Joy Sitler - Makeshift Rorschach Test
I’ve listened through this one quite a few times and I can’t NOT hear the strong similarity this song has to Goo Goo Dolls mega hit Iris. Which isn’t a terrible, thing, but the cadence of the song, the pacing, the string swells,the epic gradiosity…if it wasn’t deliberate, this may be like the time the Flaming Lips accidentally wrote a Cat Stephens/Yusef Islam song. Regardless of the similarities, it’s very well executed and has a lot of appeal.
That aside, I like the lyrical approach. A melancholy lost love and depressive introspection feel. Stare at that water stain and see what you see. That’s what I do with my water stain. Your third stanza is especially neato. I suppose if I had to criticize something about it, I feel like the back half of the song of meanders…it builds and it’s epic and the conclusion feels a little…undercooked compared to how it starts? Anyway,strong effort, good tune.
Ironbark - El Ultimo Toro
A dialogue between a doomed matador and the bull right before the matador murders him, complete with a description of the matador’s unfortunate family life and boy howdy you pulled out all the stops on emotionality here. Personally – I would have made the music contrast a bit more when the narrator gets into reflection mode. From a composition standpoint, I feel like there should be a bit more of a difference between the matador in the arena soon to be gored and the scenes from his past, cause the setting is different, you know?
I liked the story, super creative. Maybe a bit long? I dunno, maybe it’s not. I dig the Spanish inflections on the guitar playing. It’s compelling in spite of its minimalism. I’m running low on constructive things to say, all in all this was just nice and pleasant and kind of epic?
The Alleviators - Sarah’s Basement
Ah yes, those core young adult memories. Mine had less dancing in basements and a lot more dancing in random fields in the middle of nowhere or some more or less empty warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Rocking, with good energy throughout the song. Chorus really brings the energy up a notch and it’s well done. An excellent slice of nostalgia, if not only for the subject matter but for the song itself, which is straight out of the featured albums that would be on the rack near the cash register at the Disc Exchange when I was a kid.
I really can’t criticize this much. I can’t tell for sure if the ‘you’ in this song is a dear friend or something more. It kind of sounds like something more, but heck, right at the first stages it can be pretty hard to tell the difference. Which I guess goes with the thrill of the song? Excellent coming-of-age banger.
Glennny - Leaky Pipes
Very free associative lyric. While there are many stanzas that are all inspired by the water stain and the Rorschach-esque nature of it, I don’t feel like it ties together that much, not that I am in any position to criticize anybody about that particular thing. Guitar work is impeccable throughout the song, it’s a joy to listen to. Really the only complaint I have is that it kind of starts, and it’s a lot of nice individual moments but there isn’t really a core element of the song that grabs my attention, not a whole lot of development. But it sounds good! Goodness, I’m going in circles. I would be really stoked to hear this live, as hard as I find it to review. Harmonies sound good but need more treble in the EQ when they appear. That riff that closes out the song is terrific.
No comments:
Post a Comment