Author: alexvolonte

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): RYAN ADAMS – PRISONER | 2017-03-01

If you follow this blog with a certain regularity – and I assume it’s almost none of you reading right now – you might have noticed that 42-year old North Carolina-native Ryan Adams is somewhat of a big deal for who’s writing this. The singer-songwriter’s self-titled album, released in late 2014 to moderate success, has had an overwhelming impact on me that only few others have over my whole life and, surely in some ways because of that, I have come to thoroughly enjoy everything he has put out ever since (not mentioning revisiting his impressively huge and prolific past catalogue). Plus, carved in the history of this blog there is also a commentary slash review of Adams’s stunning live performance at London’s Hammersmith Apollo back two years ago, as well as a rather loose take on his largely talked about 1989 cover album revisiting in his own signature style one-by-one all the songs contained in Taylor Swift’s best-selling release from 2015. Furthermore, in an attempt at celebrating and highlighting Adams’s multi-artistic talent, another blogpost entry was dedicated to one of his free verse poems off of his debut collection titled Infinity Blues and published through Akashic Books in 2009. To sum it up in other words, as you can easily judge by yourself Ryan Adams is a pretty badass talented artist.

It is with this spirit in mind and with great enthusiasm that yours celebrated the release of Prisoner, Ryan Adams’s 16th (!) studio album of his career, which came out officially a little less than two weeks ago on Friday 17th February. Prisoner is Adams’s latest release under his own LA-based label PaxAmericana Recordings and it spans 12 tracks across 43 minutes. The record was previewed by a series of singles (“Do You Still Love Me?”, “To Be Without You” and “Doomsday”) and multiple promotional trips/talk show appearances which often saw the Grammy-nominated musician performing exclusive acoustic cuts off of the record. Furthermore, as part of the album cycle, the not-so-secret metalhead and cat lover started off his own radio show called The Midnight Wave on Apple’s Beats 1 and came up with glorious deluxe packages for every fan’s delight. Obviously, Prisoner’s release is also to be accompanied by a massive worldwide live tour that will keep him busy for the remainder of 2017. This is to say, is really does look like to Adams this record means something special, something that possibly wasn’t there in with previous ones or that perhaps he himself wasn’t able to experience and embody as much, as confirmed in a recent Facebook Live Q&A.

Enough for background and scene setting, let’s jump into the actual craftsmanship of this new album without any further ado. As briefly mentioned above, the first taste of Prisoner came through its lead single “Do You Still Love Me?”, made available late last year (7th December) and very much in line with Adams’ self-titled album from 2014, both sonically and thematically with respect to the overall record. The track is one of the “rockiest” ones with huge, arena-like guitars sitting on a bed of mellow and all-encompassing keyboards. Think of Tom Petty having a go at AC/DC in an ’86 London recording studio. Lyrically, the track finds Ryan questioning (his) love longing for answers but only to find more question marks along the way (“I been thinking about you, baby / Been on my mind / Why can’t I feel your love? / Heart must be blind”). Such a sappiness and inner melancholia is in fact a key reading lens for the overall record, further confirmed by the thin, acoustic second single “To Be Without You”. The track, most than any others on Prisoner, takes the listener back to the early, folky-alt-country songwriting era of Adams with trademark heartbreaking and touches of liberation and carelessness here and there. Definitely an interesting choice for a second single as, looking back, the track is pretty much left on its own in the tracklist, i.e. not being truly representative of the overall sound (yet this might as well have been a very thought-trough choice by weirdo Adams). Wrapping up with singles, the third one revealed through YouTube, “Doomsday”, is by contrast a unique musical pearl culminating from the songwriters’ latest sonic directions including, but not limited to: 80s Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, Bruce Hornsby and Neil Young. This song at number three on the setlist combines wonderful lyrics (“My love, we can do better than this / My love, how can you complicate a kiss? / My love, you said you’d love me now ’til doomsday comes / ‘Til doomsday comes”) with musical finesse, mixing perfectly harmonica and guitars. In pole position to becoming a Ryan Adams classic for years to come.

Just preceding “Doomsday” on the record’s tracklist is title track “Prisoner”, which unfortunately, even after prolonged and insistent listenings, might funnily enough be one of the dullest and tasteless tracks on the whole effort. Albeit being a doubtless uplifter mood-wise, especially when considered within the context of this overall moody record, the track results a bit too incomplete and frankly too naked to be a final album version, but probably too confused and at the same time elaborated to be considered as a demo or B-side. However, the title track probably remains the only lower moment on Prisoner, which indeed sees a number of incredibly subtle and powerful cuts, such as the perfect modern-day acoustic number “Haunted House” at number four, or the minimalistic, heart-wrenching, and chilling “Shiver and Shake”, both carrying exclusive signature Adams’ sound and harmonies as developed and nurtured over the past five years. These two tracks, still very much in line with an irresistible – and at times cheesy – Springsteenian 80s echoy, chorusy, and reverberate sound, with the aforementioned “To Be Without You”, come to complete side A of the LP. And yet many would say that the best is yet to come.

Track number seven is “Anything I Say to You Now”, a fiery, 5-minute long classic rock cut with numerous walls of guitar sounds that dial in direct digits to The Smiths and some lateish Police vibes, just to name a few of the influences very explicitly worn on Adams’ sleeves. No doubt the rockiest moment on the whole album alongside the lead single “Do You Still Love Me?”. Immediately after that we find the superb guitar work of “Breakdown”, possibly among the most electrifying and proud tracks Adams has released in years, with the addition of an high catchiness alert. Following the energy of “Breakdown” it’s time for yours truly’s favourite bit on the whole record (and potentially of the whole Ryan Adams catalogue, although “Shadows” and “Dear Chicago” remain hard to beat), called “Outbound Train”, which if one were not to look carefully could easily be mistaken for a song off of Bruce Springsteen’s 1986 Tunnel of Love (“Two Faces” anyone?). The track perfectly encapsulates anger, emotion, love and much more in a very uncompromising climax of sounds and lyrics (“The cars don’t move in the middle of the night / Lost inside the void of the fading tail lights / I swear I wasn’t lonely when I met you, girl”). Tempo, structure, and rhythm all take each other by the hand and carry the listener in a phantasmagoric four and a half minute journey marking intimacy, honesty, and rawness on Adams’ behalf.

Moving on, the last trio of songs on Prisoner begins with the mellow and rather hopeless “Broken Anyway”, which finds regularly captivating and dreamy electric guitar strums accompanying a rather simple acoustic lead with pleasant vocal melody. Also, this very song, alongside the following one “Tightrope”, bear heavy influences and remnants of Adams’ Taylor Swift interpretation and recording sessions for 1989, as both tracks just simply possess that vibe and overall feel which are impossible to negate. Prisoner calls its curtains with the properly titled “We Disappear”, which showcases what might be the best guitar sound that’s been heard out there in the electrical pantheon in a very long while and turns very quickly, very weird, perfectly matching the personal mission that Adams himself has been advocating for long (read his Twitter bio).

It’s no secret by now, being two weeks into its release, that Prisoner has found enormous success and praise by both critics and charts, demonstrating once more how amazingly the singer-songwriter is still able to not only reinvent and re-craft his musical outputs but also becoming an artist on his own, disregarding for the most part trends, genres, and commercial reasonings. The overwhelmingly positive reception the record has gotten around the world does nothing else other than confirming that we, the people, needed a record like this in present times of disorder, dismay and loss of connections. That is, by figuratively stripping himself completely naked and putting his most inner emotions out there telling stories of his failed marriage and connected despair, Ryan Adams showed us all that there is nothing to fear in being open and transparent about oneself and, most importantly, that honesty and truth will eventually unite us all in appreciation. Because at heart, we really shouldn’t be capable of nothing else.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

RYAN ADAMS

“PRISONER”

2017, PaxAmericana Recording Company

http://paxamrecords.com

prisoner_ra

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): THE MENZINGERS – AFTER THE PARTY | 2017-02-04

Yet another saturated and exciting musical phase (after what honestly was a pretty dull and modest first month of the new year) approaching yours truly, with new releases planned and expected soon from the likes of Ryan Fu**ing Adams – kind of a big deal because of this, this and even this – and indie rock kings Cold War Kids, as well as brand new music already announced for later on down the year by mighty Blink-182, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park. It is with such an uplifting and reinvigorated spirit in mind that I’m immensely excited to introduce you all to today’s artist, featured in 2017’s first ARM instalment: meet Pennsylvanian punk-rock minstrels The Menzingers.

After the Party is The Menzingers’ fifth studio album and comes after almost four years of restless touring in promotion of the moderately successful Rented World, released in 2014. This new effort is out on influential and devoted punk-rock Hollywood-based indie label Epitaph Records, founded by legendary Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz more than 30 years ago and that over its history has released major productions by seminal, genre-defining bands such as Pennywise, Social Distortion, Descendents, and, obviously, Bad Religion. It is precisely within such a sonic framework that one should broadly position The Menzingers, as more or less explicit influences of the outfits above and a handful more are easily to be found along the band’s catalogue so far. After the Party, which at time of writing came out officially yesterday, 3rd February, overall delivers a solid, 13-track release cutting at just under 45 minutes of unstriated and uncompromising melodic punk-rock which is overwhelmingly driven by loads, loads of guitars. Personally, it’s been quite some time I hadn’t revisited such a genre – which for me in the past had been taken care by folks like Rancid, The Gaslight Anthem and potentially a bit of Against Me! – and if anything it really felt good immersing myself in such waters again. Yet, even after repetitive listens, the album sort of leaves you a bit dry and longing for something more that was missing once closing track, albeit singularly convincing, “Livin’ Ain’t Easy” calls the curtains.

In fact, I guess the biggest problem of this record is its first half, with unfortunately really only presents  the wonderfully composed and melodically rich “House of Fire” at number six for future talks. This is despite side A of the album having included two of the three major singles releases off of After the Party, namely the pretty predictable and over-heard “Thick as Thieves” (number two on the tracklist) and the following, rather dark cut “Lookers”, which despite an interesting and touching intro kind of loses itself one minute into the song and at its best results too self-referential. Furthermore, album-opener “Tellin’ Lies” might even be ok for opening live shows and festival slots but in all frankness is not far from the exact reason why this kind of punk-rock simply got too boring at one point in history. “Midwestern States”, at number four, is certainly a pretty good song on average, though definitely not something to be remembered and quite possibly not one of the songs that will stuck with the listener after the album is over. The following “Charlie’s Army”, instead, is likely to be the worst track on the whole entire record, with not only a slim vocal lead but also heavy, at times disturbing disynchronization between all instruments included. Definitely one that could have been left off the final track listing.

Fortunately, things start to get much better with the album’s middle song “Black Mass”, a sweet semi-acoustic ballad that entails great vocal emotion and superior lyrics (“We used to want to take the back roads / But now we found a distance shorter / You used to call me darling / Now you prefer more formal“). Moreover, at number nine on the tracklist we find “Bad Catholics“, which was released as lead single late last year, arguably a right decision. The track is among the catchiest and radio-friendliest on After the Party and despite a wonderful and tempting main guitar riff doesn’t overstay its welcome and ends up at 2:52, making it the second-shortest song on the whole album. What follows is “Your Wild Years”, which alongside the aforementioned “Black Mass” contains some of the best words on the record highlighting and romanticising multi-ethnical backgrounds in form of an unusual love declaration, possibly more needed now than ever given present political times in the USA. Yet the very best of After the Party is without doubt found in its last two, closing songs “After the Party” and “Livin’ Ain’t Easy”. The former and title-track almost completely reaches songwriting and execution perfection mixing up raw emotion, fuelled guitars and drops of Taking Back Sunday, Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters here and there, which made me connect to it in a very intense fashion. Also, the intro guitar riff might be among the best in a good while within the recent punk-rock pantheon. Speaking of guitars, album closer “Livin Ain’t Easy” also decides to deliver chills down the listener’s spine via electric six strings, with its leading guitar lick wrapped up in beautiful reverb and chorus effects probably very reminiscent of last year’s Moose Blood’s Blush. Extremely well done and appropriate closing track.

There’s a lot of regret in me after listening to After the Party as a whole, precisely because of the last two tracks’ beauty and effectiveness. What I mean by that is that if it weren’t for the handful of boring and rather dull songs included in the LP (“Tellin’ Lies”, “Charlie’s Army” and “The Bars” leading the group), this album could’ve been really, really good and (already!) landed straight to this year’s list of best releases. Yes, because there are indeed songs that are truly exceptional (“Black Mass”, “Bad Catholics”, “After the Party” and “Livin’ Ain’t Easy”), and this Menzingers’ effort could have become a classic if, for example, released as an EP with its best of. However, in my opinion there are too many flaws to be acknowledged as such and sadly After the Party really can’t be labelled as more than an average, solid record. Yet, my love for certain, selected tunes might as well be catalysed precisely by those other poorer moments on the record, allowing them shine and emerge in contrast to the remaining ones and with regard to an overall perspective. And I guess this is exactly the splendour and magic of music: hard to explain and different for everyone. So please go on and come persuade me that this album is a masterpiece if you truly believe so, I’d be all ears.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

THE MENZINGERS

“AFTER THE PARTY”

2017, Epitaph Records

http://themenzingers.com

menzingers_atp

SAPPY NEW YEAR | 2017-01-05

Well hello there esteemed readers, welcome back to a fresh and shiny new solar year, called 2017!

I really do hope everyone has had a chance to spend happy and healthy holidays with their loved ones, whichever festivities one may adhere to. I had some fantastic time off at home and skiing on the Swiss Alps. I also got the best Christmas present I’ve ever received in form of a kickass necklace with two splendid pendants that represent two of my biggest passions in life and for that matter the whole single reason why I started this site in the first place (read this if you’d like to know more about it, + pic of said best Christmas present below). Before we go any further, I’d also like to take the occasion to wish every single one of you a wonderful and passionate new year from the whole team at Everything Must Swing, which in all true honesty it’s just me, no one else really. Nonetheless, I would like for everyone’s onboarding on the new collection of 365 days into a single unity to be as passionate and inspiring as possible, and therefore I thought I’d come up with scattered bits and pieces listing some of the things that are getting me excited during the first days of 2017.

First of all, do yourself a favour and give a listen to the whole Frank Ocean‘s discography. It’s not immense, it starts with his debut mixtape nostalgia,ULTRA. (retrievable almost anywhere on the web with free download) and ends up with his latest, long-awaited LP Blonde that came out in August last year. In between these there’s the critically acclaimed first sensation studio album Channel ORANGE (released in 2012) as well as the totally unexpected, music-industry Trojan horse of a visual album Endless which came out a day before Blonde last Summer, however still only available through Apple Music. I’m suggesting to take a deep dive into his art because Frank Ocean is a pretty big deal. He used to be (or still is?) one of the most creative and daring members of the highly influential L.A. hip hop collective Odd Future and over time has received more praises and accolades in and out the music industry than almost anyone else in the past five to ten years. However, more than anything he’s a true R&B, soul sonic experimenter who has not been afraid to speak out on gender and sexuality issues as well as brilliantly setting up an elegant and refined strategy to screw a major record label – Def Jam Recordings/Universal, to be specific – through his double close-up release of Endless and Blonde. My personal take is that his music not only transcends genres and formats, but also possesses an extremely intense staying power, growing immensely on the listener at every new play. Try out for yourselves.

Secondly, in case you’re looking for some prompts and cues in terms of movies and television, I couldn’t recommend enough Dan Gilroy-directed thriller Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and taking place in a dark and gloomy L.A. whenever one would like it to take place time-wise. Wikipedia says that the movie portrays “a thief who starts shooting live footage of accidents and crimes in Los Angeles, selling the content to a local news channel as a stringer while secretly sabotaging both crime scenes and other news reporters” and to be fair I think it’s a good description of what it is about. Yet beyond its plot I truly believe that the movie has some of the best on screen dialogues and cinematography around, and while it was released quite some time ago already, appears to remain more relevant than ever theme-wise hinting at modern society’s perverse and twisted relationship with breaking news as well as a long lasting crisis of contemporary journalism. Also, it’s no surprise given the excellence of the script and some of the exchanges in the movie that the producers even decided to release the movie script in full on the Interweb. Definitely worth a watch/read if you too like me enjoy dope convos, double meanings, and lightened lines while at the same time not sacrificing an engaging and suspenseful plot.

Third, this time moving to the literary dimension, I currently find myself deep in the reading of American author James Franco’s Actors Anonymous novel, published in 2013 and tracing parallel (mostly very weird) stories about different (mostly very troubled) actors in California. The semi-autobiographical book deploys heavy name-dropping and I believe borrows most of the storylines from James Franco’s own acting career, notably having starred in movies such as the first Spider-Man trilogy, Pineapple Express, Milk, 127 Hours and many more as well as having been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2011. The novel’s tale is inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous’ famous 12 steps and 12 traditions by adapting them to the acting world and the Hollywoodian high entertainment industry as a whole, converting the book into a dark, genre-bending ensemble that – as stated before – shamelessly mixes personal memoir and quintessential fiction, not least scrutinising all sins and excesses of those involved in the maintaining of said industry. Extremely funny at times, the novel represents a true and profound insight into Franco’s take on what it really means to be acting and which higher purpose the whole activity oughta serve. Though above all the book might as well be considered a first-account collection of anecdotes, trivia and little behind-the-scenes stories about the world of global celebrities and world-famous actors that might otherwise have gone unheard, mostly because of the extent of shame and mercilessness involved. Or, as Franco puts it himself in the book’s frontispiece: “Hollywood has always been a private club. I open the gates. I say welcome. I say, look inside”. Give the book a read if you’ve ever wondered what happens to big entertainment stars in between movies and projects.

Well I guess that’s about it for now, as you can see I’ve touched upon three fundamental artistic formats (music, film and book) so as to try to not overrepresent the Queen of them all – the sonic one – as it is usually the case with this site. To be fair, there could be other entertaining-escapist suggestions I could potentially be giving you for this rather downish period of the working year, such as a couple of other movies or TV shows I’ve been glimpsing at here and there, however I don’t want to feel like telling you too much what to do and see but I’d much rather give out some initial, core inspirations such as the above ones, from which then everyone goes on their individual journey to find what really enriches them perhaps ending up at a much different place than the starting one. Actually, looking back at my three artistic cues above I only now realise that there is indeed a deep, underlying theme that somehow connects them all: Los Angeles. That is, it turns out that the Californian city of Angels – unbeknownst to me – is the lowest common denominator to all Frank Ocean, Nightcrawler and Actors Anonymous, for many different reasons. Yet, the narration of how and what this comes to be might be as well be outside of the scope of this very blogpost, thus let’s just say that I’ll leave that to me alone by considering it my own personal artistic journey that has taken off out of those initial three ingredients. Now it’s your turn to make yours a reality. Enjoy (not so) responsibly.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ems_newyear

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BAD RABBITS – AMERICAN NIGHTMARE | 2016-12-18

An exceptionally interesting year is nearing its end and at this point it’s probably safe to say the best thing that could happen to us is a full reboot and restart from scratch in 2017. I will presumably devote a dedicated blogpost fairly soon trying to sum up some of 2016’s personally most interesting artistic bits and pieces (watch this space…), but before that I couldn’t bid farewell to this kaleidoscopic and eclectic year without one last instalment of the award-winning ARM column, so very much appreciated by yours truly’s esteemed readers. Also, I have a sense that the title of the record I will be reviewing in this very blogpost – Bad Rabbits’ American Nightmare – kind of already hints at a pretty faithful depiction of one of the most relevant developments that took place over the last twelve months and beyond. Yet, as the nature of ARM chapters calls for, there will be no room for other than pure, condensed and distilled musical critique within the walls of this very webpage’s frame. First things first. Set priorities straight. Enjoy.

Bad Rabbits are a Boston, MA, based funk-soul-rock quintet that’s been around for quite some time now, namely forming back in 2007 but in reality active for much more than ten years considering early line-ups and name changes. They might not be as well-known in Europe as they appear to be in the USA, and I personally might not had stumbled upon them either had it not been for Taking Back Sunday taking them as opening act on a long tour a couple of years ago. And boy am I glad they did, as these guys really do kick asses and their live performances are a true spectacle in their own right. So far the band has published five different records (3 EPs and 2 LPs). Their latest 12-track release is indeed titled American Nightmare (see artwork below) and was made available for free (!) – but after all, come on, it’s 2016… – via their website and all other blah blah digital stores on 21st November. Fun fact, despite its gratuity the album is also for sale on iTunes Store so I decided to actually purchase it after having dowloaded it for free just because it’s me and I like to be awesome most of the times. All joking aside, make sure to support original great music with every means you have at disposal. If you really don’t want to buy records and just like to stream tracks for free, at least inject yourself with ODs of live shows and merch and and and. Remembers, a cup of coffee at Starbucks costs around £4.

The album is an impressively solid rock & roll release closing at about 46 minutes, proving that Bad Rabbits didn’t try to hold back so much and gave out as much as it made sense for them. In this regard, as the band itself later revealed over a tweet, the writing and recording process for American Nightmare took place in a much smaller, more intimate and modest context that however was able to bring inspiration and emotion back to the Boston group. Overall, the record swings between ambient/space rock atmospheres – always led by beautiful guitars and arrangements – and stripped down, raw rapping crossing funk, R&B and hard rock all in between. It’s by far one of the most intrinsically varied and articulated albums I’ve listened to this year, but in fact what strikes me as even more surprising is Bad Rabbits ability and skilfulness to create extremely catchy melodies throughout the tracklist. Take for example lead single “Original” and its angry, dirty, and in-your-face emotion, or for instance the landscape-y “Too Late”, or again the mid-album ballad “Flames”: all those choruses and recurring refrains just simply stick to you from almost the first listen and result very well placed. Try and see for yourself.

Yet the record doesn’t simply prove songwriting maturity in its overall melodic extent and accessibility but possibly more prominently through its themes and lyrics, ranging from acute self-awareness and exploration to recent socio-political frames. For instance, the chilling and breathtaking “Wwyd” at number eight on the tracklist heavily deals with street and police gun violence alongside bigger conversations about race and discrimination via a powerful, minimalistic rapping chant. Similarly delicate topics lead tracks such as the explicit and at times exaggerated opener “Stalker”, the hectic and frantic “Save Yourself” as well as curtain call self-motivational anthem “Push”, which by the way features the only guest spot on the album with brilliant rap bars Spnda. American Nightmare is clearly loaded with socio-political statements and pieces of protest, and whilst to some it might look like just another anti-establishment rock album at first glance, there is an undeniable depth to the final output which openly places the record alongside other massive mass awakening and system-rejector releases such as letlive.’s If I’m the Devil…

Another noteworthy attribute of this album is its ability to let tracks grown onto the listener and almost catapult them to each one’s personal favourite bucket off of it. That is, songs such as the legitimately weirdly synths-loaded “Game of Chess” or the rather hysterical and messy “The Wire” seem to possess this rare capability of shaping themselves into radically enjoyable sonic frames completely revolting initial impressions, at least as far as I was concerned. In fact, this dynamic affected me to the extent that I currently consider “The Wire” the best cut off the whole record (I know this is subject to change and always a dangerous statement, yet true to this moment in time). The above is not to say that American Nightmare doesn’t have its weaknesses too, not at all. Songs like the too obvious “The Cloud” at number three or the slow, stripped down semi-acoustic  (and semi-boring…) number “My Song” do in fact represent the lowest points on this album, however legitimately acceptable and by no means affecting the overall positive and enthusiastic judgement of this record.

All in all, Bad Rabbits have put out an extremely relevant, thought-through and melodically beautiful record that in so many ways could aim at representing a lot of that’s happened during this ever-changing and ever-surprising year. This is true also for the lessons that should be learned and the main takeaways after listening to it: above all it’s a record distilling virtues of hope, sacrifice and self-growth. Or, as Bad Rabbits put it themselves in closing track “Push”: “Just push yourself, no matter if you go through hell“. What better phrasing to wrap up 2016?

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time. And happy holidays this time around.

AV

BAD RABBITS

“AMERICAN NIGHTMARE”

2016, Bad Records

http://www.badrabbits.com/

badrabbits_an

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – TIDAL WAVE | 2016-10-17

Alright folks, here we are. The time has finally come. After having hyped about it for months hinting at it through this Summer’s most anticipated releases list and scrupulously analysed one of its single’s music video, my very own and utterly personal take on Taking Back Sunday’s 7th LP Tidal Wave is here. The 12-track, 48-minute long record dropped almost exactly a month ago (16th September) and was released on independent Californian label Hopeless Records, as it was the case for their previous effort Happiness Is. The album was recoded and produced in North Carolina by Tell All Your Friend-magician and Taking Back Sunday’s longtime friend Mike Sapone, who again worked on their 6th LP too. In fact, if you’re keen on learning more about the whole album-making process and behind-the-scenes insights from the Sioux Sioux studio in Charlotte (NC) where everything took place – which to me is as equally fascinating as the finished product itself – the label recently put out a nice making-of video reportage of the whole recording process.

Actually, because of the existence of said footage and so as to preserve some of its exclusive value, I’m going to spare you the majority of the details as well as the background of what led the actual album to be recorded alongside some of the main creative narratives behind it, trying to get straight to what in the end represents the essence of it with no further ado: the music itself. However, there is one thing I’d like to mention indeed, namely the fact that this record represents the first time in the band’s history that the same line-up has released three records in a row. That is, up until this point the NY outfit always changed at least some parts of its formation before completing a third consecutive album with the same one (they got close after 2004’s Where You Want to Be and Louder Now two years after, only to be disrupted by shaky departures of bass player Matt Rubano and lead guitarist Fred Mascherino before 2009’s New Again [!] was put out). Moreover, the realisation that this very personal and to be fair not very impressive accomplishment is to be obtained with the OG line up that started it all in the first place, I think speaks for something that makes the gestation of Tidal Wave a little more special.

For this record the band abandoned the not very fortuned choice of a “preface”-like instrumental opener to dances (see Happiness Is), but rather come straight to the point with “Death Wolf”. And boy, oh boy, do they get straight to the point with a fast, edgy, and punky rollercoaster that in some ways is set to deceive the listener after its first ambient-y overture minute. This track is right to be placed at number one for many reasons, and even after a solid good month of repetitive listens to the whole effort to me it’s the one that stays with you long after you’ve pressed stop. It’s got everything I like about this band: it’s raw, emotional, groovy, unpredictable and its lyrics are quintessential Adam Lazzara and John Nolan (the band’s lead lyricists). Moreover, the song’s hilarious, juxtapositional and at times genius “music video” makes for an even better listening experience. Plus, how cool is it to have a song called “Death Wolf”?! Just dope. The record continues with a duo of tracks, “Tidal Wave” and “You Can’t Look Back”, that were the ones already known to the large public being the first and second lead singles off the record. The title track at number two is an unapologetic tribute to some of the band’s main influences (The Ramones, The Clash, pure punk-rock more in general) and might as well be one of the catchiest songs Taking Back Sunday has ever written. To me a wonderful choice for both a title tracked-song and a first leading single. Fun fact is that, apparently, if it weren’t for drummer Mark O’Connell insisting on developing the song’s first raw ideas coming from John Nolan, the track might as well never have made the cut into the record. As for the following, third track, I’d spare you any more commentary and simply refer to a recent piece where I take a look at its music video (warning: it’s highly interpretable!).

The record then carries on to what might arguably be its most sophisticated and sonically mature part, showcasing the triade of songs “Fences”, “All Excess”, and “I Felt it Too”. At the same time, these tracks also represent some of the biggest departures in the band’s previous sounds, proposing solid and cohesive modern-day rock songs that encompass elaborated guitar sounds and unexpected electric/acoustic switches (“Fences”), incredible melodic feel entangled with signature emotional rawness (“All Excess”) as well as cradling, stripped down, and somehow hypnotic soundscapes that just don’t make you leave until the last note (“I Felt It Too”). From there, the album gets picked up by “Call Come Running”, a song that might have easily competed for first single from the start and that sees the band wearing their 80s influences pretty unapologetically offering another big, harmonic chorus similarly to what has long characterised one of Taking Back Sunday’s most widely appreciate traits. Next on the tracklist is “Holy Water”, and I have no shame in explicitly saying that, alongside “Death Wolf” and “Fences”, it is up there for the contender of personal favourite of the whole record. The track delivers emotionality from all its components and does a fantastic job in mixing songwriting, structure, and sound effects in a sustainable way that just works. In many ways it’s one of Taking Back Sunday’s best songs ever, in that I feel it enables each member to shine justifying their contribution in a way that actually enhances the creative constellation of the musical outcome without falling into risky self-referential schemes. “In the Middle of It All”, next one on the list, changes the landscape yet again pulling a lot of the band’s past sounds but reverting them back into a rocky production that has rarely been left so “dirty” and “gainy” ever before. Also, take a closer listen to Mark O’Connell’s drumming on this one, really going the extra mile delivering one of his best performances.

Tidal Wave, the artwork of which is as usual reported below and as a good friend of mine made me aware, has too many (more or less subtle) references to Nirvana’s Nevermind to go unnoticed, approaches its end with a trio of acoustic-led tracks, which from an overall musical standpoint could even make sense but unfortunately doesn’t really convince. My feeling is that one among the three tracks could’ve been left out (“We Don’t Go In There”?), a decision which by the way would’ve landed the record on to eleven tracks, which has always been the case for all previous Taking Back Sunday albums. While both “Homecoming” and “I’ll Find a Way to Make It What You Want” definitely have great ideas and display some interestingly looking-forward folk/americana influences, I just can’t abandon the sensation that the three tracks presented like this in a subsequent row are hard to sustain. Shame, because as just hinted at it would’ve been enough to simply drop one tune and it would’ve made for an even more brilliant record, overall. In other words, this kind of track listing ending has sometimes found me quitting the album listening experience at its peak, i.e. just after “In the Middle of It All”, not so much for lack of excitement to carry on but rather for impending fear of bringing this record “back to normality”, where it definitely shouldn’t be.

With that said, Tidal Wave is no doubt up there in the pantheon of Taking Back Sunday’s best work, representing a perfect snapshot of where the band is at right now both personally and artistically. There’s a lot of maturity, sound development, and lyrical refinement to be found among the twelve album tracks. In this regard, one of the things that work best here to me are song transitions, as they’re never hard placed or in any way forced, making for an extremely seamless and streamlined listening experience and giving even more legitimacy to the concept of “album” as a whole. The overall feeling is that with this release the band is at its most transparent and honest it has ever been, while one can totally tell that something special was started again by the original line up when they reunited with their 2011’s self titled record. The musical and lyrical narrative of the current incarnation 2.0 is there to be grasped with full force and in a much more tangible way than ever before, and this is successfully accompanied by innate compositional talent too. All in all, to keep this progress going, it simply looks like the NY alternative rock veterans have no other choice other than to ride this (tidal) wave for many, many other years to come.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

TAKING BACK SUNDAY

“TIDAL WAVE”

2016, Hopeless Records

http://www.takingbacksunday.com

tbs_tidalwave

RAIN ON AMERICA | 2016-09-25

The past couple weeks have been extremely intense music-wise for me. On 16th September my all time favourite band Taking Back Sunday released their seventh studio album Tidal Wave, which has doubtlessly been on a loopy repeat ever since, whereas two days ago – on Friday 23rd September – Buffalo, NY, hardcore natives Every Time I Die dropped their highly anticipated and already acclaimed new LP Low Teens. Both made (and are still making…) for a very dense musical listening period which will likely fruit in some form of review on this frequencies sooner or later. I wouldn’t want to give away too much at this stage yet but I’ve got to say both of them offer, in very different ways, loads of interesting talking points and somehow represent new sonic frontiers for both outfits. More on this soon(-ish).

I just really wanted to touch base and highlight a little piece of art by alt-folk singer songwriter Ryan Adams that caught my attention during the past days. Interestingly enough, this time round I’m not talking about a song or album, but rather a free poem called Rain on America he released within his collection “Infinity Blues”, published back in 2009 and followed by a second instalment titled “HelloSunshine” during the same year. To be fair there could indeed be some room for musical excerpts, considering that the 41-year-old North Carolina minstrel recently announced the release of yet another LP in his already incredibly prolific career (18 studio albums and 11 EPs recorded in about 20 years!), provisionally called “Prisoner” and which Rolling Stone rightfully listed among its 35 must-hear albums of this fall. Yet I’d rather leave said musings to after it comes out, due in November, and let Ryan’s pungent and at times thorny verses do the talking for this one instead.

There’s not much to say really to introduce the following poem other than it truly resonates and emerges as relevant as ever to the current socio-political landscape, not only in the USA but other major Western countries too, even though it was most likely written about a decade ago. Enjoy it responsibly:

so dirty
so dirty and so mean
is a rainbow
is a letter-stained
is a blowhole sewer
that’s right
just a touch of little america
in a small town
wishing you were gay
or allergic
to something
anything
symmetrical lines ripe with train machines
like arms
branches of trees stuck to this rock
out-stretching
blowing up fast
through
shadow mole-holes
and
rain
rain rain rain


so dirty
so dirty and mean
hands like a battling machine
like a failed robotic attempt
like an interruption at the movies
like texting your former lover
or future
because he will not stop your nevers
not here
with a little touch of america
at your service door
flags in the yard
dogs in the house
his name above
loose and no growl
little ones go teary and cross
while the plate gets heavy with
cigarettes and lip gloss
and gin-scum breath
and cigarette-tray stains
and a hand gets bit by an animal
but nobody screams
or says anything
the mall dies
so eventually
store by store
the zombies outside they aren’t scary anymore
before the movies went cold before before
and the film backed up on the shilling and trade post
and chicken meat got hormonal and plain


so dirty
so dirty and so mean
little and loud
angry
and effortlessly proud
of nothing
and plain
just a little touch of america
rain
rain rain rain.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

ryanadams_usflag

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): TAKING BACK SUNDAY – YOU CAN’T LOOK BACK (MUSIC VIDEO) | 2016-08-28

Watch the video first:

So last Tuesday my favourite band of all time Taking Back Sunday released a new single off their upcoming seventh studio album Tidal Wave (out on 16th September on Hopeless Records) titled “You Can’t Look Back”, which obviously got me overwhelmingly excited and all. Then, a couple of days and hundreds of plays later, I stumbled across a very funny and interesting article reminiscing about early Noughties punk-rock/emo nostalgia in which the author scrutinises frame-by-frame and with extreme meticulosity the band’s cult music video for fan-favourite track “You’re So Last Summer” released in late 2003. I immediately really liked the idea – less so the form and method used though – and hence thought to myself that, considering that thus far within my critically-acclaimed music review feature Alex Reviews Music I’ve only considered full records and or live shows, I might as well have a try myself at considering a music video as fundamental unit of my analysis. So here I am taking a closer look at the New York emo veterans’ latest single disguised as official music video (do they even still exist?!) directed by Anthem Films‘ DJay Brawner, also responsible for the band’s videos for Happiness Is‘s singles “Flicker, Fade” and “Better Homes and Gardens“. Yet, before I’d dug into any kind of reasoning or reflection and therefore somehow influence someone’s understanding of the track, I’d like you, my reader, to immerse yourself independently into the video hence why I copied it at the top of this page. Please do have a look at it before continuing reading if you’re interested in what I’m writing about.

The video starts off with a young man in a bright jeans jacket picking up a girl from what one understands might be her job place then driving off across desolated desert streets with a middle-range pick up truck. The couple then appears to be riding through unpaved roads before joining other friends at an outdoor party surrounding an impromptu fireplace on an empty clearing, all in an extremely joyous and intimate way. Nothing too spectacular so far. But more importantly, nothing that could somehow be misinterpreted or that is left hanging searching for meaning. This is when Taking Back Sunday themselves come into the game, as we find  – in order of appearance – lead guitarist John Nolan, drummer Mark O’Connell, singer Adam Lazzara, bassist Shaun Cooper and rhythm guitarist Eddie Reyes all already gathered around the festive rendezvous.

It is exactly from this point in time onwards that finding a common and indisputable meaning to the developments in the video, especially when paired with the enigmatic lyrics, becomes truly hard. That is, for example, as soon as the couple of leading actors joins the rest of the group I start noticing dark expressions and moderate discomfort on frontman Adam Lazzara’s face, who in the end is the one not only writing but also singing the lyrics in question. This impression doesn’t fade with time as Adam incidentally remains the only one not pouring with joy and light heartedness even when the lead actors mix themselves up with the rest of their friends and everyone else seems to be having a good time. In fact, this theory appears to be confirmed from minute 2:47 onwards, as an unexpected dramatic twist hits the so far linear and harmonic plot of the video, when Adam suddenly starts throwing up tons of blood from the depth of his stomach and searches his way through the crowd surrounding the fire, seemingly unaware of the whole thing.

Adam then starts to touch, approach and cover up other people with the dark blood coming out of his throat while every single one of them doesn’t bat an eye and keeps going on with what they’re doing. At one point, he then reaches for the lady who got picked up by the main character at the beginning of the video by touching her shoulder but even herself, albeit with a small and quick sign of awareness, ignores him altogether and keeps flirting with her alleged fiancée. Adam then collapses on the floor suffering in pain and rolls on his sides while at the same time covering himself up with sand and everything else that’s on the ground, before walking away from the feast and the group of people on a small path, not without falling back down the hill and adding to the existing damage even more. The video ends with Adam reaching the young couple’s truck parked not far from the party starting its engine seemingly ready to leave.

I guess my overall interpretation of the music video depends greatly from a few lines of the song’s lyrics that to me seem to ornament and complement the actual development in the visual story line. These verses are “I’m not the same man / not since you came in”, “Still feel the same way / Still don’t know where I’m going”, “I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long” as well as “Don’t know how you did it other than you did / I was there beside myself in my own skin”. My takeaway from them is that the young lady who joined the party with her man at the beginning of the video is the one Adam is (metaphorically) referring to in the song and obviously played an important part in his life, most likely sentimentally. Then, as soon as she joins the game he starts losing control of himself and so begins his physical downfall until he needs to leave the gathering altogether (“I’m not the same man / not since you came in”). Since he doesn’t seem able to explain such kind of reaction (“Don’t know how you did it other than you did”) he thus seeks time for himself and acquires ownership of one of the only things that could take him back to her later on, her fiancée’s car (“I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long”).

At heart, the track sounds to be about not being able of letting go of the past but at the same time convincing yourself that looking at the rearview mirror is only making things worse. As with all best songs, there’s much juxtaposition to be found and while for a great part it is a song about emotional weakness – not least when considered alongside its music video – after having listened to it one can’t help but feeling motivated to overcome said challenge and convincing themselves that moving forward in order to stop suffering about the past is not only an option but also the right one.

All in all, the beauty of art pieces is precisely that everyone is allowed the privilege of drawing different meanings and interpretations from them, sometimes very far off from what the creator first might have wanted to transmit, and this latest music video by Taking Back Sunday is probably no exception. I’ll leave you below with the complete lyrics for the song, perhaps they might help shed some clarity on its original meaning for the band and Adam most of all, looking back at how it all ties together with sounds and images. Or did we not just learn that we can’t look back?

[Verse 1]
I was living day to day
As the meetings they would suggest
Sitting pretty having one foot out that door
I didn’t know how to act
Started running and I didn’t look back
Still feel the same way
Still don’t know where I’m going
Oh, then you let me in
I don’t know how you did it other than you did

[Pre-Chorus]
You cut your wrist and said ‘come get you some’
It only works if you don’t look down
Bought the ticket, now you’re on the track
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back
You can keep it but you can’t look back

[Chorus]
I didn’t know what I was looking for
And come to think I wasn’t looking at all
I’m not the same man, not since you came in
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I’m not the same man, not since you came in
I’m going to get you if it take me all night
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long

[Verse 2]
I was nearly four states away
Mamma calling from the other end
Something about someday a woman’s gonna need you most the time
I didn’t know how to act
I started running and I didn’t look back
Still feel the same way
Still don’t know where I’m going
But now I’m in it until the bitter end
So if you’re gonna do me then you do me like that

[Pre-Chorus]

[Chorus]

[Bridge]

[Outro]
Don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
I’m going to get you if it takes me all night long
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
Don’t know how you did it other than you did
I was there beside myself in my own skin
Unfamiliar, I tried it on and liked the fit
I don’t know how you did it other than you did
Don’t know how you did it other than you did

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

TBS_CantLookBack

ALEX REVIEWS MUSIC (ARM): BLINK-182 – CALIFORNIA | 2016-07-31

It’s another time of great artistic inspiration the one that led to me to the present new ARM instalment that scrutinises Californian pop-punk legends blink-182’s latest full length effort. That is, a renewed wave of exciting and refreshing TV shows has been fast approaching delivering, among others, Mr Robot‘s second season as well as Netflix original new cult series Stranger Things, which I’m sure will keep me busy for a good while during my holidays (yours sincerely writing this on the second day of well-deserved Summer vacation, indeed). Moreover, more time resources have been found lately being devoted to catching up with readings that had unfortunately been forced to be put aside for too long, such as Hermann Hesse, Dennis Lehane as well as good ol’ Chuck Palahniuk. Lastly, and possibly most closely related to the output of this blogpost, a number of new musical discoveries has permeated my non-work-related time over the past month, with the likes of Temple of the Dog – incidentally having just announced their first tour ever, though as of now only confined to the USA – Butch Walker and Phosphorescent adding up significantly to my personal list of new obsessions.

Back to the main purpose of this writing. Blink-182’s seventh studio LP California, recorded during the first months of 2016 and produced by notorious hitmaker John Feldmann (Panic! at the Disco, The Used, 5 Seconds of Summer), had been long on my radar of most highly anticipated releases of the year and couldn’t therefore get away from my fiercely ferocious and deeply feared sonic analysis. In fact, there are a ton of good and legit reasons to be objectively excited about the record, not least it being the first one after founding member Tom DeLonge’s departure – replaced by on guitar and vocal duties by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba – and pretty much coming together not long after blink-182 being an inch away from splitting up and never playing together ever again. The album, previewed by catchy and explosive lead single “Bored to Death” and whose original artwork was created by UK street artist D*Face (cf. image below), did however get released on 1st July and has therefore been marinating in my mind for almost a month, which I believe is a fairly adjusted amount of time for a properly comprehensive tell all about it.

California cuts at just about 43 minutes of length with a total of sixteen (!) tracks, which I guess places itself well along a punk-rock pantheon made of collections of numerous, speedy and immediate songs. To be fair, two of these songs (“Built This Pool” and “Brohemian Rhapsody”) can’t really count as such being more of old-blink skits/jokey songs about male and female nudity with some shredding and drums fills spread across a handful of seconds running time each. The remaining fourteen songs don’t exaggerate in length either, with basically all of them ending at about the 3-minute mark exception made for opening track “Cynical” and live-favourite “The Only Thing That Matters”, both not even reaching two minutes and actually representing some of the best moments on this record, with some honest in-ya-face fast punk rock drive married with extremely catchy vocal melodies. Said formula unfortunately doesn’t seem to succeed in many other tracks of the album, with rather miserable attempts undertaken on “The Rock Show”-rip off “She’s Out of Her Mind”, “Kings of the Weekend” and “Teenage Satellites”, by far the most unnecessary, repetitive and overstayed songs on California.

Instead, it’s when blink-182 change the formula that things start to work out much better. One way of crystallising this is going back to thinner, basic songwriting towards a place that couldn’t be further apart from the punk rock edge that defines a big chunk of this album. Songs like “Home Is Such a Lonely Place”, which could have easily been developed in the same writing session as of fan-favourite “I Miss You”, and their homeland tribute “San Diego”, represent both pleasant acoustic surprises that, sonically and considering the overall tonal mood of the record, help mellow things out at number eight and thirteen on the tracklist. Another pattern that could roughly be spotted across the sixteen songs it’s the involvement of electronic sound touches that lie somewhere between +44 (bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker’s short-lasting side project borne out of blink-182’s first hiatus crisis in 2005) and the latter ambient incarnations of the band manifested in 2011’s Neighborhoods and the poorly-received EP Dogs Eating Dogs released in 2012. This pattern is found at best in tracks such as the anthemic and paramount “Los Angeles” as well as the album’s title track, possibly my favourite song off the LP. Less successfully, and somehow in disagreement with the band members themselves, such intersection between raw punk rock roots, big stadium sound and electronic finishings doesn’t really seem to take off in “Left Alone”, which was apparently long in the shortlist for the first lead single off the record.

Speaking of singles, besides the aforementioned “Bored to Death” the So-Cal punk rockers opted for the fast-paced and quite dark “Rabbit Hole” as a follow up shortly before “No Future“, where one can’t miss to find a wealth of similarities with classic blink “Adam’s Song”, found the light of the day as third preview of California. The picking choice of the three singles isn’t surely one that will go undiscussed and holds significant room for alternative suggestions, yet, at least from a commercial perspective, the final selection seems to have been a reasonable one given that the album debuted straight at number one in both USA and UK. It is however through a catchy, up-beat and generally great song like “Sober”, co-written with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, that one finds grand pleasure in welcoming blink-182 back to the scene, in many ways it seemed like the mainstream punk rock world had been missing them for too long.

blink-182 is currently on a headlining tour supporting their latest release, accompanied by an impressive list of supporting acts including A Day to Remember, All Time Low and The All-American Rejects. It looks however as if the California tour is only touching US ground so far, hence my suggestion would be (Pokémon) go catch the punk veterans live if you’re lucky enough to be based in America, though let me make damn sure that this very last sentence entailing said judgement of quality can only be used in conjunction to the above topic and bears no further reference to present tumultuous political times. Unless prank song “Built This Pool” turns into a new version involving the construction of something else, obviously.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

BLINK-182

“CALIFORNIA”

2016, Viking Wizard Eyes LLC

http://blink182.com

Blink182_California

 

MUSIC’S OUT FOR SUMMER | 2016-05-15

There’s now about another month to go before everyone’s favourite season will hit 2016 with full force and dominance and boy I’ve got to tell you there’s so much more than warm nights, shorts and endorphins distribution that is hyping the next-up season for me. Of course I’m referring to a golden selection of upcoming outputs of art’s purest and most complete manifestation, music. I’ve recently come to realise that between official release dates announcements and more or less dubious hints at new material a reasonably wealthy list of soon-to-be released albums is waiting to welcoming me at Summer’s heavenly entry gates. I thus immediately thought I could use some sort of thought arrangement and draft out a little piece about what is currently getting me excited about in the pantheon of upcoming mainstream music releases. For the sake of completeness I’ve attached all artworks relating the albums I’ll be bragging about further below, considering the ones that have already officially been announced at time of writing (cf. date in title).

I guess I’m elaborating this list in hierarchical order of preference taking into account both my present involvement with each artist as well as the quality and anticipation of what’s already been undisclosed off each release. Hence, how could I avoid kicking off my personal sublime selection with the upcoming fourth studio album by L.A. soul-punk minstrels letlive., If I’m the Devil…? Due out on 10th June, the album has already been brilliantly previewed by the mighty and politically/socially aware single “Good Mourning, America” as well as a second, reflexive and angsty track called “Reluctantly Dead”, released just about a week ago. This is possibly one of the records I’m most fervently looking forward to this year and for over a couple of months now I’ve totally been obsessed with letlive. and everything they’ve done and touched upon in the past. Including not-so-latent references to Malcom X and Michael Jackson. I swear this all makes sense despite its apparent disconnection. This is going to be good.

For number two on the list I already find myself cheating a little bit. That is, Chicago-based hip hop artist and Kanye West-protégé Chance The Rapper‘s third official mixtape Coloring Book has actually just been release and wouldn’t thus necessarily count as presently anticipated album, neither would it theoretically have been dropped in Summer time. Though who cares really, Chance’s latest Gospel-fuelled output came out just days ago and is already candidating at becoming one of this year’s highlights with its feel-good vibes, sublime lyrics and first class featurings. In fact, he kind of foresaw the whole thing himself back in February this year as he and his buddy Kanye promised “do a good ass job with Chance three” on the latter’s The Life of Pablo‘s prodigious opening track “Ultralight Beam” (as a side note: Chance’s mixtape was for long known as Chance 3 and was changed to Coloring Book shortly before being released). Bearing in mind that I haven’t had that many chances (pun definitely intended…) to immerse myself into it yet, gut instinct says me that album-opener “All We Got”, the beautifully empowering “Blessings” as well as bittersweetly impactful “Same Drugs” will blow everyone’s minds this Summer.

Next on the list is The Getaway, the eleventh studio album of one of the biggest US rock bands in history, Red Hot Chili Peppers. This album follows 2011’s moderately successful I’m With You and is the first for them in almost half a decade. The Getaway is previewed by “Dark Necessities“, a five-minute long track that debuted worldwide on 5th May and, to say the least, isn’t necessarily their most straight-forward and radio-friendly lead single ever, both in terms of song structure and topics handled. I personally really like the tune and what I like even more is the album’s artwork, a splendid depiction in form of a melting pot between species, colours and dynamics. The album will feature thirteen tracks with more than half of them easily surpassing the aforementioned five-minute mark which definitely makes it for an interesting remark to begin with. Plus, you really never fully know with the Chili Peppers, this could end up being literally anything.

Blink-182 are back at it too. Which, I mean, it’s kind of a big deal. At least for me, them being hands-down one of three most influential bands on my childhood and young adulthood alongside Nirvana and Taking Back Sunday. However, recent years have not been the shiniest ones for the Southern California pop-punk gods, including an excessively forced band reunion in 2009, a few uninspired releases and most importantly a tumultuous – and apparently not over yet – public band drama that led founder member and guitarist Tom DeLonge to quit (?) the band and having him replaced by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba on both guitar and vocal duties. Their new, certainly highly-anticipated seventh studio album set to be released on 1st July is titled California and foresees no less than sixteen tracks, albeit most of them having quite short running times thus possibly hinting at those throwback purely raw punk features that a good portion of their hardcore fanbase has been calling for a decade now. I’m personally not dying and freaking out on a daily basis to hear California, though partly because of my personal legacy to the band and partly because of the new formation I somehow suspect that Blink-182 could be in a position to surprise a big slice of the audience (possibly me included) with a solid, refreshing new album that redeems their recent past. We shall soon see.

Last of the officially known upcoming record releases is Blush, the sophomore album of UK emo-punk sensation Moose Blood. The release is being led by main single “Honey“, which to be honest to me doesn’t compare to and marks a step back if confronted with their fantastic debut I’ll Keep You in Mind, From Time to Time dating back in 2014. Yet, the lads are still too young to be harshly judged – let alone with just one song out at this point – and I really like to think that this will be another highlight of the upcoming Summerish musical season. Nonetheless, there is a reason why I left Moose Blood last in this very personal list, i.e. the frightful suspect that “Honey” may actually be one of the better cuts off the album, out on 5th August, and that the release as a whole will basically be a disappointing one, again considering that the bar was set extremely high after their first record. Please Moose Blood, go on and contradict me demonstrating that you’re still onto that magically inspired wave of delicate songwriting ability that characterised your rise into the mainstream emo scene.

Before wrapping up, there’s actually one more thing I’d like to throw out there. This thing is an intensely wished prolongation of the above list by three additional speculative releases, that if materialised will have my personal 2016 in music reach inexplicable heights of excitement. I’m referring to both Taking Back Sunday and Every Time I Die’s upcoming LPs (both still untitled and without official release dates though definitely having the bands full at production work) as well as to none other than Kanye West’s lengthy rumoured new Turbo Grafx 16, The Life of Pablo’s follow up apparently to be released “this Summer“. I know these last three are absolutely more uncertain and might as well slip to 2017 (which is 99% sure to be the case for Yeezy knowing the character a lil…), but please let me believe in them too seeing the light of day during this musically illuminating 2016, I’m ready. Brace yourself for a couple more ARMs populating this site fairly soon…

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

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THAT TIME I RESEARCHED THAT THING U2 DID WITH APPLE | 2016-03-26

One of the useful things that I did in the past few years was completing a Master’s programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In order for me to obtain the degree certificate and therefore complete the curriculum I had to undertake an extensive and comprehensive research project that would broadly fall within the field I studied, what others, especially in the UK, usually call a dissertation. I decided to explore the public and media cataclysm that exploded after legendary Irish rock group U2 and the biggest brand in the world Apple decided to partner on an exclusive promotional deal for the band’s latest album “Songs of Innocence” in September 2014, realising it for free for over half a billion iTunes customers. I did this not because it was – and unfortunately in many ways still is – highly fashionable to criticise and be against U2, but rather for the exact opposite reason: I was excited about the distribution strategy and couldn’t really understand all the rage and resistance that was being put forward by not only the public but also by social and mainstream media outlets themselves.

I thus found myself analysing a whole lot of content and material deriving from traditional media outlets (newspapers) and social media (tweets) trying to make some sense of both the mainstream narrative as well as the opinions deriving from bottom-up reactions of social media users around the globe, all from a predominantly journalistic perspective. Well, long story short, after having handed in my dissertation last August 2015 – entitled “Songs of Guilt”: When Generosity is to Blame – A Content Analysis of the Press and Social Media Reactions to U2’s “Songs of Innocence” Giveaway on iTunes – I was lucky enough to be considered for external publishing and included within a working paper series called Media@LSE MSc Dissertation Series hosted by LSE’s Department of Media & Communications. I wouldn’t onboard on such a shameless act of self-promotion other than for the fact that the research project is now publicly available and downloadable here and maybe of interest of you, esteemed reader. As one does with pretty much anything new that’s being presented and/or launched nowadays (especially cultural and artistic artefacts), I’m attaching the dissertation’s abstract here below as a preview/snippet/trailer/extract in case you’d still wondering whether this whole explorative journey could be something of your interest (though come on, you could still download the freaking file and just skip to the 2-page results section, isn’t this what we all do anyway? Also, some of the figures are cool.):

“The present research project aimed at delivering an update on networked journalism practices within hybrid media systems’ theorisations. It approached such a theoretical framework, completed by the notions of framing and (inter-media) agenda setting, through the consideration of the case study of tech giant Apple and Irish rock group U2’s promotional deal directed at the giveaway of the band’s latest album “Songs of Innocence” on iTunes, which was notably accompanied by widespread disapproval and a questioning of its means. The study set out to appraise and analyse the reactions of the mainstream and social media to the promotional stunt as hybridised phenomena. A quantitative content analysis of 145 English-speaking press articles (further subdivided into general-interest and specialised music press clusters), as well as of over 1200 tweets, published during the course of the operation, allowed the researcher to assess the narratives of the two dimensions in relation to their interactive development.

The research concluded that the mainstream and social media shared various patterns of content development, such as the predominance of negative tone over positive tone and the reliance on framings relating to both the top-down imposition of “Songs of Innocence” and issues of privacy. The study also found that the two media dimensions employed significant cross-referencing, with social media relying relatively more on the mainstream than vice versa. However, key events in light of the overall public discourse concerning the operation were found originating on social media first and being later taken up by the mainstream. Thus, in general the research could further contribute to the conceptual acceptance of a fluid hybrid media system in which traditional and online media ought not be seen so much as replacing each other, but rather as complementing themselves in a fast-paced supportive symbiosis.”

I obviously had to reformat the whole document in order to comply to the series’ standards and I guess that made for a very long article in its final version, but I’d say that in general it’s pretty enjoyable and worth a read if you’re even remotely into music. It was definitely an interesting experience for me as I got to gain really surprising and fascinating insights into people’s perception of privacy and intimacy in the modern social media age as well as key thinkings surrounding the music industry after its digital disruption that happened over fifteen years ago. If any of these buzz words sound remotely exciting for you, I’d say you wouldn’t waste your time reading the research. If not, no problem, there are a lot of exciting TV series out there to spend your time with. If you’re currently searching for inspiration, give Daredevil, Better Call Saul, Mr Robot or House of Cards a try. All highly addictive. Otherwise, simply stop by Kanye West‘s Twitter timeline and that should keep you busy for a good while too. Either way, I guarantee for quality to be found.

I’d like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to read this and I hope to feel your interest again next time.

AV

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