Reviews For Sept 30th (Doomsday?)

Never before have I had the pleasure of SO many great releases on one day. Which is why I think today is the perfect day to jump back into posting my reviews online. First things first, So far in 2008, here are my cds of the month.

JANUARY: Chris Walla – Field Manual
FEBRUARY: Ludo – You're Awful, I Love You
MARCH: PlayRadioPlay! – Texas
APRIL: Thrice – The Alchemy Index: Vols. III & IV (Earth & Air)
MAY: Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
JUNE: Less Than Jake – GNV FLA
JULY: Hit The Lights – Skip School, Start Fights
AUGUST: Conor Oberst – Self Titled
SEPTEMBER: Stay tuned until the end of this post.

The weakest month at this point in the year was by far June, the only good disc I picked up was Less Than Jake, the strongest month for just about the HUNDRETH year in a year is September. I don't know, bands like to release shit in the ninth month.

Let's get it started.

Anberlin - New Surrender

"Too late to make demands, you've got a riot on your hands."

I didn't even know I owned all of the Anberlin discs, that's how little I care about this band. They've never lived up to all the hype surrounding them in my mind. The only album I even came close to enjoying was 'Never Take Friendship Personal', until this one. Wow, what an improvement from the monotony that was 'Cities.' The one thing I noticed on this was the flow of the album was very smooth, smoother than anything else I listened to this month. It felt like they really took the time to put the tracks into an order that made sense for the way the tracks actually sounded.

If we lived in an alternate universe where bands like Anberlin actually made it big, I could see many of these songs being radio hits. I don't have much to say about this album because it sounds like an Anberlin album. That's all, it's not GREAT. But it's definitely not as bad as the other albums this band has given us.

Standout Track(s): Retrace, Breathe
    For fans of: Anberlin

Vocals: 6
Musicianship: 6
Lyrics: 8
Production: 9
Creativity: 5
Lasting Value: 4
Reviewer Tilt: 5

Overall Score: 43/70 (59%)

 

 

Bayside – Shudder

The fine balance between utter disdain and hopelessness with relentless apathy is essentially what makes Long Island's Bayside such an unclassifiable rock band. The definition of emo is so interchangeable that the mere mention of Bayside and emo brings up such a debate that there is no easy answer. Luckily for us, who gives a fuck? Bayside rock.

The main focus here is what the song's say, who they speak to - which is, frankly... all of us. They are melancholy, yet realized; peppered with ridicule and self-doubt, yet firmly designed to relinquish ourselves from exhaustion of self and to simply achieve. Raneri writes songs for those of us still finding our place in the world, young and old, adding dashes of moody pop and hard-rockin' solos for what I'd prefer to call "goddamn awesome measure". Building on the emotion that stems from not only the band's history, but from their acoustic work ("Moceanu") - where the songs always come off in a better light - Shudder is 42 minutes of triumph over tragedy, resurgence over pain, happiness over heartbreak.

However, Shudder isn't without flaws. In comparison to the three other Bayside records this is a step down. We may never see the same Bayside, a fact I've come to slowly realize due to the loss of their original drummer. (I know, I know, this doesn't need to be mentioned whenever Bayside is mentioned.) In all reality, he was the heart and soul of Bayside and in my eyes, it will never be the same.

Standout Track(s): The Ghost of Saint Valentine, Have Fun Storming the Castle
    For fans of: Bleed the Dream, Aiden

Vocals: 7
Musicianship: 6
Lyrics: 8
Production: 6
Creativity: 7
Lasting Value: 7
Reviewer Tilt: 6.5

Overall Score: 47.5/70 (67%)

 

Ben Folds – Way To Normal

The album opens with an audience applauding, leading into the monster track "Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)" and from there on out, your hooked. It's been way too long since Folds' Last album, Songs For Silverman. While this album doesn't come close to Folds' older albums it does, however, totally rock. The guest vocals from Regina Spektor on the track "You Don't Know Me" may just launch her career into a totally new atmosphere and hopefully will get Mr. Folds his much deserved airplay.

The piano work on the track "Before Cologne" is everything I expect from Ben Folds, leading into the track title "Cologne" which is also a definite must listen if you've ever enjoyed anything he's ever done. A lot of this album was tainted by the awful fake ep he released a month or two ago, when actually listening to the real version of this cd I couldn't get the horror of those terrible songs out of my mind. If you've never heard the phony version of 'Way to Normal', you may enjoy this more than I did.

This album is definitely not without flaws, the number one flaw being that much of the cd has a lot of electronic sounds on it and that's not something we've come to expect from Folds. Also, I don't know why he feels the need to be in a constant state of trying to make us laugh most of Ben's classic songs weren't humorous and much of this album tends to be just that. Lyrically he still has it, when he does serious things up. I'll definitely listen to this cd again, probably not as much as I rock his other ones though.

Standout Track(s): You Don't Know Me, Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head), Kylie From Connecticut
    For fans of: Ben Folds Five's "Whatever and Ever Amen"

Vocals: 7.5
Musicianship: 7
Lyrics: 7
Production: 6
Creativity: 8
Lasting Value: 7.5
Reviewer Tilt: 8

Overall Score: 51/70 (72%)

 

Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger

"I can't remember when the earth turned slowly."

Andrew McMahon has long been my idol ever since the early Something Corporate days. Everything he does seems to turn to gold, and that is no different on The Glass Passenger. A lot has changed musically since 2005's Everything in Transit, most notably the absence of catchy upbeat choruses. While much of TGP is very catchy, it lacks the upbeat attitude that made EIT stand out from Andrew's work with Something Corporate.

The piano work on TGP is quieter on most tracks becoming almost a background type sound creating a new sound completely different from anything we've ever heard from Andrew McMahon. This album was made to be released in fall, it has the atmosphere of a fall release because of the darker musical styling. Lyrically, this album is brilliant, once again Andrew is saying everything that I want to be able to relate to myself. There is no reason to worry about this album being all medically themed because Andrew only even mentions his illness in the album's closer "Caves", I personally wanted a little more insight into what was going in with him during those few years.

The number one thing I felt was missing from the album was two of it's b-sides "Miss California" and "Cell Phone" those two tracks were phenomenal and would have fit in perfectly in between some of the album's more quiet tracks. The songs, however, can be found online.

This is beginning to sound like I didn't enjoy it, but trust me, I did. The Glass Passenger is not only another slam dunk for Andrew McMahon, it's also a touchdown, homerun and a mother-effing-knock-out punch! It's everything we've come to expect from the greatest artist of our generation plus more.

Standout Track(s): Annie Use Your Telescope, Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby)
    For fans of: Something Corporate's "North", My Favorite Highway's "How to Call a Bluff"

Vocals: 8
Musicianship: 9
Lyrics: 9
Production: 10
Creativity: 10
Lasting Value: 10
Reviewer Tilt: 9

Overall Score: 65/70 (92%)

Joshua Radin - Simple Times

"Wait, right here was all she said to me so right here I stay."

If I ever hear a cd like this again, well, It'd be a miracle. Everything I like in music in the year 2008 is in this one cd. Acoustic melodies, check. Meaningful lyrics, check. Amazing guest vocalists, check. Now in order to review this album without being biased..hmm. One song stands out to me as a major step down in the awesomeness that is Simple Times and that song is, 'Vegetable Car.' The meaning behind this song is simple, he likes a girl who is very ecofriendly and drives a car that runs on vegetable oil, i.e., a vegetable car. The song never really progress like the rest of the songs do, the lyrics are bland at best and Joshua Radin should have taken that song off the disc in the editing stages.

There is NOTHING simple about this album at all. This cd answers all the people who doubted his staying power after his debut album, 'We Were Here.' There's no such thing as a Garden State curse, and Joshua Radin proves it on what I believe is the best cd of 2008 thus far.

 

Standout Track(s): Sky, They Bring Me To You, One of Those Days
    For fans of: Joe Purdy, Ingrid Michaelson, Colin Hay

Vocals: 9
Musicianship: 9
Lyrics: 9
Production: 10
Creativity: 10
Lasting Value: 10
Reviewer Tilt: 9

Overall Score: 66/70 (94%)

 

Final Thoughts: This was a hard week for me. Ben Folds, Jack's Mannequin AND Joshua Radion on one day. Not to mention Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall come out this week. It was impossible to rate Jack's Mannequin and Joshua Radin against eachother, therefore even though Radin did win by one point for the month of September it will be a tie.

SEPTEMBER: Joshua Radin – Simple Times AND Jack's Mannequin – The Glass Passenger