Everything Is (Ep)

Uplifting. If the album Everything Is had to be described in one word, that would be my word of choice, it's uplifting. In hopes of creating friendship with a peer, I questioned a subject that most could relate to, music. This individual then turned me onto a band by the name of Neutral Milk Hotel. Their genre could be described as Indie or Psych Rock. This album was their first official release of their music. Many of their songs ended up being officially unreleased, though many songs have been played live or shared on demo tapes. The genre is a very exclusive one, it's almost an underground genre. Regular listeners don't often release the names of Indie bands solely  so the band is not discovered and ruined by record labels. I digress.

The first song is the title song, Everything Is. It is a song of affirmation and good feeling. It starts out with a child describing how they liked to dress up and it appears to be completely irrelevant to the song itself. The lyrics are what strike me as verbal art. The artist portrays this fantasy of personal ecstasy. The line "Everything is beautiful here" stimulates the idea that everybody is living their own personal experience and life is what you make it. In this sense, the singer tells us that his life is perfect in his eyes. The first time you listen to the song, you concentrate on the tone of all the instruments, drums, guitar, bass etc. The 3rd or 4th around you really don't here the instruments as much as you here the singer presenting this concept through his lyrics. 

The next song is a flawless follow. Snow Song Pt 1 is another song of inspiration for those feeling low. Lyrics. It talks about a girl who appears to not want to be left alone. The most significant line of this song is "And even the most silent must sing a song of love." It really inspires one to believe that anyone is capable of love, and as the legendary Beatles once said, "All you need is love." 

The next song digresses from the point album is making to give you a look into the bands founding members life. Aunt Eggma Blowtorch is a series of miscellaneous noises and slow rhythmic pattern that almost makes you want to go insane. It makes one feel as if they artist is letting you into his brain and the clutter that appears there. 

The ending track, Tuesday Moon, is a very appropriate end to an amazing album. It repeatedly returns to the chorus "Love you on a tuesday moon." Lyrics.

This is a greatly unapprecaited band, and maybe they like it that way, but it has raised my mood writing about them and listening to them. I find that throughout the repeated times listening to this album, I notice the instruments more and more and the lyrics less and less, and vise versa. It is what I would call an audio illusion, a "Do you see the old woman or the young lady" illusion.  This album is art. 

Thickfreakness

The Black Keys, modern day music with a classic rock feel. This blues/rock band has released numerous albums that one would expect to here decades ago. Thickfreakness is a great example of what the band is all about.

Thickfreakness, the first track on the album, sets the tone for the album. It starts with a car sound slowly bending down as a slow easy blues comes in. The guitarist proceeds to use a Jimi Hendrix like swing while soloing to the blues riff. The singer comes in with very bluesy lyrics that compliment the rest of the song

Hard Row and Set You Free change things up a little bit. Hard Row has a very basic power chord progression throughout the song. At one point in the song you almost feel like your listening to The Clash. Set You Free has a great upbeat tempo that you can't sit still and the melody is really easy to hum.

Midnight in Her Eyes instantly starts off with that "Season of the Witch" guitar clap that gets your foot tapping. It then diversifies into this whole new song with great blues licks and repetitive blues lyrics.

The next outstanding song is No Trust. This song gives you the mental picture of rolling a snow ball down a hill and having it grow into a snow boulder. Its got a very basic one note beginning and then it just builds up with a funky bass line and snare drum metronome.

Hold Me in Your Arms is one of the best slide songs I have ever heard. It starts with a very basic slide riff and then the bass and drums come in and kick the tempo up. The slide riffs get more intense as the singer brings out a melody line with his voice

The Black Keys is a great rendition to classic rock and blues.
Thickfreakness holds a solid 3.5

LP4

Time to change things up, the next album on the review list is LP4, created by Ratatat. The beautiful thing about this album is it remains lyric less. This album is like a great movie, it has a slow beginning that eventually quickens in pace and then reaches a climax of loud in your face beats then it reverts to slow music then it has a gentle finish satisfying finish. The genre of this band is undefined, they don't like to describe there music with words but you can feel many different influences in all there pieces.

The first track, Billar, starts with a very slow horn sound that increases in volume and sounds less and less like a horn and more like an organ. Out of nowhere they put down a very heavy unplanned beat. The beat contains so many different sounds that all morph into this rhythm that you can't sit still to. The rhythm maintains throughout the first half then on a down beat it exits and a slower classical stringed orchestra sound enters. The song begins to fade out with 30 seconds left. There is some speech of some sort at the end that appears to be german.

The next song is very appropriately named, it is titled Drugs. The song starts with a traditional band sound, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and piano. Eventually a stringed orchestra fades in and after about one minute things just get funky. Neckbrace would be the song that follows and it follows a very typical beat with some questionable background noises. The artists recorded a couple voice sounds and just played the back over and over to different rhythmic patterns. For most of the song you here a voice making a "Dum-duh-duh-dum" sound and its very creative and suiting with the tempo of the music. It is rare that a band today incorporates string orchestra instrument sounds, Eg: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass.

We can't be Stopped. This song is a great change in pace on the album. It consists mostly of a repetitive piano line that is complimented by a mellow guitar solo and classical instrument background. The repetitiveness of the song and the dissonant sound gives it a very eerie feel that will send shivers down your spine.

The next song, Bob Ghangi, is a cultural overflow.  It starts with a very heavy heartbeat and slowly fades in with a series of Indian style instruments. Then there is a heavy downbeat that brings in a guitar that plays a high series of notes that take you to a mid-evil tone. It then continues to bounce back and forth between the two sounds. It proceeds to go into a tonal appropriate guitar solo that really brings out the following. At 2:02 a heavy African vibe is spawned with the solo of the congo drums. The song proceeds to be very tribal sounding with a series of different background noises.

The next three songs, Mandy, Mahalo, and Party with Children all flow into one great output. Mandy has a very funky beginning with some intense synth soloing. Different parts of the song are flooded with what is known as reverse delay, which really gives you that mental confusion in the song. Mahalo is a very slow quite piano based song with a gentle guitar solo over it. Party with Children is a beat heavy middle eastern sounding song.

The last 4 songs all have very similar content. During the second half of the album you get a large middle eastern feeling for the music due to the instruments used.

This album is non-stop creativity and a calculated use of sound. The rhythms are unique and unheard of.
I'd give this album a 4.5 out of 5.

To learn more about the band click here.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression really holds true to the title of the album. The Album is composed by Blindside, a band from Stockholm Sweden. The Great Depression is the bands fifth album and was released August 2nd 2005. The band genre is Hard Rock/Metal. This album was inspired by the lead singer, Christian's, trip to Africa, he was very upset by the things he saw and experienced during his time there which largely influenced this album.

The first track is just spoken and it is rather crackly like a recording of the time of the actual great depression. It has some of the most profound lyrics/poetry that psychologically convicts you. "We are the sons and daughters of a revolution, revolutionaries walking us out of
oppression and into a
no-low promise land.

And this is leaves us with a great sense of sadness dwelling inside our soul. no
one can explain where
its' coming from or where its taking us.

We just know that something is lost, but somehow we are lost, lost"

This is a great tone set for the album because it flows into the next song, "This is a Heart Attack." The use of dynamics is incredible. The band starts with a very on beat crunchy sound and then it just unleashes quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I do not know if it was intentional but the dynamics of this song carry similar attributes to an actual heart attack. When you take the background of the album you really see how the artist visited Africa and had a "heart attack" at the sight of what is happening there. The track the follows, "Ask me now" is also a great suffix to "This is a Heart Attack."

The next song is very morbid and depressing and you can see the prominence of the tragedy that occurs in Africa. The song title is "We are all going to die." The song directly influenced me due to my views on life due to the un-real amount of stress caused by school, the lyrics that applied most were as follows:

"Don't sing your last lullaby

I don't think it's time

We're all going to die
But we're all not meant to die young"

"Yemkela" is the song that the singer is clearly most passionate about. It is about an African boy he met in Africa who was dying of HIV and had 2 months to live. The song has a very intense rhythm line, there is a bi-chromatic approach of ascending and descending nature and then they use the flatted fifth to give it a very dark sound. You can hear it and really notice the music theory behind it, and I feel that it is a very solid song. I highly recommend viewing the lyrics.

The next couple songs all flow into a mountain of a song, starting off mellow, increasing in tension, crashing at its peak, and then reverting to a mellow lyrical balance. The titles are "Put back the Stars," "Fell in Love with the Game," and "City Lights." The song Put back the Stars really talks about realizing that we are lost in life. Fell in Love with the Game really convicts the listener of losing track of what you have and what is happening in life. The last song of this set really has a strong accented beat that the listener can tap there foot to with ease and get into the melody and lyrics.

The next 5 songs lead up to the grand finally of the album, lyrically, musically, and melodically. The very last song is "When I Remember." As the song plays it gives you the illusion that the album is dying because it is written about the way that Yemkela touched the life of the band member. 

This album is filled with passion and musical genius. The album clearly changed for me when i listened to the lyrics but it doesn't change the fact that the music is amazing. 

This album holds a solid 4 stars in my book. 

Nevermind

Nirvana is a band that is looked on as a grungy typical late 80's early 90's band. Well they are in fact, just that, well except for the word typical. Nirvana released 3 albums that changed music forever. The album that I will be talking about goes by the name of "Nevermind." ( The album cover below ordinarily does not have a rhinoceros saying the word censored but I try to find a clean album cover for the sake of my grade.)

The first track on the album can be considered the most mainstreamed track, it became an anthem among rock listeners. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" could be considered the epidemic for grunge. It starts off with a crunch guitar channel chugging out chords until a heavy drum kick comes in and brings in a very distorted rhythm guitar. When you analyze the lyrics to this song you realize there is absolutely no point other than to be melodic with the rhythm of the song. A lot of people hear this song and just hearing inane garbage when it reality it was a pioneering of a genre. Nirvana was a first of its kind and there for spawned the more accepted genre, Alternative Rock.

"In Bloom," yet another trailblazing song. The rhythm is all set by the drums, and the guitars just help bring the drums out. The lyrics again are just there to help you hum the song.  I think a big defining song for Nirvana is "Come as you are." Kurt Cobain had many brilliant quotes such as "I'd rather have people hate me for who I am then love me for who I'm not" and I think this song really exemplifies his beliefs and views. The song, as stated in the title, is a song of acceptance. Musically it is a great song, there is some synth in the background combined with a great melodic guitar rhythm.

The next song takes this album for a spin. Most of the songs on this album start soft, increase in action, decrease, have some singing, then increase again. The song "Breed" starts off and bites you in the face. It keeps up a heavy metal rhythm that you hear today and just makes you realize how ahead of their time Nirvana was.  "Lithium" could very well be described as the ramblings of an alcoholic in musical form. It still offers musical aspects that were not around at the time of its writing.

The innovation Behind Nirvana is what gives them a good name in my book, also if singing is not your strong suit, this is the band for you too sing too.

This album holds a solid 3 1/2 Stars.

Accordion Solo!

Accordion Solo! by Ten in the Swear Jar is what I would call musical feelings oppose to a musical composition. There are a couple tracks on the album that I would avoid due to the fact that they are just some person talking in a room that echoes and there are several expletives. The tracks to avoid are "Malafuquana Espana," "For Awesome Drunk Tank," "Melon," and "Accordion Solo."

The first musical track is called "Hot Karl," it is an amazing prelude to the album because it sets the tone with its unstructured abstract nature. The song is a great use of dynamics*, there is a slow guitar intro that is spastically non-rhythmic. As the song ventures on it rolls in to words that are gargled to the point of incoherence, then the singer sorts out the last couple words of the verse and brings it in with the guitar pieces that eventually picks up a rhythm. This a beautiful tone setting because most of the album has the overall dynamics of this single song. The next song is a great pick up from "Hot Karl," and the song title is "San Jose Fight Song." Never before have listened to a song with an accordion and gotten into the rhythm and put the song on repeat. The transfer between "Hot Karl" and "San Jose Fight Song" is not a smooth transition but it is an abstract and appropriate one. The song leaves you humming an according rhythm, how often does that happen?
    The rest of the songs follow a very similar pattern, Incoherent mumbling, miscellaneous rhythms, and bizarre background noises. I would say the song that should headline this album is "I Love the Valley," the lyrics are a mystery and the rhythm is impossible to purge from your brain. The lyrics are not as much words as they are melodic mumbling, so much so that you can pick up on it and mumble along without having to have any singing ability what so ever. The best part about this song is the synthesizer dynamic at about 1:30. The song slowly fades out and then a synth and accordion come in with a powerful chromatic descent.

This album leaves me wanting more but then all I have to do is put it on repeat.

The instrument diversity and catchiness of the songs makes me think this album is a solid 4 stars.




*Dynamics- It can be defined as the musicians used of aggressiveness. When a song starts out softly and gets really loud that is what could be defined as a good use of dynamics. Increase of volume is another synonym for dynamics.

Kezia

The first album I would like to review is called Kezia, its by a band by the name of Protest the Hero. The genre of the album is not for everybody, it has been listed under a bunch of titles. The main genre is Heavy Metal, but there are sub genres of heavy metal and the album Kezia would fall under Progressive metal or mathcore. The album is consistent with profound lyrics and musical balance.

Lyrical Analysis: The album has been speculated to be about the execution of a prostitute. The songs in this album are broken up into sections of three. The first three songs are the view point of the the prison priest. The second 3 are view of the prison guard. The last 3 are the direct view of Kezia herself. And the last song is a summary. 

In the first three songs (No Stars Over Bethlehem, Heretics and Killers, Divinity Within) The priest is struggling with the moral implications of the execution of kezia. He feels that man has no hope and in the first song he says "Amen to the people who think there's still a way to help us." I think the band is really making a statement of how hopeless and corrupt life has become. There is also a self realization in the fact that he as a hypocrite and being the prison priest is just a job. "I watch my temple fall to pieces at the first signs of oncoming weather" I think this really brings out the idea that people these days are not confident in self beliefs and that their beliefs are altered at the first sight of a challenge.  In the next song (Divinity Within) Kezia makes the biggest impact on the prison guard, "Last night i saw you dine with lovers and human tears but glanced at me in ways that brought to life my sleeping fears." The moral implication in this lyric really seemed like the band believed that someone can enter and change your life in a short period of time. The prison priest really had a deeper respect for his life when he realized how society had outcasted Kezia with little to no reason and she had to live her life dark and alone.

In the second set of songs, that of the prison guard(Bury The Hatchet, Nautical, Blindfolds Aside), the band discuss the numbness people today have to societies outcasts. I feel the most profound lyrical phrase that I have ever heard lies in the first song of the prison guard (Bury The Hatchet), the line is as follows : "I swear I have compassion I've just been trained to disregard a humans life." This is deeply profound because people today are avoiding confrontation of the fact that they select and segregate people to their liking. Also the line clearly represents the desensitization of people in todays world. The prison guard express disgust in the fact that his job is taken for granted. He uses a metaphor of a cigarette, "And I'm still a cigarette softly smoking on the edge of a metal ashtray I begged this place to let me burn and it whispered, 'Burn Away.'"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAutUObokCM

The last of the prison guard songs is called Blindfolds aside. This song was similar to the priests last song in the sense that its a song of realization and awareness. "Shed the blindfolds from your eyes"

Last but not least, Kezia's point of view(She Who Mars The Skin Of Gods, Turn soonest to the Sea, The Divine Suicide of K.) Kezia's mother was in an abusive relationship with her father due to the time and she speaks a profound line after hearing her parents fight. "It was our situation, our position, our gender to blame." Even though the ideas in this wording is quite sexist the idea presented is that, there is nothing she can do about who she is. Society wouldn't accept for what or who she was so she was socially condemned. The big idea behind kezia's pieces were the injustice she had to suffer due to her gender and the nature of society.  

Lyrically I would say this album is Superior to all else. 

The guitarists Tim Miller and Luke Hoskin are the perfect combination to bring the message out of the song. Tim has killer backing rhythms while Luke brings out the context of the song threw very particular harmonic soloing. 

The bass guitar in this album is subtle but a huge backbone setting the tone for the album. It takes a key listener to pick him out. One of the albums biggest crutches is the dominance of the singer, Rody Walker, he has a tremendous vocal range that really helps emphasize different aspects of the album. Last but not least, the drums in this album may go unappreciated by your average listener but a drummer will notice the drummers fills are all appropriate to the song and they are time signatures that many find difficult.

I would give this album 5 Stars.