Posts Tagged ‘cd review’

It would be completely unfair to say that I was expecting more from this album, because I’d not heard much of Owl City before listening to Ocean Eyes, except for their hit single from earlier this year, “Fireflies.” Keeping that track in mind, I expected a really fun album. What I got was kind of a mess.

Owl City is just a band name for Adam Young from Minnesota. He’s a 1-man synthpop/electronic band, and at moments on this record, it shows. I suppose there’s an easy way to describe the album, which is schizophrenic. It can’t decide whether it’s synthpop, electronic, acoustic, rock, or just plain ol’ pop. And at the same time, the album seems to be broken up into 2 sections, fast and slow.

I’m a big believer in song-placement making or breaking a record. In this case, the album starts out pretty fast and poppy, and then veers off into this section of nothing but mid-tempo ballads. And the whole time, you’re left wondering, “Who is this guy, and what is he trying to say?” In my opinion, it’s good when you have a band that does ballads with the occasional upbeat track, or vice-versa. In this case, it’s split way too much down the middle.

Not to say there aren’t good songs on the record. “Fireflies,” “Dental Care” (the happiest song ever about going to the dentist), “Hello Seattle,” and “Vanilla Twilight” are a few that come to mind. But this album goes away from the “album” concept and starts to sound like a collection of singles. And, wuite frankly, while a drum-kit works on the more electronic sounding songs, I’d have preferred to hear a regular drum-set during some of the more organic sounds.

And going back to the song-placement concept, why would you put a remix of an earlier track (“Hello Seattle,” which actually would work quite well in a club setting) before ending with a new song? Breaks it up in a way it shouldn’t, when the rest of the album isn’t broken up in a way it should. As it’s got an issue of being too 50-50, and trying to play all sides of a multi-sided coin, I don’t feel comfortable reviewing it any differently.

2.5 out of 5 stars.

~Mark Massi

This is the debut studio record from the ambient duo Jónsi & Alex, a collaboration between Sigur Rós vocalist Jón Þór Birgisson (Jónsi) and partner Alex Somers that deftly combines acoustic instrumental music alongside a string quartet, Amiina, and the Kópavogsdætur Choir. To call the album ambient is truly understating things. The ambient can be carved with a chainsaw.

I have to admit openly, I’m not always the biggest fan of the work of Sigur Rós, Iceland’s second most famous musical export after Björk. Sometimes, I feel like their stuff drags on a little too long, and is slow and depressing for the sake of being slow and depressing. But the Riceboy Sleeps album doesn’t have those qualities. While some of the track times are fairly long, they’re not too long. And without any discernable lyrics, it’s tough to be depressed by this record. It’s one of those good “I really need to relax right now, possibly even sleep, and I need an album to help me do that” albums. The acoustic qualities blend beautifully with the less organic qualities of the record. It’s tough to say much more about a record that has very little to say itself. 

Notable tracks: “Boy 1904,” which supposedly has the last known castrati singer ever recorded (thank God they stopped that barbaric practice), “Daníell In The Sea,” (for which there is a video on their official website), and the opening cut “Happiness,” which has many qualities of the Gavin Bryars 1995 minimalist-classical piece The Sinking Of The Titanic without ever really stealing from it. 

3.5 out of 5 stars.

~Mark Massi

It’s fairly obvious to fans of Stephen Patrick Morrissey and his previous band, The Smiths, that he’s not always the happiest man on the planet.  You merely need to cite the lyric “Good times, for a change…” from the Smiths song “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” to prove that point, amongst countless of other lyrics.  Moz’s music can often be described as “razor to the wrists” kind of fare.  I think if he released a happy record talking about how content he is with his life, many fans might actually start to worry about him (example: it hardly ever works when The Cure tries to be happy).

Well, don’t you worry, this isn’t a happy album.  But here’s the thing, it sounds happy.  In a way, even though the lyrics still convey a state of unhappiness, despair, or even giving up, so much of the record is uptempo and peppy that it takes a few listens to realize that the guy’s still as melancholy as he’s always been, proving the validity of the grey hair he now dons in the temples.  And unlike a few of his more recent releases (Ringleader of the Tormented, You Are The Quarry, and Maladjusted), there’s more of a cohesive feel to this album.  It’s a fast paced record that clocks in just over 40 minutes (unless you get the ITunes version with 2 bonus tracks), and I never feel like the album is dragging.

It starts off with a bang with the excellent track “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” a rocky track that features the lyrics “Thank you, drop dead,” and a list of generic medications with their brand names… and it works.  This spring’s single “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris,” while one of the slower songs on the record, is also one of the better ones that basically says, “if you’re not going to be here for me and to hold me, I’m just going to Paris.”  Hey, who can blame him, right?

In my humble and scary opinion, every track on this album is a highlight, but if you had to nail me down to just a couple more than the ones listed in the previous paragraph, I’d go with “Mama Lay Softly On the Riverbed,” “When Last I Spoke To Carol” (which has a slight flamenco feeling in the guitar at times), and “One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell.”  If I had to change 1 thing about this album, it would be the ending to “You Were Good In Your Time,” which sort of trails on for 2 minutes of just sounds and such that could have easily been condesnsed to about 30 seconds.  But if that’s the only complaint I have, I’d say this is a pretty strong record.

Why am I reviewing an album that came out this past winter now?  Because if you don’t have it yet, you need it.  Plain and simple.

5 out of 5 stars.

~Mark Massi

Wild Young Hearts, Noisettes second studio album after 2007’s What’s The Time Mr. Wolf?, was released in April in the UK and Europe, but finally saw its release here in the States a couple of weeks ago.  Like their first offering, this is a difficult album to classify.
 
Want something fairly light and acoustical?  “Sometimes” or “Atticus” are for you.  Do you want something a little more pop oriented?  There’s “Don’t Upset The Rhythm (Go Baby Go),” which reached #2 on the UK charts earlier this year.  Feeling a little in the mood for some slight 80’s revival?  “Beat of my Heart” and “Saturday Night” will work just beautifully.  Are you looking for something that sounds sort of Amy Winehouse or Sharon Jones-ish?  “Never Forget You” could easily have been a track on either of their most recent albums.  I even hear a little of The Smiths in this album from time to time.
 
Point is, if these guys are marketed right, they’ve got a chance to make a splash here in the US.  The album is quite varied, but not to the point of sounding schizophrenic.  And if anything else, lead singer Shingai Shoniwa’s hair could go down as my favorite hair in rock.  Quite a feat to get a fro to look like a heart.  And if you like Wild Young Hearts, don’t forget to check out What’s The Time Mr. Wolf, which is also a pretty cool little album.  Wild Young Hearts isn’t perfect, but it’s a fun album worth giving a spin.  After never hearing of these folks until about a month ago, I’m glad I got turned on.
 
3 stars. ~Mark Massi

If you’re a Flaming Lips fan, you know never to expect anything from a new release of theirs, because it’s most likely going to be different than you thought it would be.  I mean, we ARE talking about the band who released a 4-disc set, Zaireeka, only all 4 discs were to be played at the same time in different parts of the room.  We ARE talking about a band who brought 60 people with 60 cars together to an indoor parking garage, gave each of them a cassette for their tape-decks, had everyone turn on said tapes, open their trunks, and then just had everyone listen to the work they had created.  These boys, at times, can be really cutting edge, even in a frustrating way.
 
They’ve always been a band that has bordered both on trippy, and pop, but has always seemed to straddle that fence, bringing the 2 brilliantly together on their 2002 masterpiece, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.  While their 2006 follow up, At War With the Mystics, tended to go a little closer to the mainstream sound they can produce, Embryonic goes in the opposite “trippy” direction.
 
An ambitious hour and 10 minutes over 2 discs, Embryonic is an initial difficult listen, and I didn’t like the record upon hearing it the first time.  While Yoshimi and Mystics had a very polished and produced feel, there’s moments on the record that I wondered if they just turned on the old recording devices, counted themselves in, and did some of these songs in one take.  And that’s not to say the quality suffers because of it, because I think in the end, I wanted them to release something slightly uncomfortable and edgy.  While being trippy, there’s a definite sense that much of this material would work live.  Sometimes electronic, but never losing its organic feel.  Also, there’s a few more instrumental numbers on this record, and songs that are mostly instrumental with minimal vocals.  The placement of these tracks really do work in terms of continuity.
 
There’s several track names on this album that envoke the zodiac.  “Aquarius Sabotage,” “Gemini Syringes,” “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” “Scorpio Sword,” and “Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast.”  Even with that said, that’s not the real “theme,” of this record.  In fact, it seems to do a great job at almost being a concept record without ever really getting there.
 
Stand-out tracks include the aforementioned “Sagittarius Silver Announcement,” “See the Leaves,” “The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine,” “Worm Mountain (feat. MGMT),” and “Silver Trembling Hands.”  Lips fans should be pleased with this release, which really does sound like what Zaireeka would have sounded like in 2009 if they only came up with the concept this year, only over 2 discs that you play one at a time.  So much easier. 4 out of 5 stars.

~Mark Massi

Babs first studio album since 2005's "Guilty Pleasures"

Streisand releases “Love Is The Answer”

I have been a huge Barbra Streisand fan, seen her in concert and collected every recording that she has done. I have to say that this new CD while still vocally grand. Something is missing…

The set starts off with the slow “Here’s To Life”. I’m sad to say that there is nothing new to report with this lead off track. “In The Wee Small Hours Of Morning.” is a nice jazz infused with Streisand’s perfect pitch as she gets more intimate with us the listener. The third track from the CD is “Gentle Rain” this has a little more melody and a very lush orchestral feel. The tinkling of the piano is a very nice touch and adds to the flavor of the song. “If You Go Away” the next track has Barbra singing in French and If you ask me this is one of the most experimental track on the CD and it DOESN’T Work!

I had to skip a few songs till I got to the sultry “Love Dance” because at this point the whole album so far had put me to sleep. “Smoke Get’s InYour Eyes” is perhaps the best track on this whole CD.

It’s a shame really I’m sure that fans will like this CD, but for me “Love Is The Answer” is nothing more then a backdrop to eat dinner too. It’s nothing you’ll want to listen to while you commute in your car, because the energy is so slow. Not to mention that I got the Deluxe version which is nothing more then orchestral versions next to stripped down versions. My money is on the stripped down quartet versions.

Can we even begin to compare this to 2005’s “Guilty Pleasure’s”? Nope, the songs there were moving and different. This CD takes no risks, goes in no new direction and does absolutely nothing for me.

So let’s review this in a nutshell…Barbra sings new songs (Check) Is her voice in form (Check) Is this something you’ll get excited about… I doubt it… Be the judge for yourself!

BUY THE CD FROM AMAZON

Overall Grade C+

Nitro