Waiting For The Dawn

     Waiting For The Dawn sets itself up on this bright sunny day featuring a drumset on the beach. I found the contradiction between the title and image interesting, and the theme endearing, so I picked it up on my last trip to the bargain bin. I later realized I was probably drawn to this album by the nostalgia of the band's name, The Mowgli's, which for me, being a 90's kid, invokes the classic Disney movie The Jungle Book where Mowgli is the main character's name. Though a beach and a jungle couldn't be more different.
     When I listened to the first song all I could think was 'this stuff sounds exactly like what they overplay on the radio.' Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. San Francisco is actually a fine song in my opinion, it just wouldn't take many listens for it to become hackneyed and played out. The second track was more or less the same, although here I noticed that there is a lot going on musically with different instruments and rhythms. This was also evident in the first song, however the way all the instruments work together makes the music sound quite simple so it is very easy to overlook its complexity; I have to give The Mowgli's props for that. Waiting For The Dawn's title track was fun to listen to, but it also sounded as if they were trying too hard to find a Black Keys single dominating guitar-riff sound. The fourth track, and just about everything after it, sounded like the soundtrack at the end of a romantic comedy where the lead actress smiles at the lead actor and with the reassuring upbeat music, the audience knows everything is going to work out okay. Traditionally, these moments in romantic comedies only last about 30 seconds, so it was a little dismaying to listen to 50 minutes of it. The fifth song reassured this even further because there was actual cheering as part of the song, complete with over-the-top, carefree whistling. Track six was a ballad where you kept expecting something to happen but it never did; it's just three and a half minutes of repetitiveness. The first six songs pretty much wrap up all the diversity in Waiting For The Dawn. Everything after that can be divided into one of those six categories. All in all, just your everyday average indie band, where back in 2003 I might be reveling in my find, but today certain moguls of their genre are given way too much airplay and there just isn't enough room for smaller up-and-coming bands like The Mowgli's. Sad, but true.

Fetch

     "Fetch" by Melt-Banana. Black cat, odd ghost things, spooky cave; I'm sold. I pop it in my computer to be greeted by an inconclusive resonance of bells and various other like noises, until about 30 seconds in where a lone guitar begins to emerge. I have high expectations for the climax of this build  up, so I listen in anticipation. After about a minute and 15 seconds a steady drumbeat and bassline join the scene. 30 seconds later a dynamic guitar riff comes in to intensify it right up to its peak, and then... I hear an instrument almost like a mouse attempting screamo. With this, I'm immediately evicted from my trance and made to question exactly what it is I'm listening to. In all my time of blindly listening to albums, I don't think I've ever been so unprepared for such an unpleasant surprise. Looking back I'd dub it Yoko Ono's experimental teenage years. 

     From there on Fetch neither got better or worse, my ears only got soarer. My only respite was the uncommon snippet of instrumental ruckus throughout the songs. This went on for forty minutes when I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and heard silence. After listening to this all the way through, I had to do some research to figure out how Melt-Banana even got signed in the first place. Upon doing so, I learned that Melt -Banana is a Japanese noise rock band that started in the 90's. Surprisingly, they have a huge cult following and Fetch happens to be their 11th studio album, receiving close to five stars on iTunes. I'm at least astounded by this knowledge, and at most outraged at how the combination of sidewalk construction and female squawking could become so popular. But nevertheless, the only purpose this album could ever serve me is a guaranteed win in any "here, let me show you the worst music ever" contests.

Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon

     Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon by Murder By Death I found at the bargain bin yesterday, and I was kind of hesitant to buy it because it had the same sort of vibe as the other CD I was buying. Overall I'm glad I did. I won't say it was amazing, but certainly better than some of the stuff I find. I knew their name sounded familiar, so either they copied the movie or the movie copied them, which would make the band 40 years old. Luckily, this album came out in 2012. The artwork promotes a moon that is flooding the Earth with light also coming out of it; very intriguing.
     The album starts with a very flat song, where the lead singer doesn't deviate much from a single tone. The music in the background is some high-pitched string instrument, probably guitar, playing individual repetitive notes. The only thing I really got from this song is that the vocalist's voice sounds remarkably like Eddie Vedder, however that initial recognition fades as the album progresses. Anyhow, the second track, Lost River, was much better. It was a lot more upbeat and in an odd way, awkwardly hopeful. The third song, Straight at the Sun, was probably my favorite. It had this sort of tinge of excellency in a very grunge way. No Oath, No Spell, the song after that, was highly cello-driven which provided a unique addition to the sound. That was actually one of the more notable aspect of Murder By Death, the band features a cellist in almost every one of their songs. The fifth track wasn't quite as good and sounded a little like a drinking song the way the tune goes. Number six, Hard World, actually sounds very country but with a steady rock drumbeat. Track seven starts out slow but gets better with time. The eighth song, The Curse of Elkhart, really sounds like they are relaying a prophecy, and an eerie one at that. Ramblin', the ninth song, had good independent aspects, such as vocal or instrumental breaks, but when put together I'd have to say it was strangely structured. The tenth track of the album was instrumental with some very good cello solos; a nice break from the overbearing resonance the album seems to pile on. This continued with the 11th track which parallels a Zero 7 song I know. The last song was good as an ending song an brought things to an appropriate close; I wouldn't trust it to stand by itself though. I am happy I decided to buy Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon. The first four songs, excluding the first one, was worth it all in its own. And as a bassist myself, I am very appreciative of the cello branching out into different genres of music.

Hide and Seek

     I don't totally remember when I picked up Hide and Seek, but I found it in my already-reviewed CD pile. Though obviously I haven't reviewed it. This album, by the synthrock band The Birthday Massacre, reunites some of my favorite sub-genres for some kind of music I haven't seen in a while. It was also refreshing to have a female vocalist because, for whatever reason, the majority of the albums I pick tend to have male singers. The lead vocalist calls herself 'Chibi' which is a term used in Japan to describe small and cute. Chibi's voice in the beginning of the album quite resembles Beth Gibbons of Portishead when using her airy voice not her nasally one. Chibi also becomes less shy as the album progresses and really grows into her voice, ending on a very strong note.

     The opening song to Hide and Seek, Leaving Tonight, starts with an eerie gust of wind, and then abruptly goes into the tune, which I was not prepared for. But the quality of the song later made up for that. The second track, Down, starts out with industrial-type music that kind of sounds like futuristic Nine Inch Nails but when the chorus hits the music changes to an 80's pop background which was a little odd at first but made for an interesting song. Tracks 4 and 5 solely had relations to 80's pop music. The sixth song, Alibis, I especially liked except for some discontinuity between the flow of the lyrics and the music. Track 7 was where Chibi's vocals really started to pick up and retained that throughout the remainder of the album. The last song ended with the same eerie gusts of wind the album started with. All and all, a pretty enjoyable listen, not really a bad song on there. I think this is  what trip hop from the 90's evolved into. So enjoy, listen, and critique.

Partygoing

     Once again at the bargain bin, I picked up this vibrant album most notably because it had a kilt on it. Would you do any different? So we journeyed home and two months later I'm finally reviewing it. Partygoing by Future Bible Heroes is an album full of variety, some good some not. the musical group features two different singers both with two very different voices. The first voice has its own unique style highlighting the more psychedelic triphop aspects of the album, while the other one highly resembles Big Black Delta's Jonathan Bates. The songs that this vocalist sing tend to be slower and calm versus the others of a more pop nature.
     My favorite song was probably the first one called "A Drink is Just the Thing." It's very eloquent and mesmerizing while keeping composure of a more upscale era. The song is also only a minute and 27 seconds long, so I can assume that it was meant as more of an into than a full-length song. This into set my expectations a little high for what I was getting into and none of the rest of the songs seemed to live up to it, primarily because most of the others were of a different genre all together. Tracks like "Sadder Than the Moon" and "Satan, Your Way is a Hard One" really accentuated the Jonathan Bates-tendencies in the second singer's voice and musical style of the song, differing heavily from the intro. Some of the songs seemed pointless such as "Drink Nothing But Champagne" and "Keep Your Children in a Coma." They kept me asking myself 'what if I don't like champagne since I'm only 16" or "what if I don't wanna keep my children in a coma, then what?" The sixth track "All I Care About is You" reminded me immensely of the soundtrack used in the online arcade on the virtual world of tamagotchi. While track seven, "Living, Loving, Partygoing," sounded like indie Christmas music. All in all, the Partygoing was a bit all over the place for me to truly enjoy it. I feel like Future Bible Heroes haven't quite established a defined sound with this piece and try to hop from genre to genre hoping we won't notice. Unfortunately, I noticed, but doesn't mean we can't still appreciate this album for its creativity

Wonderful, Glorious

     I wouldn't say that this album lives up to its name completely, but it had its moments. At a glance, the album artwork is quite bland, though the orange color is pretty. The name though is the most inriguing: Eels. I haven't yet met a band named after an animal that I didn't like (the Gorillaz, Doves, the Beatles, etc.) And eels are pretty extraordinary, so I had similar expectations for this album.
     It started out upbeat with an opening track that pretty much kept my expectations in tact. The second track, called Kinda Fuzzy, was probably my favorite. Not only were the lyrics adorable, but the song as a whole had a happy-go-lucky beat that kept things interesting. After that, the album dipped a little bit, going into some slow and repetitive songs and then changing vocalists for more slow and repetitive songs. By track 7, New Alphabet, Wonderful, Glorious had picked back up again with this kind of shady upbeat rock. The next two tracks went back down in grade, but then the album made a comeback for track 10, Open my Present. The last three songs were forgettable but the conclusion to the album was appropriate. Overall, not a bad album, but not wonderful or glorious and certainly not both of them put together.

Leveler

     This album has an interesting story. So I am once again at the bargain bin, a couple months ago I might add, and I find this cute little album. An animated destroyed farmhouse with some chickens, seems innocent enough. My curiosity peaks me and I buy it. Well I get home, pop it in my boom box, and press play. Little did I know that I would then have to endure forty-eight minutes of metalcore. For those of you who don't know what metalcore is, the internet defines it as "a fusion genre combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk." Needless to say, it took my ears a little while to warm up to it.

     So from listening to the first track, "Empire," I could have guessed that it was meant to be the single; it was just kind of triumphant and structured in its way. Then it went onto track two; I couldn't tell where or when because it all sort of blended together, but it did. The fourth track "Cutting the Ties" was when it started to get better for some reason or another; probably because my ears were then somewhat used to the constant noise. It stayed pretty consistent through track seven. Track eight, "Salt & Light," was more mellow and had some good guitar licks. I really didn't notice anything else after that on the account that they all pretty much sounded the same. Now I'm not saying that it's a bad sound; I don't mind metalcore, it's just a little forceful. All in all, not what I was expecting from the front cover, but still a good album.