Music Archive 4

This is the last of it.

Finch - What It Is to Burn


Finch is one of the better hard punk bands I've heard. The vocalist can sing as well as he can shred his throat, and they can play softer stuff as well as hardcore. Just about everything they try on What It Is To Burn succeeds with flying colors.

"New Beginnings" and the single "Letters to You" are a good one-two punch to open the album. They both of moments of beauty and anger and show Finch's ability to write a very good tune. "Perfection Through Silence" is another great one and has one of my favorite vocal parts that gets you caught up if you allow it to. "Without You Here" is probably the best example of the band's hard/soft counterpoint. "Project Mayhem" is a very random song, but I kind of like its craziness. It's a portent of things to come from this band. At this point, the album has a bit of a shift in style.

Most of the previous songs were fairly briskly paced screamo stuff, but the last couple tracks before "What It Is To Burn" are much longer and delve into some weird alternative stuff, although it all stays enjoyable. The aforementioned title track is one of the best songs ever made for the genre, with impressive vocals and an extremely epic chorus. Although Finch appears to have changed their musical direction, this is one of the genre's best offerings.

Finch - Say Hello to Sunshine


This is kind of a tough one. If this was a new band instead of another album by Finch, I would probably rate it a bit higher. Most of the songs are pretty good, I don't have a major problem with any of them. The problem is, I really loved What It Is To Burn, and I can't say I really like the band's new sound on Say Hello to Sunshine. The music is fairly good, it's just disappointing to see a band change its style so completely. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I can accept that this is what Finch is now, I'm just not that happy with it.

It's not so much the change in style that's bothersome, it's just it forces them to no longer play to their strengths, namely, the voice of the singer and their ability to write music that isn't generically tough-sounding. "Insomniatic Meat" is a pretty interesting beginning, and has one of the better choruses. "Brother Bleed Brother" is my favorite song, with a towering vocal part a little reminiscent of "What It Is To Burn". "Fireflies" has another of the better vocal parts. As you may have noticed, the music is all a little to same-y so I must look almost exclusively at vocals to determine the standout tracks. "Reduced to Teeth" has another good chorus and one of the softer verses. "Miro" is another good song with a very enjoyable bridge near the end, and the single "Bitemarks and Bloodstains" is also pretty good, and it's about vampires. Awesome.

All in all, Say Hello to Sunshine can accurately be described as "pretty good". All of it is listenable if you're into the genre, and there are some great moments. It's just that my perception of what the band is led me to expect something very different and probably better than this, so I can't shake the feeling of disappointment. Unfortunately, the band has broken up since releasing this record, so we may never know what could have been.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots


Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is a strange record. The music is soft and pleasant while the lyrics are about evil robots coming to kill us all. There are bizarre instrumental tracks with electronic beats and the noises of women screaming in the background. The songs can sort of be described as electronic/pop/rock. There's no reason it should work besides the fact that the Flaming Lips are a talented group of guys and know how to keep it more entertaining than silly, and so it does work.

"Fight Test" is an energetic opening that sets the tone for the rest of the album. The first part of the title track is very pleasant, and is more strange goodness. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2" has a nice groove to it, accompanied by the slightly unnerving shrieking. "Are You A Hypnotist??" is a little more slower paced and is a nice song. "Do You Realize??" is my favorite song with its enjoyable musicianship and high rising vocals. "All We Have Is Now" is one of the more interesting songs lyrically, and the album is closed by another fun instrumental, "Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia)".

I'm not in love with the Flaming Lips, but they've intrigued me enough to check out other albums by them. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is very enjoyably to listen to all the way through, it's just lacking that element that makes me really love it.

Godsmack - Godsmack


Godsmack's self-titled debut shows a bit of promise in terms of nu-metal rocking ability, but the result is less interesting than it could have been. It's not bad and actually starts off pretty strong, it just gets a little boring and drags more than is warranted as it goes on. The vocals sound consistently different from the way they do on Godsmack's next album Awake, they're a little higher on this and a little more obviously Alice in Chains-inspired. The singer's voice just sounds more natural on subsequent releases.

"Moon Baby" is a solid, hard opener, and one of the better songs. "Whatever" was an enjoyable single for its day, but it seems quaint and insipid now. The next three tracks are pretty consistent, solid hard rock. "Someone In London" is an interesting interlude that leads to another decent track. There's nothing horrible about the the next few songs, they just don't seem to have enough ideas to go on for as long as they do, and outstay their welcome. If you're gonna make long songs, make them long for a reason. The single "Voodoo" is a change of pace and sound, and is an enjoyable finale.

Godsmack is a decent album, and I don't hate any part of it. It's just with so many different things you can listen to these days, it doesn't do enough to make me want to play it over anything else in my collection. It's still a pretty good first try for anyone, though.

Godsmack - Awake


Godsmack does right on Awake what they did wrong on their self-titled release. The vocalist sings more naturally, in a deeper voice that sounds a lot better and less derivative of Alice in Chains. If you're gonna imitate, it's best to imitate a band like that, but not when you can sound like yourself and be better. The production values are a little higher and it allows the band to deviate a little more from the formula and come up with some pretty interesting stuff. It's more compact overall, and more enjoyable to listen to.

Although some of the riffs can get repetitive and sort of blend the songs together, the somewhat catchier (seems odd to use that term with a band in this genre) vocals pull it out of that rut, and they mix it up more later on. "Sick of Life" has a rocking intro before jumping into the song proper, with a growling, enjoyable chorus. You've heard "Awake" on Navy commercials and in Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within. They don't fit in there at all, but the song is pretty good. The single "Greed" has another good chorus backing up the chugging guitars. "Mistakes" has another good intro and has is one of the more musically interesting songs. "Vampires" is sort of weird, the only voice is excerpts from one of those television documentaries with celebrity narration, and the main guitar line sounds suspiciously similar to one from the band's previous release.

"The Journey" is a nice little musical interlude before the final song, "Spiral", which like "Voodoo" is atypical sounding for Godsmack, and pretty good. As previously stated, Awake is an improvement over the previous record by Godsmack, although I must admit my interest in the genre has waned somewhat and I probably won't be getting another album by the band. I can still listen to this and enjoy it for what it is, though.

Gorillaz - Demon Days


Some people have trouble listening to entire albums without skipping at least one track. I don't. Even if I don't love every song, if I felt enough like listening to the band to actually start it up, I can usually tolerate the weaker songs while I'm at it. I even tend to grow to like those songs on some level anyway. There are several albums I have where I do at least strongly like every song on them, though. The one thing that's pretty rare is for me to be able to specifically remember what all the songs sound like just by reading the titles. Demon Days is one of those are few.

The fact that Damon Albarn and company are able to mix such a range of genres and artists and keep all the songs unique while also creating a sense of cohesion, on top of making them all so catchy and enjoyable at the same time, is an astonishing achievement. There's rap, there's rock, there's electronica and dub and dance, there's spoken word and choir, and it's all extremely fun to listen to. My collection is almost exclusively rock, but I still find this to be one of my favorite albums to listen to. There's just something about the seamless blending of styles that makes you want to throw all your cares to the wind and just enjoy what you're listening to.

"Last Living Souls" has the most amazingly infectious electronic beat going through it the whole time. It's so good. "O Green World" has a very catchy vocal part and is another fun song. The single "Feel Good Inc" mixes a great base line and rap from De La Soul with the acoustic chorus very well. "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" has a title that reflects the supposed darker tone of the album in relation to Gorillaz' self-titled debut, and the catchy melody reflects that in an odd way. "November Has Come" has probably the best rapping on the album. The song "All Alone" combines a driving synth part with some strange vocals that I really like. "DARE" is just a blast, with the two vocal parts coming together well to create a fun dance song. "Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head" features the great Dennis Hopper reading a strange, slightly disturbing story, and leads into the last two tracks which blend together to form a very spiritual ending to a great album. Danger Mouse does a great job mixing it all together, and Albarn's vocals keep it connected and entertaining.

Hoobastank - Hoobastank


When I first saw the video for "Crawling in the Dark", the first single from Hoobastank's self-titled first album, I had a few thoughts. First, I enjoyed the song. But I also noticed some similarities to my then undisputed-favorite band, Incubus. The singer sounded a little similar and also tended to not wear a shirt. The music itself shared a few similarities, although it was quicker paced and catchier than the average Incubus song. Incubus has since gone in a completely different direction musically, but Hoobastank continues to do what they've been doing ever since that first song.

Hoobastank doesn't go out of its way to try new things, they just do what they know how to do. They make catchy rock songs that are easy to listen to and tend to be hated by real music fanatics. It doesn't bother me that a lot of people dislike it, it's not like I adore the band, I just like listening to their songs. The first three tracks on Hoobastank are all singles. "Remember Me" is another fast paced, enjoyable song like "Crawling in the Dark", "Running Away" is a bit different in style, with more natural sounding music and a different tone. "Pieces" is another good, fast song, and one of the harder ones on the album.

"Up and Gone" just might be my favorite song by the band. It's the most unique one on the CD, has moments of hardness and softness, and a good chorus. The last part of the album is generally a bit slower and less in your face than the beginning. The lyrics are also generally a little nicer in the back end. The final track goes back to the other style though, and is pretty hard, and a little dumb. Although they do interrupt it before it ends and there's a sound clip of the band making fun of it, and it's actually pretty funny. Hoobastank isn't the best or most innovative band in the world, but as long as you can accept that, they make a pretty darn good pop-rock song.

Hoobastank - The Reason


A lot of people hate the song "The Reason". I'm not sure exactly why, I can understand finding the piano part repetitive or the vocals a little annoying, but I don't think it's worth such universal ire. I'm not in love with the song, but I like it for what it is. It's almost pure pop, but the rest of the album is more rock-oriented, and like the band's previous release, might not be for everyone but is pretty enjoyable all the way through.

The first two tracks are both singles and fit very well into Hoobastank's pattern. Pleasant singing, a bit of shouting thrown in, crisp musicianship, catchy choruses. "What Happened To Us?" has a decent guitar part and is one of the band's more passionate songs. "Escape" is a pretty catchy song, like many of the band's. "Lucky" is another of the band's atypical songs with natural sounding guitar strumming. "From the Heart" is another solid song musically. It's hard to find songs by Hoobastank you can't say that about.

There's a bit of a shift in tone after The Reason's title track. "Unaffected" is one of the best songs, it's slower paced than normal for the band and is easy to get caught up in. "Disappear" is another single, and I'm not a huge fan of it, but it shows the band is trying other things. I'm not sure why many rock fans are so down on Hoobastank, it's a little poppier and more accessible to the mainstream than a lot of bands but they still put together a good rock song. In any case, The Reason is a solid follow-up to Hoobastank's first big release.

Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E.


Incubus has evolved musically over time. Nowadays they sound like an alternative hard rock band with a pretty natural sound, but on their first few full length albums they sound much more like older Red Hot Chili Peppers with a turn table. There are elements of funk, rap and metal, and a much goofier and playful feeling than recent Incubus. I personally favor the older stuff, not so much because of the style, but because it's just more entertaining.

"Redefine" is the quintessential early Incubus song, and sets the tone for the rest of S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. It has the bizarre lyrics and unique delivery, and a strong rock chorus. The next four tracks follow in the same footsteps. They're all unique sounding but are still catchy as hell and fun to listen to. "Magic Medicine" is an instrumental that samples an odd sound clip from the reading of a children's book and shows off the DJ's skill at putting together some of the most interesting interludes I've ever heard, which the band has unfortunately steered away from doing these days.

The single "A Certain Shade of Green" and "Favorite Things" are two back to back strong rock songs with good guitar work that feel similar to what the band would go on to do on their next album. "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" is another funky track that shows the band's range. "Nebula" is one of the more alternative, risky songs and succeeds well. "Calgone" is another great hard song that leads into a very long, odd hidden track filled with sound clips of both a humorous and sometimes creepy nature. It's one big ode to the chances the band liked to take back then, and wraps up the album in a very Incubus-like way.