Album Reviews

Clean. Recommend: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 13. Rating and comments per track:

1. 5. New; I like it. Slightly stereotypical Indianesque stuff, but it's very smooth, and pleasing to the ear! :) The singer's NOT OBNOXIOUS! Wow. That's rare, to have a singer that's not grating to the ear (like, he actually can sing!) Melodies are nice.
2. 4. They like the smooth rock thing. 2:30-2:50ish reminds me of Porcupine Tree.
3. 4. That's kind of funny (but, in a way, insulting, as Mr. Pruett, Musicologist at MTSU, will tell you.) They take the tabla in this song ... and play it like a bongo. Like someone grabbing a piano and just banging chords.
4. 2. Ugh. The singer goes into the whole "Look at me, I smoked too many cigarettes, don't I sound like crap?" singing style. Trash to listen to. Rather bluesy, and rather weak. Like, blues, but imitating 311 with the drum and guitar reggae-beat thing ...
5. 4. Starts off slow but picks up for the second half of the song, kind of a groove song; it works better as background music than as forefront-material. Jazzy/bluesy, reminds me of Ben Folds Five, both musically and the way the singer sings.
6. 4. Funky, and it goes well, as it has a nice background groove to it. The singing itself isn't too hot, but the beat makes up for it.
7. 3. Too soft; it bores me rather than soothes me, especially juxtaposed against the funk rock of the previous track.
8. 3. This track didn't connect with me; it seemed almost country, somehow, which I generally disdain. This time the "Indian" overtones just seemed stupid.
9. 3. Singer was kind of annoying on this track (with his prolonged screeches of "daaaaaaay") and it's a pretty weak generic rock track.
10. 4. A soothing piece about something glowing. I was working on my physics homework, so ... yeah, it wasn't annoying or distracting.
11. 3. Oh, god. He actually startled me when he started singing. Bad singer = bad song. It's difficult to see the beauty of band when you have the singer put up such an impenetrable screen of annoying.
12. 2. Meh. Seems rather generic. It's well done, but that's about it. Repetitive, not too hard to think of something like this.
13. 4. I had no real beef with this song. I found the subject matter mildly entertaining (I didn't pay attention to the lyrics; I rarely do, unless scanning for profanity to play on the air.) Once I get past my displeasure with the singer, this is a decent song.
14. 3. Gah, ANOTHER acoustic solo at the end of the album! What did I JUST get through talking about?! (With Bangkok.) More tabla-bongos. And singers who sound like smokey windbags. Scratchy throat = unattractive. A slow finish to the album ...

Recommend tracks 9, 14, 17. Also 3, 5, 12.
A track-by-track review:

2. A bad recording of a bad song. This song makes no sense to me, it's just random stuff. There's no rhythm, his playing is quick and (as usual when guitarists try to play quickly) sloppy.
3. First 10 seconds of this song flatout suck. How many times did he try recording this? It's impressive -- tremelo, fair free stroke, but the guitar still sounds a bit thin, and the recording not too nice.
5. A talented guitarist, but he comes across as sloppy; not sure what it is. Delayed silencing of the strings, an awkward sense of rhythm? I dunno.
6. This isn't really that good. It's just random fast notes. Ugh.
7. Solo guitar is hard to pull off, but he tries. Part of his problem is he picks songs to try to show off talent but the songs he picks lack the melody, accompaniment, and bass necessary for a solo piece, so it's overall boring.
8. SO SLOPPY, OMG. He can't pull this piece off on guitar: he lacks the bass, and while the melody is "flashing" (not really), he lacks the rest of the song to accompany it. That's his problem for many tracks on this album.
9. A pretty jazz piece, it's still random, but good if you're in a mellow mood. I like it.
10. Another example of something he tends to do. It's like he's manic. He takes a good song and plays it too quickly, rushing notes and being entirely random with it.
11. Again, very difficult to follow. He randomly plays chords/notes quickly all over the fretboard, barely adhering to a hardly-established melody.
12. Even with these annoyances, this isn't an altogether bad album; it's significantly better than other indie albums WMTS is sent. Should listen to before playing to determine if you like the tracks. This one is bluesy, standard progressions, little messy.
14. This piece is one of the most coherent on the album. Clear, steady, and connected. Good!
15. ... and the first 15 seconds are back to his randomness.
16. I love this song, but his rendition is too soft: not enough strength in the melody. It's thin; only his shallow guitar and nothing else. I wonder how well his nails are contacting the strings; it seems weak, as if he's not giving it his best... Too short.
17. Pretty end to the album.

1. I don't entirely understand what the point of this song is, but it's mildly catchy. A 4 star pop song.
2. I'm kind of a sucker for female vocalists, and even "buh duh buh" can be nice. Countryesque steel string guitar, but nice melodies!
3. I'm not entirely sure what, if anything, they're saying, but it's relatively laid-back, and not really obnoxious, although I'm reminded vaguely of country music for some reason (melody and singing style, perhaps?) Not bad. This song is beach-esque.
4. Male singer is obtrusive, and doesn't have a good singing voice. (Bad decision having him sing.) A recapitulation of previous material, this track adds nothing and bored me.
5. 2:09 "piss down rain quite like this" ... stupid, weird lyrics. Weird style. It's kind of a mesh of country with indie rock? They try some other instruments in this song, although just snippets.
6. *Finally, clear, conspicuous country crap. They try to incorporate a violin, although they do a bad job. Lana's seven, and they like to sing her name a whole lot, over and over. Repetitive, boring. Harmonies are stereotypical country.
7. I feel like I'm listening to one of the previous songs again. Bland, and all the same sounds and male-female harmony. Hahaha, they do a clap, clapclap, clap thing. They sing about a European Tour, and there's nothing European about this song.
8. 1:00 "goddamn my luck sometime" Whoa, something different!!! Electronic synth ... This song is actually not as crap as the rest. So of course they have to swear to eliminate it from airplay. Retards.
9. *"Give me sugar in the morning with my coffee, give me sugar in the evening with my tea. Sugar on the sabbath, sugar is my habit." Offensively stupid lyrics. I got a phone call and forgot this song was playing. This song is crap filler, like her sugar.
10. Perhaps the most creative of the tracks; I bet they stuck it on the end to make the listener regard the album as a whole as better (from the psychological fact that you recall the first and last more clearly than the middle.) More instruments, better melo

Clean. Recommend: 11, 5, 7, 8.

1. Experimental, bizarre stuff. Weird lyrics whose melody doesn't match the background music; singing either atonal or half-spoken.
2. His music isn't that entertaining. Male vocalist who sounds like every other indie male vocalist; tenor. Uses lot sporadic of synth keyboards.
3. Pretty random. I think the melody he sings intentionally doesn't go with the background; the accompaniment music is rather ... sporadic, random, and intentionally jangly and odd.
4. This is just weird. "I swim as if in a sink, as if in a sea, as if in a sea. I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough, to stop in company," he sings his poetry atonally, and then came up with random loops of sound to accompany himself. An easy copout from melody, to just speak it and act artistic.
5. Instrumental randomness. Kinda cool. Just stringed instruments being played shakily up and down.
6. A good example of when too much dissonance loses its effect and results in bland badness. So far the entire album has been the same, experimental noise melody with offkey singing, dissonance. Listen to this song to get a feel for the entire album.
7. He's good at what he does, though. Weird melodies that don't make sense, they have a cohesion in their disarray. (Scribble a bunch of lines in a blob -- don't they go together? Not that difficult.) A little annoying but interesting.
8. This time his poetry and singing is just stupid. It's getting old. Being weird isn't that cool anymore. The jazz piano is nice, though. Proof of some other talent besides being neurotic.
9. Randomness. This time they included some clarinets with synthesized sounds, heavy drums, with stupid vocalist saying nothing except "If Any Thing Is Sacred." Sadly, I had thought stupidity like this only existed in visual art. Ends with chimes.
10. Instrumental piece, woodwinds, nothing except dissonance with varying dynamics. Boring.
11. More stream of consciousness poetry. The most melodic, I'm disappointed he followed reason and put it at the end. Poetry lacking -- tries to list technical body parts, but says "under the leg" when he doesn't know it, etc. Follows same formula.

Recommend tracks 1 (Best), 3, 11,12
Really psychedelic-dreamy. Very good if you like being "out there." Clean. This woman has a shaky voice, sings mystically and reminds me very much of Professor Trelawny from Harry Potter... Uses a lot of ambient side-effects. At first it was cool new age electronica mysticism, but it's beginning to sound like an excuse to ramble on about nothing. She isn't the best singer, but she manages to waiver along her winding melodies fair enough. Lyrics are certainly "out there." Have never heard any other music like this before, except perhaps some by Sean Lennon, if you're familiar with his weird album Into The Sun.
Her album title is very appropriate; that's pretty much what this album is about. Her songs are very dreamy. For example, "Muscle, Bone & Blood (Chessie Remix)" is an electronic trance, whereas "Shikibu" is a musical manifestation of a bizarre dream, a mishmash of sounds and noises. Three of the tracks are instrumental. I appreciate her ideas, even if the presentation was wanting. She's pretty far in outer space; I don't see many "average college guys" liking her.

Clean, as far as I could tell. Recommend: 9, 6, 1, 10.
I was skeptical about this album, and told our new music director Brad that I flat-out hated country, and that it's not good for me to do this album 'cause I don't have any comparison -- because I, as a rule, do NOT listen to "kuntry". He told me to broaden my horizons, though, so here I am, trying to listen to this album ... Listen to their album The North Buncombe Years -- every cliche about country music they manage to hit. Not to be read as an opinion, but rather, to emphasize how pop country they are. The vocalist has an extremely scratchy voice, which he uses to croon throughout the entire album, about long-lost love, etc -- stereotypical country lyrics.

1. 3. A good singersongwriter, it seems. Good sound, makes me think "bluegrass", and I don't know much about bluegrass -- good marketing? He has a fair instrumental section in this song, even if it does feel a little thin. A good rhythm you can tap your toes to if you're into country. Song is pretty static -- stays the same the entire almost five minutes; not necessarily a good thing... couldn't really tell what he was singing, although it certainly wasn't covered up by any distortion.
2. 3. Interlude from slow to fast made me think strongly of Jack Johnson -- he strums the guitar and sings in the same manner, except kuntry instead of surf-ie. Otherwise indistinguishable from the first track (apart from a few notes from another instrument;) I hope this isn't a trend ...
3. 3. OMG A FIDDLE AND BANJO COMBINATION. The vocalist is kind of cliche, though; he has this "rough" country male singer voice. A nice instrumental here, I guess, makes you feel at home, I guess. Again, the instrumental lasts around thirty seconds. Has that obnoxious noise-strum on a guitar to accompany his singing -- you know, when they hold the guitar and mute the strings and strum it in rhythm, even though they're not playing anything. Beats a morraca, I guess. Again, I cannot pay attention to the lyrics because his voice is just one constant stream, with a melody that ranges four notes. And another solo "bridge" that lasts thirty seconds.
4. 2. Okay guys, for this track, let's REALLY show off how scratchy and rugged his voice is. In fact, let's turn down the other instruments so we can make it REEEALLY OBVIOUS. Light up another one, Johnny, 'cause you sound like utter crap. And, since that's the only emphasis of this song, the sound of your voice -- he repeats "I won't be your last mistake, 'cause you know I will be gone...", it's obvious he's not singing anything important. With a steel guitar to accompany his "rugged" voice complete with twanged strings when he sings the last verse. They are really hitting the stereotypes, here...
5. 1. Oh wow, a different singer. High, tenor. "Why did you let me go, how could I let you slip through my hands? I thought we'd be together DARLIN', ... you can't not deny me that wicked life of sin. And I'd not felt heartache," -- complete with the vocal duet. Mandolin/banjo solo from 0:57 - 1:27. I'm not exaggerating; the songs are your standard pop 3:40, with thirty-second solos. Singing about heartache. Can kuntry get any more stereotypical? Cliche? "NEVER FELT HEARTACHE, NEVER FELT PAAAAAAIN, black as a valley, and it's shedding your name." I think he meant to say "shouting", there, except he said "shedding." What is "black as a valley", exactly? When I think of a valley I think of a meadow dipped down, you know, green. Not black. And when I think of shaddows cast onto a valley, I think of a darker green. You know, green but not getting direct sunlight. I'm saving this track because it's THAT bad. 1. I think they introduced this singer because he's worse than the first.
6. 4. Oh man, they got indian instruments now starting the song. This outta be good -- wait, they're playing the stereotypical indian melody (harmonic minor of course, since that's all they play over in India) on steel-string guitars. A nice breather from the krappy kuntry, although I'm not sure what it's doing on this album. I guess they get their name from something. A comical "American" take on what Indian music is -- oh wow it's funny after 3:30 -- I'm saving this one, too. Also pretty bad, but I'm giving it 4 stars because I think it'll be the highlight of the album. And then they play the "indian" riffs on the mandolin with the same flavor as if it were country.
7. 2. Now we're back to rhythmic strumming, and singing about "never thought I'd see this world, ... my love she brewed up true, for a taste of revenge I hear dying, in the twilight I hear alone, for a poor bones were told, and my sorrow and my hatred in my mind..." I guess you could call it mood music, if you're mad at a lost love -- and we know how often that happens when you're a kuntry rockstar. "Twenty years have come and go and twenty more I've yet to spend, lovin' you like I did," that's the refrain. Hey, I have a solution for you -- kill yourself. You won't spend those twenty more in such misery, hitting that guitar in 4/4. "And the judge he gave me 40 years for spyin', that day's passed like faded photographs whethered and still." Seriously, do it. Forget your revenge -- do it for me, for producing this album. Rusty Bill, singing tenor, with all twangy guitars -- that's where they get their name. Nothing but twangy steel guitars.
8. 3. The mandolin is a nice breather after that last depressing let-down of a song. (Of course, I absolutely cannot stand the singer's style, but that is the essence of country -- just like their stereotypical lyrics -- so I must oblige it.) "We first set sail in a small port town, got ugly at dinner. ... All hands on the port deck, drop the AAAAANCHOR, ... steward made his FASSST," and they begin a vocal-duet about "sailin' 'til I die." Wow. I didn't know kuntry could be about sailing -- did cows learn how to swim? "Drank aWAAAAAY a long work day with chills and beers and wine... in the hills of Caroline." I don't even think THEY know what they're singing... Ending is nice with mandolins, although they kill it by dropping a guitar or something (a twang at the end that didn't go with the rest.)
9. 5. In case they couldn't make the goal of their album any more obvious, the title of this track is "Country Boy." Right. You're a country boy, and I like country, therefore I should buy your album. That aside, this is an upbeat song, talking about hitching a train, with "wheels rattlin' down yo' track, ... doin' ninety miles an 'our. ... Little country boy, waitin' fo' yo' momma, ain't never gonna see her again." This is actually a very good track -- nicest melodies I've seen on the entire album, with a nice beat, and the 30-second solo fits nicely. Very catchy; I actually like this track! They follow the same formula with the vocal duets, verse/verse/verse/solo/verse/verse/solo, and so on, except this is the best melody and countermelody I've ever seen from a country song (all, I don't know, forty songs I've heard.)
10. 4. An incredibly slow piece; terrible juxtapositioning with the previous -- this should've at least preceded it; probably should've been in the first half of the album, inbetween the intermediate tracks. "Silent Lapse Of Soul" is the name -- it should be an artistic piece. Just, play slower and slower, and then ... slowly stop playing ... drop the instruments ... and then the last minute of the album is utter silence. That would've been cool in a bizarre sort of way. No. This is just a slow song. A very slow song involving violin, mandolin, bass, steel-string guitar played at the very bottom of the string to give it the twangiest noise possible.