Mar 31
AndrewMusic album review
It was fitting that while listening to Gavin DeGraw’s third album Free, my media player kept lagging, creating gaps of silence during the songs. Sometimes, it was hard to tell where the gaps where created by the equipment and where they were engineered by DeGraw himself (the soft spoken Mountains to Move starts off with a full half-minute of virtual silence). While DeGraw’s musical presence is firmly intact on the new album, the album is as boring as all get out.
Free starts off like a weak cup of coffee and doesn’t improve much through the run of tracks. Thematically and stylistically, this is the Gaving DeGraw we know and love. It just lacks any energy. Free misses the force of his impassioned vocals and pounding piano chords that made his debut album transcendent. His second album was a dud, except for In Love With a Girl and We Belong Together (which was actually a better mix on the album than the Tristan & Isolde soundtrack); it came off like so much piano-bar fodder.
There’s no arguing that DeGraw can write a power ballad. But give me a break, how many times can you write songs about a broken heart? Stay stays the course, but it’s so mellow, it’s hard to believe this is a guy pleading for the love of his love to stick around. Glass is like a power ballad-lite. Lover Be Strong picks up the pace a little (barely) but it’s not a song you’ll remember later. Dancing Shoes and Waterfall return to the soft spoken formula that finally declare the album good for background noise and not much more.
I really like DeGraw’s musical sensibility (even though he comes off a goofy frat boy) but I found his last album barely tolerable as a whole, and this one not at all.
Jan 27
AndrewMusic album review
The minute I started playing Hoobastank’s new album For(n)ever, I wanted to turn it off. The lead track, My Turn is such turgid unoriginal crap, I almost did. “When it’s gonna be my turn? Yesterday I learned from, tomorrow’s uncertain. So why can’t I just make my turn today?” I don’t even need to stick my finger down my throat to vom that one back up.
While they might have struck double-platinum with The Reason, if anything For(n)ever just proves it was a fluke. The music here is juvenile, generic, fit for the Jonas Brothers and not nearly as slick. This is just a bunch of friends jamming in the garage, dreaming of being a famous rock band. Except here’s the catch: somehow they are a famous rock band.
The worst tracks here are just mediocre riffs paired with Doug Robb’s painfully scratchy voice (it sounds worse live) and emotionally retarded lyrics “I can’t wait forever to know if we’re together” he emotes in Sick of Hanging On. And all the songs sound monotonously the same. “There’s something I need to say its growing everyday things are going to change,” Robb declares on Who the Hell am I. Who the hell cares?
There isn’t much more to comment on since I hated virtually every track, so I will tell you what I liked about this album. The last track. Yup, I made it all the way to the bottom of the list and found the gem Gone, Gone, Gone. It’s got some crackling energy that’s otherwise missing from For(n)ever and lyrics not so obviously written by an fourteen-year old struggling with puberty. It’s not a saving grace by any stretch, but at least it convinced me to listen to the album through to the end.
Jan 27
AndrewMusic album review, pop music
Kylie Minogue has never been a household name in the U.S. and her new remix album, Boombox, isn’t going to change that. There are some decent cuts on the disc that might find their way into the club scene. Here’s the problem. While Minogue is clearly molded in the pop music genre, it’s just nothing like American pop music (the Madonnas or the Britneys or even the Mileys). It’s so clearly pop music from another country, and never it that more clear than on this album. So while there are some bad mixes here (2 Hearts), there are also some downright just bad songs (Giving You Up), and the combination makes for a rough time.
Fortunately (I suppose) Boombox is frontloaded with the best tracks. Songs that are great anytime (Can’t Get You Out of My Head) and remixes that are great (Wow). But by the time you get to Love at First Sight, you start to feel like the producers should have been more selective. There’s nothing wrong with the mix but there’s also almost nothing that reminds you of the original. Your Disco Needs You is a pure pop track straight out of the Abba generation (and kind of out of place on this album no matter how you look at it). The Chemical Brothers mix of Slow will remind you so much of Madonna’s Give It 2 Me that you will think you’re listening to the wrong cd. And the butchery of the usually blissful pop track Come Into My World is criminal.
If you’re already a Kylie Minogue fan, I think this album will fit pretty well in your collection. But this album, yeah I know it’s a remix collection, isn’t making new fans. But that’s too bad because she’s at least as good as the Madonnas, Britneys and Mileys. But she’s going to go unappreciated in the U.S., at least for one more release.
Jan 13
AndrewMusic album review
Man, listening to Odessa, a re-release of the Bee Gees album released originally in 1969 (and being touted as their pop breakthrough) I’m horrified and captivated all at once.
On the one hand, given the generation the album was made in, it’s a far cry from the disco groove of the group’s later (and better known) tracks like Jive Talkin’ and Stayin’ Alive. And though the music is undeniably catchy, the overall vibe is just so far from what we think of when we are thinking Bee Gees. Odessa is largely missing Barry Gibbs falsetto and the brothers’ uniquely awesome harmonies. There’s a lot here that reminds me of the era though, especially reminiscent of The Beatles albums released around the same time (Abbey Road and Let It Be) and Bridge over Troubled Water.
Among the best tracks are You’ll Never See My Face Again (kind of Neil Diamond meets the Brothers Grimm) with its line “It makes me laugh, you got no friends” and the soaring love song Lamplight. The other I like a lot is the banjo-tinged Give Your Best which just hints at a psychedelic undertone, unlike the title track Odessa (City on the Black Sea) which is straight off of the Sgt. Pepper’s bandwagon. The rest are accomplished pop compositions that won’t necessarily stick out, but take you on a sweet trip down Marley Purt Drive. And if you’re like me, and this is a totally new look at the Bee Gees, it’s worth the listen.
The new release is padded with bonus tracks recorded in a 3-disc edition, featuring the full album plus track demos, alternate mixes and two unreleased tracks.
Dec 22
AndrewMusic album review, drag
I made it through one track of Jeffree Star’s new EP release Cupcakes Taste Like Violence. Synthesized electro-pop crap, but at least the track Miss Boombox feels like pop music. But the second track Lollipop Luxury, turned me right off. Hypersexualized, offensive and decidedly not fun.
But in all fairness, I went back and kept on listening. The title track is not the worst song I have ever listened to, though it’s a blatant rip of Madonna’s Candy Shop without the slick production. Picture Perfect starts painfully, lacking melody and appeal but finds a little redemption somewhere in the middle. (But chipmunk vocals? Really?) And the most bizarre part is that the last few tracks are actually kind of catchy. Too bad you had to sit through the rest of it to get there.
Conclusion? Not nearly as much fun as Ru Paul, and not nearly as pretty as…well name any drag queen. And for that matter, not quirky as James St. James. Star may have made a name for herself on MySpace, but star power makes for a weak argument here.
Dec 09
AndrewMusic album review
Listening to Beyonce’s new album, especially the fabled lead single If I Were a Boy, there are some confusing elements present. The single itself is more Brothers Grimm than Disney, kind of creepy and disturbing if you listen too closely. But this is Beyonce, and the pop hooks abound regardless on I Am… Sasha Fierce to the point that the double-disc collection is a little too much.
But this is Beyonce after all, and…what? This is a review of Brandy’s new album, Human? Quite right. My bad.
Listening to Brandy’s new album, especially the lead single Right Here Departed, it’s hard to believe it, but the singer has lost whatever musical identity she had established for herself back in the day of Never Say Never. This is a Beyonce album, pure and simple, with a little Janet Jackson-esque spoken word interludes thrown in for good measure.
The songs are not bad at all and Brandy has a smooth voice for radio. The problem is that she has recruited a host of producers and writers that are responsible for virtually everything you hear in the mainstream these days and then some. So while Long Distance is a gorgeous ballad, it could have be anyone singing it. Same with Piano Man and Warm It Up with Love, which are indistinguishable from anything on I Am… Sasha Fierce. My favorite song, and probably the most “Brandy” sounding track is the title track. It’s also the most interesting composition on the album.
There’s some stinkers here, notably Something Missing and Fall with its bizarre skip-beats in the chorus and repetitious blather. But what’s really missing is any semblance of a unique identity. This is as generic pop music as it gets these days, and that’s saying something.
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