Jimmy Eat World, Invented (2010): Album Review

One of the better-known bands to come out of the area is the alternative rock band, Jimmy Eat World. Hailing from Mesa, Arizona, these former preschool friends came together in 1993 and have since then recorded 7 albums, including their latest entitled Invented. Their music was first classified along the lines of the punk rock and “emo” genres, but has slowly transitioned to a folksier, more alternative sound. The band didn’t really reach any commercial success until their 2001 album Bleed American, which was soon certified platinum and contained 4 singles featured on the Hot Modern Rock Top 20. As they head out on a European tour next month, Jimmy Eat World hopes Invented will bring them continued success with new legions of fans. While I can’t guarantee the success aspect, they have certainly garnered a respectful fan right here.

The album kicks off with “Heart Is Hard To Find,” which has an almost country-feel to it, featuring bare strings and a steady beat. Lead singer Jim Adkins really lets his vocals do most of the work, which brim with earnest yearning and lyrics full of searching and remorse. It’s an interesting but satisfying choice to use as the first song of a record, considering it’s much less upbeat than the rest of the batch. The next tune “My Best Theory” plays like a less-whiny Panic at the Disco! with some dark but incredibly catchy undertones. “Evidence,” has very soft-spoken vocals and interludes of heavy metal-- all of which conjoin perfectly within the last minute or so. “Movielike” returns to the mellow feel of the first song, but is much more upbeat despite the woeful lyrics of how love will never get any better. “Coffee and Cigarettes,” although it doesn’t have the smartest lyrics, is certainly my favorite song on the record. It’s very loud, very catchy, and contains a wonderful cameo by bass guitarist Rachel Haden. Although the song expresses the joy of the simple things in life, I love how Jimmy Eat World pulls out all the stops for this song and does it big. The next two songs, “Stop” and “Littlething” both have impressive instrumentals, particularly in the guitar/bass arena, but can oftentimes sound like the whiny alternative bands I detest so greatly. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with whining about a girl—don’t we all? —but one’s voice doesn’t need to go all shrill and on-the-verge-of-crying when doing so. The next tune, “Cut,” is pretty much the perfect rainy day, sad song. It relies primarily on Adkins’ vocals along with the drums, and quite frankly, has a very epic, gloomy vibe about it. “Action Needs An Audience”…certainly the worst song on the album. Maybe this is what their old punk rock sound was like, but it brings to mind some sad rip-off of Fall Out Boy and Green Day—trying to appear rebellious and angsty, but just…failing. The title track, “Invented,” is a whopping 7 minutes long, and would serve as a great song to fall asleep to (in the nicest way possible.) It has an especially distant, world-weary feel, and is quite nice until the climax when they briefly break out the loud instrumentals. And “Mixtape” is an awesome song to end the record with, playing out almost like a wave—starting out very slow and soft, crescendoing in the middle with soaring vocals, and ending gently just as it started.

So, all in all, I’d say I have mixed feelings about Invented. As with any album—there are songs I really liked, and some I wasn’t really feeling. I definitely admire the band though, and feel they are much better than most alternative rock bands out there. Coming into reviewing this album, I was highly cynical and expecting the usual, whiny excuse for rock produced by all those boy bands at Warped Tour these days. While some of that is still apparent here, Jimmy Eats World exceeded my expectations, producing a solid album that can appeal to a multitude of audiences.

Diet Kong, Beautiful Blackout (2010): EP Review

Not a whole lot can be said about Diet Kong. According to their MySpace page (yes, people still do use that these days), they come from Brooklyn and the Catskill Mountains in New York. They’ve been members of the site since February of 2006, so they’re not exactly newbies to the music business. And their genre? Alternative, indie, and live electronics. There are three members, and list their major influences as Modest Mouse, Depeche Mode, LCD Soundsystem, among many other obscure bands. I really like their style—the brightly colored artwork plastering their page, and the simple quote, “I want to live and I want to love. I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of” which prances across their status box. They debuted with their album Coma Motor Inn back in 2008, and have recently released their sophomore effort entitled Beautiful Blackout. And I must say, this 5-song record is definitely a welcome addition to my iTunes library.

“Shoot The Freak” kicks off the album to a pulsating start. The bass thumps as if the listener is in some posh, big-city nightclub, but soon introduces the guitar and drums—giving us a reminder that this is alternative music at its very best and most thrilling. “A Forest” is quite psychedelic—featuring screeching guitar chords and hazy vocals echoing the woes of losing control of one’s head. The next tune, “Skin Color Crayon,” brings to mind a classic Beatles song, but reincarnated with the raspy vocals unique to groups like Kings of Leon. The trio slows it down a bit with “Open”—pulling out all the excess electronica, and replacing it with the classic kind of rock one might’ve found the Grateful Dead or Janis Joplin crooning out to during a concert. To top it off, “Beautiful Blackout” returns to the pounding beats of the first tune, but not with near as much energy. They possess the same distant, out-there voices, but both the weak lyrics and vocals could’ve used a kick from some extra electronic tones. Not to fret though, every album has its weak spot.

Overall, this was a great surprise of an album, and I honestly wish there were more than just a mere 5 songs on it. I can’t see the group ever going mainstream or making an appearance at the Grammys, but I don’t think that’s their intention. They serve as the perfect soundtrack for the hipster crowd that’s looking to go out and have some fun—and I could only imagine how surreal it would be to see them in concert. Although Modest Mouse, Depeche Mode, and LCD Soundsystem may influence them, I personally like them better. Diet Kong is a funky, hip, and adrenaline rush of a band to listen to, which their album Beautiful Blackout perfectly exemplifies.

Tricky, Mixed Race (2010): Album Review

Mixed Race is the 9^th studio album from English musician Adrian Thaws, better known as Tricky. After releasing his first CD over 15 years ago now, Tricky has had some modest success on the UK radio singles chart, and has collaborated with everybody from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Yoko Ono. He is most known for his dark, spoken-song lyrics, as well as his mixture of both rock and hip-hop. Well, I’m not sure if Mixed Race is supposed to be going in a new direction or something, but it’s a lot closer to folksy dreck.

The very first song, “Every Day,” is the perfect example of this. Quite honestly, I feel like my ears are slowly bleeding and losing my sanity when I listen to it. It’s like some tone-deaf Southerners in rocking chairs somehow made their way onto the album (no offense to Southerners, I’m from South Carolina myself.) Next up, we have “UK Jamaican.” You know that song “Technologic” by Daft Punk? The little robot voice chanting, “buy it, use it, break it, fix it” over and over again? Yeah. Imagine a really poor rip-off of that and you’ll have “UK Jamaican.” Another song called “Early Bird” just sounds like an extremely sloppy jazz song, if it even qualifies as jazz. It’s just a big jumble of horns and piano and drums with creepy, gravely whispers throughout. And while the strings do sound pretty cool in the tune “Ghetto Stars,” the boring and uninspired vocals really bring down the entire song. “Hakim” has a very exotic feel with some interesting tribal-like chants intertwined, but it’s not the kind of song you open your iTunes to play—it’s the kind of song you hear in an elevator and most likely wouldn’t even acknowledge. The next song, “Come to Me,” resonates some slight hip-hop in some parts, but most of the time is just chill electronic guitar that we’ve heard before from the far superior Ratatat. “Murder Weapon” has a catchy beat and simple chorus that mostly consists of repeating the title, but other than that the lyrics leave much to be desired. And if “Time To Dance” is exclaiming how the listener should get up to dance, why is the song so slow and boring? In “Really Real,” Tricky channels both Mike Posner and Muse, which sounds like an odd combination…and it is. The main difference is that he lacks both the lyrical prose Posner possesses, and the commanding force behind Muse’s instrumentals. To conclude the CD, Tricky actually decides to incorporate some real hip-hop into the mix, and I’ll admit, I like it very much. It’s that kind of streetwise rap you hear from the likes of K’naan, spitting fast rhymes with funky sounds to boot.

My one question is why did he wait till his very last song to show off his rap skills? That was honestly the only song on the entire album I could ever see myself listening to again, and I would be interested to investigate his earlier work to see if he has more similar tunes like that. Overall, I would say it was a terrible album—I understand the whole effort of trying to be diverse and unique with one’s music, but I feel like it wasn’t even one cohesive album, it was just a big mess of music genres that was on a whole painful for the ears. I’m sure this one album isn’t going to make or break his career—but I would certainly consider Mixed Race a far step back for Tricky, and recommend that he return to form if he wants to produce better music in the future.

Lazerbeak, Legend Recognize Legend (2010): Album Review

Legend Recognize Legend is the first full-length album by Lazerbeak, otherwise known as Aaron Mader. A prominent member of the Doomtree crew—essentially, the Young Money crew of Minneapolis—the now 28 year-old recording artist has been making music since his early days of high school as a member of the band The Plastic Constellations. After joining and touring with Doomtree the past few years, Beak began working on his own record—doing everything from writing to singing to playing his own instruments. That is how Legend Recognize Legend came to be, and a mighty fine debut it is.

The album begins with a simple piano tune entitled “Dream Team,” which sounds like the lovechild of Passion Pit and Kid Cudi in a sense. And just in case you can’t tell, that is an enormous compliment. Many of the songs have that feel to them, really. “Land’s End” is eerily similar to Cudder’s new track, “Mr. Rager,” but with an even darker melody that is amplified by a melancholy string section and some electronica. “Let It Go” features a vast array of sounds—the almost-military beat of a drum, harmonic whistling, and the grand crash of cymbals at regular intervals. There are so many elements of the song, you really need to listen to it multiple times to get the full effect of it. “Bound” is a very somber tune that employs both the piano and strings to make an otherwise depressing, potentially-boring song. The genius of Lazerbeak, though, decides to add a perfect electronic dance beat to the mix that simply enhances all the other elements of the song and creates something whimsical. For “Wild Life,” Beak brings a brief flavor of Africa with some basic chanting that is, of course, enfused with rousing electronic beats. “Salt and Sea,” while not the best of the tunes, is some lighter fare—very much in the style of Matt & Kim, and brings to mind something you might hear while perusing the shelves of stores like American Eagle or Urban Outfitters. Beak shows off some raspy vocals in “Pearly Gates,” where the airy beats and deep horns give the song a floating sensation, all the while offering some thought-provoking life poetry. And who doesn’t want some quality life lessons during a song? “Cannon Falls” has an especially funky beat and a very simple hook backed by a chorus of voices repeating the words “round and round” repeatedly. As grating as it can get on the ears, it is indisputably catchy and is fun to groove to. Beak returns to his darker tones on “Tempest,” with a heavy emphasis on drums and other-worldly vocals—again, ones that would make Cudder proud. And for the final song, “Foothills,” he resorts to a simple, acoustic guitar in the beginning—building up to a soft electronic and bass-kit beat. This might be the best track on the album—although it’s a slower song, it combines all of Beak’s best elements, with not-too-shabby lyrics to boot.

Not to take a ginormous stretch here, but I wouldn’t be hesitant to call Legend Recognize Legend a near-perfect album. While I don’t know exactly what Beak was going for while creating it, he has created a very mellow, enthused record up there with the likes of Ratatat, while still adding his own unique and very trippy spin, might I add. This album is a real find, and I honestly can’t wait to hear more music from him in the future.

Maroon 5, Hands All Over (2010): Album Review

Maroon 5. We’ve all crooned to their hits “She Will Be Loved” and “Won’t Go Home Without You” on the radio with the windows down and stereo up. Originally known as Kara’s Flowers, this group of Los Angeles high schoolers struggled to find success throughout the mid-1990’s. It wasn’t until 2002 when they changed their name to Maroon 5 and released their debut album, Songs About Jane, that the band exploded—dominating the Billboard charts and winning the Grammy for “Best New Artist.” Their sophomore album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, brought the group even more acclaim—shattering iTunes sales records, and transforming them into international superstars. Now, we anxiously wait to see where the new album entitled Hands All Over will take the group. Recorded in Switzerland in 2009 with the help of Robert Lange—producer for such bands as AC/DC and Nickelback—frontman Adam Levine has described the album as a “hybrid” of their last two; highlighting the best elements of each, while branching out into some rock and even country territory.

The album begins with “Misery”—the funky single released earlier this summer, bringing to mind the feel-good thumping of their early hit “This Love,” with a bit more of a disco-esque flair. “Stutter” brings a taste of twangy rock to the album, while still maintaining that breezy, light-hearted feel that Maroon 5 is so well loved for. Another tune, “Don’t Know Nothing,” almost has a 50’s jukebox feel to it; although a solid effort, I could only imagine how it’d sound if the likes of Amy Winehouse got a chance to tackle it. “Never Gonna Leave This Bed” is the quintessential morning-after ballad with sweet and simple lyrics, which are highlighted even moreso in the acoustic version featured on the Deluxe Edition of the disk. The title track, “Hands All Over,” features a bit of an angry rock edge very similar to that of “Wake Up Call” on their previous album. The best track on a whole, in my opinion, is definitely “How.” The group lays off the heavy guitar riffs and drums to showcase the piano some more, bringing Levine’s impressive falsetto and the catchy earnestness of the chorus to the forefront. And I guess entitling your song “Runaway” automatically makes it good—first Kanye with his new tune at the VMA’s, and now Maroon 5 with their upbeat song of the same name which showcases some gospel influences. The band slows it down with some easy bongo drum beats for their surprisingly good country collaboration with hot new artist, Lady Antebellum—perfectly meshing together Levine and Hilary Scott’s stellar vocals. The bonus tracks included on the Deluxe Edition are also all very worth the extra 5 dollars paid for the album. “Last Chance” plays like a dark tango ballad, while “No Curtain Call” is yet some more gloomy fare about the crumbling of a relationship with a lively, catchy chorus. The acoustic version of “Misery” is also definitely worth a listen and helps wrap up the album on a mellow, soulful note. Like any album, Hands All Over is not without its weak links. Their second single“Give A Little More” seems more suited for the 70’s discothèques of the ABBA generation, and “Get Back In My Life” just has a very strange vibe with no definite chorus or song structure in general.

So, do I think this is an album worth buying? Absolutely, and I’ve already listened to it nearly all the way through 4 times since I’ve purchased it. There are no real “standout” songs, which serves good for the album on a whole, but doesn’t bode so well for its future on the radio waves. Levine has also stated his plan to make 1 more album with the band before dismembering. Already 3 for 3 in my book, let’s hope for a solid finish to the irresistible and catchy era of Maroon 5.

WTF?

OK Go is one of those bands I find myself listening to, but never truly feeling any emotion or connection with their music. True, “Get Over It” forms part of my guilty pleasures playlist for strange reasons I can’t even express, but nevertheless, OK Go is a band that always makes me wonder what their musical identity is.

Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is the band’s third studio album produced by Dave Fridmann, the man behind great albums like MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, The Flaming Lips’s The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The album is a conceptual interpretation of General A.J Pleasonton’s The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Ski, a compilation of numerous passages written by different authors that gives facts and research on topics varying from physics and general health. Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is the bands greatest work to date, by a landslide. The album has a connecting thread that guides its listeners from song to song without leaving anyone dazed or confused like much of their earlier work. The album is musically interesting; it delves into this new electronic age we’ve been in for awhile now, but it begins and ends there. Of the Blue Colour of the Sky doesn’t feel original, but nowadays originality in the mainstream world is not as important as it used be.

The lead single, “WTF?” is full of static and layers that hide Damian Kulash’s vocals making it fun for awhile, but ultimately it just is; no rhyme, no reason. The album continues onto “This Too Shall Pass,” which I see as a perfect song for a car commercial or one of those drink commercials where people finally liberate themselves from their boring offices jobs into the streets, dancing. “All Is Not Lost” is just a continuation of the last song while “Skyscrapers” does a complete one-eighty into a cool jazz tangent, which coincidentally does not feature much of Kulash’s voice. The song transitions into “White Knuckles,” a continuation of a happier sounding “Skyscrapers.” Again, we are thrown into the OK Go “Blender of the Unknown” where out comes a futuristic, auto-tuned song “Before the Earth Was Round,” a song about the sadness of loosing humanity. “Last Leaf” was a nice departure from all the computerized instrumentation into Kulash’s raspy vocals and guitar. The album is closed with “In the Glass,” the album’s best song. The song has a very dark tone that is enhanced by the electric piano. Also, the lyrics were compelling because each of us look in the mirror everyday to asses “what have we done?”

It was difficult to judge the album by itself without populating my thoughts with their earlier work, but as a band that has recorded three albums I found it necessary. The album is not an impressive piece, but it entertains the ears for awhile.

Between the Buried and Me/Cynic/Devin Townsend Project/Scale the Summit @ The Clubhouse 1/15/2009

Scale the Summit opened the show but despite the fact that I showed up before doors, I was unprepared for the monstrosity of a line that filled the entire mini-mall where the venue is located. As such, I made it in for approximately the last minute of the set. But it sounded good, I wish I'd been able to get inside faster.

Devin Townsend is one of the men in metal who I just seem not to get. His stage presence is decidedly crazy and evil feeling (not in a bad way) and his vocals are absolutely fantastic, of the level where they're worth listening to no matter how the rest of the music sounds. Unfortunately, I just tend not to dig any of the music he writes or performs. Like Mike Patton, he's great to listen to just for the sheer talent, and live he's a real treat to watch; he puts a ton of character into his performance. But unlike Mike, I find I don't ever sit down and think "I want to listen to a Devin Townsend album." That being said, I would love to see him live again some time.

Cynic was the band I was most excited to see, without question. Though they've been touring since the release of Traced in Air on and off, in general it's not too far askew to suggest this is the first opportunity I've had to see this band in about 15 years. Couple that fact with the fact that I rank Traced in Air as the best metal release of 2008, and you have a general idea how excited I was to see this band. The technicality comes out well live and the execution is solid (essential for a band like Cynic), and though I was disappointed they did not play Traced in Air straight through, as it seemed they might do when opening the set with the first couple tracks, as a whole I found the set list to be excellent. The spoken word/poetry openings to several tracks were interesting, but didn't really add anything as a live introduction; it would have been nice to see other attempts to change up the songs live than just those introductions.

Between the Buried and Me is a band which I love to listen to on CD, and in particular I will sit down and listen to Colors straight through on a semi-regular basis still (it was my pick for 2007's metal album of the year). The associated musical journey has never let me down, and as such I never understood the criticisms I read from time to time about the unnecessary length of many of their tracks until I saw them live. As much as I love the same tracks on CD, live I found some a bit tedious and lengthy. As a fan of live Jazz and Progressive music, I cannot explain the disconnect there, but I certainly found it to exist for this band. The set list was a nice mix of old and new songs (though perhaps short on old songs for those fans who hated the shift in sound found on Colors). I was a little bit thrown by a few song choices, but with a band that writes albums with odd track transitions, I suppose choosing tracks to play live is a non-trivial task and they seemed to manage it alright. Like most progressive bands, the focus was on the music more than the live show, but it was well executed and I didn't find anyone complaining about it in the audience.

Album Review: Jupiter One - Sunshower

Indie rock is a curious thing when so many of its perpetrators practice a genre that doesn't sound like actual rock--a movement that all too often thinks that awesome, horns-throwing music should be restrained, perhaps made more subtle, because to do otherwise would destroy any image of being cool, which might as well be all that matters to the band. Let's be frank, we've seen a scores of "serious" indie rockers ever since the recording studio was democratized: young musicians in skinny jeans trying to look nonchalant while pretending to go wild. That kind of half-hearted disinterest only succeeds when the music itself is credible.

Jupiter One is not ready to (or simply not good at) pulling off this delicate balancing act with Sunshower, released in the third quarter of 2009. The band's photo in the liner notes gives off that "Oh yeah, we're all just chilling with our instruments; you wanna take a photo? Nah, we don't mind..." vibe, as does, unfortunately, their music. The record starts out well enough, striking up cosmic riffs and revving up the intro with the falsetto "ahhhs" that made the Flaming Lips famous. Turning down the spacey knob a notch, the band does its best VHS Or Beta impression for the verse before switching into the symphony-sprinkled chorus lite, full-flavored without overexerting itself. The average listener would expect roughly the same kind of rock for the other 10 songs. Oh, how you are led to believe this notion! After this flashy starter, the band throws you into "Lights Go Out," a credible body mover that dances through its rhythms, alternating between post-punk's fastest riffs and the most bombastic chords Interpol could think of. K Ishibashi meanwhile croons like he's auditioning for a spot in Bloc Party, and all feels right. So, hey, that style is nailed down. Why not switch up things next song?

And so, "Flaming Arrow" presents an almost whimsical folk rock ballad about arson, and this is where the album missteps for the first time. Everything from this point loses the luster exerted so amiably . "Made in a Day" is "Lights Go Out" lite, adding organ hums and violin whines to what should be indie rock with dance pop sensibilities; instead, we get something cutesy and not so much sung as pled. Deciding to confuse us, next we get "Anna," which jumps in with power pop chords that Boston once rejected. As the first verse bridges into the chorus, the band brings in an industrial-sized vat of kitsch and slathers on the early 80s glam rock, complete with organ swirl and Beach Boys-style cries backing up the punchy rhythm.

And then the band just gives up. We're treated to dance duds nothing like the first half, like "Simple Stones," which is too laid back to sound interested and sounds like elevator muzak for 20-something kids from New York. "High Plains Drifter Finds the Oracle at Delphi" plods along at a maddening pace but tries to make up for it by just slathering on cheese on the melody, alternately tickling the listener with sitar, strings, glockenspiel, woodwinds, and a smooth pop, licked by some strange abomination that sounds like Barry White without soul. The rest of the album wouldn't be worth mentioning if not for "Come On," which carries a faux new wave sound in the name of The Killers without giving up its soft harmonic riffs and roaring chorus blasts, supplemented with "you can't be seriously that dramatic" strings.

The resulting collection of songs sounds about as fractured as a cyclist trying to pedal frantically at 50 miles an hour through a sea of bricks. Sure, you get some solid indie rock that takes cues from respectable new wave and nearly-dance pop; at the same time you get some schmaltzy power pop that Julian Casablancas thankfully chose not to throw into his classic rock-tinged solo album released not too long ago--and I haven't yet mentioned the bizarre folk rock ditties. Why are they there? Why? Why?

There's no good answer. It all sounds like a bad impression of an indie rock band too much in love with itself and whatever it can do. Yes, Jupiter One apparently feels justified in joining together whatever music it comes up with, even if the song choices match up like they were all thrown together at random. The band's got some knack for pop--the first few songs bear that out--but when not in top shape the music is lazy. Seriously, the last half of the record sounds like breakfast for hipsters--its too full of itself to care about the music.

Why? It's just that good.

No. It isn't.

Dethklok/Mastodon/Converge/High on Fire @ The Marquee 11/17/2009

High on Fire is one of the better bands around currently in my opinion, and thankfully that opinion has led to me seeing them headline or play more prominent positions on a few tours, since there was no possible way for me to arrive at 5:30 for their set (a time made even more ridiculous given that the entire show was aver by about 10). I will assume they rocked as usual though and plan to catch them on their next trip through.

Converge played a fairly lengthy set considering their lower slot on the tour, but I was glad to see it. As one of the only metalcore bands who releases CDs I consistently enjoy, it was interesting to see them live. In some ways the music seemed even more aggressive live, but I believe that in part that was due to the muddling of the instruments live which made it even more of a wall of sound (also the kick drum was ridiculously powerful). It was disappointing but not surprising to see so little of the sold-out or nearly so venue really getting into the music. It feels a little cheap seeing these guys on such a commercial tour.

Mastodon played a similar set to what they did when they last came through on a headlining tour, with the entirety of Crack the Skye followed by a couple of old songs. Given that they were not headlining though, the second set of songs was smaller and, frankly, the ones chosen were a bit of a disappointment. The background videos have been improved since last time and are much more coherent and involved in the songs. It's a shame they didn't have as good a video background on the last tour so that both elements of good could have occurred in the same set.

Dethklok was absolutely entertaining start to finish. Though I expected only a screen with music being performed off stage, I was surprised to see the screen going the entire time, but with the full band also on stage, though not interacting with the crowd at all (though Brendan Smalls got into characters for that which was fun). The videos were great, though possibly less entertaining for those who watch the show (I do not, so I have no idea if it was all excerpts or if it was original material). The inter-song videos were also quite fun and helped maintain continuity in the show while the musicians got their rest...much more effectively than most bands are able to pull it off in fact. This felt like a complete show start to finish. Quite cool, I'd see these guys live again even though I don't love the music as much as many other bands just for the show.

Album Review: Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring

This album is not so much a pistol as a shotgun, its ideas roughly discernible as a concept album. Here we have Noah and the Whale, trading bright, poppy folk for gloom. Here the listener is treated to not one but nearly a dozen songs of longing and distress. Not as much cerebral as melodramatic, it's difficult to admit that this record has any staying power.

This is a breakup album--every song on the album makes clear you know that. And while repetition gets the point across, redundant repetition drowns out of the point, and we are left to focus only on the minutiae, where every song is the same by its unity of theme. While we the audience are told from the beginning that spring is starting, no chronological progression is made, even as we are told that this is a concept album, that the narrator is progressing.

Progression is slow, reversible, sidestepped, even redefined. Virtually the same palette of sounds plays throughout the record. I do not slight The First Days of Spring for reusing instruments (as that is never a crime for a band, except in electronica), but the intended impression upon the reader's mind is only slightly changed from tune to tune. I can break down the mood into archetypes: slow, deep, drums, with a slow riff played in the alto range of an electric guitar; light airs played on a piano like wind chimes--the beauty of life; janglyacoustic guitar--raw heart; a violin with a legato like an elephant is tall--the undying romanticism of the hopeless narrator; that ol ' "get all the indie kids together" ensemble, completely with jangly acoustic guitar (the band probably owes Architecture in Helsinki royalties). Now, some diversity stands, but the presence is unmistakably novel.

For the most part, the above mentioned ensemble of ideas is repeated and mixed. Any attempts to sketch the plot will result in just that: a sketch. There's really only a few points of note: spring starts and the narrator has no girlfriend ("The First Days of Spring"). Regret, denial. A weird perpendicular shoot into happy denial ("Love of an Orchestra")? Back down to Earth ("Instrumental II"). Sleeps with a stranger to prove he's not attached anymore ("Stranger"). Even stronger denial that he's still in love with her--claiming he is no longer concerned with his ex-girlfriend ("Slow Glass"), even though she's mentioned for every single song until the album ends. The narrator claims that he failed her and she failed him ("My Door Is Always Open"). End.

Huh? Even as the motifs play out and this slow-moving eleven-song ballad depart, I can only say that the album fails its parts. Too many ideas play out. The orchestral bump in Love of an Orchestra never attempts to unite its differences with the more baroque outlook of the rest of the album. In the end, this is no more a tale of recovering from loss than the ennui of modern infatuation, captured in amber for the world to hear for as long as MP3s will be spread around--for Noah and the Whale and possibly the indie movement, love is not just an emotion or state of mind but a separation from society. Being cut off becomes isolation from not just love but society itself. The problem is that this view is only melodrama. Unfortunately, that is the only view The First Days of Spring is capable of expressing.