Category: Writers


Almost Calm: Visitor by onelinedrawing

I don’t know why Jonah can’t seem to settle down with a band, but despite the number of people he has worked with and the amount of adaptation that requires, he has managed to impress in a number of different genres. This album is more solo-acoustic than New End Original or Far, but it is a prime example of the quality that goes into Jonah Matranga’s music endeavors.

Visitor by onelinedrawingThe beginning of the entire Visitor album starts out with an almost cliché feedback intro, but it doesn’t feel tacky in the context of the song. The feedback sound reappears throughout the rest it in appropriate parts as it builds up emotionally. I wouldn’t have picked a different song to start out with, though; it’s a great example of what you’ll be hearing in the rest of the album. “Bitte Ein Kuss” picks things up a bit, and introduces the drum machine, known as Are Too for aesthetic reasons. “But It Was Close” has similar instrumentation to the opening track, but with a piano coming in near the end to help build up the ending.

“Smile” almost stands out too much on this album. It’s a great song, but it’s the only blatantly “happy” song on the album. It’s the only thing that notably breaks up the flow of the entire album, but if you have to do that on an album, this is how it’s done. Are Too comes back for drum machine duty on “Perfect Pair” as well, and is accompanied by an interesting lo-fi acoustic guitar track. “Candle Song” is another acoustic track like “But It Was Close” or “Why Are We Fighting”; one of the less notable songs on the album, but not a track to skip.

“Yr Letter” appears to be a fan favorite, and possibly the emotionally strongest song on the album. It’s also one of the few songs on this album that sounds better live (There’s quite a powerful rendition on Jonah’s CD/DVD There’s A Lot In Here), but the studio version isn’t lacking much. “Visitor” is the only track I don’t like much on the album; it’s short, and there are noises in the background that aren’t particularly musical, though they aren’t too distracting. The lyrics are interesting, but short enough to make you wonder if it was added for the sake of a longer track list.

Next comes my personal favorite song from the album, “Softbelly”, which has the most appealing chilled-out guitar playing on the album. The final track, “Sixes”, isn’t too far behind in that category, either. The outtro to this song would have made a great ending to just about any album, but it finishes this album particularly well, like you have reached the end of a journey, and if you listened to Visitor from start to finish, you have.

I Blame Coco: Talent To Look Forward To

Coco SumnerCoco Sumner hasn’t even released an official album yet, but already has a single and has collaborated with three notable artists. She’s working on an album, though; it’s something to be waiting for.

Before the single’s release, she was already working on her own original music. “Never Be”, “Control”, “I Blame Coco”, and “No Smile” are a few of the demos that can be found across the web. They have a ska-without-brass/reggae sound to them, but it seems that this sound got old quick for her, or she just thought she couldn’t do enough with the genre.

I Blame Coco & RobynThe single: “Caesar”. Robyn (Sweden’s take on Lady Gaga with less gimmicks) provides vocal support on this vague song that references a few famous authority-related themes (Lord of the Flies, the Milgram Experiment). Miike Snow and Diplo both remixed this song at the time of the single’s release.

Sub Focus and Coco: SplashLater, Sub Focus became a collaborator, but this time it’s Coco providing the supporting vocals to the song. Together they made the song “Splash”, which has also seen some success and a remix by Rusko. The original instrumental track can be found on Sub Focus’s self-titled debut album, and the version with Coco Sumner’s vocals is on the “Splash” single.

Fyfe Dangerfield also worked with Sumner a bit; they ended up recording a cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”. This hasn’t seen an official release yet.

Caesar by I Blame CocoOn the MySpace account of I Blame Coco at the moment of this post, you can hear a number of the songs I mentioned, including a 2 minute sample of a completely revamped “No Smile”. You will also find “Self Machine”, which sounds like it is going to be the next single. The fact that it has been remixed by La Roux seems to back up this theory.

An album should be out soon. If not in a month or two, sometime this year at most. The improvement you can hear from the demos to the new samples show great promise for this artist, and not just for this upcoming release. The ability to work with such a wide variety of musicians (all of different genres so far) suggests great talent, so it’s up to you to pick a genre you like and give Coco a chance!

Cut Your Noose by Vendetta RedVendetta Red is one of those bands that doesn’t dive into a sub-genre pool. Rather, they test the waters of a few and then wade around knee-deep in them. Cut Your Noose is a good example of this; they occasionally taste of screamo, but Zach Davidson doesn’t want all his lyric writing talent to go to waste, and they don’t have enough heavy riffs to be considered hard rock. They just weren’t considering your ability to sort them when they make their music, but that’s the way it should be done, and this EP is a great example of that artistic freedom.

“Three Chord Valentine” opens the EP, and if you only listened to the first verse, you may mistake them for the most troubled emo band you’ve ever heard. The lyrics get more mentally stable as the song goes on, however, and the chord progression makes for a catchy rock track. It’s the cleanest mix on the EP, too; all the tracks afterwards suffer from that limited-studio-time sound.

“Por Vida” is one of the two tracks that can be considered early versions of the song, as they were recorded again for later albums. The track is less impressive overall in comparison to the first one, but it may be the favorite track of screamo fans as far as this EP goes.

Drum Diving at Vendetta Red's Last ShowAnother track that was recorded again on a later release, “All Cried Out” has riffs that sound similar to “Three Chord Valentine”. It suffers from an almost annoying introduction that consists of only vocals and only a bit of guitar. Luckily, the rest of the song loses the vocal tone and gains instrument layers.

“The White Nightmare” is an unusual track for the band because none of their albums have a fully acoustic track, or even a song that comes close to how this one sounds. The song seems to only have three layers: main vocals, acoustic guitar, and backing/alternate vocals. On top of that, the guitar playing is rather unique. I doubt I’ll ever find anything that sounds like that with the interesting lyrics to go with it.

The problem with Vendetta Red is that their material can be pretty hard to find. Odds are you won’t hear any of these songs unless you ask the right person. Part of the reason why this is the case is that they broke up in 2006, but three of the original members went on to form Sirens Sister, so if you like the music and want to see them live, not all hope is lost… If you can make it to the Seattle area.

Panic When You Find It By Young And Sexy

young-and-sexy-panic-when-you-find-it-album-coverPanic When You Find It is one of those albums that can be just harmonic noise in the background or something you can really get into, depending on how much attention you give it. The guitar tones are usually clear, and the times distortion is used, it is done so sparingly and creatively. The entire album is the sort of music you listen to by yourself when you want to chill out, but don’t want to slowly drift into sleep.

young-and-sexy-groupMost of the songs will sound the same when you first hear them. Unless this is the sort of music you listen to all the time, you probably won’t be able to name each song when you hear it, but a few songs do stand out enough to keep most people interested. The songs vary in length more than they do instrumentally; “Turn On Your Weakness” comes in at just under two minutes, while “Without Your Love” passes the five minute mark.

young-and-sexy-acousticTwo songs from this album, “Your Enemy’s Asleep” and “5/4“, have some brass sections in them which are the most soothing use of that type of instrument I have heard produced in modern music. While Young And Sexy is a much more popular group, they are musically very much like Cold Sides, the main difference being the mood and vocals.

young-and-sexy-liveSome people will absolutely love this music; It didn’t happen for me, but the talent is surely there. Give Young And Sexy’s third album a full listen and you might find yourself putting the whole thing on repeat next time you feel like doing nothing at all.

Grinspoon’s Six To Midnight

grinspoon-six-to-midnightAfter Alibis And Other Lies failed to truly impress me with its silly and outdated pastiche of arena rock and Australian folk blues, I began to lose hope in probably one of my favorite international bands of all time. After making their masterpieces Easy and New Detention, the latter significant enough to eventually earn a spot on a list of my favorite “great” albums, they had reverted to making music for the lowest common denominator, starting with 2004’s mediocre Thrills, Kills, & Sunday Pills. I thought that Grinspoon was going to be a pop band from now on and when I heard about Six to Midnight over the weekend, I had extremely low hopes for it. I thought it was going to be the same uncomfortable folk blues and pop-rock of Alibis… but with production by Rick Will (Incubus, some production work on Morning View). My fears were stilled with the release of the first single “Comeback”, but my fears soon came back – the song was just more Triple J fodder by a once-decorated alternative rock band. However, I have to think my persistence to download the album (it is nowhere to be found in America, save for international retailers). Without it, I would not have known that this album is a well-written comeback for Grinspoon, a successful return to the sound found on New Detention.

grinspoonThe album is basically 45 minutes of the classic Grinspoon sound (even Phil Jamieson, known in the USA for writing two Unwritten Law songs that received radio play, implements his raspy scream a bit on this album) along with stuff that was discovered in the later period post-New Detention. For example, in “Dogs”, Phil combines both the old sound with the new vocals while retaining the still-nonsensical-yet-worthy-of-Faulkner lyrics. That song, due to an early leak, made me think that it was going to be another “Black Tattoo” (lead single from Alibis and Other Lies); another good song found within the rubbish of forgettable pastiche. However, tracks following it, including the single “Comeback” and the deep cut “Tonight”, retain that sound; the mix between the old and the new. The album, with that mixture in place, makes it seem as if a war is happening in my headphones: a war between pop vocals and metal hooks without the shady transitions of Maximum The Hormone. It is definitely a far cry from “Minute by Minute”.

grinspoon-phil-jamiesonAs many fans have stated, this album is basically that same sound for twelve tracks, which makes it a bit bland. However, that sound reminds me a bit of Easy, where every song had distortion and drop-D tuning. The fans were probably comparing the album to the “variety” found on Alibis And Other Lies, which was mediocre at best, and seeing that there wasn’t much of it to be found here. Well, fans who want to hear another “Minute by Minute”: you’re not going to discover it. You will discover another “Find Your Own Way” (“Give You More”, a very impressive alt-blues song reminiscent of Thrills’ “Enemy”) and another “Chemical Heart” (“Summer”, but without the depressing drug abuse undertones), but no catchy pop songs with memorable hooks. Instead, Pat Davern has concocted alt-metal songs with catchy hooks (“Premonitions”, “Dogs”, “Run”, “Tonight”) – he’s probably tired of all the pop music as I am. As for the lyrics, some songs are a little more blunt in nature (“Comeback” is basically about the pressures of fame and “Premonitions” is about what fame can do to one’s stress) while some are still on that line between silly and genius due to Phil’s writing style (“Dogs”, “Tonight”, “Summer”). They have not really changed a bit since 1997’s Guide to Better Living (and, to me, Phil’s best song lyrically was “Railrider” from that same album, itself a scathing view of religious hypocrisy in the modern era).

If I were to choose songs that I would want you to check out before downloading or purchasing the album, I would say that you would check out “Dogs”, “Comeback”, and “Summer”. Those songs, with Pat’s quality control and Phil’s pop-worthy vocals, are probably the catchiest Grinspoon songs I have heard since the New Detention era. There’s no doubt that I approve of this album. Even when I compare this to a benchmark album (i.e. Trout Mask Replica or The Chicago Transit Authority), it still makes high scores. Grinspoon not only have outdone themselves on their comeback; they did twice that and even kept traces of their experimental albums for those pop fans.

single-file-no-more-sad-face-ep-coverWhen you see the cover, title, and band name of this EP, odds are you will immediately make assumptions about the music that are indeed correct. Single File’s No More Sad Face is a semi-pop rock emo EP. While their genre and look isn’t very original, they dabble into creativity with every song in this set.

zombies-ate-my-neighbors-acoustic-live-single-fileWhen you look at the first song, “Zombies Ate My Neighbors“, before you listen to it, you’d probably think “That’s just one of those dumb song titles that have nothing to do with the song.” and consider giving the record back to the chump that gave it to you. On the contrary, the lyrics in the song are actually about a zombie attack, and they somehow manage to not be too corny. The chorus is quite catchy and there’s a slight story to it.

single-file-opening-for-mayday-parade“Velcro” starts off with about five seconds of studio banter that the band thought would be great to hear every time you listen to it. This song is a lot less impressive than the opening track, but it’s the only other song with a really catchy chorus. The lyrical content of this song makes it hard to connect to unless you’re around the age of 16 and regularly listen to this sort of music. It’s not strictly dedicated to that, but it would really help to fit into that category if you want to fully enjoy the song.

The next song is the softest on the EP. “Melody of You” is one of the better semi-acoustic tunes from this genre, and fits well on this point of the EP. There’s and interesting use of stringed instruments, including a somewhat jazzy stand-up bass. Despite being the slowest song in the set, it also ended up being the shortest.

single-file-band-group-pictureIf all of these songs had the lyrics removed, “September Skyline” probably would have sounded the best. The lyrics and vocals aren’t bad, but they distract from the guitar and drum playing. The ending of this song seems too abrupt to be an and to any set of songs, but they only had four songs to work with, and the order was great as is. The drum playing stood out quite a bit for this band. Not like, say, that of Alex Van Halen, but none of the songs had simple beats that tend plague this genre and a lot of modern rock in general.

No More Stories From Mew

mew-no-more-storiesThose sad little Danish boys are at it again, and after an album as epic as And The Glass Handed Kites it was easy to get excited about what Mew would do next. This record isn’t quite as epic as their last, and not nearly as poppy as the ones that came before, but still an interesting listen in it’s own right. I got this album on Saturday and intended on writing the review the same night, but I played the record a good four times that night and found myself ignoring most of it. Two days and a dozen or so listens later, it has since grown on me, but it took some time. The majority of this review was written on Sunday, before I had developed a greater appreciation for the album, though most of my feelings expressed in this review still stand.

No More Stories starts off with a very strange, interesting, and confusing piece of production fun. A song which sounds as if it were composed backwards. Turns out this song has another hidden song called “Nervous”, layered over it in reverse. This effect gives this track an interesting (albeit difficult to listen to) effect, but the fact that there is a hidden track layered over it fascinates me. Some amazing band work and production went into making this/these track(s), so it’s a shame that this track is such a difficult listen in it’s entirety. A bad idea for an opener if you ask me, but clever enough to make it on the album. I believe it should have been one of those hidden tracks that you have to rewind from track one to hear, but it is still an amazing piece of engineering that deserves to make the record, there was apparently just no real comfortable place to put it.

mew-2009-no-more-stories-reviewThe second track “Introducing Place Players” is the first “real” song on the album, and it is indeed amazing, with off beat guitar and drums channeling the memories Fugazi, or Shudder To Think. When the vocals kick in the song pushes you into the deepest depths of beauty, begging you to drown (and you’ll want to, it’s lovely). This song left me with much excitement, “Mew DID do something different for this record…” I thought, “…and it’s great!”. However, as the album played on, I felt most of the songs were just filler. Though they are all lovely in their own right, most of the tracks are easily ignorable until you come to the final actual song on the album, “Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy” which is a great closer, and wonderful song in it’s own right, calling back the feel of their third album Frengers. It really stands out on it’s own, with an interesting clap track in the background that is so unpredictable, I couldn’t possibly see a crowd clapping along to it properly during a concert. Since most of the songs on the record don’t have poppy hooks, and lots of the tracks tend to sound the same, this is one of the few songs on the album that I could see becoming a single.

mew-bandAnyone who has been following these guys for sometime know that their first three records were very poppy and brilliant, and their fourth And The Glass Handed Kites was an epic masterpiece. This album takes the epic style they found with And The Glass Handed Kites but dismantles it and rebuilds it into something a little uglier. The songs don’t bleed together like the last album and while this one seems to try and have a concept to it, (there are two interludes on the record, a closing instrumental reprise, and the song “Hawaii” has an intro track called “Hawaii Dream”, the lyrics of which gave birth to the album’s title) the concept seems to fall short by lack of any real story telling, or musical theme. There is still plenty of experimentation with interesting time signatures, something Mew has always done, but they all seem to muddle themselves together on this record, with most tracks lacking in power and effectiveness, and focusing more on ambiance and beauty.

It is really hard to say everything about this record that needs to be said. I am probably making this album out to sound worse than it really is. IT IS NOT A BAD RECORD, IT IS A GOOD RECORD! I guess I had convinced myself it would be something even more powerful and amazing than their last album, and in all honesty that is an impossible attempt. A good example of this would be when Smashing Pumpkins followed Mellon Collie with Adore. Many fans were confused and disappointed, but that didn’t mean Adore was a bad record, it’s just not possible to top a masterpiece.

All in all it is still a wonderful record, with really good songs vaguely hidden between beautiful filler, and even though it is an enjoyable listen, as a Mew fan I found it to be a bit disappointing. Other fans of the band are sure to enjoy it, but not to many will consider it there favorite, and it will probably take quite a few listens to appreciate if you are new to their style. If you are a fan of dreamy bands like Jeniferever, Ride, or Mazzy Star, then give it a spin. I don’t see why anyone couldn’t enjoy this record, but it is still not Mew’s best. If you have never heard this guys before, I’d recommend listening to the Frengers album or And The Glass Handed Kites before this one.

The Capes Say Hello

hello-the-capesThe synthesizer-rock combo is nothing new to the music scene, so you’d expect the bands that try their hand at it in this point of time wouldn’t come off as awkward. The Capes constantly blend catchy with annoying in Hello. All was well in the mix until the synthesizers and effects were added; not all of it was bad, but a considerable amount was.

the-capes-say-helloSome of their songs were more effect laden, like “Francophile“, which suffered from quality-hindering voice effects and the occasional digital “Wah, wah” voice. I can see this song either being a favorite or least favorite, depending on if this type of music is what you can enjoy frequently. Other songs weren’t composed with a bad synth track, but in songs like “Stately Homes”, the synthesizer in the mix was overpowering.

It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to use electronic sounds in music, though. They mixed “Carly (Goddess of Death)” and “First Base” very well, keeping the synthesizer notable when needed and not dropping the guitar off the mix radar.

the-capes-helloAnother notable characteristic most of the songs has was a very tinny guitar sound, similar to that of many Franz Ferdinand songs. They did use a variety of guitar tones, but the sound only made the song more catchy and hard to listen to; catchy in the way they played it, annoying in the note progression.

The most notable and pleasing song on the album was the final track, “Sun Roof“, where they didn’t try too hard to be catchy, overwork the synth, or use any fast-paced lyrics which barely caught my attention. It was soothing, slow, and a great way to finish an album. I only wish they had tried that with more of their songs.

The guitar playing was decent, and the vocals didn’t stand out in any way. The Capes aren’t bad musicians, it just didn’t work out on this record.

New URL & Upcoming Changes

To allow for a better site and avoid some technical problems,Futures Passed the reviews have been moved to their own URL. Having them on the home page was nice, but it prevented us from having anything after the domain that wasn’t affected by Wordpress.

In addition to that improvement, we hope to provide you with more variety here. It will all be about music, of course, but the year 2009 is about to come to an end, and you know what that means! Time to list the best albums of the year. Me, Mac, Shane, and Sean will write our own takes on the matter, in addition to our usual reviews.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the upcoming articles and continue reading. We hope you’ve already found some new music and continue to do so. Tell your friends about us! We’d appreciate it if you do (no one likes to have something to say and have no one to say it to, after all). Thanks again,

Steve

Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon

aha-shake-heartbreakI was honest-to-God shocked when I heard that the Kings of Leon, a garage rock band I first heard in 2005 with their minor hit “The Bucket” and saw them with their scraggly looks courtesy that of the latest fashion trends, scored a Billboard no. 1 hit with “Use Somebody”, after making teenage girls swoon to “Sex on Fire”. As usual, I stuck to listening to Chicago and Captain Beefheart until my musical interests began to go towards some critically-acclaimed recent music (as of 1994), so I decided to take a listen to a Kings of Leon album of my choice. Since I did not want to get into their newer, more poppy stuff (Only by the Night) nor their amateurish garage rock (Youth and Young Manhood), I settled on Aha Shake Heartbreak, the first album that really introduced me to the Kings of Leon. As with an album I listened to a couple of days before, Supergrass’ I Should Coco, I thought this was going to be very tepid, trite pop-punk with a Dixie edge until the first song began playing. As with any album I perceive as a potentially-horrible album, I was blown away at how Kings of Leon were a different type of punk rock, mainly with a country edge.

aha-shake-hearbreak-import-versionThe songs, starting with “Slow Night, So Long”, were all in that same vibe of Dixie pop-punk, but within the album, there were two acoustic ditties: “Milk” and “Day Old Blues”. A different sound for the band, I was not used to something resembling “MTV Unplugged Featuring Four Brothers from Nashville”, so I breezed through them, trying to find a hook in them but failing to do so. Despite that flaw, Aha Shake Heartbreak makes itself up with a sound that seems more like Lynyrd Skynyrd crashing into a blink-182 concert, complete with Prince’s lyrics about sex. The highlights of the album are “King of the Rodeo”, which serves as a guitar duel between Jared and Caleb Followill, and the swagger-heavy “Taper Jean Girl”, which became the first Kings of Leon song nationally recognized through the 2007 film Disturbia.

The only thing, other than the acoustic ditties, I have to complain about are the repetition of the lyrics. At first, it seems like random mumbling from Caleb, but when taking a look at the lyrics, his mumbling turns into something a little less innocent. Most of the lyrics range from suicide (“The Bucket”) to sex (“Taper Jean Girl”, “Pistol of Fire”, “Velvet Snow”, etc.). Because Caleb Followill is not much of the lyricist type, most of his songs are either amateurish or about what rock music is mostly about. Such familiarity with a topic can make music seem like it is bland lyrically; most songs are about Caleb’s penis (his “PISSTAWL OF FYE-UH”) or having sex with a chick. It can only be compared to the shock that one gets when entering the 18+ fanart section at the Furthia High website. Is constant lyrical human intercourse always a good thing?

I know people are going to get pissed at me because I’m not promoting the Kings of Leon album with “Sex on Fire”, but to be fair, I have not listened to Only by the Night yet. I have listened to the Kings’ first two, yet I don’t know if I want to venture into commercial territory. From my observations I can hear the Kings get progressively more bland every album they do, a result of commercializing and assimilating their sound into the alternative rock mainstream. However, they aren’t the Dixie Coldplay. They’re a throwback to the good old days of Heartland rock and bar bands playing covers horribly. They’re the result of a painful family schism and assimilation into mainstream society. They’re the result of torturing their cousin. The result is quite artistic and original.

I give this album my full approval, as it is a good mixture of songs despite the below-paw acoustic ditties and the constant yiffing of Caleb Followill. This album serves as a blueprint for later albums to come and ultimately led the Kings to gain a minor chart position with “The Bucket”. How “Taper Jean Girl” failed to get on astounds me, but enough of that. The Kings of Leon thank this album for mainstreaming them into the alternative rock scene and I do too. I should have bought this album when I first heard it because it would stay with me due to the hooks. I wouldn’t think too heavily of the sexual entendres, though; I wasn’t too aware of colloquial terms for “penis” back then.

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