[Music] Foo Fighters – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
October 29, 2011
I hope this tattoo is temporary
When I noticed that by the fourth track, “Gimme Stitches”, I was lip-syncing and bobbing my head as if this is any decent modern Rock album, I was confronted with the fact this may finally be a Foo Fighters album that is worth my time. In the end, it’s still not a good album – But it’s the first album where there’s almost nothing that is offensive because of its blandness. There are still few good songs, but what isn’t good is at least decent, and pleasant enough that I wouldn’t ask anyone to turn it off. Considering how bad some of the Fighters’ albums are, it’s an achievement.
You can’t really talk about “evolution” in the band’s sound, since this form of Rock is only about kicking catchy hooks and riffs and not interesting musical ideas, but there is a noteable change from its predecessors (And its follow-up, One By One). Nothing Left to Lose (Seriously, was it necessarily for the title to be this long? It just looks stupid) is not simply more melodic, it puts it in the forefront. Any attempts to rock hard or to sometimes experiment with sound are not even considered. If some songs sound different to each other, it’s only because the melodies demand that. It actually suits the band’s style more, since the Fighters don’t have any character to speak of, they can simply give us good melodies that can be hummed. Songwriting can save even the worst-sounding bands.
It doesn’t mean Nothing Left to Lose is full of pop-rock gems, but it does mean that its highs are higher than most in its style. The opener, “Stacked Actors”, is probably the band’s best songs, suddenly made me excited over this music again, and made me want to look for Hard Rock (I’ve heard so much that I barely bother with it anymore). “Learn to Fly” gets better with every listen, and becomes more uplifting because Grohl never tries to sound big and important. Singing like he’s just another guy on the street made him bland, but it makes “Learn to Fly” sound more authentic and inspiring. “Gimme Stitches” is just good. It’s about nothing, like most of their songs, but it’s catchy for a change. It also has a nice bouncy rhythm. “Live-In Skin” is the odd one out, since its chorus was probably written in five seconds, but the verses and the bridge are a strong contender for the Foo’s best moments. Since it appeared on their most songwriting-focused record, it’s structured well enough that getting through the chorus is not hard and is worth it for the good parts.
This was “the only songs you need” section, but unlike the rest of the albums everything else is worth hearing, at least if you really love this style of music. I’m not going to reach out for “Aurora” or “Next Year”, but each gets enough right to make them good enough I’ll enjoy them while they’re on. That’s something they haven’t been able to do before. They either made stuff that is flatout bad or stuff that is so bland it’s just not worth hearing. Mind you, the band still sounds bland beyond belief, it’s just that stronger songwriting and no attempt to rock loud (The only time they do they end up making their best song), means the blandness doesn’t draw my attention.
The few bad spots would have been considered highlights in The Colour and The Shape. “Breakout” starts off lame, then sounding good, and by the time it hits the chorus the band gives up on making a coherent song and Grohl just plays with the syllables of the word ‘breakout’ for the chorus. That would have worked if he sounded as cool as Rob Zombie, but he’s not. “Generator” has a vocoder that appears once and then never attracts attention, and the chorus is actually two hooks spliced up and not really connecting. Oddly enough, these two were singles. Who was responsible for that? “Ain’t It the Life” and “Headwires” are also very forgettable, but they still don’t make me reach for the ‘turn off’ button so it counts as progress.
If you’re going to need a Foo Fighters album then, well, get their few songs and compile a playlist. I’ve heard four albums already and none of them are good as a whole, not even for those who enjoy this style. Still, if somehow you’re going to be in a possession of a Foo Fighters album, it should be this one. It has three good songs, and only two songs that come close to bad. It’s an achievement for the band. They haven’t continued the success on their next album (Although that one had “Disenchanted Lullaby”), and Nothing Left to Lose finally puts them in league with Fuel, Puddle of Mudd and the rest – Bands who have a few great songs and just okay filler.
Highs: More focus on melodies and songwriting, the weakest parts aren’t that bad
Lows: Still bland, and still only a few songs worth a listen
Rating: 2.5/5
[Music] !!! (chk chk chk) – Myth Takes
October 29, 2011
Don’t know, don’t care
The cover of this album is a very good illustration of what’s inside. It’s colourful, messy, has many details and all of aims for pure fun and good times. Sadly, despite good intentions, it’s really just flat too afraid to go crazy. It’s only fun as an idea, too afraid to execute it, in case people will find it silly. That’s exactly how !!!’s music sounds like. The concept is great, and good enough that even if !!! won’t be brilliant they could be a band I will listen to more than occasionally. They never really reach their objective. They focus on their weakness and only hints at their strength, and overall too afraid to go over-the-top. They’re just too cool to dance.
It was !!!’s curious name that attracted me and I know almost nothing about this ‘dance punk’ scene, other than Death From Above 1979 who I really like. Still, I’m familiar with dance music (Mostly Techno and a little Funk) and it’s easy to see what !!! are aiming at. They made a party album which relies on drumbeats and bass lines, with hooks and structure being an afterthought. They also add layers of sound, mostly to make the songs seem ‘fuller’, more interesting and to increase the fun atmosphere. It’s a good idea for a rock album, and since I’m more familiar with the gloomier side of rock it only makes it more exciting, but in the end it doesn’t really work.
As I said before, !!! focus on their weak side rather than their strong side. There’s not one song in this album who has a strong enough groove that can be extended for the sake of dancing, and they do extend some songs for that reason. Use Death From Above’s “Sexy Results” or “Romantic Rights” has a point of reference and you won’t find a bass line that comes to them. No, you won’t even the bass lines. You can’t really hear the bass. As a jam band, !!! have no reason to exist. “Heart of Hearts” has an extra 2 minutes I will never bother with again, and once the chant in “Must Be the Moonlight” ends I will just skip it. The only time their jamming pays off is in “Bend Over Beethoven”, where layers of sound build up to one last playing of the chorus like a Techno song. It’s not particularly effective, and even if it’s constructed well like Fluke you can’t get lost in it like a song by Fluke. It’s only good as an idea.
It’s the hooks that save !!! and kept me listening, hoping some bassline may become audible suddenly and I won’t be able to resist dancing. If !!! gave up the jamming and became a Pop-Rock band like Maroon 5 (They actually remind me a lot of Maroon 5), they could be great. The few hooks in Myth Takes will make me come back. “Heart of Hearts”, “Must Be the Moon” and “Bend Over Beethoven” are all catchy on the first listen, and “Bend Over”‘s hook is one of the few moments where !!! don’t sound like they’re too cool to dance. There’s also a chant at the end of “Must Be the Moon” that begs to be sung along to. They also benefit from a good vocalist with a smooth voice that makes the band sound as cool as they want to be, but, sadly, it’s only during the hooks. Since the songs are structured to put jamming in the forefront and hooks as a minor asset, all there’s left is a “could-have-been-good” Pop-Rock album.
Perhaps it’s the production that holds !!! back. Myth Takes sounds like those 80′s albums that you need to turn the volume almost to the maximum to hear things clearly, only here even after turning the volume up, you still can’t hear things clearly. The production is flat as hell and makes the band sound so subdued, as if they’re playing without a tiny sense of fun. They sound like people playing fodder in a bar just so it could say they have a live band. It makes the layers inaccessible. You know there are layers of music and plenty of details, but you can’t really feel them. This is the biggest problem with Myth Takes. It’s an album that’s trapped as an idea that never gets executed. It’s supposed to be fun and energetic and colourful and quircky, but it’s only supposed to. I’ll have to check other albums to see whether it’s shitty production job or just a band without spirit.
The good parts in Myth Takes are good enough to make me want to check out the rest of the band’s catalogue and come back to them, but the rest might as well not exist. It’s not offensively bad, the only thing that is offensive is how the potential was wasted. But most of the albums is only slightly interesting and never exciting. Some stuff is worth hearing once or twice, and only one song is truly awful (That would be the pointless title-track which is short and yet too long.). It’s worth getting “Heart of Hearts”, “Must Be the Moon” and “All My Heroes Are Weirdos”, and then get Pop Will Eat Itself’s Box Frenzy to understand how this dance-rock-thingy should sound.
Highs: Hooks and the vocalist
Lows: Shitty production, flat sound, never capturing the sense of fun it tries to achieve
Rating: 2/5
[Music] Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Spirits
October 20, 2011
Logo is still cool
Since I spent too much time listening to ‘outdated’ 90′s Electronica I decided I will finally jump on the bandwagon and see what this Dubstep thingie is all about. Apperantly, it’s fairly slow Electronica with big talking bass. Skrillex was my first destination since he’s both considered “fake dubstep” and is getting really really popular. That’s a sure sign it will not be boring. Anyway, when I got around it this is what I heard: Slowed-down Crystal Method’s “Keep Hope Alive” with exaggerated bass, sometimes so exaggerated it’s hilarious. In the case of Skrillex, it is pretty hilarious. Like I mentioned in my review of My Name Is Skrillex, Skrillex simply throws the bass into the song with no structure or flow. When the breakdown arrives in “Scatta”, it sounds as if my computer stomach is being experimented upon by evil aliens. No doubt Skinny Puppy will find a way to adopt this sound.
Big descriptions aside, Scary Monster and Nice Spririts is in the album in which Skrillex does his recognizable Dubstep thinge and less of that aimless House music that filled his first EP. That’s a good thing, because even if the only difference between “Scatta” and the title track is the rapping in the latter, it still sounds great and it’s still funny. There are still House tracks though, and even they’re better this time around Skrillex should give it up altogether.”Rock N’ Roll” has an annoying melody sung in the chipmunk voice that sounds so uninspired I wonder if anyone will think it’s a good idea. When the song kicks into gear, there’s the cool wobbling bass at a fast tempo as always, and after a minute any sense of structure is lost and it can be skipped. “All I Ask of You” brings a female singer in for some pop, and while the melody is surprisingly pretty, Skrillex can’t conjure up a musical backdrop fitting the singer. Both collide, explode, and I’m left wishing that singer collaborated with Orbital. There’s also some sort of extended version of “With You Friends” that has some cool vocal manipulation but, again, goes nowhere.
It’s the Dubstep part that’s the main part. Before that, I’ll kick the chipmunk vocals one last time. Does anyone thought singing in a chipmunk voice “I want to kill everybody in the world/I want to eat your heart” is a good idea in any form? Actually, I bet some do and will find it edgy or something. Nevermind. It’s also the only House track he made that works, maybe because it has more bass than the others.
As for the Dubstep, I’m not sure whether it’s great or emberassing, but it’s definitely better than Skrillex in House mode. It sounds like R2D2 is puking, which can be cool for a while but on repeat and in a volume too high might make my stomach feel bad. In small doses, though, it’s a lot fun, especially because Skrillex has no sense of craft or subtley, and he just throws it all in without a care in the world. Bassnectar’s “Bass Head” sounds like something you could bob your head to and feel badass, but on “Scatta” the bass sounds like it’s about to swallow me, and since it has no real rhythm it’s like I’m being assaulted by audio waves. The title-track was apperantly a hit, but it’s nothing noteable beyond being a good Skrillex song. It has a nice synth melody that’s good enough to be on a Pokemon game for GameBoy, but its soft parts don’t really mix with the “R2D2 puking” parts and, on their own, they’re clumsy and just not well made. At least the puking of R2D2 takes most of the running time.
The EP ends with three remixes – 2 of the title-track, one of “Kill Everybody”. The first remix of “Scary Monsters” by Noisia is neither better or worse. It’s just another variation on the style that’s good enough to hear if you like it but that’s it. The second remix brings us back to the cheesy House, but it’s better than Skrillex’s attempts, it has a wubwubwub breakdown and so good enough to be played at a party. The remix for “Kill Everybody” is an improvement over the original since it realizes it’s better off as a wubwubwub song rather than a House track.
I don’t know enough about Dubstep to recommend this to fans or to suggest this as a gateway to the genre. I’ll just say this – Do electronic breakdowns with big bass that sounds like R2D2 is puking sounds like a good idea to you? Do you want to hear them in a ridiculously exaggerated form that’s almost satirical? Listen to this. Looking for House music? Turn away and put some Leftfield on.
Highs: The sound R2D2 puking is featured more
Lows: Still no sense of structure, good but only in small doses
Rating: 2/5
Certified:
[Music] Skrillex – My Name Is Skrillex
October 20, 2011
Cool logo
Skrillex is, from what I could gather, some sort of icon for Dubstep. Sounding both utterly stereotypical, almost caricaturistic yet accessible enough for outsiders, if you want to know what’s with this new wubwubwub sound then Skrillex is probably your first place to look. However, on his first release, Skrillex was more of a house musician – Fidget House, to be specific. There is only one Dubstep song here (“Fucking Die”, whose remix goes back to the House sound), and while the wubwubwub is here, it’s over House beats. There’s also a slight glitched sound, the songs refusing to stick to a loop and have to add a new sound every 3 seconds and disposing of the old one (Only to bring it back for the next 6 seconds) and a few chipmunk vocals which sound terrible.
If this all sounds like a mess to you, it’s because it is. Skrillex is in fact Sonny, the previous lead singer of From First to Last. Considering his background, some people criticized him for “jumping on a trend” – which not only silly but misses the actual problem his background hints at. The music is awfully amateurish. It sounds as if Sonny listened to a few Prodigy records, listened to a bit of Dubstep and then went on to produce this. The wobbling base always sounds cool, but it never has a coherent rhythm. Its only a sound, without a tune. Try humming it, and then try humming like the wobbling synth from Crystal Method’s “Keep Hope Alive” and you’ll see the difference.
But the biggest problem with My Name Is Skrillex is how it slams. It has no pretense and all it wants do is be loud electronic and energetic music. That’s good, but you still need structure and a rich palette of sounds, and Skrillex has neither. Almost every song goes out of control with no sense of structure and thus losing its impact. Uncontrolled chaos can only be powerful for so long until the novelty wears off. The title track and “WEEKENDS!!!” have energy but without a coherent they become boring halfway through and even annoying. There’s also a lack of variety sounds, which makes it seem repetitive despite the fact Sonny probably tried to do the opposite. The wobbly base in “Fucking Die” is basically a slowed down version of the wobbling from the title-track. The vocals are the only thing that seperates “WEEKENDS!!!” and “Do Da Oliphant”.
To Sonny’s credit, he does approach the material with enough excitement. There’s no variety or structure or ambience, but atleast Sonny can slam, and that makes the title-track and “Fucking Die” worth at least one listen, and are the only ones that may worth more than more. So long as there is loud wobbling base, Skrillex is serviceable. All the flaws mentioned above are drowned out. It’s when he does the straight-up House the flaws appear. “Do Da Oliphant” is low-budget techno that reminds me why 90′s techno is so good, “WEEKENDS!!!” has a nice hook but loses direction but loses direction after one minute, and “With You, Friends” starts without any. Worse, that track is 6 minutes long. That makes for two songs out of six in this EP, and that’s not as very good sign (There’s also a remix of “Fucking Die” that takes it in the House direction and it’s okay but not worth discussing any further).
Here’s a metaphore to describe Skrillex. If The Prodigy’s way of slamming is working on making their hammer stronger and hitting at the spot where it’ll cause most damage, Skrillex just swings his hammer as hard as he can without care for aim or the quality of the weapon. That makes for a cool enough listening in small doses, and only when the bass wobbles. When the bass doesn’t wobble, it’s music to listen to and point out, with gloom and dread, how electronic music became this after Dubnobasswithmyheadman. If this sounds like a good idea to you, get the two mentioned tracks and forget the rest.
Highs: The wobbling bass
Lows: No structure, variety and thus it loses its impact pretty quickly
Rating: 2/5
[Music] Foo Fighters – The Colour and The Shape
October 14, 2011
Basically nothing
My expectations for this album went both ways. On one hand, this is considered the band’s best, a general masterpiece of the Post-Grunge era and it gave the band their actual breakout. On the other hand, I remember trying to listen to “Monkey Wrench” and finding it repulsive, just from the first minute, and some of the song titles, “See You”, “Up in Arms” and “New Way Home” seemed to confirm that the songs were written with the passion of a coffe making machine. Then there’s simpy the fact this is a Foo Fighters album, and they’re simply all around terrible. This was going to be fun.
I may get a kick out of bitchin’ about the Fighters, but I don’t enjoy finding them so bad. I’m not an anti-mainstream person, and I love good Radio-Rock. I would’ve preferred to see in the Foos what everyone sees and get a decent supply of catchy Hard Rock tracks. It’s just that Foo Fighters make the worst kind of Hard Rock – A polite, down-to-earth and colourless version of it, with no adolescent fantasies or a sense of self-importance. If I wanted to listen to something like that, I’d listen to Pop or Country. It sounds right there. In Hard Rock, these elements make for something offensively bland.
But that’s not the real problem with this album. There’s so many that I’d rather talk about the few good things, just to lighten up the mood. The Colour is more adventutous than both their debut and its two successors. More musical ideas are tried rather than simply “another rock song”, the sonic pallet is wider and there’s a general sense of a band testing their limits, rather than simply churning out songs. It also has one song that is genuinely good, one I can return to and means I may give this another chance. That’s “Hey, Johnny Park!” which is a simply, melodic midtempo Post-Grunge rocker that could’ve been written by countless faceless bands. Dave, for a change, sounds okay with the song. “Everlong” is also decent, but it’s held back by a band who thinks the purpose of this song is to rock. Grohl can’t convey the emotional vulnerability that song expresses. It has an excellent melody in the verses and a decent chorus, but if Local H, who are experts in sounding like lost teenagers, made it, it would’ve been a classic. “February Stars” is along the same lines only with a weaker melody. It’s a bit touching, but the band sounds too calculated, like what they had in mind was not the feelings the song expresses but the blueprint for such a ballad.
This is where the positive ends and where I go back to kicking this album. Dave Grohl may have the worst scream in rock history. I also happen to hate Cobain’s screaming, but at least Cobain sounded like he was angry when he shouted. Annoying, but also engaging. Dave Grohl’s screaming are devoid of any hints of anger – and I know I’ve run this point into the ground but try to bear with me. “Monkey Wrench” is pretty awful song all the way through, but it hits a new low in the “intense” part, where Grohl’s scream become louder and louder. It’s so unconvincing, and is a perfect example of the “calculated” approach I’m talking about. He screams not because he’s angry but because he thinks this type of song needs it. There’s also him shouting “I’m not scared!”, at the end of the final track (“New Way Home”) which tries hard to sound profound, fails, and ends up unintentionally hilarious but also very awkward. The other tracks that are based around the band being loud ‘n’ heavy – “Wind Up” and “Enough Space”, sound like throwaway B-Sides the band wrote in their sleep.
Their attempts at Power Pop are only slightly better. They sound more like they’re mocking Fountains of Wayne than anything else. “Up in Arms” starts calmly before repeating itself, only faster. It’s an amusing idea but the sections don’t really glue together, and so you get another throwaway B-Side. “See You” has a decent melody somewhere, but it’s still doesn’t sound like a cute pop song. Grohl still sounds like he helms a big loud Rock band in it, and that drains it of its charm. I respect the band for stretching their sound a bit, but when the result are so poor, it was preferrable if they simply cut and pasted “My Hero”. That wouldn’t make the album good. That song is darn boring and has no direction, but it’s a lot less annoying.
The Colour and The Shape is at once a step in the right direction and a terrible album. The Foos may attempt to stretch their sound, but they were too immature at this point to succeed in it. It was better for them if they attempted to rewrite “Everlong” and “Hey, Johnny Park!” and sharpen their skills. That is eventually what they did, and they did make a few good songs that are worth your time (“Stacked Actors” or “Low”). If The Colour proved anything to me, it proved that the problem with the Foos is not their bland and unoriginal sound. It’s just they’re really bad at that sound too. At least they spared us any more songs like “Enough Space”, and this album does have their first song I really liked and I guess that counts for something.
Highs: Two songs are pretty good, the band is stretching their sound
Lows: Full of terrible songs performed by a bad band
Rating: 1.5/5
[Music] Pop Will Eat Itself – Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
October 13, 2011
Gettin’ tribal with it?
I was actually born the year this came out, but I can try to guess the musical climate. This album was released around the time Industrial and Nu Metal were getting popular, and Rap Rock was on its way. Around this time this was released, Korn, White Zombie, Ministry and Marilyn Manson released major works. Rage Against the Machine released their debut two years before this, so people were becoming more aware Rap and Rock can mix (Although PWEI themselves have been doing this longer than everyone). Since this album combines all the afoerementioned style, it had such a potential to be popular (or at least the follow-up if they continued with this style). How the hell wasn’t it? “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” combines the politics and rapping of Rage, the groove of White Zombie and the hooks of Korn. It must have something to do with their record label or something. If only they continued…
Or maybe it’s better they didn’t continue (I’m ignoring the reincarnation by Graham Crabb, who resurrects the idea of PWEI rather than the actual band). I didn’t know it at first, since this was my first PWEI album, but this truly hinted that the band was about to stumble upon a dud. It wasn’t a bad album and it doesn’t hint that the well of ideas has ran dry. It sounds like that at first, but only because you have two very loud songs at the beginning. What happened was a change in attitude. Their previous album, Looks or the Lifestyle, saw them becoming more serious, but Cure for Sanity also had these songs. They still sounded like a bunch of happy dudes having a blast in the studio and exploring musical ideas because they love music. They even ended that album with a song that claimed everybody was happy and singing.
Dos Dedos Mis Amigos no longer even hints at that joyous. It’s hard to believe a band responsible for This Is the Day, This Is the Hour, This Is This!, one of the most joyous albums I heard (and probably one of the most joyous albums in existance) would release something like this, at least in the span of 5 years. Dos Dedos is such a bitter, angry, but also tired album. Its bitterness and anger doesn’t come from simply the “heavier” tracks like “Fatman” and “Underbelly” (If Marilyn Manson or Al Jourgensen rapped, it would sound something like this. Al actually tried to rap in the Ministry B-Side “What About Us”). Quieter and calmer tracks like “Home” and “Familus Horribilus” are also full of resentment and venom. The latter actually has a little bit of humor, but it’s spiteful humor rather than the kind that’s supposed to lighten up the mood. In terms of atmosphere, the album this most reminds me of is Ministry’s 2007 release The Last Sucker. Someone once described it as “loud” but “tired of the whole thing”, and that’s how this album sounds.
What this all leads to is, in the end, a drop in quality. As I said, it’s not a major one that shows the band running out of steam but simply hinting they’re getting there. The band is both less ambitious than before, and they don’t push their ideas to their limit. I could live with the first gripe. I wouldn’t if Box Frenzy would be released after the ambitious mammoth that was Cure for Sanity. That album still tries to get the most out of its ideas, and there’s still a sense of adventure in simple songs like “Grebo Guru”. There’s none of that here. “Kick to Kill” is exactly what you hear – a roaring Industrial Rock song that could’ve been a B-Side to NIN’s Broken EP. They also seem to make those obvious mistake that makes me wonder if there’s a musical equivalent to a literary editor. “Familus Horribilus” has too much vocal distortion makes half the lyrics audible, and also causes the rapping to sound sludgy and unprofessional. Crabbi is a decent rapper, but on that track he sounds like he’s rapping for the first time. Clint isn’t better, either. On three of the Rap-Rock tracks he helms, he doesn’t have a proper rap verse. On “Fatman”, the second verse consists mostly of Clint repeating “Pretty people throw up to stay thin”. It sounds pretty damn badass, but more was needed. It turned “Fatman” from a great Industrial-Rap-Rock song to this cool Industrial Rock song with some rap vocals in it.
If this sounds like an obituary for PWEI, it’s only because it fits the atmosphere of the album. For all its flaws, there’s plenty to like in Dos Dedos. Since PWEI are talented enough, even when they fail the result is not terrible and generally good. The worst song, “Kick to Kill”, suffers mostly because they couldn’t insert a catchy enough riff or melody to it. It’s still a decent burst of Industrial Rock noise, produced well enough with enough energy and shouting of “kick to kill!”. It must sound great when playing certain video games. The three Clint tracks that needed longer verses still got hooks, especially “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” and the venom seems genuine. PWEI didn’t go heavier because every band loves to brag they made their heaviest album. “Underbelly” truly sounds hopeless.
They’re also successful in the more adventurous tracks. “Menofearthereaper” is Big Beat before Exit Planet Dust, and despite the sludgy rapping “Familus Horribilus” isn’t stuck in a loop and has enough changes to keep interesting. Their attempts at more atmospheric tracks – something that sounds impossible for them – make the best tracks. “Babylon” is an appropriate closer, ending on a dark but an uncertain note. “Home” has the most in common with that underground rap producer, El-P, or Dalek. In fact, it wouldn’t feel out of place in either Fantastic Damage or Absence. Then there’s the ultimate highlight of the album – “Everything’s Cool”. Dos Dedos may be their worst album, but this is possible their best song. I hate to use the word “perfect” but this track sees PWEI reaching perfection – It has an Industrial sound, buzzsaw riffs, rapped vocals, catchy chanted chorus and a danceable rhythm. There is really no more to say.
If you haven’t delved in into the Poppies’ catalog, this should be your starting point depending on your music taste. If you’re into heavier music, start here (But keep in mind there are betters things ahead) , but if you’re not, start from This is This. While I wish the Poppies could have ended their career in a more impressive way, maybe it’s great they broke up after this album and weren’t allowed to make their first bad record. Either way, Dos Dedos Mis Amigos is a cool Industrial Rock album that deserves more clones because, if “Everything’s Cool” teaches us anything, it’s not that the future will be full of chaos and riots. It teaches us that Electronica, Rap and Rock were made for each other.
So why again they weren’t very popular and why again there aren’t a hundred clones imitating their style?
Highs: The overall sound, a few good ideas, “Everything’s Cool”
Lows: Too serious for its own good, many ideas aren’t pushed further enough
Rating: 3.5/5
[Music] Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake
October 13, 2011
So dark and full of nothing
I tried. Believe me, I did try. I put aside all my prejudices. I tried to ignore the hilarious lyrics. I accepted the fact imagination is not part of the agenda. I knew what I was going to get. This would be kind-of Thrash Metal that will be faster than mid-tempo but not as fast as Slayer. Its objective will be to be loud, muscular, catchy and fun. Actually, I’m all for it. Give me a bunch of catchy riffs, catchy shout-along choruses and macho attitude and I’ll be fine. What I didn’t want is an album full of anemic covers of Coal Chamber’s “Big Truck”.
How can something so loud and angry can sound so lifeless? I knew exactly how this album will sound, but what I didn’t expect was how apathetic I will be towards it. I think it may have something to do with the production. Compare the album’s sound to Ministry’s Houses of the Mole. Ministry’s guitars sound like the roar of machines, like saws clashing. Lamb of God’s guitars don’t. It may sound more organic, but it’s more like organic waste – At the end, it’s dead and useless. What this album needed is more distortion. There’s too much of that “squecky” sound you hear in solos. If there was more distortion in the beginning of “Blood of the Scribe”, it would’ve sounded a lot more brutal and hard. Instead, that squecky sound clashes against the thrashing drums and the result is unintentionally hilarious. It’s like a little kid with a high-pitched voice threatening to steal your lunch.
Since the guitars don’t play actual melodies (when they do, the results are half-assed attempts at sounding ‘haunting’ and ‘evil’. The guitarists were afraid to utilize actual melodies apperantly to stay ‘metal’) and there’s not enough distortion to give them a good general sound, they become the worst kind of noise – Meaningless noise you can still hear. I expected that, at worst, the instrumental department will have enough energy to carry the album through at least one listen. Now it’s up their vocalist, Randy, to carry the album.
Oh! How he fails miserably. Again, the vocals sound like how I expected, but not really. His vocals try to be aggressive, but he doesn’t really scream, at least not the kind of screams that should provoke the audience to scream along. Rather, he sounds like he’s trying to narrate the end of the world. He sounds so dead serious on tracks like “Omerta” it’s sad. Are people suppose to mosh to this in live shows? There aren’t even good hooks. Sometimes shitty vocals can be ignored if the hook is good enough, but only two songs have something resembling a hook – “Laid to Rest” and “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For”. Of course, they would’ve sounded better if Randy didn’t try to sound to serious and deep and instead sounded like what the music is – Muscular American heavy metal that’s low on brains and high on energy. Lyrics such as “Sleepless/Hopeless/No end in sight/Ink well has run dry/Fill it with the blood of the scribe” try too hard to sound profound, but the music isn’t, and so it sucks the life out of it. When Lamb of God does resort to slogans and swearing – “Destroy yourself/See who gives a fuck”, that’s when the fun starts. Too bad it’s only in two songs. By the way, “Now You’ve Got Something…” has a wicked breakdown at the end. Personally, I like breakdown, but they’re so lifeless here I couldn’t recognize them.
Skip this. Do yourself a favor. This isn’t even good enough as “a meaningless burst of energy you never remember”. Listen to either Parkway Drive’s Killing With a Smile for the metalcore, which is years ahead of this. That album also has its problem, but at least it gets the breakdowns right and the band sounds like they mean it even when they’re just blasting their instruments without structure. If you like the Thrash side, listen to Ministry’s Rio Grande Blood. That album is also pretty bad, but at least it’s produced well and gets the general sound right, even if the songwriting sucks and it’s almost impossible to hear it from beginning to end. At least there is energy and life behind “The Great Satan” and “Yellow Cake”. There is none here. How did this band get so popular?
Highs: Two songs have decent hooks
Lows: Lifeless in every department
Rating: 1.5/5
[Music] Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
October 12, 2011
Guns are pretty, guns are good
The sotry behind the Foo Fighters has been told so many times, especially in reviews of their debut album. Go ahead and find a review that doesn’t tell you this album’s background. I would’ve skipped it telling the story, but there is one question no seems to ask about. How can album that has such an interesting background (Regardless of my opinion of the Foos, the story is darn good) can sound so bland and empty? Dave was the drummer in one of the most iconic bands of the 90′s, a band who started a whole movement and killed it too. The lead singer of that band killed himself. Dave wrote all of the album and played all the instruments, with one quest spot on “X-Static”. You’d think someone who went through all this drama would have some musical ideas, or at least some feelings he will need to let out. It’s not that Foo Fighters doesn’t sound particularly imaginative. It’s unimaginative on a whole different level. Foo Fighters are remarkable for being unremarkable. That’s not a good thing.
What’s the purpose of tracks like “This Is a Call” or “I’ll Stick Around”? What are they? What are they about? What are they trying to express? Their sound is a typical “rocker” – The tempo is pretty fast, but not too fast to drain the melody. But what kind of rockers are they? Am I supposed to listen to them while driving fast? While I’m at a party? While I’m angry at the whole world? It seems the whole idea behind the Foo Fighters is to make the most inoffensive rock ever. This is music that tries its best to stay in the middle – Loud, but not too loud. Fast, but not too fast. Angry, but not too angry. Eccentric, but not too eccentric. The aforementioned tracks contain none of Puddle Of Mudd’s trashiness, or Nickelback’s muscle, or Monster Magnet’s nerdiness, or 12 Stones’ great melodies. In fact, just to illustrate how these tracks are devoid of content, listen to 12 Stones’ “Eric’s Song”. It has a very similar sound, but there’s an obvious emotion being expressed. The complaint of “Technical skill but no emotion” is generally aimed at Metal and Progressive Rock, but Foo Fighters are guilty just the same. “This Is a Call” is a well-made song. It has a nice melody and the instruments are all well-played, it just sounds so empty. It sounds as if Dave Grohl sat down with the mindset of just writing rock songs
It may have a lot to do with Dave’s singing. He’s technically an okay singer, and whenever he croons he sounds pretty great, he just sounds so ridiculously bland – I have no idea for how long I can beat that dead horse. He sounds either like a version of Chad Kroeger that never discovered alcohol and sleaze, or as Kurt Cobain without the presence. He is at his most offensive when he screams. “Loud” and “Aggressive” are not the same thing, and if you’re looking for proof just listen to “Weenie Beenie” or “Wattershed”. They’re loud, but, as I said, empty. Without even a decent melody, they are the worst tracks on the album.
Dave’s voice may be terrible and he sucks the soul out of songs, but he is a decent writer when it comes to hooks. He’s not notable among the other Post-Grungers – There’s not a tune as good as Sponge’s “Wax Ecstatic”, or Local H’s “Bound for the Floor” or even as Puddle of Mudd’s “Blurry”, but “I’ll Stick Around” and “This Is a Call” are pleasant enough when they’re on. I have no idea why I would ever reach specifically for them, but they don’t offend me. “Alone + Easy Target” and “Big Me” are even better. They’re good enough to let me ignore how bland Dave is. “For All the Cows” is the closest Dave comes to making an actual good song. It still sounds like it would’ve been better if it was made by the more eccentric bands of the Post-Grunge era – Sponge or those underrated guys, The Flys, but it’s still a catchy tune.
Foo Fighters is also surprisingly good in the instrumental department. Grohl may suck at his singing but he’s good at everything else. Until the vocals come in, “I’ll Stick Around” and “Weenie Beenie” achieve the target that I think they were aiming for. “Big Me”‘s instrumental backdrop is also beautiful. It’s softest track in the album, and there’s warmth coming from the instruments that is always refreshing in Hard Rock. The instrumental highlight is that small riff in “Good Grief”, which may have me coming back to the album. There are certain musical pieces that just resonate with me, and that’s one of them. In fact, if Foo Fighters was purely instrumental I would’ve liked it a whole lot more. I may not have loved it, but I would still recommend it to anyone interested in instrumental music. Too bad Grohl decided to ruin that beautiful riff with a chorus that goes “Hate it”. I do hate it.
If you want to listen to Foo Fighters then, well, don’t. There is really no reason to listen to this band, and this album, unless you’re interested in how shitty music can be. Sometimes I need to remind myself music can be equally dull as it is exciting. If you’re in the mood for Hard Rock without sophistication, then just check any of the many names I dropped. If you’re looking for sophsitication then, well, this is not what you’re looking for. You may want to check that beautiful riff in “Good Grief”, or that really good melody in “Big Me”,but you’d be better off listening to Local H’s Ham Fisted. That album is ham-fisted, and it has almost no reason to exist because of Local’s fantastic catalog, but it’s still much better than this album.
Highs: The riff in ‘Good Grief”
Lows: The most bland thing I ever heard
Rating: 2/5
[Music] MC 900 Ft Jesus – Hell With the Lid Off (1990)
October 7, 2011
The circles of hell
There are two albums mixed up in this. One is an experimental Hip-Hop record influenced by Jazz and Industrial. The other is a party record, which is informed of Hip-Hop, Jazz, Industrial and Techno and the result would have seen something like Thrill Kill Kult with DJ scratches. That’s an obvious problem, but it isn’t the main flaw of Hell with the Lid Off. The problem, and the problem with almost anything made by MC 900 Ft Jesus, is that he refuses to go all out. He’s too minimalistic. It would work for his advantage later in Welcome to My Dream, and he would shed some of it in One Step Ahead of the Spider. On Hell, though, his minimalism doesn’t suit either the weird techno nor the Industrial-influenced raps.
Hell is one of those albums that work much better when listened to as a whole rather than seperate songs. There are very few tracks here that sound good outside. “Truth Is Out of Style” is the most famous song and deserevedly so. It’s the one song on the album that sounds complete, the one song where the idea doesn’t sound like it needed more working to fully realize it. The version on this album has some vocal distortion on it, but unlike other tracks it doesn’t render MC 900′s voice incomprenhensible. It actually improves it, making him sound even more cartoonish and weird. Sadly, this vocal distortion is what holds other songs back. “UFO’s Are Real” sounds like it came out of WaxTrax!, but the distortion is so heavy that MC 900′s spoken vocals are just static noise, and since they don’t add more layers of sound, the result is just an okay Electro-Industrial song that coulod’ve been one minute shorter.
This problem plagues every other song on that album, and when you have only 8 proper songs it’s truly a problem. “I’m Going Straight to Heaven” and “Too Bad” suffer the least. The distrotion is still a little too much, but “Straight to Heaven” is blessed with a catchy hook consisting of 900 chanting “Everybody shut up and leave me alone”. “Too Bad” sounds like a slightly weaker “Truth Is Out of Style”. It has good rapping, a little too much distortion, good lyrics but weak dreams. Elsewhere, tracks like “Shut Up” and “Real Black Angel” are a perfect example of tracks that sound good in the context of the album, but don’t offer much outside of it. Neither is bad, and both are pleasant and interesting, but “Real Black Angel” is too subdued. The drums don’t sound hard, and MC 900 raps but in such a whisper you can’t hear him. It sounds more like sped-up silence rather than song. “Shut Up” is a cute piece of turntablism, but DJ Zero doesn’t scratch enough (By the way, when he does, his scratches add a lot) and it’s almost six minutes long – Two minutes too much.
If this sounds like I’m getting overdramatic over a debut album, it’s because Hell doesn’t sound like the product of an inexperienced musician, trying everything to see what sticks. Compare it to Pop Will Eat Itself’s Box Frenzy, which is in the same league of “Odd Rap informed by electronica”. Box Frenzy sounds like a childish album by a band just having fun. Hell sounds like there was a bigger concept behind it that got lost. The unique backdrop of “I’m Going Straight to Heaven” and “Talking to the Spritis”, the Industrial beat of “UFO’s Are Real” and the whole “Truth Is Out of Style” hint at an artist with an obvious direction. Also, some of the flaws are too obvious. If the there was less distortion on “UFO’s Are Real” and DJ Zero showed off more in “Shut Up”, it would improve the album greatly. I guess these are the stupid mistakes you make in a debut album.
When listened to as a whole, Hell with the Lid Off is a lot of fun. It’s a varied record where no two songs sound the same, and it has a unique mood of its own. It doesn’t sound exactly welcoming, it sounds pretty goofy, it also sounds a bit aggressive without sounding like it hates the world. It’s also short enough so it’s easy to listen to it from start to finish. but once you’re done you’re left with not much but some cool ideas and a few good songs. Yes, it’s worth your time, it’s just that few albums deserve the “could have been” sticker more than this one.
Highs: A very unique sound, sounds great as a whole
Lows: Very few songs stand out, too many obvious flaws
Rating: 3/5
