1. They're no doubt amazing guys - love their mums, never forget a birthday etc etc.
2. No doubt great live.
3. This is the first 'user generated' album I've listened to and it is not a great listen. Just too much going on all the time. Too long. The sound of everyone huffing and puffing, but not offering a single memorable tune. Sorry Canada.
Catchy melody. Verses that deliver the message. Choruses that deliver a huge melody, sung by massed backing vocals. Lyrics frequently sweary undermining the uplifting chorus mood. Stunning over an individual track, slightly wearying over a whole album. 3.5 starts but rounding down for a lack of variety.
Utterly cynical corporate emo - every single instrument over-produced, every chorus huge, even the enunciation of the vocalist is profoundly irritating. Exactly what a 10-year old would play loud to annoy his parents, who should be instantly moving said 10-year old onto, well though I'm not an emo expert, I can't believe that bands i've never heard like My Chemical Romance, even Linkin Park for gods sake, wouldn't be better than this. In a throwback to Fred Durst times there's even a rap section.
Lyrics really interesting, music rather dull singer-songerwriter with very conventional full band arrangements. I don't feel I was forced to witness this, but was influenced certainly.
Easy to listen to, not easy listening. Always melodic, and some variety in arrangements lift this above average singer-songwriter. But I like mine with a bit of grit in the oyster, and this is all a bit too safe. Some lovely guitar playing, and I got through the entire review without mentioning God once.
Do they have anything to offer other than furious riffing, blast beats and a vocalist shredding his larynx? There's a hint of guitar soloing more out of classic rock but that's about it. Feel that all sorts of post-poodle rock subgenres are way overrepresented in these lists.
There's a lot of variety here - two instrumental themes, the delicate acoustics of Stretchmarker, alongside the rock riffing. So points for not cleaving to a single music template and hammering it to death (like Death, literally the last album before this). But a double album does mean its hard to stay focused, and as I often say about a double 'pick your 12 best songs please' It would a 3 for individual songs, a 2 for length and lack of decisiveness. Is it better than Death, yes it is, so 3 stars it is. A 2.5 really.
Can there have been a worse time to be a vaguely jangly pop band than 1989, when the UK was about to explode with either rave or Madchester or both. Never mind, they sold squillions of records. No-one could escape their singles in the nineties, no matter how hard you raved. Grudgingly they could always write a strong melody and this is perhaps ore interestingly arranged than I might have thought. Song for Whoever's chorus still irritates, so it's a solid but unexciting 3 from me. When is someone going to nominate the first Flowered Up album then?
Not for everyone, hence the 2.94 rating, I do feel that if you've not experienced the on-the-surface calm but surprisingly unsettling under the hood world of seventies UK childrens TV BOC can be difficult to access. Combine the music from this with slowed-down hip-hop beats and slightly detune the whole thing. Also of course flavours of The Wicker Man and other cultish horror movies. NowBOC have become their own cult.
Albums from the user list I already own : 1/12
Albums I have five-starred: 1/12
1960s bob Dylan: I know it's a really long song but it has 43 verses
1970s Yes: I know it's a really long song but it has 4 tempo changes, 8 parts and 3 solos.
1990s ambient: I know it's a really long song but you're either off your face or doing the dishes.
Ethel Cain: these are really long songs. If I could hear the lyrics clearly (hello production) then I'd perhaps understand why, as the musical ideas are pretty much there in the first 2 minutes of each. They can sing, they can write but boy do they need an editor. A 2.5 for me but as it felt like I had been listening to this for several years rounding down. Perhaps we could get a deluxe edition which has less.
If there's a cliche about Irish music it's that whatever genre the music is, it's marked by a romantic sensibility, melodic approaches and a degree of sincerity. Sad to say that despite their best efforts (deadpan drop-dead dry vocals) they absolutely conform to this - check out the coda on The Lotts. This is not a criticism, it makes a very enjoyable album. I started with a 3, then went to 3.5 and now have settled on a 4.
In the mid/late 90s there was a whole genre of music in the UK that emerged out of Ibiza beaches, trip-hop and dance which was 'bar music' - mid tempo stuff that would gently get your foot tapping while not interrupting conversation. Vocals were hushed and the bass was always prominent, as here, along with the flute. This I feel would have fitted right into the compilations of the era, and several review have noted the link to Air, one of the flag-bearers of this type of music. So my foot gently tapped. The arrangements and grooves are not bad, but listen to the first minute of Fugue en Sol Inconnu and tell me it doesn't take you back to cargo pants, Stella Artois and bars with punny names like Bar None or The Cross Bar. 2.5 out of 5 (the Stella Artois score). Rounding down for length, sorry Quebec.
This was one of the first pieces, along with Desert Music, that made me realise Steve Reich was a much more interesting and complex composer than Philip Glass (sorry), who I also like but has a much more limited bag of tricks. Endless metamorphosing, repeating, evolving, stretching out and contracting, it's music about music, but it's just wonderful. I'm thinking it's time to upgrade my 192 kps e-music download from a fifteen years ago.
Albums I have given 5 stars to on this list: 2/12
Albums I already own from this list: 1/12
