And when the album’s good, it’s one the the most solid pop-rap albums I’ve heard; “Bombs Away”, “So Hard to Breath”, and “Where Are You” lead about half a dozen or so fantastic cuts. However, the album overreaches more than it should, slightly moreso on the second half, and I’ve had bad dates with more chemistry than B.o.B and Taylor Swift share on “Both of Us”. Strange Clouds establishes B.o.B as a headlining performer with pop smarts and lyrical heart, but the sum is less than the parts, 3/5.

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Radio Rant: Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – Payphone

Posted on May 2, 2012 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Today, we’re looking at an old friend.

As we head into the summer months, it’s time for me to do the yearly Maroon 5 Radio Rant (I can’t believe this has become a thing). The first time I wrote about Maroon 5 was for then hot single “Misery”, a “This Love” rewrite that saw the band leaning harder than normal on frontman Adam Levine’s good looks. That song, along with the Hands All Over album, underperformed, and if the band wasn’t over, they were at least sliding more into obscurity.

Then “Moves Like Jagger” happened.

I wrote about the song back in July, when it first came out, and I grossly undersold the thing’s staying power. It’s catchy enough and dancey enough to serve as an all-purpose pop song, and while it wasn’t one of my favorite songs of 2011, it was enjoyable. It’s also, mindblowingly enough, still on the charts as I’m writing this. Considering their last few singles petered out without much, I expected “Moves Like Jagger” to do the same, but I was wrong.

Where I wasn’t wrong, however, was in “Jagger” being a sound change for Maroon 5. Even though they were always a pop rock band with the emphasis on pop, “Moves Like Jagger” catered more to the radio any other song the band had done before. And, when I heard that they have a new album on the way this June fresh of “Jagger”‘s success, my first thought was that it’ll be 13 or so songs that try to sound like that. So, let’s look at lead single “Payphone”.

After opening with a mini-chorus, “Payphone” reveals itself to be a pop ballad. The song’s primary instrumentation comes from a somewhat hip-hop snare beat with a simple (but tasteful) piano line to go with it. Every now and then, bass and some clean electric guitar creep into the mix, too.

What’s most striking about “Payphone” is how…pop-songy the chorus feels. It begins with the Chorus Whoosh, and synth strings and a drum machine beat drown out everything else. But, overall, it’s a pretty strong chorus, and sounds uplifting and pretty. I wonder what the lyrics to it are.

“I’m at a payphone/Trying to call home all of the change I spent on you” Ok, the “call home” part still baffles me, but that’s a pretty sharp line. Although why the band’s decided to name drop a payphone in 2012 baffles me. At this point, it’s as dated and irrelevant writing a song that used cassette tapes as a metaphor.

“Where have the times gone/Baby it’s all wrong/where are the plans we made for two/If happy endings did exist/I would still be holding you like this” Vague, but still holding together. Fits the balladry well, too.

“All those fairytales are full of shit/One more fucking love song, I’ll be sick” …well, that got vulgar in a hurry. In fact, aside from “I don’t give a shit” in “Moves Like Jagger”, does Maroon 5 actually swear in their music?

Hell, maybe they swore just as a warmup for Wiz Khalifa’s opening line: “Man, fuck that shit”. Now, to “Payphone”‘s credit, the Maroon 5 parts of it feel less bitterly narcissistic than their other break-up songs (just about every single the band’s done could, on some level, be reduced to “We should fuck” and/or “Well fuck you”, the only immediate exception being “She Will Be Loved”). That feeling comes through the chorus, but not as much on the verses. And then Wiz shows up.

Some rappers can bang out a good guest verse on any track (Ludacris, Nicki Minaj), and others just can’t. And Wiz just…can’t. Not all of his guest verses are bad, but at best he’s average. And he’s not at his best here. While Levine at least sounds like he misses the woman, Khalifa takes her out and grills her for leaving him before he was famous. On top of that, he just doesn’t sound like he knew what the song sounded like going in: his flow doesn’t ride the beat as much as jump on, fall off, and jump back on again, and his meter and rhyme schemes connect maybe half the time. It’s an awkward verse.

Something about “Payphone” feels like an awkward move from Maroon 5. Here, take a look at their last Top 20 hit before “Jagger”: “Misery”. Merits of the song aside, doesn’t it sound like an actual band playing it? You know, with instruments and shit? You don’t get that with “Payphone”, the music for which could have gone to any radio-friendly pop star. As a song, it isn’t one of my favorites of the year, but it’s an interesting first statement for the new album.

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Radio Rant: Gotye feat. Kimbra – Somebody That I Used To Know

Posted on April 29, 2012 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Hm.

This is a weird one. Not because the song itself is weird, or anything, but is this really the number song in America? Is it a bad song? Not at all, but “Somebody That I Used To Know” isn’t what I think of when I think number one hit.

Nor is it’s singer/writer/performer Gotye. He’s become kind of a big name in Australian indie circles, and “Somebody That I Used To Know” is so far his only international hit. And somewhat like other left-field hit-makers fun., the song’s been something of a sleeper hit; it was released last July. It started charting in America in January, and has slowly worked it’s way to number 1 over the course of the year. Well, let’s take a look.

I’ll be honest, the first time I heard this song, I thought it was some dusty 60s gem that I’d just somehow missed. The production sounds absolutely nothing like what’d you expect to get popular; the warm, uncompressed sound of “Somebody That I Used To Know” emulates vintage production without any of that era’s murkiness. Set in D minor (the saddest of keys), the song’s built on a basic two-chord riff and a xylophone hook. During the verses, I admit it’s pretty minimalist, but that way, the song can focus on what Gotye is saying.

“Now and then I think of when we were together/like when you said you were so happy you could die”

Sorry, Gotye, could you speak up? Open your mouth a little more, maybe? Or here, let me get a lyrics sheet…

“Told myself that you were right for me/but I felt so lonely in your company/but that was love, and it’s an ache I can still remember“ Well, that’s good and sad. Also, I can’t really pick on any of the lyrics here; like most of the other non-pop radio oriented Radio Rant songs, it’s pretty lyrically airtight. At the same time, though, the sedate instrumentation and Gotye’s quiet performance makes the first minute and a half of this song drag by.

All of that goes out the window at the chorus, though. Gotye kicks the volume (and his range) way up for his best Sting impression, but it works. The lyrics get a little uneven, but hell, even that makes the chorus stick more, and more fun to sing along with. The music picks up, too; the bass kicks a little harder, there’s some flanged guitar, and the overall texture of the song is great.

Then comes Kimbra’s verse. Out of the two of them, Kimbra’s much more singing-Native-American-tribal-chants-backward-through-her-vocoder-while-playing-the-electric-cello avant garde than Gotye, but she keeps the weirdness under wraps here. Instead, she starts with one of the most stinging lines of the song.

“Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over/part of me believing it was always something that I’d done” 

Even with the good chorus, Kimbra’s verse is, for me, where the song gets interesting. We see it all the time in bitter break-up songs; the dumped party essentially spends the song saying “Well fine, then!” and proceeds to play the victim to the cruelty of the dumper. However, in “Somebody That I Used To Know”, the other person does come in, and essentially telling Gotye that he was a crummy partner, too, and still being difficult after the relationship’s done.

It pays off because the music under Kimbra is constantly building back into the final chorus, where Gotye sounds much fuller, and with Kimbra provided backing vocals. The music doesn’t do much that’s different from earlier; there’s no big cathartic moment, but the strength of the performers carries the song from the final chorus to the outro pretty well. It’s a surprisingly expressive and fairly moving bit of music, and what ultimately makes the song worth it, to me.

And because “Somebody That I Used To Know” has a big Glee Factor that pushed it from no. 5 to no. 1, I guess I should speak a moment on that. As far as Glee covers go, it’s probably one of the better ones that I’ve heard, but feels awkward. The show spent a lot of time getting the unpolished, slightly psychedelic feel of the instrumentation right, but the actual performers are so overproduced that the two clash. Overall, pretty eh.

I think higher of the original, but not as much as I’d like. I think it has a great, absolutely interesting second half, but the first half of “Somebody That I Used To Know” treads too close to bland soft-rock for it to be a perfect homerun. I like it way more than I don’t, and I’ll gladly listen to it over, say, “We Are Young”, but something about it just comes up short. Still beats “Part of Me”.

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New Music: Holy Esque – Holy Esque (EP)

Posted on April 27, 2012 by bgibs122

So, I haven’t done a New Music in awhile. Let’s change that!

Today’s band Holy Esque comes from across the pond in Glasgow with their debut self-titled EP. At four songs long, the EP feels more like an extended demonstration than a full statement, but it’s still enough to leave more than a good impression. Holy Esque skillfully maintains a delicate balance: their music has enough muscle that it plays out to the rafters (not to mention begs to be played loud), but still possesses a deft and lightness about it to keep it fresh.

It’s a successful technique that’s not just the right blend of distortion and reverb, but solid hooks as well. Such is especially the case with lead single “Rose”, with it’s buzzsaw-grind yet catchy hook. Producer Kevin Burleigh’s worked with fellow Scots Glasvegas, and he helps Holy Esque harness that same arena-ready sound. At the same time, “Rose” and “Ladybird Love” succeed from always moving musically, as well as using a strong sense of dynamics.

However, while plenty of bands get stiff when they play out, things stay pretty fluid on Holy Esque. On the instrumental front, drummer Ralph McClure, who drums like a young Jimmy Chamberlin, is the group’s secret weapon; his drumming is athletic and busy but never intrusive. Without a bass player (the band has Keir Reid on keyboards with Hugo McGinley and singer Pat Hynes on guitars), McClure provides a fast moving low end for the textured keyboards and guitars, especially so on “Prophet of Privilege”.

The odd track out is “Loneliest Loneliness”. Where the other three songs built upward, “Loneliest Loneliness” spreads outward with atmospheric effects, crunchy guitars that echo in every direction, and minimal drumming. And while the music on Holy Esque is always pretty, the second half of “Loneliest Loneliness” is one of the better My Bloody Valentine-inspired numbers I’ve heard in awhile. There’s technically a guitar solo, but it blends so well with the backing guitar and keyboard sounds that it’s more atmospheric than anything else.

What truly makes Holy Esque stand out is Pat Hynes’ unique vocals. His gruff vocals come from the throat and heart, and reflect the same muscle and deftness of the band he’s part of. He sings and roars with utter conviction, but he never comes across as abrasive. The first point of comparison that comes to mind is Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus fame, but Hynes has plenty more technicality and control. If the articulation gets lost sometimes, let it happen, because Hynes will have your attention either way.

They’ve been building buzz online for the past year, and with the release of their EP, things are only looking up for Holy Esque. Holy Esque is in the (especially these days) rare position where no one else can say that they’re doing exactly what they’re doing, or as well. Their already getting some exposure, and it’s only going to increase. Keep one eye on this band, both you and them deserve it.

Like Holy Esque on Facebook, and listen to “Rose” on their page while you’re at it! And while you’re there, don’t forget to “like” Ranting About Music!

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