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Album Review: New Manic Art

Published on August 6, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 0 Comments

new-manic-art

I must admit that I hadn’t actually heard of Trial Kennedy until I read a great review for their upcoming album on Bombshellzine back in June. Despite a couple of EP releases (Present For a Day & Picture Frame), and frequent support tours with the likes of Gyroscope, Kisschasy & Fall Out Boy, its taken them about four years to finally release their first album. After receiving a record deal with Sony BMG, these four Melbournites headed over to Atlanta and worked with producer Nick DiDia (Stone Temple Pilots, Powderfinger, Incubus & Audioslave) to develop their debut album New Manic Art.

After an initial fade in Sunday Warning jumps straight into the fray with a self titled chorus that’s accompanied with catchy cries of “Hey! Hey!” and melodic vocals. After a deceptive fadeout at the 3 min mark the band hits back in the final minute to leave a lasting impression. This impressive sound is carried into the next track Neighbors which features a rise & fall structure supported by some crashing drum work from Shaun Gionis. This track is an obvious choice as their first single as it features one of those classic melodies that is liable to have you humming away at inopportune moments of the day. It’s understated chorus also alludes to the issue of global warming but thankfully it’s subtly inclusion doesn’t feel like the message is being crammed down your throat.

Colour Day Tours is another highlight (and their second single) from the album and features a fantastic buildup leading into a memorable rock chorus which is just begging to be played in the live arena. This song was actually written for fellow tour mate Mark Stewart (Horsell Common) to combat his homesickness while on tour. While the catchy “da di da da’s” are meant to remind him of his daughter, they actually end up sounding a little creepy when they’re sung by a four year old girl during the breakdown section. The track then belts back at the last minute with another fantastic guitar riff from Stacey Gray that just leaves you wanting more.

Hollowood is another rousing rock number that stands to attention with a tight pace & anger that comments on the nature of politics & justice. Sun Eyes also leaves an impression with an arpeggio style guitar intro, choral like vocals and a slow rolling beat that helps breaks up the pace of earlier tracks. Just when you think you’re getting comfortable with Trial Kennedy’s sound they diverge from their traditional rock roots with tracks like Mississippi Burn & Sweet Alley Rose. With haunting vocals, acoustic guitars & percussive and violin accompaniments these songs have slow yet dramatic build ups that may take a while to grow on you but effectively show that Trial Kennedy are capable of much more than the usual rock melodies. The strutting beat of The Great Escape,the jogging drum roll of War King and the synthesizer infused rock & roller Eldorado also help round out the track list with diverse & atmospheric melodies.

It’s obvious what an effect DiDia’s has had on the album as his engineering contribution really pushes everything to the forefront and lends everything a real epic sound that effectively showcases what the band is really capable of. The inclusion of numerous instrumental accompaniments such as lap steel guitar, piano, microsynth & mellotron also give the album an amazing level of depth, with every listen revealing even more layers that may have been missed the last time. The interesting and wacky addition of a tiny five key piano & the trippy Theremin (check it out on Wikipedia) also highlight the multi talented nature of the band.

The real strength of this album, however is Tim Morrison’s soaring lead vocals, which are perfectly showcased on the title track New Manic Art. His unique timbre gives everything a real powerful quality that brings to mind stadium filled arenas packed with thousands of fans singing to every word. Therefore to get the most from this album the songs really benefits from being cranked up loud in a good set of speakers or headphones. Speaking of which, the ‘podmix’ of tracks available from itunes are an Australian first and are said to offer a whole new spatial experience for headphone listeners by using left/right panning & high frequency effects.

While this itunes version is ridiculously cheap ($15), I would still suggest picking up the physical CD/DVD package currently available at JB-Hifi. The fold out cover art which was created by the Eye Candy Design company really looks fantastic & features personal pictures that revolve around the story of each song. This version also deserves a special mention as it’s undoubtedly one of the best valued packages I’ve ever seen and includes the 11 track album plus a great T-shirt and an interesting hour long documentary on the making of the album for only $18! After watching this DVD it was also good to see that Trial Kennedy are a great bunch of guys (maybe because in their downtime they love to play some 360) and hopefully after this album they’ll receive the recognition they rightfully deserve.

Final Verdict: If your a fan of stadium fueled rock anthems then I would strongly suggest giving the fantastic New Manic Art a listen. Along with Horsell Common this 4 piece band from Melbourne are really flying the flag for great locally produced music. The absence of any filler tracks & the perfect placing of a diverse set of memorable songs means this album comes a close runner up to Horsell’s The Rescue for my favorite Australian (if not internationl) release of the year.

88 / 100 Pennies

Highlight Tracks
(Pretty much all of them, but my personal favorites include

Color Day Tours
Neighbors
War King

Album Review: GNV FLA

Published on July 31, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 1 Comment

gnv-fla

When Less Than Jakes last release In With The Out Crowd was critically panned for sounding too pop & commercial they mutually split from their previous partner Warner Bros. to start up their own label Sleep It Off. After listened to the fans they then decided to go back to basics for there follow up album GNV FLA. Chris Demakes (guitarist/vocalist) and JR (saxophonist) stated that “We should do what we’ve always done, and do what we do best” which resulted in “a quintessential Less Than Jake record”.

The name for the record is an airport & area code abbreviation of their home town Gainesville, Florida. This reference is carried through the rest of the album which contains an overall theme involving the love/hate aspect of their city which is featured in most of the song titles & their lyrics, “Between the garbage and the concrete, to the construction grounds under our feet, a boomtown gone bust, a goldmine to dust that’s disintegrating”.

The album don’t get off to the best start with the low key, slow paced City Of Gainesville, and at only 1min 50sec this one actually feels like a fadeout song that would be better placed as an end track. Thankfully The State Of Florida, picks things up with a fast pace & token LTJ riffs, but without any prominent horn work, this one brings to mind their earlier rock sound featured on Borders and Boundaries or Losing Streak.

The next track & first single, Does The Lion Still Roar Tonight? is the real highlight of the album and delivers the ska goods with an up tempo beat & blaring horns that give it a get up & jive feel. This is followed up with Summon Monsters which contains a story of shady dealers & pill poppers which starts with some growling guitar feedback that leads into LTJ’s usual blend of punk rock & trumpets. Abandon Ship is another memorable track that hits the mark with the horns blasting out at the right parts of the rousing chorus.

Unfortunately by the half way mark the album starts getting predictable & despite the usual vocal swapping from Roger Manganelli (bassist) & Demakes a lot of the tracks blend together. Despite the negativity surrounding their last album, sound wise it actually had a lot more going for it, with pumped up production values that pushed the brass instruments into the forefront & gave the tracks a more unique sound. While Settling Son, Handshake meets pokerface, Golden Age Of my negative ways and This Ones Gonna leave A Bruise, are alright rock tracks they just don’t bring anything real exciting to the table. Guests appearances from Trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein (Reel Big Fish) & drummer Neil Hennessy (Lawerence Arms) should have given the album some extra flavor, but in the end it’s hard to pick out their individual contributions and it’s surprising how one dimensional this five ‘plus’ piece band end up sounding.

Another example of wasted opportunity is heard on Malachi Richter‘s liquor’s quicker which is the self titled story of a man that set himself alight in protest to the Iraq war. Despite this interesting subject matter this song doesn’t really stand out from the rest and features rather repetitive lyrics and a simple rock melody.

The infectiously bouncy The Space They Can’t Touch and the stick in your head “nah na na nah” pop punk melody of Conviction Notice lift the slump in the latter stages of the album but another lifeless filler track (The Life of the party has left the building) & the bland Devil In My DNA end things on a boring note.

Final Verdict: After 16 years & uncountable live shows it’s slightly disappointing that Less Than Jake have decided to rehash their old punk rock formula. With the exception of a few fun energetic ska heavy songs, most of the tracks on GNV FLA just end up sounding stagnant and don’t push the band in any new direction. While old school fans will lap up this up, others will probably be over this album after a few repeat listens.

65 / 100 Pennies

Highlight Tracks

Does The Lion Still Roar Tonight?
The Space They Can’t Touch
Abandon Ship

Album Review: Phoenix

Published on July 29, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

phoenix

Ten years and six albums since Zebrahead’s first studio album and the boys are back with their latest release Phoenix.

With each album spaning so many genres and different sounds & considering that their last release (Broadcast to the World) was over two years ago, I was jumping with anticipation to see what would come out of Phoenix.

Opening with the line “Ladies and gentleman welcome to the show” track one HMP kicks you in the nuts with what can only be described as a frantic, fast paced, disco, hardcore sound. This track encompasses what Zebrahead is all about and even though I’m still trying to decide what exactly this is after 10 years, I do know that I love it. This is a perfect start track with a great energy that really helps set up a good time for the rest of the album.

With the first single, Mental Health consisting of clapping, “Hey,Heys!”, “1 2 3 4s”, catchy guitar riffs and sweet breakdowns I’m starting to get the impression that this album is all about the ever popular punk pop sound. Fortunately there’s that extra twist of Zebrahead which helps Phoenix avoid being dumped with other lame bands that continue to push their own generic version of the pop punk formula.

Some of the songs that fall heavily into the pop punk hotpot are The Juggernauts with its chanting chorus, Be Careful What You Wish For and Brixton, to name a few.

The signature combination of rap and melodic vocals are platinum Zebrahead and are present on most songs in Phoenix. Even if Hell Yeah does somehow remind me of The Offspring, it’s hard to hold it against them as this is a band that has done their time and delivered the goods on each and every album.

Another familiar characteristic of Zebrahead is that they don’t fit into any particular genre and have covered everything from funk metal, pop punk, alternative rock and rapcore. For the second half of the album the band tends to veer away from their pop punk sound and stretch their boundaries. This keeps things interesting by providing you with a couple of tracks that compliment and break up this festival of pop punk.

Ignite is a more funk/punk driven track with some great use of guitar and bass to really make it stand out and provide a rather upbeat sound which is easy to get your jig/skank on.

Mike Dexter Is A God, Mike Dexter Is A Role Model, Mike Dexter Is An Asshole is all ska baby with great guitar work and if you listen closly you can even hear an organ thrown in for good measure. As with any Ska song this ones great to listen too while drinking beer in the sun. I’m assuming that the title of this song is a throw back to 1998 film Can’t Hardly Wait.

The Junkie and the Halo has a distinctive surf/spy rock feel to it which allows for some great 5-0 guitar moments, more organ and great driving rhythms.

Other stand out tracks that round out the album include, Morse Code For Suckers and more rapcore with Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left.

Final Verdict: If you’re a fan you’ll love this album as it delivers exactly what you would expect and want from Zebrahead.

90 / 100 pennies

Highlight Tracks: All of them but in particular, HMP, Mental Health, Ignite, Brixton and Hit the Ground

Album Review: Have Another Ball

Published on July 22, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 5 Comments Tags: , .

gimme-gimmes

Today I was originally going to try write a review for the new alkaline Trio album, but instead I got distracted after listening to the latest effort from Me First And The Gimme Gimmes titled Have Another Ball.

Unfortunately it caught my attention in a bad way as this album is actually pretty substandard. Even though every Gimme Gimme release has had its fair share of hits & misses, their 7th studio album is by far their worst to date (technically it could be classified as their 1st album since it was originally going to be released as a b-side to their 1997 release Have A Ball).

Things don’t start off too bad with Rich Girl by Hall & Oates. (If you’re going to cover an artist from the 70′s surely you could do better than chose this unknown pair). While it’s got the speed & catchy chorus that Gimme gimme covers are renounced it’s rough quality is still slightly grating to the ears. The same could be said for the majority of the remaining songs which mostly contain lackluster riffs & an annoying electric guitars drone, which had finally taken it’s toll by the 12th song and just left me feeling irritated.

The cover of Country Roads is definitely the best cover version on the album & even though this was released on a compilation (Survival Of The Fattest), 10 years ago its cheesy sing along chorus and rapid fire drumming still stands up rather well today. Only The Good Die Young & Coming To America are also passable attempts, but just don’t have enough uniqueness to make them worth repeat listens. A slightly more interesting addition is the short 30 second track, Sodomy. This is originally from Hair the musical and I assume that Fat Mike was the one who picked this cover, as it’s both short & dirty “Masturbation,can be fun, join the holy orgy, kama sutra, everyone”.

The “la la la” sing along section in The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel) & the gang vocals on You’ve Got A Friend also bring a bit of fun to proceedings but overall the rest of the tracks all suffer from boring guitar hooks and some shocking vocals. While other Gimme Gimme material (Nothing compares to you, Isn’t She Lovely) has featured some reasonable vocal work,on this release Spike Slawson just sounds coarse & terribly out of tune. I can only assume that his vocals have always undergone a lot of work in the studio as when I saw him live this year he sounded the same (the fact that he was really drunk probably had a lot to do with it).

Final Verdict: Along with Punk Goes Crunk & Scarlett Johansson’s, Anywhere I Lay My Head (covering Tom Waits songs), Have Another Ball will probably go down as the worst cover album of the year. Why Me First & The Gimme Gimmes decided to release some B-sides (and crap ones at that) 10 years on from their first album is slightly baffling. If you’re a fan of the original versions of these songs, then you’ll only be pissed off with these butchered covers. If you’re not familiar these 60′s & 70′s tunes then I would suggest giving these repetitive lackluster renditions a wide berth (there’s a reason why they were originally left on the cutting room floor).

40 / 100 Pennies

Highlight Tracks
Country Roads
You’ve Got A Friend

Album Review: The Red Album

Published on July 11, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 0 Comments

The Red Album

Despite the general opinion that Weezer haven’t released a great album since their early days I still stuck by the band up to their last effort, Make Believe. After traded in their catchy rock riffs for cheesy synthesiser laden ballad’s this release was pretty forgettable & left me wanting more old school Weezer tunes.  When I heard the fun upbeat single Pork & Beans (more on that later) from their latest release I was actually pretty excited about the rest of the songs as it sounded like it would be a return to form for the band.

Their 6th studio album starts with the promising Troublemaker. While this tracks full of cringe worth lyrics “Who needs stupid books? They are for petty crooks”, it’s still got enough geeky charm, pop rock hooks and thumping bass to be enjoyable.

The follow up track with a title as ambitious as it sounds is The Greatest man who ever lived (Variations on a shaker hymn). Coming in at just under 6 min this ambitious song covers a lot of bases with heavy metal riffs, bitter sweat melodies, vocal hymns, spoken word segments & some channeling of Queen. Overall this ostentatious mishmash of styles is fairly enjoyable but it’s strange & disjointed nature slightly hold it back from achieving it’s epic intentions. It’s slightly baffling why this experimental song was included as the second track as it’s sits out of place with their follow up & would be better suited as an end piece to the album.

The next song Pork & Beans is best described via it’s lyrics “Everyone likes to dance to a happy song with a catchy chorus and beat so they can sing along”. This upbeat song was apparently written in response to the record label’s request to include more commercially viable ‘hits’ on the album. There’s even a snide reference to this fact with the lines” Timbaland knows the way to reach the top of the charts maybe if I work with him I can perfect the art”.

This one really takes the best parts of their earlier hits like the addictive sing along chorus of Buddy Holly and the crunching guitar hooks of Hash Pipe & puts them into one tightly knit pop rock package. If you haven’t seen the videoclip to Pork & Beans I would highly recommend looking it up as it’s almost as fun as the song itself (try and pick all the cameo’s from cult losers celebrities who scored their 2 min of fame on Youtube).Because of its popularity I can see radio killing this song with overexposure but until then it’s by far my favorite one from the album & should appeal to all old school Weezer fans.

The follow up acoustic track Heart Songs is another poorly placed song with a slow pace & depressing sound that doesn’t go down well after the happiness of the last track. Everyone get dangerous picks up the vibe with its rapping style & rock hooks. Despite a dodgy chorus “everybody get dangerous, boo yah!” & daggy lyrics ” I used to go and tip cows for fun, actually I didn’t do that, ‘Cos I didn’t want the cow to be sad”, this silly song is actually one of the better songs on the album. Dreamin’ goes back to pop basics with bouncing riffs & a carefree sound. However, after 2min the slow pace kicks in and things start to get overly sappy this song slightly overstays it’s welcome at the 5 min mark.

After the previous filler track things unfortunately go downhill for the rest of the album. This is mainly attribute to the fact that the remaining songs (Thought I knew, Cold Dark World, Automatic) see River’s Cuomo swapping singer/writing roles with the other band members for the first time. While Brian Bell (guitarist) & Patrick Wilson (drums) have both formed sidebands in the past, their contribution is still largely underwhelming. While the lyrics & vocals are fairly good these guys still lack the knack of writing a catchy fun song. (maybe it’s because they literally don’t have River’s formula book on how to write a successful pop rock song). Overall these personal songs are all too depressive & monotonous to be of any real interest & stand in stark contrast to the earlier tracks.

The album is then concluded with the incredibly dull and slow The Angel & The One, with a 6 min running time that’s a real struggle to sit through. Unfortunately things aren’t redeemed with the delux version of the album which contains four of the most awful bonus tracks that I’ve heard in a long time. If anything these songs just end up leaving the listener on an even worse note (I’m still confused how a delux version can be worse than the original one).

Final Verdict: While the Red album starts off rather promising the inclusion of too many dreary songs and a confusing track order all get in the way of enjoying what little there is to get from the album. While geeky Weezer fanatics are going to lap this one up, I would still have to rate this as their worst album to date. Unless you enjoy meandering slow songs I would just suggest steering clear of the latter half of the album & just stick to the first six songs.

50 / 100 Pennies

Album Highlights:
Pork & Beans
Troublemaker

Gig’ity’ Gig’ity’

Published on July 8, 2008 in Gigs and Music. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Some really great music tours have been recently announced for Melbourne so I thought I would write a post to keep track of them all (the calender on this site seems to have disappeared).

Coming up this Friday is the Strung Out & No Use For A Name show at Billboards. Tickets are still on sale ($39) from Oztix and considering they’re over here for a whole month & playing plenty of shows there’s no excuse not to check out this sweet double header act. Check my previous post for further details

The Matches will be hitting our shores again and will be playing at The Corner Hotel on Saturday 13th September. Even though these guys are always ridiculously busy (playing an average of 200 shows p.a!), it’s good to see them come back to Australia twice in the same year.
Despite a slightly underwhelming release on their last album, after seeing their performance at the Soundwave Festival firsthand, this is one show that you don’t want to miss out on. Tickets are only $30 and can be brought from the Corner book office.

Californian punk pioneers Unwritten Law will be heading to Melbourne on Thursday 21st August & will be playing at The Palace (formerly know as The Metro, now known as the stupid place that confused everyone by changing its name).
While these guys have been relatively quite of late (a best of album doesn’t really count) they’ll soon be releasing a live DVD of their 2008 performance at The Key Club in Hollywood. Over its career this bands had more line up changes than a football club so it will be interesting to see whether they’re still going strong 17 years later. Tickets cost $55 + b.f and can be picked up from moshtix.

The Living End have recently announced a tour to support their upcoming album White Noise which will be released on July 21st. After hearing most of their new material live, this albums sure to be a ripper, so make sure you get along to their one & only Melbourne show at Queensbridge on 2nd October. Tickets go on sale 9th July from ticketek (presale) or the 10th from oztix for $39 + bf.

Because I only saw 1/2 of Gyroscopes last set at the Hi-fi bar (due to my dodgy brother), I didn’t get a chance to hear much of their new material from their #1 album Breed Obsession. Fortunately they’ve announced a 2nd tour to coincide with the release of their new single Australia. I’ll be checking them out at Ferntree Gully hotel on Friday 12th September & this time I’ll definitely make sure to get the full Gyro experience. CountKnuckles has been kind enough to post all the info for their other shows here.

Hopefully my previous Thrice posts have got you in the mood for their upcoming tour, but just a quick reminder that they’ll be playing the corner hotel on Saturday the 30th & Sunday the 31st of August. Further details can be found here.

Album Review: Coma Chameleon

Published on July 7, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

coma-chameleon

I’ve been meaning to write a review for the new Donot’s album for quite a while (it was released way back in March), but since there’s no local distributer for their records in Australia I took me awhile to obtain my copy.

Despite the fact that they’ve been kicking around since 1993 and have released 5 fantastic albums these five German punk/rockers have yet to crack the the mainstream market outside of Europe. If you haven’t heard of them before then I would suggest listening to their massive 31 track Best Of / b-side / Live album The Story So Far: Ibbtown Chronicles. It was always going to be hard to top this record but the Donots have really outdone themselves with their latest effort titled Coma Chameleon.

The album starts with the deceptive spoken word intro The Tunnel At The End Of The Light, which leads onto the next track Break My Stride which showcases the pulsing guitars, throbbing baseline & staccato drumming which become a signature sounds for the rest of the album.

This energetic dynamic is mixed with some aggressive beats & screaming vocals which match the darker style of the songs (just look at the song titles). This time the Donots step back from their previous pop rock roots and instead cover themes of pessimism with Anything (“nothings ever good enough for me I’m always complaining, a set of lungs, a pair of fists, a pointed finger”) and bitterness with The Right Kind Of Wrong (“I can’t be the life of the party, spare me your smile, your kindness kills me”).

Despite this tone there’s still plenty of upbeat riffs & memorable lyrics to cut through the sarcasm and lighten things up. The great piano punches of Hope For The Dead, the warbling bass and epic chorus of The Right Kind Of Wrong and the country style sounds of Somewhere Someday are all interesting additions to the track list & help break up the intensity of the faster, heavier rock numbers (Pick Up The Pieces, This Is Not A Drill and the bonus track The City Lights). The electrical sound of the lead guitars has really been pumped up on all these fantastic tracks and gives them an infectious energy that’ll make you want to get off your arse & jump around.

The first highlight track Headphones is full of a striking bass line which reminds me of the Hives or some White Stripes material. While the lyrics initially seem obtuse anyone who travels on public transport can surely relate to the message of shutting out the world with music (“Radio is killing me and tv’s a bore, all I want today is something I can ignore”). A breakdown and a spoken word segment with a strange British accent is followed by hand claps which blend perfectly into the main riffs. This song has a real cool vibe which makes it perfect to crank up while going for a walk.

My other favorite track is the rousing Stop The Clocks. While the donots have tackled rock ballads before (Good-bye Routine or Room With A View) , this single is their most successful one yet and combines a stable back beat, and a compelling melody with plenty of sing along support vocals (“now my angels need angels, to help me get out of this hell”).

While the rest of the album is also solid the only real downside is the lack of depth from the lead vocals. If you’re not used to their punk/rock style, Ingo Knollman’s coarse voice may become slightly grating after listening to the album multiple times (like I did). The slow intro to New Hope For The Dead highlights this deficiency but thankfully for most tracks the rough vocals become less of an issue after the guitars kick in & the vocal support appears.

Final Verdict: While the Donots already have a number of great releases under their belt, they’ve really kicked things up a notch with their latest Coma Chameleon. Not since listening to the punk rap sounds of Zebrahead have I heard so many energetic songs were I wanted to impulsively start head banging and tapping my toes like a crazyman. It’s addictive quality means that this is one of those rare albums were you can just put in your headphones and be assured of a solid listen from start to finish. If you’re looking for a 37 min power pick me up, then this is the album for you.

87 / 100 Pennies

Highlight tracks (In Order Of Ranking):

Stop The Clocks
Pick Up The Pieces
Headphones
City Lights (bonus track)
This Is Not A Drill

Album Review: Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

Published on July 1, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 3 Comments Tags: , , .

After Offspring released their atrocious 2003 Splinter album I had pretty much given up on the band and thought they had gone the way of the dinosaur.

I was therefore surprised (and dare I say excited) after I saw them headline this year’s Soundwave Festival where they played a number of nostalgic tracks from their Smash & Ixnay albums and a couple of new songs. After hearing them live I was even a bit hopeful (secretly withheld of course) that their upcoming release would regain the credibility they’d lost with earlier craptacular singles Pretty Fly and Original Prankster.

When I heard the promising title of Offspring’s latest album Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace, I was expecting that they’d follow in the footsteps of Greenday and would try reinvent themselves with a really epic & ambitious release. So have they succeeded at breaking everyones low expectations? Well yes (they’ve managed to regain some of their creed) & no (this isn’t American Idiot).

While the first track Half Truism, doesn’t particularly blow you away with originality it’s still a great opener that brings to mind sounds from their Conspiracy Of One release and is full of soaring guitar riffs & a pop rock chorus. After a number of listens this one has actually become one of my favorites from the album.

Trust In You is a reasonable follow up track with an old school drumstick count-in & melody that brings back fond memories of Ixnay while the use of a synthesized backdrop brings to mind something from the abysmal Splinter album. Fortunately Offspring restrains from overusing this digital aspect on the rest of the album and thankfully there’s no real stinkers to be found throughout its 44 min running time (who wants to hear Feelings?).

You’ve gonna Go Far, Kid is my favorite song off the album and has a strong pop sound with rolling drums & an addictive (if slightly empty) chorus about the hollow nature of the music industry ‘Dance, fucker dance, hit them right between the eyes’. I’m surprised that this track wasn’t chosen as their first single since it’s more catchy & upbeat than the one they finally settled for which is called Hammerhead. While this is the hardest hitting & darkest song on the album it’s repetitious rhyme makes it drag on a bit (4 minutes) & doesn’t really add anything new to the subject manner of school shootings.

A Lot Like Me is a slower and more likable number that is also likely to become a future single. While the vocals sound great, I’m slightly suspicious that they’d undergone a lot of mixing during post production as they sound too squeaky clean and have taken the edge off Dexter’s voice (a bit like James Hetfield’s vocals on St.Anger which comes as no surprise since both these album were produced by Bob Rock).

Kristy Are You Doing OK? is the first ballad track on the album & while Dexter’s tackled this style before (Gone Away), it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Greenday since the bridge sounds like it was ripped directly from Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. If you can forgive this little plagiarism, then this heartfelt track about a childhood friend who was raped may stick in your mind. Fix You also fits under the rock ballad bannar & ticks all the box’s for a commercial success (slow chorus, subtle build up, ‘woo,woo’s’. While I actually don’t mind this song I think it’s a ballsy move to include another slow paced number on the album, since it’s sugar coated sound could further alienate whatever fans they have left.

Elsewhere on the album there are a few too many weak tracks including, Takes Me Nowhere, Nothingtown, Stuff Is Messed Up and Rise & Fall which suffer from a lack of uniqueness & sound like bland leftovers from Americana or Conspiracy B-sides . While they’re not overly terrible their generic rock riffs place them in the filler category & make them pretty forgettable after a 3rd listen.

While the album finishes with the pop punks sounds of Rise & Fall (another Greenday knockoff song) a more appropriate closer would have been Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom. With it’s ska like riff, upbeat rhythm & power pop chorus this song is the final memorable song on the album.

Final Verdict: With Rise, Fall, Rage & Grace, Dexter, Noodles & Co have slightly redeemed their previous failures and it’s actually the first album since Ixnay to not contain any dodgy tracks (finally an Offspring record I can admit that I liked without feeling dirty afterwards). While old school fans probably given up on Offspring a long time ago, I would still recommend they give their latest album a listen. While there’s a few too many generic tracks to make it a great album, quality wise it fits somewhere in between Americana & Conspiracy Of One. Also unless I’m mistaken & they pull an American Idiot of their arses I’m predicting that this will be Offspring’s last swan song, Considering I thought they were finished after Splinter they’ve at least chosen a better finale to go out on.

70 / 100 Pennies

Highlight Tracks (In order of ranking):

Your Going To Go Far Kid
Half-Truism
Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom
A Lot Like Me
Kristy Are You Ok?
Fix You

2008: New Albums (June-July)

Published on July 1, 2008 in Albums and Music. 0 Comments

Since I’ve been so Thrice crazy on hundredpennies lately I thought I would tackle some other recently released albums. There’s plenty to get through including new stuff from Weezer, Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, The Donots, Trial Kennedy and Offspring’s latest which I’ll be covering today. Keep checking back in the coming weeks if you want the lowdown on any of these albums and if you want me to cover any particular one first leave a comment & let me know.

The Alchemy Index Volume III: Air and IV: Earth

Published on June 26, 2008 in Albums, Music and Reviews. 7 Comments

I hope you’re ready for the final part of my Alchemy Index review, since this ones going to be a big one feel free to skip to the final verdict if you’re too lazy to read. While I found Thrice’s first two volumes to be slightly lacking in depth, they’ve more than made up for the disappointing Water EP with the final two volumes of III:Air & IV: Earth.

Though concept album’s have been kicking around since the 60′s (The Who’s Tommy & Pink Floyd’s The Wall), most modern attempts at the Rock Opera seem to revolve around the principle of tying an album’s songs together through a storyline rather than a instrumental theme. (Green Day’s American Idiot, My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade and all of Coheed & Cambria’s albums). Therefore when I first heard that Thrice’s next album would revolve around capturing the raw feel & power of the elements I was intrigued to see what their interpretation of a concept album would be.

While the initial two volumes of The Alchemy Index succeeded at capturing the fury of fire & the calm of water they seemed to be lacking the heart & passion of previous Thrice Albums. The theory of a concept album only seemed to constrict their sound and resulted in too many songs sounding the same. Thankfully their previous experimentation seems to have paid off with volume III :Air & IV: Earth. So without further ado here’s my track by track review of Air & Earth.

Volume III: Air

Broken Lungs: The opening track begins with subtle guitar strumming, gentle drumming & a chime of bells before it hits it’s stride with a soft chorus at the minute mark. While it’s name brings to mind screaming vocals, at heart it’s really a mournful ballad about the S11 attacks ‘Cause we all watched the buildings fall, watched the scales fall from our eyes’. While the pace gently changes throughout, the anger is effectively held back until the final minutes when the drumming reaches a crashing peak & the vocals break out with ‘We want answers, scream from the roofs, we want justice, we want the truth’.

The Sky Is Falling: The lines ‘Your dance & jingo cabaret, it’s coming down’ perfectly sum up the feel of this hand clapping, bell jingling track. While this is one of the most pop sounding and catchy Thrice songs I’ve heard it’s contrasted with a conflicting message about war and the condition of the world, ‘I’m gonna be strong enough, not let my fear decide my fate, surrounded by *jingoists* , I don’t want any part of this’.
(* There’s your word for the day).

A Song For Milly Michaelson: Wind chimes, simple guitar chords and some beautiful singing are the only components in this song based on the 1980′s film The Boy Who Could Fly. While it’s probably not to everyone’s tastes it’s stripped back nature and haunting melody makes this the most effective sounding wind song on the EP.

Daedalus: This 6 min long tale, tells the story of Icarus’s father with a metaphoric message that could be interpreted as giving someone more responsibility than they’re ready for. Dominant instrumental work give this song a strong backbone to work with but the coarse vocals are a bit too gravelly to fit in with the wind theme. It’s also a bit too meandering and slow for my liking.

As The Crow Flies: Another acoustic track that sounds fairly similar to A song for Milly Michaelson. Mandolin & soft vocals conjure an airy peaceful atmosphere about a child growing up & spreading his wings. While it hasn’t grow on me as much as the earlier tracks it may appeal to those that like slower paced songs.

Silver Winds: Volume III is concluded with the synthetic beats of Silver Wings. While it sounds fairly similar to songs on the Water EP this one has more life due to prominent vocals that weave a less abstract and more personal tale about love & relationships. At only 2 min long it doesn’t really have enough room to spread its wings (excuse the pun) and would have benefited with a longer length.

Final verdict: Thrice have successfully managed to capture the ethereal nature of air on their third volume of The Alchemy Index. While the first three tracks on the EP contain poignantly powerful lyrics & interesting melodies the remaining songs seem to loose a bit of steam and unfortunately start to sound fairly familiar to each other. Additional guitar overlays and more drumming work would have alleviated these problems but as it stands this EP is much better than the boring drone of the Water volume. If your in the right frame of mind and just want to kick back & relax Air is definitely worth a listen and is a perfect contrast to the Fire EP.

80 / 100 pennies

Highlight Tracks
Broken Lungs
The Sky Is Falling
A Song For Milly Michaelson

Volume IV: Earth

Moving Mountains: This raw & sincere acoustic track appropriately sums up the earthy sounds found of Volume IV. The presence of twanging guitars, subtle foot stamps & absence of drums lend this track a real blues & roots style. The honest lyrics ‘All hidden things are opened up to me, but I don’t know the first thing about love’ are at the forefront of this song and showcase how far Dustin’s singing has progressed since the early days of Thrice. This simple yet effective track has become one of my favorite tracks from The Alchemy Index.

Digging My Own Grave: Another quality track that really has a life of it’s own. The prominent and mournful piano melody sets up an atmosphere thats probably not to everyones tastes and brings to mind Brand New at their depressive best. The title pretty much speaks for itself & I can only assume this is a fiction tale about resignation & defeat ‘You know cancer can’t catch me, let’s have another drink or three, don’t be a bore’.

The Earth Isn’t Humming: Some fantastic bass chords lend this one a real tribal beat that blends perfectly with the rich arpeggio style guitar chords. This heavily instrumental track gives the song plenty of weight while the powerful vocals are used to conjure an apocalyptic menace with the repeating message ‘Fall down’.

The Lion And The Wolf: A real stripped back song with soft vocals accompanied by more sombre piano. The presence of choral support vocals lend it an almost classical sound and while this may not appeal to everything it really shows that Thrice are capable of tackling any musical subject matter. The melody & fairy tale lyrics bring to mind a haunting brother’s Grimm tale but the words could also be interpreted as an anti war analogy ‘The lion’s outside of your door, the wolf’s in your bed, the lion’s claws are sharpened for war, the wolf’s teeth are red’.

Come All You Weary: This is the only earth track to contain drumming from Riley Breckenridge (he must have felt really left out on this EP) which lends the song an extra layer of depth and provides it with the same hypnotic quality as Burn The Fleet (from the Fire EP) . The rich timbre guitar sounds blend perfectly with the husky vocals & fit in with the laid back vibe.

Child Of Dust: The finale to the Alchemy Index doesn’t really live up to the hefty standards set on the previous tracks. Like all the final songs from each volume this ambient track is really a poem about man’s relationship with the elements. Since all these songs contain the same verse structure, vocal melody & chord progression (in a different key) it comes as no surprise that this tracks just as disappointing as the other finales. Interestingly there’s a dramatic cutout of the piano at the half way point with a muffling of vocals that convey the smothering feel of being buried alive. The last minute of silence is a stark ending to the album which symbolises returning to the earth through death (Either that or it could just mean that after 24 songs of The Alchemy Index, Thrice finally ran out of ideas of how to end it).

Final Verdict: The final volume of The Alchemy Index is a perfect example of how to embrace a concept album. While Volume I was fully of intense rage & power it’s lack of uniqueness didn’t really push the band into any new areas. On the flipside the antithetic nature of Volume II resulted in too much digital experimentation that ultimately resulted in a flat and lifeless EP. Fortunately Volume III breaths some new life into The Alchemy Index & perfectly captured the soothing & incorporeal nature of air. Volume IV brought Thrice back to earth with heartfelt acoustic numbers that showcased the spirited nature of the elements. I would definitely rate Volume IV my favorite EP from The Alchemy Index and would place it just under the sublime Vheissu as my favorite Thrice release. The only downside is that they didn’t make this EP into a full album and therefore I can only wait to see where their next evolution of sound will take them.

90/100 pennies

Highlight Tracks (yep pretty much all of them)
Moving Mountains
Digging My Own Grave
The Earth Isn’t Humming
The Lion And The Wolf
Come All You Weary