Pillars of Ash
Feature Track: Damned in the Ground
Deep Cut: Black Tide
Keep Listening: Leveling
Rating: 5
I know I mentioned in my Jan 22nd observations that I was over this kind of music. That is a bit of a misnomer. Something like Black Tusk is more guitars and drums than anything. Although, I can tell by the song titles and temperament of the band that this is angry music. It has more a calming feeling, than one of inducing agitation or anxiety.
Again, I'm sure this relates the fact that drums and guitar and prevalent over the intelligibility of the lyrics. This is fine, I'm sure I don't agree with their particular world view or share the same sense of urgent hatred, but there is no need to. This is about the sound of the noises.
While it is nearly impossible to separate the experience from the emotions, I do not believe it to be impossible. It may be impossible to convey the amount of technical focus and artistic sisu a person must have to put a recording like this together. The recording, itself, does not carry the same energy as the band itself. This actually helps augment the raw, un-regretted power present in these tantrums.
Black Tide breaks into a Monkeywrench style vocal fugue in the middle just before perfectly arranged outro. Punkout punks the fuck out. It is some of the only lyrics I can (mostly) understand.
Pie, Pie American pieI will never understand why those who glimpse through the curtain of the universe always end up swinging to one end or the other. Some become so upsets that no one else notices or can realize what they have seen/understood that they become imploding anger-holes. Others accept the observance of personal metaphysical truths as individually subjective, being the only objectively observable phenomenon in the universe(s). This is ultimate peace and understanding.
A goverment creations sounds
an awful like a crime
Last song sounded as bad as the first
How could you pay more than two words?
Don't forget, all the common people
There is no hell to pay
There is no good or evil
Bumberize hotel with all of your security
Keep defensive end protect your pup monopoly
I may have misheard some of those lyrics above.
Bloc Party
Hymns
Feature Track: The Love Within
Rating: 1
One of the great things about this journey is that I would have never in my life heard Black Tusk followed by Bloc Party's The Love Within intro sine waves. You might never experience that either unless you check out my stupid 2016 Spotify playlist.
I think this is a famous band and I'm a little gun shy after that Jon Cale debacle. I'm not going to look anything up about them. The title of the album is Hymns, The lyrics and titles have a religious/Christian rock vibe about them. I'm going to say this is not a christian band. However these are the kind of songs that will infiltrate believers earphones and bedrooms allowing them to be openly rebellious and feel the pulse of rock with lyrics that still can be conveyed as devotional. Parents and youth pastors be warned. You think they would have learned after Creed.
As an immediate antithesis to Black Tusks perception of the eternal truths, comes Bloc Party, a band that I believe to be wildly successful and already very popular. The sound is heavily (and well) produced but the arrangements tend to come to a stale-mate after the first couple of grooves are established.
Lord, give me grace and dancing feetWithout hearing any of this band's past albums, I doubt this is their best work. Living Lux opens with a cool Baba O'Riley feel, but never really delivers on the promise. Maybe that is this band's thing though and I'm completely wrong. Meh.
As I conquer all anxiety
The angel told me not to fear
That the power to was in me
For I have learnt the way to pray
Like a muscle growing taut now
Bind the past into a knot
And let the love consume us
Let the love consume us
Let the love consume us
Spotify moves on to the 2012 release Four. The first track So He Begins To Lie is better than the entire Hymns album.
Cavo
Bridges
Feature Track: On Your Own
Deep Cut: Traitor
Keep Listening: Straight to the Bottom
Rating: 4
There is an OCD type thing taking over. I am trying to go down this list in chronological and alphabetical order as listed by Wikipedia. Normally I play these in the background. However, it has been a busy week and I immediately knew I wanted to give this album the time it deserved. So, I never made it past the first track, Nights. A few days later and I'm now starting a Monday with it. It feels right. A lot of power, catchy lyrics but not too deep or "meaningful" yet. If the whole thing is this loud, I will be turning the volume down though. Foo-fighters like guitar strumming away 8th notes during the chorus with at least 3 layered vocals. One of those (at least) is doubled I think.
Just Like You Want It, reveals their hand as they dive head first into the thin, groovy guitar paired with hyper distorted/clipped vocals. Skip a few tracks. Land on a Black-esque guitar opening. It is soon joined by some Black Crowes level soul singing. A little organ in the background shows the band stripped down in their "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" (as sung by Dawes). This is a really great song.
They sound like a band that works really hard to give their fans exactly what they are expecting. I'm not sure how to articulate this, but they also sound like they know the people that get their hands on this new record are going to love it. And that makes me love it, even though I don't really care for the genre in general.
There is a very strong 90's/early 2000's vibe to their sound which might be the thing keeping them from breaking through. The mixing is creative (the wooden box/pallet sound during the chorus of Get Away) and nothing is phoned in. The sound is much bigger than this bands spotify numbers would imply. It looks like they are on the One record every 4 years and tour the shit out of it plan.
This could be their year. Every song on this album is indistinguishable from end-of-the-dial hits of the last 10 years (barring a strange arrangement/mixing choice at 3:30 in Fight this War). Are 12 certified hit rock singles on a single disc with a dedicated fan base and the dedication to push a record still enough to make it?
I actually did try to look up if Traitor was on the radio. But this band does not seem to be that popular. They should be pushing Traitor as a single, if that is their business model.
Straight To The Bottom is another great rock song. The sound is retro and post-grunge pop but the mixing is, again, very interesting on this song with little sounds in the mid and high range. This track sounds like it was mixed by a totally different person.
Charlie Puth
Nine Track Mind
Feature Track: We Don't Talk Anymore
Deep Cut: Suffer
Keep Listening: Some Type Of Love
Rating: 5
Never heard of him. however 194,000,000 (Million) Spotify users have. How does this happen? Obviously he is a supremely talented person. I'm not saying, "How does a guy like this get so popular". The question is how does a guy like this get so popular, so fast and the first place I hear about it is by going through a Wikipedia list. I'm not even going to bother breaking this one down. Good pop rock/R&B by a very talented new talent with a lot of good people working for him. Good luck Charlie!
Dream Theater
The Astonishing
Feature Track: Brother, Can you Hear Me?
Deep Cut: The Path That Devides
Keep Listening: My Last Farewell
There's Even More! Astonishing
Rating: 5
Normally, you open up a spotify album and there are 34 tracks, that is a bad thing. With Dream Theater, I saw that and just laughed. Here we go!
Brother, Can You Hear Me? displays a range of magnitude in the vocals during the first chorus that could make Bill Gaither weep. And I give them mad props for choosing not to put the extra (nearly obligatory) "Bump-de-Bump" at the end of this song. Nice ending.
I fell asleep during the Lord of The Rings movies and the first time I listened to Vs. So that's not really a measure of anything other than my extreme inability to focus. I assume, like LOTR, you know what you are getting into if you choose to embark on this journey.
After my nap, I ate lunch and continued the trek to Mordor. I'm almost halfway into the thing, now I'm thinking of LOTR while the story unfolds. Do these guys practice a lot, or what? Mother-of-Pearl! And these guys are doing this every two years, while touring. Understanding that equivalent to recognizing the true size of other stars in the Universe in comparison to our sun. If you say that you understand it, you are either a Member of Dream Theater or you are lying.
Around track 23, there is a shift in the storyline and the tone of the album takes on a much more frantic tone. I found the 2nd half of this to be much more engaging than the first half. I feel that I am in a small group of less than 300,000 people who will listen to this all the way through once. That number is more like 50,000 at 3+ listens. The few that listen to this about 15 or 20 times are going to discover many juicy easter eggs. I'm not even listening on decent speakers.
I couldn't tell you what the story is about, but I've almost cried twice.There is epic war-fare. Dystopian dissolution fit for a 1984 love story meets BeastMaster. It sounds a bit like a Rush tale, wherein a society of peoples has lost the art of music. One guy discovers and it tries to save them all by singing a mediocre sounding Broadway song. I didn't quite get that part.
There is an evil dictator. He is watching this attempt at salvation from a position of extreme power. He notices that the hero is in love (?) with someone in the crowd (his daughter).
My Last Farewell is about someone dying. I can't tell if it is the Hero, the Love or some other character that I missed an introduction for. The next few songs might be this process stretched out into mourning with Losing Faythe, an 80's themed pop song with ridiculous foot work on drums and a building swell of modulating operatic choruses.
Whispers On The Wind seems to imply that it was the love interest (Gabriel?) that died. And our hero has seemingly lost his "gift" and "all hope is dead". Yikes! Hymn Of A Thousand Voices continues with the Biblical parallels as it seems that the love has come back to life and now the hero has his gift back. This apparently summons a dues ex machnia made of Papa Roach and Bono who support the band in Our New World. I'm not sure, but I think the good guys are winning.
After two hours of listening time later (I took a nap and a lunch break), Astonishing ends the saga by restoring peace and affordable healthcare to the weary populace.
Prong
X - No Absolutes
I think I called the wrong number... I'm so confused.
Sia
This is Acting
Feature Track: Alive
Deep Cut: Reaper
Keep Listening: Sweet Design
Rating: 4
Of course, I've heard about this record by now. It sounds pretty sweet at the first track. I'm in love with her personality. I really like the fact that she is offering merch through spotify. Currently there is a line of humans with dog heads sporting the worst looking T-shirts someone could ever make. Honestly. Arguably one of the most anticipated pop releases since Adele. Dogs wearing horrible looking T-shirts is her Spotify merch. Even if the music wasn't great, this would get a high rating automatically.
Delayed choruses that surprise with silence in the place of big hits, followed by huge hooks. I've actually been looking forward to hearing this and so far it's worth the hype. One Million Bullets will end up in a movie. I can tell that we are moving into era similar to the 80's where there were thousands of brilliant songs were written and recorded that will be forever lost to ridiculous production. The songs are still shining through, but only just.
Move Your Body will be the club hit, obviously intended as such. Trying to decide which of these songs will be pushed as the summer hit (or maybe they have something in their back pocket, still). I'm leaning towards Sweet Design being the track we will hear over and over. It sounds a little too good to actually be on the radio, but I think this is the big hit. It sounds very different than everything else.
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