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