New Music from 10/12/2010 - Badly Drawn Boy, Less Than Jake, Care Bears on Fire, and Hot Panda

Badly Drawn Boy It's What I'm Thinking - British singer/songwriter Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, releases his seventh studio album (not counting things like the About A Boy soundtrack which he entirely scored and wrote songs for).  Curiously, Twisted Nerve Records (the record label Gough co-founded with Andy Votel) is not the label releasing this album. I'm not sure why that is but let's see if releasing the album on a different label changes the style of music Badly Drawn Boy gives to us. 

The music presented to us is still distinctly Badly Drawn Boy with its richly layered but subtle indie, predominantly acoustic, music tones.  The album starts on a very somber note with the first track, "In Safe Hands."  It has a haunting melody but the slow tempo and airy, distant vocals make it an odd opening song that doesn't do much to draw the listener in.  The second song, "The Order of Things," does a better job of attracting the attention of the listener with more intimate vocals but the melody and overall tone still seems overly sullen.  Things start to pick up slightly from this point of the album though with "Too Many Miracles'" lusher opening with horns supplementing the usual acoustic guitar and keyboards.  "What Tomorrow Brings" opens with a very beautiful piano melody and then incorporates violins during the bridge and chorus to help compliment Gough's subtle, restrained vocal work.  Near the end of the album, "This Electric" was one of the songs I found most pleasing with its wide ranging use of instruments and downtempo vocal style. 

Being on a new record label does not alter the style of music Badly Drawn Boy gives us.  It's a more somber release in total than some of his more recent works but he doesn't venture from his typical songwriting style much which should please longtime fans.  As an album, I thought the track layout was a questionable one as the beginning of the album doesn't help itself out by doing too little to grab the attention of the listener.  However, once you get past those first couple of tracks, you will find a much more accessible album when Gough's ability to create  pleasing and catchy melodies and hooks from incorporating many different instruments and singing styles is on greater display.

Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Too Many Miracles" and "This Electric"

Care Bears on Fire Girls Like it Loud (EP) - Normally I try to review full releases and not EPs but I figured an all-female trio pop punk band from Brooklyn with an awesome band name like that deserves a listen.  If you have kids (or just like kiddie TV), you might have seen Care Bears on Fire on an episode of Nickelodeon's True Jackson, VP that also guest starred Justin Bieber.  I've never seen the show but I do know it stars the girl from the very clever movie Akeelah and the Bee so it can't be completely horrible.  But enough about kiddie TV shows, let's get to the five tracks on this EP.

The disc opens with "What I Could Be" which nimbly displays the band's peppy and palatable pop punk sound.  Right off the bat the infectious sound draws you right into the song and the quick paced nature of the two female vocal leads only help to enhance the feel of the song.  "Red Lights" is a more standard pop song with less complex hooks but a catchy chorus that prevents the song from sounding generic.  This is counterbalanced with the next songs, "ATM" and "Ask Me How I Am" which tone down the pop for a more traditional speedy punk tempos and hard rocking chord changes.  The album ends interestingly enough with a punk cover of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule the World."  Not surprisingly, the song is sped up with a faster punk tempo but I found the quick but relatively monotone vocal work to be the most interesting part of the cover as it contrasted well with the emotion in the original version, although the punk-like screaming of the chorus was a bit too obvious. 

Care Bears on Fire give us a very interesting EP that gives us a good example of their NY kid-core sound.  The EP has a very polished punk vibe while still managing to incorporate pop hooks and melodies in most of their songs without ever sounding too bubblegum pop-y like a lot of youth oriented bands today or too vulgar like the more hardcore punk bands.  You can see why media outlets as opposite Nickelodeon and Spin Magazine have featured Care Bears on Fire at various times over the past few years.  Their sound has the ability to appeal to a wide spectrum of listener tastes and, even more impressively, across a wide spectrum of listener ages. 

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "What I Could Be"

Hot Panda How Come I'm Dead? - The Canadian band named after an Edmonton Chinese restaurant release their sophomore album.  I thought their first album, Volcano... Bloody Volcano, had some definite bright spots although it wouldn't be what I would call a complete album.  I would describe their music as indie rock with some noise rock or post-punk revival skewings.  I wouldn't quite call them indie punk though as I tend to think of that as more punk music with indie influences.

"Pools" is the first song on the album that exhibits some of the charm and magic that was glimpsed on their first release.  The lyrics, sung in a light punk style, contrasts very effectively with the jangly, almost dream pop-like, melody to create a charming song.  The band does manage to vary its sound to a greater degree on this album.  "Shoot Your Horse" pays homage to country music although there are only minimal parts of the song that actually gains their roots from country music.  While songs like "Clever Fox" and "Poor Little Ambulance" use a slower tempo style than what the band typically exhibits.  They don't forgo their punk influences either as songs like "Mindlessnesslessness" and "1995" will show you. 

Again, Hot Panda gives us an album with a few bright spots but an overall inconsistent album.  I probably liked more of the songs on this release than the tracks from their first album but the band hasn't grown much between releases as their style hasn't really evolved from what they gave us before.  That would be fine if what they gave us before was really awesome but that would not be the case as far as Hot Panda is concerned.  Again they give us some potential but eventually they will have to turn that potential into a quality album before they are able to gain a larger following.  I still love the origin of the band's name though.

Score:  6/10
Song(s) to Sample:   "Pools"

A preview of Less Than Jake's TV/EP  - I won't give a full review of the ska/punk band's new EP because the 16 track disc lasts only about thirteen minutes long but I love cover songs so much that I thought the disc should get a mention.

Basically, this EP is a re-imagining of TV theme songs and songs from television commercials in the ska/punk style the band is known for.  Song choices range from about the 1970's through modern times with the greatest emphasis on stuff from today and stuff from the 80's and 90's when most of the band was growing up.   The song choice is an eclectic mix with some obvious choices ("Theme from Diff'rent Strokes" which was originally written by Alan Thicke, believe it or not) and some not-so-obvious choices (the song from the FreeCreditReport.com commercials--wtf?!?!).  Because the EP doesn't actually list the songs covered (each track is just labeled "Channel 1," "Channel 2," etcetera, all the way through to "Channel 16") let me give you the songs as I have been able to identify them:

1. iCarly theme 
2. song from Hungry Hungry Hippos commercials
3. Animaniacs theme
4. song from McDonald's Big Mac commercials
5. Diff'rent Strokes theme
6. Malcolm in the Middle theme ("Boss of Me" originally a They Might Be Giants song)
7. song from Pac-Man Cereal commercials
8. Scooby-Doo theme
9. song from Kit-Kat commercials
10. Spongebob Squarepants theme
11. That 70's Show theme
12. song from Oscar Meyer Wiener commercials
13. Married With Children theme ("Love and Marriage" originally popularized by Frank Sinatra)
14. song from Toys R' Us commercials
15. Laverne & Shirley theme
16. song from FreeCreditReport.com commercials

I haven't been able to verify this list yet so forgive me if there is a mistake but my knowledge of pop culture is pretty good so I'm pretty sure the track titles are accurate.  As these are punk covers of the above songs, most, if not all, of the songs are actually quicker than the original versions so you know why this disk lasts only thirteen minutes.  The best comparison I can make for this EP is if you are familiar with and like punk band No Use For a Name's Leche con Carne album and the mishmash of 80's covers they do at the end of that album then this disc is for you. 

Score:  N/A
Song(s) to Sample: "That 70's Show theme" and "Malcolm in the Middle theme"