Skip to main content

Some quick reviews from the last month or so...

In an effort to catch up on a bunch of albums that people have asked me about, here are some brief thoughts on releases from the last month or so.

   1) Have Mercy: "Make The Best Of It"
   Released: April 21 on Hopeless Records

   I have really loved this band for a while now, and this new album simply reminds me why that is the case. They get labeled as pop-punk a lot, but it's the crossover between pop-punk and emo they have going that I find most appealing about Have Mercy's sound. I'm also a big fan of singer Brian Swindle's voice; he brings a grit and warmth that a lot of bands in the scene lack in their vocal performances without sounding contrived. Swindle lays his bones bare on Make The Best Of It and I was 100% along for the ride.

   2) The Smith Street Band: "More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me"
   Released: April 7 on Pool House Records

   Smith Street have given us another solid album with offering number four, but I still feel like their best material is ahead of them. More Scared Of You... is painfully personal, by far the furthest songwriter Wil Wagner has let us listeners into his world, and he's still a sad dude. Sharp lines and clever observation are still a staple, but the consistent self-pity did get a little too much for me at a point.

   3) Creeper: "Eternity, In Your Arms"
   Released: March 24 on Roadrunner Records

   I hear a lot of Black Parade-era My Chemical Romance in this album, and for the most part I was pleasantly surprised by Creeper's debut full length. Seeing the story they have been telling across two other EPs come together in its full form was really cool, and I give big ups to them for doing something different in a scene that I don't pretend to enjoy that much. Having said that I didn't find myself coming back to it as often as I thought I would after the first listen, and I guess that just comes down to personal taste.

   4) Fit For An Autopsy: "The Great Collapse"
   Released: March 17 on Entertainment One Music

   The Australian deathcore scene is something I have desperately tried to get into more and more, but The Great Collapse is case in point as to why I find it increasingly difficult. There's chuggy-chugs and dark lyrics you can't understand without reading them and more chuggy-chugs. Not much else. Occasionally there's a cool riff to hang onto, but for a lot of the time I feel like the 8-string is being used as a safety net used to make riffs heavier when they aren't heavy enough by themselves. I found this pretty boring to be quite honest.

   5) Kendrick Lamar: "DAMN."
   Released: April 14 on Aftermath/Interscope

   It was always going to be impossible to one up 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly, so I'm not disappointed in the fact that DAMN is a slight step down for Kendrick; that was something I was prepared for. I guess my main problem with DAMN is that conceptually it doesn't seem as fully fleshed out as To Pimp A Butterfly. Whenever he touches on an interesting issue he stands around it for a bit and offers some interesting questions, but moves on where on To Pimp A Butterfly would then go in deeper. I was taken aback in a good way by how sad Kendrick sounds on a lot of these songs though; it's a side of Kendrick we haven't heard before and in that sense is a step forward. Oh and there are so many bangers that I'm not even going to bother listing them.

   6) Drake: "More Life"
   Released: March 18 on Young Money Entertainment

   Nah.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought...
Post a Comment
Read more

ALBUM REVIEW: "A Man Apart" by Ben Ottewell

   Ben Ottewell's third LP A Man Apart goes boldly where he has been before, and while it certainly does that pretty well it doesn't manage to either strike new ground or any real emotional response. There is a distinctly "nice" feel to this record, which is, um, nice I guess if that's what you want. But it just doesn't feel like there's any immediacy or forward motion on any of these songs, like Ottewell is content with writing songs that could be on four wheel drive ads. Again, there isn't really anything particularly bad here, it's just a singer-songwriter album that isn't trying to break new ground. His typically growly voice is also beginning to give way to a more accessible, smooth tone, which could place you on either side of this record. For me it just cements it's place firmly in the middle ground somewhere.    Favourite Songs: Own It, A Man Apart and Lead Me    Least Favourite Songs: Watcher, Back To The World and Bones ...
Post a Comment
Read more

EP REVIEW: "Same Kind Of Different" by Dean Lewis

   Dean Lewis offers up six largely acoustic-driven tunes on his debut offering, all of which are clearly aimed at wider appeal. The acoustic-pop thing has never really done it for me (read my recent Ed Sheeran review  here ), mainly because behind the slick production and singable hooks there's a general lack of songwriting to be had. This is where Same Kind Of Different sits a rung above most other similar albums; take the sugar and fairy dust away and there are still six complete songs that could be on a singer-songwriter album, rough and bare. I can appreciate the way these songs have been tailored to be played to a larger audience, but the substance behind the shine is more important to me. The six songs do sound very similar, however, and they do tend to blur together into a singular mass - which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on who you are. For me that was a bit of a concern on second and third listen, but I was generally pleased by Same Kind Of Diffe...
Post a Comment
Read more