I'm so proud of myself that I have this list done by early February this year. As always, I put a lot of thought, and a lot of listening hours into this. It was really difficult to eliminate songs and get the list down to 20, but I did it. I have fewer restrictions for songs than I do for albums - I still have to have a hard copy of the song (well, mostly ... I cheated on this with 1 song this year. I bought a CD that turned out to be CD single remix, and the regular song wasn't available on CD. In this case, the song was so good, I really wanted it to be part of this list, so I downloaded the regular version.)
Anyway, obviously this is all just my opinion. Without further ado, here's part 1 of my list of the Top 20 Songs of 2016, in reverse order:
20. Waterparks -- "Territory"
Funny thing is, in the end, I had to choose between this one and another Waterparks song, this one off of their Cluster EP, or "Hawaii (Stay Awake)" from their Double Dare LP. "Hawaii" is a little bit more of a typical single -- "Territory" is a more unusual song, and that made the difference. Btw, these guys are a pop punk band from Houston, TX that I had the good fortune of catching live this year when they opened for Sleeping With Sirens.
19. The Jezabels -- "My Love Is My Disease"
This is a female-fronted band from Sydney, Australia that I first learned about on SputnikMusic.com. The sound is electronic alternpop. It's a song that seems to be about an unhealthy relationship, with just a touch of S&M imagery about it -- her love apparently actually chains her to her bed. Not her lover, mind you, but her love itself. Pretty kinky. There's some pretty cool electronic percussion in this one, and lead vocalist Hayley Mary has a great voice -- beautiful, but just a little biting. The rest of the album is pretty good too.
18. Kaiser Chiefs -- "Indoor Firework"
This song this from their Stay Together album, which didn't grab me at first, but now it's my favorite album of theirs since their excellent 2005 debut Employment. This is a sad song about a recently ended relationship with just a touch of disco guitar that actually works here. Vocalist Ricky Wilson really nails this one, with a vocal that's strong but full of pathos.
17. School of Seven Bells -- "Ablaze"
This is a New York City band that, sadly, has possibly put out it's last album due to the death of one of the members. Like The Jezabels, they're an electronic alternapop band, but without that little touch of darkness the Jezabels bring. Again, I was particularly drawn to the track by the strong and alluring vocals of singer Alejandra Deheza, who sings both the lead and the backing vocal.
16. Amanda Jayne -- "One"
Amanda Jayne is a Long Island singer/songwriter who I found totally by accident by following a link from a friend of hers who was running for my local school board. He didn't win, but I wound up buying (and loving) this album, especially this song. She also has a video that is very clever, as she sings "Could you be the one/Could you be the one?" to her boorish date while thy're both at the dinner table in a restaurant. Unfortunately, he's just not that into her. She's wearing a blindfold, and as she sings he ogles other women, checks his cell phone message, steals food off of her plate and just generally acts like a dick. And yes, the song features yet another lovely vocal.
15. Santana -- "Come As You Are"
It was great to see Santana back with an excellent new album. This is a fun, lighthearted song with some trademark Santana Latin percussion and some of Carlos Santana's most excellent guitar. Unlike the previous songs, while the vocals are decent here, it's really all about the instrumentation, and about the playful vibe of the song.
14. Tegan and Sara -- "Boyfriend"
Tegan and Sara are one of the best pop bands out there -- they really know how to bring the hooks. This is a song about a very confused relationship, with the singer complaining that her would-be love keeps their relationship secret and can't seem to decide if she wants to be a lover or a friend: "You kiss me like your boyfriend/You call me up like you would your best friend."
13. They Might Be Giants -- "Trouble Awful Devil Evil"
TMBG are great for writing offbeat songs on unusual subjects. In this one, the protagonist drops to his bed and falls for ten thousand years down a bottomless pit, blissfully unaware of what seems to be Armageddon going on him. The song is slow and sweetly sung, which adds to the quirky humor.
12. David Bowie -- "Blackstar"
This is a weird and wonderful song, done in 3 parts. The first part is beautiful and mysterious, the second is a little strident, but the third part returns to the sound of the first part, and somehow it's even stronger because of the change of pace in the middle. It's a fitting farewell to an artist who did his own thing instead of following the crowd. R.I.P. David Bowie.
11. Andy Black -- "Stay Alive"
Andy Black is the alter ego of Andy Biersack, lead singer of The Black Veil Brides. This is the strongest song on an album full of first-rate alternative pop songs. This one also features of Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio/Blink-182 fame.
Next Post: Top 20 Songs of 2016: Part 2
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Review of Flash's "Flash"
This is a review I posted on the Sputnik Music website earlier this morning:
Yes is one of those band's whose roster has included so many impressive musicians that at various times over the years, there have been what has amounted to competing versions of the band functioning at the same time. The current version of Yes that continued after the passing of Chris Squire found their 2016 tour in competition with that of Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman, who billed their live shows as "An Evening of Yes Music and More". In the late 1980s, the version of the band that legally owned the name "Yes", built around Chris Squire and Trevor Rabin, found themselves dealing with an alternate version of the band in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (with Jon Anderson acting as lead vocalist for both groups). And all the way back in the early 1970s, Yes was challenged in the record charts by an upstart "Yes Lite" kind of band named Flash.
Flash had its beginnings back in 1970, shortly before the release of the Time and a Word album, when Yes fired their guitarist Peter Banks in favor of newcomer Steve Howe. Their next album, 1971's The Yes Album, was a huge leap forward both artistically and commercially, eventually going Silver in the UK and Platinum in the U.S. Not content to rest upon their laurels, however, they followed up this success by sacking keyboard player Tony Kaye in order to hire a musician more comfortable with playing synthesizers instead of just traditional keyboards, Rick Wakeman.
In August of 1971, while Wakeman and Yes were in the studio recording the Fragile album, Banks and vocalist Colin Carter decided to form a new band. Ray Bennett, a longtime friend of Banks, was recruited on bass (after being tipped off by Bill Bruford); and drummer Mike Hough, who answered an ad in Melody Maker, became the drummer. As for keyboards, it was only natural that the band recruited the recently-dismissed Yes keyboard player, Tony Kaye. In recent years, all parties involved have asserted that Kaye was never an official member of the band, and he did only play on their first album. But he was listed on the album cover as a band member, and that's how the radio stations and music writers of the time referred to him. Carter and Banks christened their new band Flash, and in 1972, they released their self-titled debut album.
Flash is an excellent album of progressive rock music. It's hard to believe now, because over the years, Flash has descended into relative obscurity (or at best, cult status), while Yes has gone on to a highly-successful almost-50-year career which resulted in them finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this coming April, but at the time the Flash album was released, there was some serious discussion among fans and musicians as to which was the better band. (Then Yes released Close to the Edge later in 1972, and blew that argument all to hell).
Flash on the Flash debut album sounds a lot like the band you might have expected the Yes band from Yes and Time and a Word to mature into. Carter isn't as great a vocalist as Jon Anderson -- he lacks some of Anderson's vocal beauty -- but taken on his own terms, he's actually quite good, with a voice that's warm and bright. Banks and Kaye, doubtlessly smarting from their respective sackings by the parent band, do some of their finest work here; Banks' guitar work dominates the album, and perhaps as a slap at his former bandmates, Kaye even throws in some synthesizer. Bennett's bass lines, while not as complex as some of Squire's, are strong and memorable. And Hough holds up his end nicely as well.
There are only 5 songs on this album, but in true prog rock tradition, only one of them is shorter than 5 minutes. Two of the songs are credited to Banks and Carter, one is credited solely to Carter, and the other two are attributed to Ray Bennett. You won't be surprised to learn that in terms of the songwriting, musically, it's similar to that of Yes from the Time and a Word/The Yes Album period. As for the lyrics, again like Yes, they're mostly upbeat and positive, although they're way less stream-of-consciousness than most of Jon Anderson's lyrics. And although I know it's kind of a cliche to say this, there really isn't a weak song on the album.
The two songs that got all the radio airplay are the album's first track, Carter's "Small Beginnings" (which actually charted #29 as a single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart) and Bennett's "Children of Universe". Both songs deserved it. "Small Beginnings" starts things off with a flurry of intro notes, then kicks into the main body of the song. It's an upbeat number that serves as an encouragement to the harried working person: "Don't think you're getting nowhere/You know we all must start/From very small beginnings/Off to a better part." There's an extended bridge in the middle of the song, slowing things up considerably, until the chorus starts again and drives the song towards its conclusion. There's a little bit of vocal harmony going on in parts, though not nearly as much as Anderson and Squire typically provide for Yes.
"Children of the Universe" is probably my favorite song on the album. It's based on a 1927 prose poem by the American writer Max Ehrmann that was made into a fashionable wall poster in the '70s, "Desiderata". The verse that was particularly popular was "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and stars; you have a right to be here." Bennett plays with the same notion in his lyrics: "Children of the universe/As much as sky and seaway/You have a right to be here." It's a sunny and life-affirming song that should be much better known today than it is, even with its nonsense lyric chorus: "La ouv ya ouv ya/La ouv ya ouv ya/La ohhhhhh ...".
Bennett's song "Morning Haze" is the shortest song on the album, clocking in at 4:37. The main feature of this track is Banks' excellent acoustic guitar work."Dreams of Heaven", on the other hand, is the longest song, at a healthy 12:55. This one is atypically gloomy in the beginning: "The sky is turning gray and/The bottom's dropping out of everything." But the song suddenly breaks into a fast instrumental bridge in the middle, keeping it from feeling too dire. The album closes with a slow, dreamy number called "The Time It Takes".
As stated earlier, member or not, Kaye left Flash after this album, and their subsequent two albums, 1972's In the Can and 1973's Out of Your Hands were nowhere near as popular as Flash.
I've noticed over the years that there's a lot of love among Yes fans for Peter Banks, especially considering he was only with the group for the first two albums, and there's even a bit of an outcry that he won't be joining the band at their R&RHoF induction. I would encourage all fans of Banks, and all fans of Yes, for that matter (especially fans of early Yes) to give Flash a listen. It's an album that deserves a place at the table in progressive rock history, and in the history of Yes. If I can use a baseball analogy, I've always kind of considered Flash to be Yes's AAA team. And on this album, they hit a home run.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Review Summary: Yes's AAA team hits a home run with its debut album.
Yes is one of those band's whose roster has included so many impressive musicians that at various times over the years, there have been what has amounted to competing versions of the band functioning at the same time. The current version of Yes that continued after the passing of Chris Squire found their 2016 tour in competition with that of Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman, who billed their live shows as "An Evening of Yes Music and More". In the late 1980s, the version of the band that legally owned the name "Yes", built around Chris Squire and Trevor Rabin, found themselves dealing with an alternate version of the band in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (with Jon Anderson acting as lead vocalist for both groups). And all the way back in the early 1970s, Yes was challenged in the record charts by an upstart "Yes Lite" kind of band named Flash.
Flash had its beginnings back in 1970, shortly before the release of the Time and a Word album, when Yes fired their guitarist Peter Banks in favor of newcomer Steve Howe. Their next album, 1971's The Yes Album, was a huge leap forward both artistically and commercially, eventually going Silver in the UK and Platinum in the U.S. Not content to rest upon their laurels, however, they followed up this success by sacking keyboard player Tony Kaye in order to hire a musician more comfortable with playing synthesizers instead of just traditional keyboards, Rick Wakeman.
In August of 1971, while Wakeman and Yes were in the studio recording the Fragile album, Banks and vocalist Colin Carter decided to form a new band. Ray Bennett, a longtime friend of Banks, was recruited on bass (after being tipped off by Bill Bruford); and drummer Mike Hough, who answered an ad in Melody Maker, became the drummer. As for keyboards, it was only natural that the band recruited the recently-dismissed Yes keyboard player, Tony Kaye. In recent years, all parties involved have asserted that Kaye was never an official member of the band, and he did only play on their first album. But he was listed on the album cover as a band member, and that's how the radio stations and music writers of the time referred to him. Carter and Banks christened their new band Flash, and in 1972, they released their self-titled debut album.
Flash is an excellent album of progressive rock music. It's hard to believe now, because over the years, Flash has descended into relative obscurity (or at best, cult status), while Yes has gone on to a highly-successful almost-50-year career which resulted in them finally being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this coming April, but at the time the Flash album was released, there was some serious discussion among fans and musicians as to which was the better band. (Then Yes released Close to the Edge later in 1972, and blew that argument all to hell).
Flash on the Flash debut album sounds a lot like the band you might have expected the Yes band from Yes and Time and a Word to mature into. Carter isn't as great a vocalist as Jon Anderson -- he lacks some of Anderson's vocal beauty -- but taken on his own terms, he's actually quite good, with a voice that's warm and bright. Banks and Kaye, doubtlessly smarting from their respective sackings by the parent band, do some of their finest work here; Banks' guitar work dominates the album, and perhaps as a slap at his former bandmates, Kaye even throws in some synthesizer. Bennett's bass lines, while not as complex as some of Squire's, are strong and memorable. And Hough holds up his end nicely as well.
There are only 5 songs on this album, but in true prog rock tradition, only one of them is shorter than 5 minutes. Two of the songs are credited to Banks and Carter, one is credited solely to Carter, and the other two are attributed to Ray Bennett. You won't be surprised to learn that in terms of the songwriting, musically, it's similar to that of Yes from the Time and a Word/The Yes Album period. As for the lyrics, again like Yes, they're mostly upbeat and positive, although they're way less stream-of-consciousness than most of Jon Anderson's lyrics. And although I know it's kind of a cliche to say this, there really isn't a weak song on the album.
The two songs that got all the radio airplay are the album's first track, Carter's "Small Beginnings" (which actually charted #29 as a single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart) and Bennett's "Children of Universe". Both songs deserved it. "Small Beginnings" starts things off with a flurry of intro notes, then kicks into the main body of the song. It's an upbeat number that serves as an encouragement to the harried working person: "Don't think you're getting nowhere/You know we all must start/From very small beginnings/Off to a better part." There's an extended bridge in the middle of the song, slowing things up considerably, until the chorus starts again and drives the song towards its conclusion. There's a little bit of vocal harmony going on in parts, though not nearly as much as Anderson and Squire typically provide for Yes.
"Children of the Universe" is probably my favorite song on the album. It's based on a 1927 prose poem by the American writer Max Ehrmann that was made into a fashionable wall poster in the '70s, "Desiderata". The verse that was particularly popular was "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and stars; you have a right to be here." Bennett plays with the same notion in his lyrics: "Children of the universe/As much as sky and seaway/You have a right to be here." It's a sunny and life-affirming song that should be much better known today than it is, even with its nonsense lyric chorus: "La ouv ya ouv ya/La ouv ya ouv ya/La ohhhhhh ...".
Bennett's song "Morning Haze" is the shortest song on the album, clocking in at 4:37. The main feature of this track is Banks' excellent acoustic guitar work."Dreams of Heaven", on the other hand, is the longest song, at a healthy 12:55. This one is atypically gloomy in the beginning: "The sky is turning gray and/The bottom's dropping out of everything." But the song suddenly breaks into a fast instrumental bridge in the middle, keeping it from feeling too dire. The album closes with a slow, dreamy number called "The Time It Takes".
As stated earlier, member or not, Kaye left Flash after this album, and their subsequent two albums, 1972's In the Can and 1973's Out of Your Hands were nowhere near as popular as Flash.
I've noticed over the years that there's a lot of love among Yes fans for Peter Banks, especially considering he was only with the group for the first two albums, and there's even a bit of an outcry that he won't be joining the band at their R&RHoF induction. I would encourage all fans of Banks, and all fans of Yes, for that matter (especially fans of early Yes) to give Flash a listen. It's an album that deserves a place at the table in progressive rock history, and in the history of Yes. If I can use a baseball analogy, I've always kind of considered Flash to be Yes's AAA team. And on this album, they hit a home run.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Monday, February 6, 2017
Top 10 Local Albums of 2016
I'm a Long Island guy who grew up in Queens. I used to do a radio show highlighting "local" music (Local Insomniac Music), and a couple of public access TV shows (The Jill Morrison Show and LIMC-TV) as well.
When I talk local music, I try to keep a fairly loose definition of the word "local". For the purposes of picking a Top 10 Local Albums list, here's what I consider "local": 1. Long Island, for sure; 2. The 5 boroughs of NY (especially Brooklyn, where a lot of Long Island bands have run off to) 3. Sometimes Jersey or a little ways upstate, if the mood takes me. (I'm not giving away money or anything, so I kind of get to make up the rules as I go along). Also, if a band or artist spent a decent amount of time living on and playing on Long Island, they get to qualify, even if they've moved to another area of the country.
As for format of what constitutes an "album" I'm going by the same rules I used on my The Top 10 Albums of 2016 list --there has to be a hard (CD copy) of the album, and it has to full-length; No EPs. allowed.
Because there's no suspense about the top slot (since we already know that Bayside took the top slot on the national list), I'm going to print this list from top to bottom. I'm thinking that next year, for the sake of suspense, I should print the local list first, but we'll see.
When I talk local music, I try to keep a fairly loose definition of the word "local". For the purposes of picking a Top 10 Local Albums list, here's what I consider "local": 1. Long Island, for sure; 2. The 5 boroughs of NY (especially Brooklyn, where a lot of Long Island bands have run off to) 3. Sometimes Jersey or a little ways upstate, if the mood takes me. (I'm not giving away money or anything, so I kind of get to make up the rules as I go along). Also, if a band or artist spent a decent amount of time living on and playing on Long Island, they get to qualify, even if they've moved to another area of the country.
As for format of what constitutes an "album" I'm going by the same rules I used on my The Top 10 Albums of 2016 list --there has to be a hard (CD copy) of the album, and it has to full-length; No EPs. allowed.
Because there's no suspense about the top slot (since we already know that Bayside took the top slot on the national list), I'm going to print this list from top to bottom. I'm thinking that next year, for the sake of suspense, I should print the local list first, but we'll see.
Top 10 Local Albums of 2016
1. Bayside - Vacancy
Anyone who has followed my mad ramblings over the years won't be surprised that this one made my Number One album of the year slot. Until such time as Paramore returns to top form (which may never happen, given the bad feelings between Hayley Williams and Josh Farro), Bayside is my favorite band of the modern rock era. Their albums usually make my Top 10, and it's not even the first time they've taken the Number One slot (they first did it back in 2008 with their excellent Shudder album). For my money, Anthony Raneri is one of the best vocalists and best songwriters out there today. This one makes Number One on the strength of a solid album throughout, led by two particularly strong numbers, the album's lead-off song "Two Letters", a song about working out a complicated ongoing relationship with your ex (even though he doesn't like to use that term), and "Mary" which an upbeat song that seems to be a tribute to a deceased friend/fan. While "Two Letters" is a song very much in the usual Bayside style, Mary is a more danceable number in kind of a classic rock style (I'm thinking Springsteen/Joel/Mellancamp here). Anyway, for me, this is Bayside's strongest album in awhile, and that's saying something.
2. Taking Back Sunday - Tidal Wave
I almost feel bad for Taking Back Sunday, because in terms of my taste, they always seem to play the role of Alydar to Bayside's Affirmed. Seems like the two bands always release albums in the same year, and I always like the Bayside one better. But that's not a knock on TBS -- this is an excellent album, and there's even a bit of a change of sounds for them. The excellent title track, which is my favorite song on the album, almost sounds like a Clash song. I saw some speculation as to whether this would be their last album together, but I hope it isn't. They haven't put out a bad album yet.
3. School of Seven Bells - SVIIB
This is a New York City indiepop/shoegaze band that I learned about for the first time this year through the Sputnik Music website. The first track on the album "Ablaze" is a total winner. Unfortunately, the future of the group is in doubt because one of the three band members left the band a few years ago, and another one passed away this year, so for right now, the only band member left is vocalist/guitarist Alejandra Deheza.
4. Ingrid Michaelson - It Doesn't Have to Make Sense
Always good to see New York folkie/pop artist Ingrid Michaelson back on the list. For me, this is her strongest album since 2008's Be OK. She mixes her sound up a little on this one, with the playful, funky "Celebrate", "Hell No" wherein she seems to be chanelling Taylor Swift (which I wouldn't like to see as a long-term strategy, but for one song it's kind of cool), and the beautiful and poignant tribute to her mother, "I Remember Her".
5. Jeff Rosenstock - Worry.
This is Rosenstock's second year in a row on the list, following upon last year's We Cool?, with his manic brand of folk punk. My favorite number here is "Festival Song", but "I Did Something Weird Last Night" is also pretty great. In fact, the whole album is consistently good.
6. Regina Spektor - Remember Us to Life
This is another artist I only learned about this year from Sputnik, New York City anti-folk queen Regina Spector. The back of the album drags a little for me, but the front is amazing, especially the Kate Bush-esque Small Bills.
7. Nine Days - Snapshots
Good to see these guys back and making new music. Snapshots has the very recognizable Nine Days sound, which is pretty terrific. A lot of songs here about aging, family, etc. My favorites are the track that leads off the album, "Obsolete", and the title track. Welcome back, boys.
8. Amanda Jayne - Strike a Match
This is a Long Island acoustic artist with a cool, under produced DIY album. Her best track by far is the excellent "One" (for which she also has a very clever and funny video). I found about her in the weirdest way -- a friend of hers was running for my local schoolboard, and he had a link on his Facebook page. I'm glad I researched him, and that I followed the link.
9. Miles to Dayton - Forces Unknown
These guys have been making excellent music in the americana genre for years now, and it's not the first time they've made my list. My favorite track here is an upbeat number called "You Are".
10. They Might Be Giants - Phone Power
An album of songs from their Dial-a-Song service, with tracks about armageddon, murderous Lovecraftian monsters from another dimension and time traveling assassins. I particularly love "Trouble Awful Devil Evil", wherein the singer blissfully descends into Hell for thousand of years, unaware of the apocalypse taking place around him.
Thanks again to anyone who took the time to read this list. I should have the Top Songs of 2016 list posted withing the next few days.
Anyone who has followed my mad ramblings over the years won't be surprised that this one made my Number One album of the year slot. Until such time as Paramore returns to top form (which may never happen, given the bad feelings between Hayley Williams and Josh Farro), Bayside is my favorite band of the modern rock era. Their albums usually make my Top 10, and it's not even the first time they've taken the Number One slot (they first did it back in 2008 with their excellent Shudder album). For my money, Anthony Raneri is one of the best vocalists and best songwriters out there today. This one makes Number One on the strength of a solid album throughout, led by two particularly strong numbers, the album's lead-off song "Two Letters", a song about working out a complicated ongoing relationship with your ex (even though he doesn't like to use that term), and "Mary" which an upbeat song that seems to be a tribute to a deceased friend/fan. While "Two Letters" is a song very much in the usual Bayside style, Mary is a more danceable number in kind of a classic rock style (I'm thinking Springsteen/Joel/Mellancamp here). Anyway, for me, this is Bayside's strongest album in awhile, and that's saying something.
2. Taking Back Sunday - Tidal Wave
I almost feel bad for Taking Back Sunday, because in terms of my taste, they always seem to play the role of Alydar to Bayside's Affirmed. Seems like the two bands always release albums in the same year, and I always like the Bayside one better. But that's not a knock on TBS -- this is an excellent album, and there's even a bit of a change of sounds for them. The excellent title track, which is my favorite song on the album, almost sounds like a Clash song. I saw some speculation as to whether this would be their last album together, but I hope it isn't. They haven't put out a bad album yet.
3. School of Seven Bells - SVIIB
This is a New York City indiepop/shoegaze band that I learned about for the first time this year through the Sputnik Music website. The first track on the album "Ablaze" is a total winner. Unfortunately, the future of the group is in doubt because one of the three band members left the band a few years ago, and another one passed away this year, so for right now, the only band member left is vocalist/guitarist Alejandra Deheza.
4. Ingrid Michaelson - It Doesn't Have to Make Sense
Always good to see New York folkie/pop artist Ingrid Michaelson back on the list. For me, this is her strongest album since 2008's Be OK. She mixes her sound up a little on this one, with the playful, funky "Celebrate", "Hell No" wherein she seems to be chanelling Taylor Swift (which I wouldn't like to see as a long-term strategy, but for one song it's kind of cool), and the beautiful and poignant tribute to her mother, "I Remember Her".
5. Jeff Rosenstock - Worry.
This is Rosenstock's second year in a row on the list, following upon last year's We Cool?, with his manic brand of folk punk. My favorite number here is "Festival Song", but "I Did Something Weird Last Night" is also pretty great. In fact, the whole album is consistently good.
6. Regina Spektor - Remember Us to Life
This is another artist I only learned about this year from Sputnik, New York City anti-folk queen Regina Spector. The back of the album drags a little for me, but the front is amazing, especially the Kate Bush-esque Small Bills.
7. Nine Days - Snapshots
Good to see these guys back and making new music. Snapshots has the very recognizable Nine Days sound, which is pretty terrific. A lot of songs here about aging, family, etc. My favorites are the track that leads off the album, "Obsolete", and the title track. Welcome back, boys.
8. Amanda Jayne - Strike a Match
This is a Long Island acoustic artist with a cool, under produced DIY album. Her best track by far is the excellent "One" (for which she also has a very clever and funny video). I found about her in the weirdest way -- a friend of hers was running for my local schoolboard, and he had a link on his Facebook page. I'm glad I researched him, and that I followed the link.
9. Miles to Dayton - Forces Unknown
These guys have been making excellent music in the americana genre for years now, and it's not the first time they've made my list. My favorite track here is an upbeat number called "You Are".
10. They Might Be Giants - Phone Power
An album of songs from their Dial-a-Song service, with tracks about armageddon, murderous Lovecraftian monsters from another dimension and time traveling assassins. I particularly love "Trouble Awful Devil Evil", wherein the singer blissfully descends into Hell for thousand of years, unaware of the apocalypse taking place around him.
Thanks again to anyone who took the time to read this list. I should have the Top Songs of 2016 list posted withing the next few days.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Top 10 Albums of 2016
I'm still actually finalizing my Top 20 Songs list, but I figured why not go ahead and publish this one.
Here are the rules for what is eligible: It has to be a full-length album of at least 7 songs (unless you've got one or more epic-length songs). No EPs. It also has to be all by one artist -- no compilations. And although I know one of these days I'll have to change this (maybe next year? I don't know, more artists every year are only putting out cost-saving digital copies of their albums, especially independent artists, so we'll see), but I'm still old school, so for now, at least, I have to have a physical copy of the album on CD. I won't count it if I can only get a digital version.
In 2016, I listened to 75+ albums to put together this list. I tried to include a variety of genres, but my tastes are what they are -- I like classical, but no classical albums were included. I don't much like pure hip-hop or jazz, although I did listen to one jazz album this year, but I just don't enjoy/understand those genres. (Some of the rock was a little hip-hop tinged, though, e.g. Twenty One Pilots). I listened to a couple of metal albums this year, and they were OK, but they didn't make this list. I didn't include any straight country, although some of the artists I listened to produced country-tinged rock. But this year, none of them made the list either. And of course, it's all based on my taste. It's all about what I liked, and what I thought was good.
So from 10th through first, here's my list:
Top 10 Albums of 2016:
10. Phantogram - Three
Phantogram is a male/female duo from upstate, NY. They almost made the Top 10 list in 2014 for their Voices album. The music is kind of electro-rock. The best song on here is one called "Run Run Blood": "Hey wolf, there's lions in here/There's lions in here, there's lions in here".
9. The Jezabels - Synthia
This is a band I learned about on the Sputnik Music site. They're a female-fronted indie rock band from Australia. They mix it up pretty well in terms of the styles and speeds of their songs, making the album a pretty satisfying listen. I'm not 100% sure, but their song "My Love Is My Disease" is in contention for my Top 20 Songs list. It's right on the brink, so I'm not sure if it will make it or not.
8. The Mowgli's - Where'd Your Weekend Go?
This is the second year in a row this band made my Top 10 Albums list, so you know they're doing something I like. These guys are alt rockers from Los Angeles, and their music is a throwback to the days of hippy rock like Jefferson Airplane, mixed with pop rock harmonies reminiscent of The Cowsills. They've mostly got an upbeat, happy vibe, although the lyrics on some of the songs this time around are a little darker. For example, the best song on this one is a track called "Alone Sometimes", which about sitting home alone and getting drunk on Johnny Walker after the end of a toxic relationship. Good times, good times.
7. Night Riots - Love Gloom
These guys made my Top 20 Songs list last year with their song "Break" from the Howl EP. They're an alt rock band from the Central Coast of California, and they sound to be heavily influenced by The Killers, with maybe a little bit of Vampire Weekend thrown in. My favorite number on this one is a song that takes a shot at big-headed celebrities and rock stars called "Nothing Personal": "I'll be the king, you'll be the filth I was away/Nothing personal, personal, personal."
6. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
I have to admit, I haven't been a big fan of this band in the past. I always liked the song "Creep" from their Pablo Honey album, but nothing else I heard by them ever grabbed me until now. But these guys are so worshiped on the Sputnik site that I felt this was the year to give them another chance, and I'm glad I did. I'm kind of on the borderline with their vocalist, Thom Yorke (which may be what put me off them for so long), but the music here is complex and beautiful, to the point that I'm thinking that maybe these guys are the truest heirs to Pink Floyd that I've heard yet. So now I'm going to have to go back through their discography and give them another listen. Anyway, this album is a total winner.
5. Garbage - Strange Little Birds
I've always been an admirer of this band, but at first, this album left me a little flat -- I felt like there were more sounds and snippets here than actual songs. However, this is one of those albums that really grew on me with repeated listens, and while I don't like it quite as much as 2012's Not Your Kind of People, it's still a pretty damn good album. "Empty" is my favorite track here, which was deservedly released as the album's single. And as fans of the short-lived TV show already know, Shirley Manson is still the best Terminator ever.
4. Tegan and Sara - Love You to Death
This album has been criticized as sounding pretty much exactly like their last album, 2013's Heartthrob, and the band is definitely guilty as charged. But that album made my Top 10 of the Year list, and this one does too. What can I say, these Canadian twin sisters know how to make catchy alternapop songs, and I'm not tired of it. "Boyfriend" was the first single from the album, and it's also the album's strongest track. Go, Canada, go!
3. Against the Current - In Our Bones
I'm so proud of these guys! This is an alternapop band from Poughkeepsie, NY, fronted by a tiny little girl with a big voice, Chrissy Costanza. I thought their Gravity EP from last year showed a lot of potential, but a lot of bands never take that next step. This one did. This is an album full of manic 20-something energy, driven by a pair of youth anthems, "Young & Relentless" and "Running With the Wild Things". Alternative Press called this album "pop rock perfection", and I'd have to agree.
2. Andy Black - The Shadow Side
For most of the year, I thought this was going to be my #1, and that would have been fine. Andy Black is actually Andy Biersack, the lead singer of Black Veil Brides. Unfortunately, I think this album has fallen a little bit into a crack commercially -- it's not rocky enough for Black Veil Bride fans, and alternative pop fans who would be its most natural audience just haven't discovered it. Too bad, because this album is a winner from beginning to end. My favorite track is "Stay Alive" (which features Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio/Blink-182 fame), but there are a number of treats here, including the single "We Don't Have to Dance" and the song "Ribcage": ("Nothing in the cage of my ribcage/Got no heart to break, like it that way"). Black has long been one of my favorite vocalists, and I really like the direction he went in on this album.
1. Bayside - Vacancy
Anyone who has followed my mad ramblings over the years won't be surprised that this one made my Number One album of the year slot. Until such time as Paramore returns to top form (which may never happen, given the bad feelings between Hayley Williams and Josh Farro), Bayside is my favorite band of the modern rock era. Their albums usually make my Top 10, and it's not even the first time they've taken the Number One slot (they first did it back in 2008 with their excellent Shudder album). For my money, Anthony Raneri is one of the best vocalists and best songwriters out there today. This one makes Number One on the strength of a solid album throughout, led by two particularly strong numbers, the album's lead-off song "Two Letters", a song about working out a complicated ongoing relationship with your ex (even though he doesn't like to use that term), and "Mary" which an upbeat song that seems to be a tribute to a deceased friend/fan. While "Two Letters" is a song very much in the usual Bayside style, Mary is a more danceable number in kind of a classic rock style (I'm thinking Springsteen/Joel/Mellancamp here). Anyway, for me, this is Bayside's strongest album in awhile, and that's saying something.
So that does it for my Top 10 Albums of 2016. I'll be posting my Top 10 Local Albums in a day or so, but notice we have some drama here -- unlike last year, I only had one local artist (Bayside) on my Top 20 Album list, so there will be plenty of new blood on the Local Albums list.
Here are the rules for what is eligible: It has to be a full-length album of at least 7 songs (unless you've got one or more epic-length songs). No EPs. It also has to be all by one artist -- no compilations. And although I know one of these days I'll have to change this (maybe next year? I don't know, more artists every year are only putting out cost-saving digital copies of their albums, especially independent artists, so we'll see), but I'm still old school, so for now, at least, I have to have a physical copy of the album on CD. I won't count it if I can only get a digital version.
In 2016, I listened to 75+ albums to put together this list. I tried to include a variety of genres, but my tastes are what they are -- I like classical, but no classical albums were included. I don't much like pure hip-hop or jazz, although I did listen to one jazz album this year, but I just don't enjoy/understand those genres. (Some of the rock was a little hip-hop tinged, though, e.g. Twenty One Pilots). I listened to a couple of metal albums this year, and they were OK, but they didn't make this list. I didn't include any straight country, although some of the artists I listened to produced country-tinged rock. But this year, none of them made the list either. And of course, it's all based on my taste. It's all about what I liked, and what I thought was good.
So from 10th through first, here's my list:
Top 10 Albums of 2016:
10. Phantogram - Three
Phantogram is a male/female duo from upstate, NY. They almost made the Top 10 list in 2014 for their Voices album. The music is kind of electro-rock. The best song on here is one called "Run Run Blood": "Hey wolf, there's lions in here/There's lions in here, there's lions in here".
9. The Jezabels - Synthia
This is a band I learned about on the Sputnik Music site. They're a female-fronted indie rock band from Australia. They mix it up pretty well in terms of the styles and speeds of their songs, making the album a pretty satisfying listen. I'm not 100% sure, but their song "My Love Is My Disease" is in contention for my Top 20 Songs list. It's right on the brink, so I'm not sure if it will make it or not.
8. The Mowgli's - Where'd Your Weekend Go?
This is the second year in a row this band made my Top 10 Albums list, so you know they're doing something I like. These guys are alt rockers from Los Angeles, and their music is a throwback to the days of hippy rock like Jefferson Airplane, mixed with pop rock harmonies reminiscent of The Cowsills. They've mostly got an upbeat, happy vibe, although the lyrics on some of the songs this time around are a little darker. For example, the best song on this one is a track called "Alone Sometimes", which about sitting home alone and getting drunk on Johnny Walker after the end of a toxic relationship. Good times, good times.
7. Night Riots - Love Gloom
These guys made my Top 20 Songs list last year with their song "Break" from the Howl EP. They're an alt rock band from the Central Coast of California, and they sound to be heavily influenced by The Killers, with maybe a little bit of Vampire Weekend thrown in. My favorite number on this one is a song that takes a shot at big-headed celebrities and rock stars called "Nothing Personal": "I'll be the king, you'll be the filth I was away/Nothing personal, personal, personal."
6. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
I have to admit, I haven't been a big fan of this band in the past. I always liked the song "Creep" from their Pablo Honey album, but nothing else I heard by them ever grabbed me until now. But these guys are so worshiped on the Sputnik site that I felt this was the year to give them another chance, and I'm glad I did. I'm kind of on the borderline with their vocalist, Thom Yorke (which may be what put me off them for so long), but the music here is complex and beautiful, to the point that I'm thinking that maybe these guys are the truest heirs to Pink Floyd that I've heard yet. So now I'm going to have to go back through their discography and give them another listen. Anyway, this album is a total winner.
5. Garbage - Strange Little Birds
I've always been an admirer of this band, but at first, this album left me a little flat -- I felt like there were more sounds and snippets here than actual songs. However, this is one of those albums that really grew on me with repeated listens, and while I don't like it quite as much as 2012's Not Your Kind of People, it's still a pretty damn good album. "Empty" is my favorite track here, which was deservedly released as the album's single. And as fans of the short-lived TV show already know, Shirley Manson is still the best Terminator ever.
4. Tegan and Sara - Love You to Death
This album has been criticized as sounding pretty much exactly like their last album, 2013's Heartthrob, and the band is definitely guilty as charged. But that album made my Top 10 of the Year list, and this one does too. What can I say, these Canadian twin sisters know how to make catchy alternapop songs, and I'm not tired of it. "Boyfriend" was the first single from the album, and it's also the album's strongest track. Go, Canada, go!
3. Against the Current - In Our Bones
I'm so proud of these guys! This is an alternapop band from Poughkeepsie, NY, fronted by a tiny little girl with a big voice, Chrissy Costanza. I thought their Gravity EP from last year showed a lot of potential, but a lot of bands never take that next step. This one did. This is an album full of manic 20-something energy, driven by a pair of youth anthems, "Young & Relentless" and "Running With the Wild Things". Alternative Press called this album "pop rock perfection", and I'd have to agree.
2. Andy Black - The Shadow Side
For most of the year, I thought this was going to be my #1, and that would have been fine. Andy Black is actually Andy Biersack, the lead singer of Black Veil Brides. Unfortunately, I think this album has fallen a little bit into a crack commercially -- it's not rocky enough for Black Veil Bride fans, and alternative pop fans who would be its most natural audience just haven't discovered it. Too bad, because this album is a winner from beginning to end. My favorite track is "Stay Alive" (which features Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio/Blink-182 fame), but there are a number of treats here, including the single "We Don't Have to Dance" and the song "Ribcage": ("Nothing in the cage of my ribcage/Got no heart to break, like it that way"). Black has long been one of my favorite vocalists, and I really like the direction he went in on this album.
1. Bayside - Vacancy
Anyone who has followed my mad ramblings over the years won't be surprised that this one made my Number One album of the year slot. Until such time as Paramore returns to top form (which may never happen, given the bad feelings between Hayley Williams and Josh Farro), Bayside is my favorite band of the modern rock era. Their albums usually make my Top 10, and it's not even the first time they've taken the Number One slot (they first did it back in 2008 with their excellent Shudder album). For my money, Anthony Raneri is one of the best vocalists and best songwriters out there today. This one makes Number One on the strength of a solid album throughout, led by two particularly strong numbers, the album's lead-off song "Two Letters", a song about working out a complicated ongoing relationship with your ex (even though he doesn't like to use that term), and "Mary" which an upbeat song that seems to be a tribute to a deceased friend/fan. While "Two Letters" is a song very much in the usual Bayside style, Mary is a more danceable number in kind of a classic rock style (I'm thinking Springsteen/Joel/Mellancamp here). Anyway, for me, this is Bayside's strongest album in awhile, and that's saying something.
So that does it for my Top 10 Albums of 2016. I'll be posting my Top 10 Local Albums in a day or so, but notice we have some drama here -- unlike last year, I only had one local artist (Bayside) on my Top 20 Album list, so there will be plenty of new blood on the Local Albums list.
Review of Tangerine Dream's "Firestarter"
I posted this review earlier this morning on the Sputnik Music website.
Firestarter began as a novel by the prolific horror and science fiction writer Stephen King. It tells the story of Andy McGee and his preadolescent daughter Charlene "Charlie" McGee, as they attempt to escape the clutches of both a sinister government agency known as The Shop and the deranged government hitman Rainbird who works for it.
Years earlier, as a college student in need of money, Andy was part of a college experiment secretly run by The Shop. He and other students were given a drug called Lot 6. All of the other volunteers had horrible reactions to the chemical, except for Andy and an attractive young woman named Vicky Tomlinson. Somehow, Andy and Vicky connected telepathically, which seemed to protect them from the more toxic effects of Lot 6, but the result of the experiment was that each developed certain powers -- Vicky developed a slight telekinetic ability, while Andy gained a power he refers to as the "push", which allows him to force someone to do what he tells them, but causes him migraines and tiny brain hemhorrages every time he uses it. A decade later, Andy and Vicky have married and produced a daughter named Charlie who struggles to suppress a pyrokinetic ability that flares up when she becomes upset -- she is the "firestarter" of the book's title. At the beginning of the novel, Vicky has already been murdered by Shop agents who want to take Charlie into their lab for experimentation, and Andy and Charlie are on the run.
The book is a decent King novel; it's not one of his best, but it has its pleasures. Chief among them are the three strong characters at the center of the story -- Andy, who grieves for his wife, and struggles to keep his daughter safe; Rainbird, a Native American war veteran and killer-for-hire, who wants Charlie for his own demented purposes; and young Charlie herself, who evolves from a frightened child at the beginning of the book to a force to be reckoned with by its end. Unfortunately, the film is a mess, due mostly to a combination of shoddy writing and the poor casting of Drew Barrymore, fresh off of her role in the movie E.T., who was just too young to play Charlie effectively. The one bright spot in the film, however, is the hypnotic soundtrack written and performed by the German synthesizer band Tangerine Dream.
I don't remember anymore if this was my first exposure to Tangerine Dream. I suspect I might have already been familiar with them from the dark soundtrack album of the William Friedkin film Sorcerer. Regardless, after seeing Firestarter, I was blown away by the beauty and power of their music.
At the time of this album, Tangerine Dream had been in existence for 14 years, with 21 albums including four previous soundtracks, to their credit. The band's roster for Firestarter consisted of founding member Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, who was a member of Tangerine Dream from 1971-1987, and Johannes Schmoelling, who was with the group from 1979-1985. So by the time of this album's release, this particular lineup had been in place for 5 years already, and their experience working together shows.
Emotionally, this album tells the story of Firestarter in a way that the film doesn't come close to. The music is all instrumental. The first track on the album, "Crystal Voice", is the movie's main theme. It starts simply, with the first synthesizer slowly playing 4 notes in 4/4 time, each of the notes held for a full measure. This is the spine of the song, around which the other keyboards and synthesizers gradually coil their own music. The track is mesmerizing -- sad and beautiful at the same time. This theme presents itself in different forms, fast and slow, throughout the rest of the album.
Different songs present different parts of the story of the film (although interestingly enough, having just watched the movie again before writing this review, the filmmaker doesn't seem to always use the various songs in the actual parts of the film for which they were intended). "Testlab" is a dreamy, somewhat psychedelic number that represents the connection that Andy and Vicky make with one another after they are injected with Lot 6. In the movie, we see a flashback of them as they clasp hands and begin to hear each other's thoughts. The music is full of wonder, helping you to feel what they feel as they make this mystical connection, understanding one another on a deeper level than most human beings are ever able to experience. Through their confusion, we can actually hear them fall in love.
Several of the tracks such as "The Run" and "Escaping Point" are tense numbers, as Rainbird and the Shop agents repeatedly chase down and corner Andy and Charlie, only to be foiled, first by Andy's pushes, and then by Charlie's increasingly powerful pyrotechnics, until they are captured at last at Chimney Rock Lake.
The highlight of the album is a song titled "Charly the Kid". It begins with a repeat of swirling synthesizer music taken from the movie's main theme, but the sound is a little faster here, and warmer. It is the song that most represents Charlie -- we feel her essential goodness, even as The Shop tries to weaponize her powers and turn her into a monster. We also feel her uniqueness -- Charlie is a very special little girl. The music has a sense of the fantastic about it. In the film, it's used for the parts of the story where Charlie is at her happiest, such as when she and her father manage to temporarily shake The Shop's agents for a brief respite at her grandfather's lakefront cabin.
There are various aural treats throughout the album, such as the hypnotic electronic percussive pattern that asserts itself during "Escaping Point", or some of the high-pitched twirling music laid over the under-theme of "Rainbird's Move". I don't pretend to be familiar with all of Tangerine Dream's work -- over the years, they have released over one hundred albums, and even after Edgar Froese's death in 2015, some version of the group continues to this day. However, of the work that I am familiar with, I can definitively say that Firestarter is my favorite Tangerine Dream album.
The Firestarter novel has a lot going for it, and one of these days someone is going to make a film version that does the book justice. (The 2002 two-part television sequel didn't come close to nailing it either). Luckily, this album is a great deal better than the movie it was created for.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review Summary: This instrumental soundtrack album by Tangerine Dream does a much better job of telling the story of Stephen King's novel than the film for which it was created.
Firestarter began as a novel by the prolific horror and science fiction writer Stephen King. It tells the story of Andy McGee and his preadolescent daughter Charlene "Charlie" McGee, as they attempt to escape the clutches of both a sinister government agency known as The Shop and the deranged government hitman Rainbird who works for it.
Years earlier, as a college student in need of money, Andy was part of a college experiment secretly run by The Shop. He and other students were given a drug called Lot 6. All of the other volunteers had horrible reactions to the chemical, except for Andy and an attractive young woman named Vicky Tomlinson. Somehow, Andy and Vicky connected telepathically, which seemed to protect them from the more toxic effects of Lot 6, but the result of the experiment was that each developed certain powers -- Vicky developed a slight telekinetic ability, while Andy gained a power he refers to as the "push", which allows him to force someone to do what he tells them, but causes him migraines and tiny brain hemhorrages every time he uses it. A decade later, Andy and Vicky have married and produced a daughter named Charlie who struggles to suppress a pyrokinetic ability that flares up when she becomes upset -- she is the "firestarter" of the book's title. At the beginning of the novel, Vicky has already been murdered by Shop agents who want to take Charlie into their lab for experimentation, and Andy and Charlie are on the run.
The book is a decent King novel; it's not one of his best, but it has its pleasures. Chief among them are the three strong characters at the center of the story -- Andy, who grieves for his wife, and struggles to keep his daughter safe; Rainbird, a Native American war veteran and killer-for-hire, who wants Charlie for his own demented purposes; and young Charlie herself, who evolves from a frightened child at the beginning of the book to a force to be reckoned with by its end. Unfortunately, the film is a mess, due mostly to a combination of shoddy writing and the poor casting of Drew Barrymore, fresh off of her role in the movie E.T., who was just too young to play Charlie effectively. The one bright spot in the film, however, is the hypnotic soundtrack written and performed by the German synthesizer band Tangerine Dream.
I don't remember anymore if this was my first exposure to Tangerine Dream. I suspect I might have already been familiar with them from the dark soundtrack album of the William Friedkin film Sorcerer. Regardless, after seeing Firestarter, I was blown away by the beauty and power of their music.
At the time of this album, Tangerine Dream had been in existence for 14 years, with 21 albums including four previous soundtracks, to their credit. The band's roster for Firestarter consisted of founding member Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, who was a member of Tangerine Dream from 1971-1987, and Johannes Schmoelling, who was with the group from 1979-1985. So by the time of this album's release, this particular lineup had been in place for 5 years already, and their experience working together shows.
Emotionally, this album tells the story of Firestarter in a way that the film doesn't come close to. The music is all instrumental. The first track on the album, "Crystal Voice", is the movie's main theme. It starts simply, with the first synthesizer slowly playing 4 notes in 4/4 time, each of the notes held for a full measure. This is the spine of the song, around which the other keyboards and synthesizers gradually coil their own music. The track is mesmerizing -- sad and beautiful at the same time. This theme presents itself in different forms, fast and slow, throughout the rest of the album.
Different songs present different parts of the story of the film (although interestingly enough, having just watched the movie again before writing this review, the filmmaker doesn't seem to always use the various songs in the actual parts of the film for which they were intended). "Testlab" is a dreamy, somewhat psychedelic number that represents the connection that Andy and Vicky make with one another after they are injected with Lot 6. In the movie, we see a flashback of them as they clasp hands and begin to hear each other's thoughts. The music is full of wonder, helping you to feel what they feel as they make this mystical connection, understanding one another on a deeper level than most human beings are ever able to experience. Through their confusion, we can actually hear them fall in love.
Several of the tracks such as "The Run" and "Escaping Point" are tense numbers, as Rainbird and the Shop agents repeatedly chase down and corner Andy and Charlie, only to be foiled, first by Andy's pushes, and then by Charlie's increasingly powerful pyrotechnics, until they are captured at last at Chimney Rock Lake.
The highlight of the album is a song titled "Charly the Kid". It begins with a repeat of swirling synthesizer music taken from the movie's main theme, but the sound is a little faster here, and warmer. It is the song that most represents Charlie -- we feel her essential goodness, even as The Shop tries to weaponize her powers and turn her into a monster. We also feel her uniqueness -- Charlie is a very special little girl. The music has a sense of the fantastic about it. In the film, it's used for the parts of the story where Charlie is at her happiest, such as when she and her father manage to temporarily shake The Shop's agents for a brief respite at her grandfather's lakefront cabin.
There are various aural treats throughout the album, such as the hypnotic electronic percussive pattern that asserts itself during "Escaping Point", or some of the high-pitched twirling music laid over the under-theme of "Rainbird's Move". I don't pretend to be familiar with all of Tangerine Dream's work -- over the years, they have released over one hundred albums, and even after Edgar Froese's death in 2015, some version of the group continues to this day. However, of the work that I am familiar with, I can definitively say that Firestarter is my favorite Tangerine Dream album.
The Firestarter novel has a lot going for it, and one of these days someone is going to make a film version that does the book justice. (The 2002 two-part television sequel didn't come close to nailing it either). Luckily, this album is a great deal better than the movie it was created for.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Friday, February 3, 2017
Various 2016 Best Of Lists News
The lists, they are a' coming. It usually takes me until March to finish my Best Of lists for the previous year (I know, pathetic, right?) But this year, I've stepped up my game, at least a little.
At this point, I know what my Top 10 Albums of 2016 and my Top 10 Local Albums of 2016 are. I'm feverishly working on my Top 20 Songs of 2016 list. As soon as I've got that worked out, I'll start to publish. (It's currently down to 54 songs, and I'm listening to keep eliminating songs even as I type this).
I know, no one really cares, since my Mom is passed away (and to be honest, she wouldn't have given a rat's patootie either), but OCD being what it is, I still look forward to publishing my lists every year.
So that's it. I have no real news to tell you yet. The post title was just a shameless teaser. The only thing I will tell you is, unlike my many reviews, which I publish on Sputnik Music first and then copy them here, my lists will appear on this blog first before I post them on Sputnik (and there will be more details about each choice here).
I'll also have a few honorable mentions here that won't make it to Sputnik.
So that's it.
You guys can go. For now.
At this point, I know what my Top 10 Albums of 2016 and my Top 10 Local Albums of 2016 are. I'm feverishly working on my Top 20 Songs of 2016 list. As soon as I've got that worked out, I'll start to publish. (It's currently down to 54 songs, and I'm listening to keep eliminating songs even as I type this).
I know, no one really cares, since my Mom is passed away (and to be honest, she wouldn't have given a rat's patootie either), but OCD being what it is, I still look forward to publishing my lists every year.
So that's it. I have no real news to tell you yet. The post title was just a shameless teaser. The only thing I will tell you is, unlike my many reviews, which I publish on Sputnik Music first and then copy them here, my lists will appear on this blog first before I post them on Sputnik (and there will be more details about each choice here).
I'll also have a few honorable mentions here that won't make it to Sputnik.
So that's it.
You guys can go. For now.
Review of Hey Violet's "I Can Feel It"
I posted this review to the Sputnik Music web site 2 days ago.
Review Summary: This is an EP full of tasty pop punk from this mostly-female Los Angeles band.
Hey Violet is one of those bands that grew out of the ashes of another band. In this case, their predecessor was Cherri Bomb, a 4-girl Los Angeles-based band made up of four young teens, Julia Pierce (lead vocals and lead guitar), Miranda Miller (rhythm guitar, keyboard and vocals), Rena Lovelis (bass and vocals), and Nia Lovelis (drums and vocals). They released one somewhat successful LP in 2012, opened for bands like Bush, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins and Staind, and played at several European festivals. Then Pierce left the band over artistic differences, the band moved Rena Lovelis to lead vocals, they hired guitarist Casey Moreta (the first male to join the band), and renamed themselves Hey Violet.
I Can Feel It was the first recording they released as Hey Violet. It's a 5-song EP. In comparison to Cherri Bomb, the music here is less hard rock and more pop punk. Lovelis does a good job as lead vocalist -- Pierce's voice sounds more trained, but Lovelis' voice is just as inviting, and she's perfectly capable of belting it on the faster, harder numbers. More importantly, there's a joy to the music here that was missing on the Cherri Bomb LP. Hey Violet are the cover band for this month's issue of Alternative Press, and according to the corresponding story, the main issue between Pierce and the rest of her bandmates was that all but Pierce wanted to move in more of a pop direction. The music they're making here feels and sounds like the music of a band making the music they want to make.
The standout track on the EP is the last one, "You Don't Love Me Like You Should". It's the fastest song on the album, and the punkiest. Although the lyrics tell the tale of a love gone wrong, the music is driving and upbeat in a way that makes you smile and tap your feet, especially on the chorus, as the Lovelis sisters and Miller chirp "You better wake up soon and realize/Cause I feel misunderstood/You don't love me like you should/You don't love me like you should!" This one actually made my Top 20 Songs of 2015 list, both for its energy and its fun factor.
My second favorite track is "Can't Take Back the Bullet". This one is a mid-tempo number about regret after breaking off a relationship. It's another song with a strong chorus: "All bets off/Once the gun goes off/Cause you can't take back/Take back the bullet". The guitar riffs on this one are a little more classic rock than punk. The title track, "I Can Feel It", another driving rock number, is also a winner.
Since releasing I Can Feel It, Hey Violet hired a new bass player, Ian Shipp, and released a second EP, Brand New Moves, which moves them even further in the pop rock direction. 2017 will be a big year them, with their AP cover story and a new full-length album on the way. I'm hoping it will be a good one, but I'll keep enjoying their I Can Feel It EP either way.
Rating: 4/5 stars
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