This is a blog made by David Savage, Tyler Flynn, and Max Sagan in order for us to write reviews for music, write about any shows we go to, and basically write about anything pertaining to music that interests us. We are always looking to expand our music libraries and listen to anything that we can!
I began listening to this album strictly because I saw that BadBadNotGood was making the beats. BadBadNotGood is a improvisational, hip-hop instrumental trio from Canada. I heard of them through their work with Odd Future and was immediately attracted to their sound. I knew very little about Ghostface Killah other than he was a member of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, but I've heard his raps are like elaborate stories and this intrigued me.
The LP is like a smooth trip through 90s hip-hop mixed with James Bond sounding instrumentals. The song "Gunshowers" is a prime example of this unique sound.
"Simple minds get blown, shattered into pieces
My thesis is thick like the Book of Eli
We Live we die, we put 'em in the sky
Free your mind as a slave like the Fourth of July"
Anytime I can hear hip-hop with live instrumentals, I'm all for it so this album was a real treat for me. The dense, driving bass lines are never generic and give each song their own feel. Jazz fueled drums provide an interesting, rhythmic feel of early 60s jazz-rock fusion. Multilayered, indie sounding guitars are the bridge intertwined between the two.
Overall the Sour Soul LP is a unique and unconventional take on hip-hop and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's an overall sound that I can say I never heard anything like. I think it was an unlikely collaboration, but it completely worked. I hope to hear more music fusion like this in the future.
My first exposure to Sylvan Esso was when
they opened for Volcano Choir in 2013. I was fascinated after witnessing Amelia
Meath’s bobbing, dancing and singing while Nick Sanborn made infectious beats
with every enthusiastic twist and turn of a knob. Their debut album was packed
with luscious synth beats and graceful vocal melodies that resonated throughout
the entire year. No matter what came out, I kept coming back to this record.
Beautifully catchy tunes like “Coffee” and “Play it Right” are the reason I
gave Sylvan Esso a dedicated listen, but it’s the deep cuts that make this
whole record come together as a beautiful colorful masterpiece.
2.)James Vincent McMorrow, Post Tropical
I knew this would be one of my favorites as
soon as the closing track, “Outside, Digging”, faded out. This was the first
record I heard this year and easily one of the best. The emotion explodes into
shrill falsettos accompanied by inspirational crescendos, beautifully crafted
and well-produced.
3.)St. Vincent, St.
Vincent
Annie Clark released one of the most innovative records in the last decade. I recommended this record to everyone. If you like pop, rock or
synth, then you will love this record. It has something for everyone and the
explosive guitar on this record puts rock music back on the forefront, but with
an entirely new soundscape. Every song on this thing is pure brilliance,
and I couldn't get enough of it.
4.)Alt-j, This
is all yours
After An
Awesome Wave put Alt-j at the top of the indie art-rock scene, you couldn’t
help but wonder how they could possibly top their debut, especially after they
parted ways with their bassist, Gwill, but somehow they pulled it off. The
first single, “Hunger of the Pine”, gave fans the same emotional feeling that
their debut album gave, but executed with a slower more electronic styling. This is all yours is an absolute
masterpiece both lyrically and musically.
5.)Run River North, Run River North
We all have those bands that we feel don’t
get nearly enough critical attention and Run River North is the one for me.
Formerly known as Monsters Calling Home, Run River North released their
self-titled debut and it’s fantastic. The folk-rockers’ debut is full of lush
harmonies and a serene sense of comfort that is astonishing. Looking forward to
hearing more from this band.
6.)Chet Faker, Built
on Glass
I found myself obsessing over the song
“Talk is Cheap” when I first heard Chet Faker’s Built on Glass. I listened to it so much that I hardly took the
time to focus to the rest of the record and give it a dedicated listen, but
when I did I was in love. The mix of synth beats, sleek electric piano licks,
and poignant lyrics make Built on Glass
a gem. It turned out “Talk is Cheap” wasn’t even my favorite off the record
when I was engulfed in tracks like “To Me” and “1998”.
7.)Manchester Orchestra, Cope & Hope
Atlanta rock outfit Manchester Orchestra’s
fourth studio album, Cope, may be
their heaviest record to date. From the blasting opening track, “Top Notch”, to
the explosive closer, and title track, this record is pure rock. It’s heavy. It’s loud. It’s awesome. Hard to not mention
their reimagined album released this year as well, titled Hope, which had these hard-hitting tracks stripped down into
emotional acoustic ballads. As if Cope wasn’t
already fantastic Manchester Orchestra couldn’t keep their hands off this
material and give the fans an entire other album like they’ve never heard
before. Honorable Mention to the track “Indentions”, because I think it’s
perfect.
8.)Alvvays, Alvvays
I stumbled into this record not realizing
what I was in for. I streamed it prior to the release and I had no idea I would
be listening to such bright bouncing beach rock smothered with lyrics that can
bring you to tears and have you shouting the words at the top of your lungs.
Some of the undoubtedly catchiest tunes of the year came off of the Canadian
rockers’ debut (“Archie, Marry Me” and “Party Police”). Alvvays isn't the only
band making music like this, but in my opinion they are currently the best at making
an entire album so bright that left Molly Rankin’s voice ringing through my
speakers all year, feeling like I never left the beach.
9.)Mick Jenkins, The Water[s]
“Comparing water to life’s truths” (via
Facebook), Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins’ mixtape The Water[s] dwells on this comparison with water throughout the
entire mixtape. I didn't hear many rap/hip-hop records that stayed in heavy
rotation for me, but I couldn't stop listening to The Water[s]. The jazz
influence makes for some elegant sounds underneath the beats, on tracks like
“Healer” having a really soft guitar leading the track. Jenkins will be a
rapper to keep your eyes on in the near future.
10.) Angel Olsen, Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Angel Olsen is yet another brilliant artist
to be signed with Jagjaguwar. Burn Your
Fire For No Witness is a record with raw emotional power. The title of the
album engrained this idea of a fire in my head; with “Unfucktheworld” being the
sparks and once lit “Forgiven/Forgotten” is the massive fire that remains for a
few tracks. Slowly towards the second half of the record the songs slow down,
Angel’s voice gets softer until it’s over and there’s nothing left but the
smothering remnants of “Windows”. This record is great. The harsh emotions of heartbreak, loss and depression just
tear me apart to a point where they are haunting. The song “White Fire” is
smothered in melancholy and remained one of my favorite songs of 2014.
11.) Hospitality, Trouble
The Brooklyn based rockers released Trouble pretty early in the year and for
the longest time it remained in my car. “I Miss Your Bones” was of course a
catchy tune, but not the only memorable track. “Sullivan” ended up being of my
absolute favorite songs for the entire year. Hospitality was able to start off
this album with a bold blasting song like “Nightingale” while slowing down the
last few tracks severely while I remained interested and heavily satisfied.
12.) Beck, Morning
Phase
Hard to say anything that hasn't been said
about this one. Beck’s “sequel” to Sea
Change was an all-out spectacle for folk-rock. The whole record is such a
smooth clean listen, and every track has the potential to be a single. “Heart
is a Drum” is my personal favorite.
13.) Sharon Van Etten, Are We There
Yet another one of Jagjaguwar’s finest,
Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is a
heartbreaking record that can easily move me to tears. Painstakingly vivid
lyricism on this record can rip your heart open. Piano ballads like “I Know”
restore faith in the power of simple delicate songs with nothing more than an
artist and a piano.
14.) Coldplay, Ghost
Stories
I thought I had lost my interest in
Coldplay after Mylo Xyloto. After an
album like that, one would think that the band has changed forever, but I was
dead wrong. I didn't think they had it in them to strip things down and deliver
an astounding and soft record. Ghost
Stories is an important record for Coldplay, and fans of early Coldplay. I
can only hope that the early fans still gave this record a listen, because it
was well-worth the experience.
15.) Royal Blood, Royal Blood
I somehow discovered this album late in the
year, and it managed to bump out my previous #15 spot, because I think this
self-titled debut is spectacle in rock music. Even more impressive is the fact
that Royal Blood is a two-piece band. I didn’t believe it when I was told.
Bands like The Black Keys and The White Stripes have had success with this, but
Royal Blood explodes with so much heaviness exploding from the bass-guitar and
pounding drums, adding some real grit that the front lines of rock music have
been missing.
Periphery’s Juggernaut
has been the album that progressive metal fans have been looking forward to for
a long, long time. This album has been under development for several years and on
January 27th, 2015 we finally got it. Periphery is one of my favorite bands and because
of this I hold them to a very high expectation. Because of the density of the
subject matter, I am going to do this review a little more thoroughly than I
normally do.
Alpha begins with a
slow and anticipating intro. In this track “A Black Minute” the listener gets
introduced to the storyline and musical themes. About half way through, the song
drops and kicks into their signature heavy wall of sound.
The
next track “Mk Ultra” demonstrates some of Spencer's continually developing
screaming voice. What happens near the end reminded me of something Between The
Buried and Me would do with a sudden genre switch to jazzy elevator music. From
this point on Alpha launches itself
into a new gear and soars until the end.
“HeavyHeart” is what I would call Periphery’s most radio friendly song. This track made
me think "They are going to lose a lot of fans with this song."
I personally like Spencer's “pop” sounding vocals. I would describe them as
light, but powerful. This type off singing has always been present in their
music, but Juggernaut is spotlighting
it more than their other two albums. I like the contrast of heavy instrumentals
and clean soaring vocal lines making this a good choice in my opinion. For their type of music you need to differentiate your singer as unique and this is an
excellent way to do this.
“TheEvent” is the first of two interlude tracks within Juggernaut. This is the first time you hear their new, humongous guitar sound. While Misha stayed constant as a producer, they included
the bassist Nolly Getgood as well, making it a self-produced album. I think the
edition of Nolly is what helped in this new-found massive guitar/bass tone.
The
5th track “The Scourge” was released as the first single and did not
have positive reception. This is a good example of how the songs work better
within the album instead out of context as a single. In my mind the song splits
off into two unique parts. First, is a buildup and the second half picks up
into a running, rhythmic adventure. Around
2:28 there is this wonderful, exotic sounding guitar riff that you should pay
attention to. This one also demonstrates Spencer's developing vocals and
writing talent. And how about that scream at 1:37? Talent.
“Collapsed ceilings above drop rage upon them
Stone cold fist and a memory running on the blunt
end of a blade
The blood that is spilled shall start my serenade” Lyrics from "The Scourge"
Lyrics
like this are riddled among both Alpha
and Omega and help solidify the story of a main character's born into oppression and follows his lifelong journey of breaking free of this.
The title track "Alpha" is yet another where lead singer Spencer Sotelo vocally
shines. Super impressive singing wise with an extremely catchy chorus. Again
the musical recurring theme comes back and includes 3 distinct changes in
the song. Periphery also introduces group background vocals in Juggernaut;
something they have not done before. For me it gave it a very heroic and
protagonist feel to the song.
“22 Faces” is one of my favorites from both albums. It really shows why the band is
nicknamed pure-riffery. It has deceivingly heavy verses and and unbelievable
ending. I’ll let this one speak for itself.
“Rainbow Gravity” as well as a goofy title has some extremely djenty rhythms
throughout it . I hear a Tesseract influence coming through on this one. It has that tight, clean sound that people praise them for and includes another jazzy part in the middle.
"Can we find a place where we finally can think for ourselves? Our thoughts are unspoken We can fly, yes, we can soar Staring in the face what we choose to accept, but can't ignore Life is knocking at your door This is calling to the human race We are alone the more we segregate And I won't be part of this in the end"
Lyrics from "Rainbow Gravity"
Track 9 “Four lights” is arguably the heaviest track off Juggernaut. Its an
instrumental jam that reminds me of New Groove from The Icarus EP. In this one I hear
some Gorjira influence with the massive attack, chugging guitar sound.
The last track from Alpha titled “Psychosphere”
is an off beat take on a song with an interesting eerie sound . This incredible last track
on Alpha appropriately leads us into Omega.
Omega
Up
until this point, I have been extremely impressed with the album so far. I
give Alpha 9/10. Omega takes a different, I would say darker spin on the concept. It
begins with “Reprise” and the title says it all... It’s a reprise of the
first track “A Black Minute” off Alpha. It is a smooth transition into "TheBad Thing". What I liked about this track is their experimentation with the metal
core sounding breakdown at 2:35. Not to mention the very impressive scream that quickly follows.
“Priestess”
was the first track I was not totally consumed by within Juggernaut. It is the only song that involves an
acoustic guitar, which kind of took me out of the story. There are very tasty
acoustic melodies throughout. I did enjoy the 8 bit sequence in the middle but
overall I feel it didn’t fit in with the others.
“Graveless”
is the fast aggressive track off the album. It entails a very PII chorus another includes a very jazzy
solo. Pay attention to the extremely heavy outro.
After this, they keep the heavy going with "Hell Below". This is the part where the main character gets dragged
down to Hell for his sins. Sounds like a song deeply influenced by the
forefathers of Djent, Messuggah. Absolutely massive sounding bass tones. I was
also a big fan of the “live die burn” vocal theme at the end.
The
title track "Omega" demonstrates some
of the best musicianship out of both parts. Lyrically heavy verses,
over an equally heavy ensemble. Spencer delivers an awesome vocal part about 4 minutes in. You hear all the recurring themes from Alpha and Omega. It
was truly remarkable to me how they wrapped 2 whole albums in this one song. At the end of the song you get a beautiful euphoric
chorus, followed by the heaviest riff Periphery has ever wrote. After
that last note, I was floored and thought that the album was over. Then “StrangerThings” began. And if you look into the storyline (which I encourage you to do)
it makes totally makes sense. I love how the album is like a cycle. He
repeats life.That being said, it’s so
hard for me to get over "Omega"! I think it's the best song on the album, and I wish they had ended it there. Musically speaking, I
just simply don’t think that "Stranger Things" wrapped up the album as well
as Omega.
Overall, there is no denying that Juggernaut moves away from the technical instrumentals and focuses
more on vocals and unity of their overall sound. This is a change that I
enjoyed. I think just as Spencer’s vocal style is changing, the instrumentals
are too. It has an incredible story, and a group of musicians who refuse to
settle for mediocrity. Periphery’s Juggernaut
will not disappoint and their ever evolving, fresh sound finds them in top
form.
Interpretation of the Juggernaut story. A Black Minute: A cult group sacrificing blood over a couple having sex.
MK Ultra: Cult taking over the baby, leaving a bruise to show that they forever own his life, and he will do as they please.
Heavy Heart: Baby is now grown up, he feels a strange force over him and he is trying to fight it as it slowly takes over.
The Event: The force of the cult takes it's grasp.
The Scourge: The evil starts taking over in his mind. He knows he is not free.
22 Faces: He has no more perception of time or himself, he drones on as the cult controls his mind and body. Has not slept in a long period of time, slowly going mad.
Rainbow Gravity: What the cult plans to do and what there reasons are. (New generations only caring for bullshit that does not matter, no morals or caring for others, full of greed. Our minds can soar, we are much more capable than what we have let ourselves become.)
Four Lights: Cult takes complete control.
Psychosphere: He knows he is being controlled, cult makes him kill people slowly. Developes a double personality. He fights the cults grip.
The Bad Thing: The thought of people suffering quenches his thirst. He's blood mad but a part of him tries to stop thinking it and go to a safe place and fight the urge.
Priestess: He dreams of getting a second chance at life because even though he was controlled, he feels horrible about what he has done and wishes he could make it stop. He sees a way out...
Graveless: He has been contemplating suicide for a time. Slits his own throat. Let's it bleed out. He is dead.
Hell Below: He gets dragged to hell because of the things he did and because he was born into a life of evil. Forever dying and burning.
Omega: Is now a ghost. He begs for forgiveness. He was only acting out of control of the true evil who had a grasp on him since birth. He admits his sins.
Stranger Things: Wanders the Earth aimlessly. The heavens see that he once had value, but evil forces decayed the good he once was. He was submitting to a man that controlled him, but he still looked for peace. A holy spirit grants his wish, pulling him near the light with it's majestic voice. He feels serenity and is reborn.....Intro to A Black Minute. He is destined to repeat his life of torture and do horrible things. To find hope, but get shot down.
