The indie rocking British quartet release their first full-length album in over four years. This review is based off of the standard version of the album although a deluxe version with four additional songs can also be had.
As we have come to expect, the band once again relies on their staple of piano-driven songs although the melodies seem less lush and vivacious this time around. Just like on their last three albums, the entire band gets credit for writing each track from this release.
The general message of the album is a positive one. For example, on "You Are Young," Tom Chaplin sings, "Fearful child have faith in brighter days/Stay until this darkness fades away" with as much restrained emotion as he can muster on the melancholy opening a track.
If anything, this overly preachy and protective stance leads to some safe song choices that don't exhibit much life over the duration of the album. While the piano melodies do have a simple beauty to them, the album as a whole lacks any vibrancy and the dull tracks end up sounding very similar by the end of the album.
Strangeland ends up being a monotonous and utterly disappointing release from a band once voted as producing two of Britain's greatest albums of all-time according to the readers of Q Magazine. While all of their previous albums showed great growth in terms of the band's music, this album is a step backward and is easily one of the most disappointing releases so far this year.
Score: 3/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Silenced by the Night" [sample it below]
The noise rocking quartet from Los Angeles debut their third full-length studio album after their last release, Swoon, ranked as high as #7 on the U.S. charts.
For those who are already aware of the band, let's just say the comparisons to The Smashing Pumpkins will surely be mentioned again after listening to this release with frontman Brian Aubert's vocal tenor still sounding very Billy Corgan-esque and the band still taking a big cue from the Pumpkins' distortion-heavy songwriting style.
However, while the style is similar to The Smashing Pumpkins, the music given to us on this release sounds fresh and original with more electronica cues, booming riffs, and even a more evolved vocal style. A good example of this is the already released first single "Bloody Mary" which has wonderfully layered overdubs of guitars that somehow comes off more soothing than frantic and has Aubert's vocals more seamlessly woven into the music rather than him just singing on top of the melodies like he did on their previous two albums.
Neck of the Woods is a more advanced and better constructed album than what they had released before that sweeps you along on a fun journey filled with pleasant surprises. While still not as good as The Smashing Pumpkins at their best, with this album they firmly move out from behind that shadow and create something wholly their own with great success.
Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Bloody Mary" [sample it below], "Make Believe" and "Simmer"
The duo best known for their YouTube-posted cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" (200 million hits!) release their debut studio album.
Of the engaged duo, Nick Noonan provides the instrumentation heavily influenced by both pop and R&B while Amy Heidemann provides vocals in either a modern pop or rap style.
Noonan's melodies have a bounciness to them that gives the album a fun attitude while Heidemann's vocals sound equally silky crooning both the singing and the rapping parts of the songs, frequently switching to and fro on individual tracks. However, while the band definitely has its own unique style, they seem to try too hard at being quirky and it comes across as forced on a few of the tracks ("Too Many Fish" is one example).
There is a lot to like on this album with the jauntily crafted songs and Heidemann's rare ability to switch styles on the fly but the inconsistencies from trying to be too unorthodox and the short duration of the disc (7-tracks running less than 25-minutes) loses it some points. It's an above average debut album where the duo's personalities shine through even if a couple of the tracks come off as dim.
Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Brokenhearted" [sample it below] and "I Told You So
Programming Note: I'm out of town next week but reviews of new albums will be posted the following week.
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