Purdy. Most of it is nice but standard pop rock songs. Kind of sounds like a less melodically captivating Big Star. I've found the Velvets at their best when they had relied on energy and or added elements like drone or improvisation- basically none of that here. But it does sound real purdy.
Oh- "Murder Mystery", I actually really like the counterpoint between the two voices with separate rhythms and the ending part where they keep changing the piano arrangement to make different chord progressions, but the ABA structure gets old pretty fast.
SOOOOO 90's. After Kurt Cobain died it was like every band started using those trip hop drumbeats and synths. Crazy, mang.
I actually kind of like the whole "dark neo noir"-ish aesthetic they have going on here, and some of the arrangements are quite nice, but besides that it's pretty standard angsty alt rock affair with some electronic influence. I guess the occasional tonal turns that mix major and minor modes (like "Not My Idea") are pretty cool too? But too same-y and not captivating enough to be great.
Quite beautiful. I like his style- the combination of impressionistic harmonies with bluesy melodies and motifs and phrasing, along with the excellent pedal usage is pretty cool, but it feels a bit too... long-winded, I guess? There are a lot of cool variations and motivic developments here but some of the modulations and rhythm/chord changes are a bit too haphazardly done or not very expanded upon. And sometimes it's a bit *too* impressionistic, and lacks much interesting phrasing, or proper "atmosphere" even with the pedal usage. I'll probably like this more with relistens.
Bretty good. Most of this is standard slightly blues-y early psychedelia (with some occasional structural or melodic experimentation); the best tracks on here are actually the slower, low-key folksy ones like "Comin' Back To Me", "My Best Friend", "Today", etc. Today and Coming Back To Me I'd say are the best songs here- pop genius, I tells ya, practically every part of that is great. The way the latter's arpeggios contrast with the bass notes, and change in harmony is incredibly interesting and sophisticated. It's honestly kind of amazing they were able to get so much mileage out of those triadic-based melodies. The sparse arrangements are gorgeous as well. I'd listen to a whole album of that.
I'm honestly a bit bored by a lot of blues-based music, but some of the melodies or chords here tend to step out of the typical blues/rock schemas and rhythms which is really nice. There's a lot more interesting lead parts or arrangements here compared to many of their contemporaries or predecessors. There's even some contrapuntal guitar parts in here! Even the more regular tracks are fun and have that nice, driving RAWK rhythmic intensity. Also, Grace Slick is a GORGEOUS vocalist! I'd like this way more if she was the main vocalist here instead of... *googles* those two guys Paul and Jorma. Still, they're pretty good too, and the dual/occasional counterpoint vocals are very nice.
PS Embryonic Journey totally sounds like John Fahey
I expected to not like this 'cuz it's Bowie and I didn't really like any Bowie that I've heard, but it's actually pretty good! The only parts I don't like are some of the vocals, the piano improvisations in the title track (which are far too aimless and unrelated to the song aside from some motifs), and some of the arrangements. Most of this actually isn't too bad arrangement-wise but sometimes it'll feel too dense and busy for my liking. What I find boring about some blues music (chords and rhythms) is here as well, but it's not terribly bad and a lot of the time there's a nice rhythmic intensity. I wish the chording was more interesting too, its mostly the same blues based progressions and rhythms- why not more inversions? There's occasional counterpoint to the vocals instead of just imitating it, but it usually is just repeated and not varied. Eh, maybe I'm nitpicking. It's pretty good for what it is is my point.
BOOOOOOORING. Voice may be the main appeal but I don't like the phrasing and the melodies are boring. Mostly rhythmically and harmonically the same in every song. I have little to say about this really- just very boring. When you're doing loop music like this it helps a lot to have arrangements that contrast with the leading voice because of the lack of variation, which this doesn't do at all. Likw the backing vocals and guitars for example dont really counterpoint the rest of the instrumentation even if they have different rhythms. Blah. The Flamingos are better.
SOOOOO GOOD. There are so many great and clever compositional and arranging ideas on here I could go on for ages about it, but th tl;dr is very lavish arrangements, excellent tone coloring and contrast, and tons of interesting voice leading and contrapuntal ideas- even when its just following the main melody the great orchestration helps a lot. So many hooks, this is like a guidebook on pop melody construction! Ugggghhh I need to write long-form about this sometime.
This actually feels quite American for a Brit album- like a very English version of California by Mr. Bungle, or Duke Ellington and Jimmy Durante (less jazzy but still that sort of traditional American pop tradition) with a Cardiacs-esque twist. Plus the lyrics are witty and hilarious.
I DON'T CARE FOR THE BASIC BLUES
But this was decent. The non-metal songs (Laguna Sunrise and Changes) are the best ones here tbqhfam. I just don't find the overreliance on I, IV, V, tritones, and stepwise motion terribly interesting... plus Vanilla Fudge and Blue Cheer generally did this style with more action and attitude.
Blablabla not much variation in the phrasing and chords blablabla- oh the solos are too triadic and/or pentatonic and uninteresting too, but that's not terribly unheard of for this kind of music.
k so like slipknot isnt metalz cos they aren't trve and br00tal enuff and they have like melodies n shit
But to be srs: okay. Fine. Rehashed thrashy SYL or Fear Factory style metal- I think the weirdest things they do is insert post-grunge sing songs choruses into them sometimes which don't sound... terrible? But it is kind of jarring.
Sooooo many fills. It's kind of distracting. Pacing and composition is average for this type of metal. Chording's a bit boring and uninteresting- tritone overusage and minor key overusage, but at least the intensity and speed makes it way better than something like Korn. The ballad is funny but a bit too uninspired in arrangements to be outstanding. I kind of wish they either went full metal or full DisneyTunes here, they're not really interesting enough composers to convincingly pull a mix of the two off.
Seems as if this band peaked in "Mate, Feed, Kill, Repeat."