Album Review: Florence + the Machine – Ceremonials

Posted on November 5, 2011 by bgibs122

I remember finding myself in the local F.Y.E. on the evening of June 25, 2009. I was there for a new pair of headphones, but I remember the store manager looking at the then meager Michael Jackson section of the store and talking on the phone to (I assume) her higher-ups, saying, “Get me as much as you can, especially of the Greatest Hits”. For about a month after Jackson’s death, it seemed as if the King of Pop took back over: he was on blogs, VH1/MTV, radio stations, iTunes, and Billboard were all haunted by his ghost.

What I’m saying is July 6, 2009 might have been the worst day ever to release your debut album.

But thankfully, Lungs proved to be a grower. “Dog Days are Over” was a powerful single (a performance at the 2010 VMAs is frequently cited as the moment Florence broke in America), and people who gave Lungs a chance found a great album that played to the outer reaches. Filled with dark imagery, swirling production, and singer Florence Welch’s powerhouse vocals, the group’s debut caught on, and prompted a second album a mere two years later.

For however big Lungs was, Ceremonials manages to swallow it whole. Opener “Only If For a Night” is led by a somber piano part and clattering drums, and adorned with strings and harps, but truly takes off thanks to Welch, who sounds more confident and honed throughout the album. Second single “Shake It Out” is nothing short of euphoric, and possibly features Welch’s best vocal performance. The song has an undeniably anthemic feel, and refuses to be played quietly. And it’s only the second song.

Across the next 10 (or 14, if you got the deluxe edition) songs, Welch and company seldom let up. “What the Water Gave Me” is the album’s longest track at five and a half minutes, while the briefest song “Breaking Down” clocks in at 3:49. Like Ceremonials as a whole, “Water” threatens to fall apart under its own size, but the arrangements from producer Paul Epworth grow, change, and develop, always making things interesting. The song mixes and matches post-punk instrumentals with a choir with what could pass as a gospel hymn, and somehow doesn’t sink. “Breaking Down”, meanwhile, takes a few listens to adjust to, but the song’s poppy take on melancholy eventually wins out.

What makes Ceremonials exciting is that it doesn’t feel like listening to the same song 12 times over. There’s something primal about the percussion heavy “Heartlines”, while “Lover to Lover” has a funky piano part that breaks into full-blown soul at the chorus. It’s hard to settle on a definitive best song, but “No Light, No Light” makes one compelling argument. Welch sounds as poised as she does on “Shake It Out”, but the euphoria’s replaced with passion, and band behind her whip themselves into a frenzy that’s nearly unstoppable. The only time Ceremonials doesn’t work to the fullest is on “Seven Devils”, which sounds a little too stock-character gothic.

One thing that Lungs had that Ceremonials doesn’t is a bit of diversity. You won’t hear “Kiss With a Fist 2” on this album, nor anything quite as bluesy as “Girl With One Eye”, but at this point, that’s for the better. Not to discredit either of those songs (“Kiss With a Fist” still stands as a band highlight), but they wouldn’t fit with the sound that Florence has developed by now. Besides, their sentiments aren’t missing: “Lover to Lover” has fun, and closer “Leave My Body” has a blues/gospel bend.

Very few groups nail their sound as early in the game as Florence and the Machine does on Ceremonials. Welch’s penchant for dark and romantic lyrics is still alive and well, and her vocals here never sound like she’s showing off, but rather that she couldn’t sing any other way. In a way, the album reminds me of Arcade Fire’s Funeral: filled to the brim with huge sounds, but a huge heart as well. You might not be able to relate to what Welch is singing about, but the music pulls you to something regardless. It may take a few listens to fully get involved, but Ceremonials delivers: five out of five stars.

tl;dr: Massive in all the best ways, 5/5.

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Album Review: Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto

Posted on November 2, 2011 by bgibs122

Coldplay, how far you’ve come. After spending most of their career getting mocked for permanently being uncool, Viva La Vida rewrote large sections of the Coldplay handbook. That album was unabashedly huge, and Martin and Co. injected their (increasingly tired) sound with vibrant new colors and ideas. This resulted in an album that swung a little more pop than usual, but it also sent Coldplay skyward in terms of sales and popularity.

Mylo Xyloto continues that massive, stadium-filling sound. First single “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” opens with an expansive wave of synths, and only rises from there thanks to Jonny Buckland’s quick riff and a strong chorus. Mylo Xyloto‘s opening trio of songs might be the most compelling evidence to see Coldplay live: with scattered synths and guitar lines intertwine over a propulsive rhythym section, the fleet-footed and incredibly tight “Hurts Like Heaven” is a concert opener if I’ve ever heard one. Next song/second single “Paradise” puts a shimmering pop spit shine on the typical Coldplay piano tune, and the result is gorgeous (even if the song doesn’t truly payoff until two minutes in). Closing the trifecta is “Charlie Brown”, which proves that even forced character lyrics can’t keep down an exuberant instrumental track.

Mylo Xyloto‘s opening salvo works so well because it knows what it is: Coldplay working with Brian Eno to make gigantic, overstuffed songs that spread in all directions with dense production and “Whooa-oooh-whooa” crowd moments. According to Christ Martin, Mylo Xyloto is a concept album about lovers in a dystopia, which probably shows most in track order. That’s the only explainable reason for “Us Against the World” splitting the similar sounding “Charlie Brown” and “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall”. “Us Against the World” tries its hand at merging Coldplay’s acoustic ballad past with their more textured present, but ends up floundering in the middle, and sounds painfully out of place.

Playing Mylo Xyloto as a concept album isn’t really surprising once you consider that Viva La Vida was basically inadvertently a “high art concept album” itself. It certainly had all the pieces for it: new/epic sound, political and philosophical musings, thematic ties…it only makes sense that Coldplay would follow it up with a literal concept album: repeated lyrics, inconsequential interludes, and an inflated sound.

The huge production that helped some songs hurts others: the interesting guitar work on “Major Minus” is choked in favor of vocals, and the much talked about Rihanna collaboration “Princess of China” drowns a potential hit in its own overproduction. The two true success stories in Mylo Xyloto‘s messy second half are the melancholy but relaxed “Up in Flames” and closer “Up With the Birds”, which sees all of the albums elements (intricate instrumentation, dense production, and an ear for melody) playing nicely.

While Mylo Xyloto is a good album, it has all the elements for a great one. When bands play with electropop and R&B, usually the experiments fail, but here they succeed; it’s only when Coldplay try to make everyone happy that they stumble. Even though it’s supposed to be a concept album, the record doesn’t feel cohesive, and plays more like a few strong singles mixed amid passable to good tunes. On top of that, it’s also fairly top heavy (“Hurts Like Heaven” and “Paradise” will get more love than “U.F.O.” and “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart”), and that only adds to Mylo Xyloto‘s inconsistency. Still, though, it’s hard to complain about what’s missing when there’s still a lot there, three out of five stars.

tl;dr: Coldplay do a pop album right, 3/5.

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Radio Rant: Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – We Found Love

Posted on October 30, 2011 by bgibs122

Hello, and welcome to Radio Rants. Who do we have this week? Someone new?

Huh. Well, Rihanna’s back with the lead single from her new album Talk That Talk, due out in Nov–hey, wait a damn minute. Didn’t I just spend last November sidestepping a new Rihanna album?

Released November, 2010.

…so yes. It’s not that I have any against Rihanna personally, it’s just that she’s always seemed so inconsequential. She has hits, but she also strikes out more than other pop stars of her caliber, and even her hits aren’t compelling once they’re off the radio. Do you really want to hear “S.O.S.”, “Umbrella”, or “What’s My Name” when you don’t have to? When you listen to a Rihanna song, you know what you’re getting into: [current trendy sound]+[Love/Intercourse with you lyrics]+[steamy video]=Hit (maybe).

So, “We Found Love”, featuring Calvin Harris. Oh, so this is like a duet? Maybe Harris does backing vocals or something? Hang on, who is this guy, anyway? According to allmusic, he’s a Scottish singer/songwriter/DJ who does some production as well.

Wait, this isn’t going to be one of those bullshit “features” where the artist features their producer for no other reason than to attract credibility for the name, is it? I don’t get this; when did producers start getting named billing? I can understand why David Guetta puts his name up top when it’s his project, but when did little people like Afrojack and Calvin Harris get to do this?

To his credit, Harris did a good job producing “We Found Love”. The opening production manages to be electronic without especially club driven, and is even kind of soothing and peaceful. Unfortunately, this pleasantness gets interrupted by a fire alarm synth and building drum beat that guts any atmosphere the first fifty seconds, and drags us back to the dance floor. Harris keeps the basic elements from earlier in the song, but amps them up to club status.

So yeah, aside from the graceless transitions, the production is solid. The hook is strong, and the chorus is super danceable. It’s pretty, but not entirely happy or sad, which keeps with the song’s general tone.

Speaking of which, “We Found Love” is sort of an interesting song lyrically. As a whole, it’s ridiculously strong; the narrative of finding a loved one, but knowing that you have to let them go is present in a surprisingly subtle way. The chorus lyric of “We found love in a hopeless place”  is, I think, one of the better pop lyrics we’ve heard this year, and yes, I know this blog opened with me riffing on Rihanna for poor lyrics. Unfortunately, the song seems to be very aware of that, and repeats it ad nauseam. After awhile, it feels more like a space filler than anything else.

Part of me thinks that this song barely counts as more than an instrumental. While Rihanna does sound good here, and has good lyrics to work with, her performance isn’t really the main focus. It feels like Calvin Harris had this song lying around, and gave it to Rihanna so that Americans would actually listen to it. And the end result feels like most of her hits: it’s not bad, but it doesn’t really have a lot of punch to it either.

Although I have to say that the video certainly looks nice. It matches some darker imagery to a fairly poppy song sort of like a “Try, Try, Try” with fewer clothes and more writhing. It’s put together almost like a small film. A small film in which Rihanna does drugs, plays around, and ultimately leaves her douchey boyfriend. Her douchey boyfriend who seems aggressive…and violent…with lots of muscles…and black…with blonde hair…

The video.

This guy.

Oh. That’s awkward. Goodnight, everybody!

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Album Review Round-Up

Posted on October 23, 2011 by bgibs122

Hey all. So, I try to get new music every week for an album review. Most weeks, the review ends up being written, but some weeks, for whatever reason (oh hi, full time student, part time worker) it doesn’t get reviewed. So I figured today I’d jot down mini-reviews to sort of “catch up”.

blink-182 – Neighborhoods 
Two years after reuniting, blink finally put out the first post-reunion record. The time seems to have been well spent since Neighborhoods credibly picks off right where the band’s 2004 self-titled album left off. Gone are the dick jokes of 90’s blink; Neighborhoods might be their darkest album yet. Neighborhoods eschews blink’s traditional pop punk sound for a more alternative rock orientation with a bit of 80s influence, or in other words: yes, the Tom DeLonge songs sound like AvA. Thankfully, though, they sound like better AvA songs, and get a nice shot in the arm/foot in the ass by Hoppus and Barker. The stock flaws of writing a dark album are present (occasional clunky writing, less inspired moments, and lack of direction), and there are way too few appearances by Mark Hoppus (he doesn’t appear alone until halfway through with “Heart’s All Gone”), but Neighborhoods works as a promising while enjoyable transition album. 3.5/5

Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch the Throne 
Lil Wayne and Drake keep posting themselves as rap’s Dynamic Duo, but honestly, I’d give the title to Jay-Z and Kanye West any day. Collaborating on and off across the past ten years (West’s first major mainstream exposure was producing on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint), Watch the Throne is the pair’s first effort on even footing. The two work so well together because they tease out each other’s better qualities: Jay-Z’s presence keeps Kanye from getting too in his own head, and in front  Kanye’s grand scale yet excited production, Jay-Z breaks out some of his finest rapping in years. The duo rap about, of course, how great they are, but “New Day” (written to sons the two don’t have) and the social commentary of “Murder to Excellence” add depth to the project’s gold plated excellence. It would have been nice to see something a little more challenging from these two, but still, Jay-Z and Kanye put the work in, and the result reaches for the rafters. 4/5.

David Guetta – Nothing But the Beat 
While Watch the Throne found two modern hitmakers in artist mode, Nothing But the Beat shamelessly guns for the charts. That’s not to say that no one’s trying per se, but D.Guetta and crew are only focused on one thing: the club. To Guetta’s credit, he does blend typically clashing genres into his own distinct mix, and these songs don’t suggest dancing as much as command it. By covering everyone in Auto-Tune and vocoders, Guetta strips most of his guest artists of any personality, but shockingly few of them offered any in the first place anyway. Current club pop lunkheads Taio Cruz, Flo Rida, Chris Brown, Akon, and will.i.am pass by without any real differences between them. Meanwhile, Usher, Sia, and (surprise) Jessie J manage to knock out gorgeous tracks while keeping some personality. Each and every song on Nothing But the Beat has craft to it, but as a whole, the album is similar to the point of being oppressive. 2.5/5.

Evanescence – Evanescence 
Holy hell, this band still exists. Five years after the messy The Open Door, Evanescence is back with an almost entirely new line-up. But very little of the band’s drama translates over to Evanescence, the third album out under the name. I feel like I mentioned this before, but a self-titled album is usually a “This had, like, all of us writing” record. And this album sounds more democratic than Evanescence’s past two albums, but part of the reason for the naming is that Evanescence sounds like, well, Evanescence. Within the trademark Evanescence sound (chugging guitars, occasional piano, and pounding drums), there’s a bit more variety than normal; drum machines and synths occasionally appear, and there are more real guitar riffs. And of course, Amy Lee’s giant choir-kid-grown-up voice is right up front because where else would it go? Aside from lead single “What You Want”, Evanescence rocking out gets old pretty quickly, and the band works best when it does something different: “Lost in Paradise” is a slow building ballad, and “Oceans” is an all-or-nothing showstopper with electronics and strings. The electronic lullaby of “Swimming Home” closes the album on an odd note, but part of Evanescence‘s appeal is that it’s all over the place. 3/5

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