album review: 'this is acting' by sia

Let's talk briefly about being a pop songwriter.

Now I've said in the past - hell, I did an entire Special Comment on it - that being a pop songwriter is arguably even harder. Let's be honest, you can write anything in the indie scene and some hipster somewhere will declare it a work of absolute genius - working within the pop framework is trickier, walking that tightrope between popular appeal with a hook and conventional structure and those sparks of individuality that make you a unique artist. And that's when you're writing for yourself - writing for another artist is often even harder, because while you want some of your personality to come through in the composition, you also need to consider the strengths and weaknesses and unique character of that performer too.

And yet whenever I hear a pop song written by Sia Furler, former indie pop darling turned songwriter and pop star in her own right, it's hard not hear Sia's unique tone and personality ring through in the writing. And in a sense that's a good thing: even though I have my issues with Sia's underwritten style and hyperbolic imagery and the tip away from more complex material that's occurred since her early work, she does have a defiantly unique voice in her writing. The problem becomes that said voice is often matched by her voice-shredding vocals to elevate the material - she's the one who sounds best on her own material.

Where things get interesting is that other artists appear to have recognized this, and for one reason or another a fair few of Sia's tracks have been rejected by artists over the past while, even with her writing her most pop-centric tracks to date. So in a fit of inspiration, Sia decided to pull all of these tracks together and release them as her own, putting her own spin on her attempts to match the style of others. Okay, nifty concept, I'm intrigued - so what does Sia deliver?

video review: 'the astonishing' by dream theater

Another one that was long in coming, but I wanted to tackle it regardless. In the mean time, my schedule has gotten frankly insane, so I'm hoping to blow through a few releases fairly quickly. Sia first, then Pop. 1280, Avantasia and The Mute Gods, then Foxes and a few hip-hop releases that I have absolutely zero expectations for.

In other words, stay tuned! 

album review: 'the astonishing' by dream theater

...okay, so maybe Dream Theater was going back to their concept album days. I've been wrong before, I can own up to it.

But just so you all have context - my channel has gotten approximately seventeen times bigger than the last time I talked about Dream Theater in a review - when I covered their self-titled record, I made the comment that Dream Theater seemed to be charting a new direction, at least in terms of how they thematically structured their albums. And that made a certain amount of sense - the self-titled record was considered a return to form, charting a new era for the band.

But let's get real here: it was only a matter of time before Dream Theater returned to the well of a narrative-driven concept record. Hell, Metropolis Pt. II: Scenes From A Memory, which you can make a convincing argument was their best album, was a narrative-driven concept record, and that was seventeen years ago, so why not go for it again? Well, they definitely did: a double album, over two hours, with a full symphonic backing orchestra and dystopian narrative... but unlike on Metropolis, frontman James LaBrie was going to be playing all seven main characters characters. By all accounts, this is one of the most ambitious projects Dream Theater has ever attempted, and with the full support and budget of their label behind them, you had all the reason to believe this could be something really special, from veterans well over twenty years in the industry. Could they pull it off?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 13, 2016 (VIDEO)

As I said, better late than never.

Next up, Dream Theater - stay tuned!

video review: 'nine track mind' by charlie puth (ft. ARTV)

...no, I couldn't do this on my own. I needed some help here.

And yeah, Billboard BREAKDOWN is going to run a little late. Computer issues on my end, plus feeling absolutely drained from work isn't helping either. Either way, Dream Theater is coming up too, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 13, 2016

So you know how I've been predicting things were going to get seriously unstable on the Hot 100 for a while now? Well, we've got a big one this week - major shifts in the Top 10 including a new number one, a ton of major shifts up and down, and a big crop of new entries... a shame more of them aren't better, but we'll get to that. Of course, Billboard also exacerbated the situation with a choice to shift their chart formula to better temper the impact of streaming, which they did by slightly shifting the balance in favour of sales. So how did that turn out?

video review: 'hymns' by bloc party

Man, this review was insanely hard to get through. So glad I'm past it...

Next up, well, Billboard BREAKDOWN of course, but plus I've got a little something special on the way, so stay tuned!

album review: 'hymns' by bloc party

You know, if we're looking for a way to categorize indie music in the 2000s, especially the early-to-mid 2000s, it would be the slew of indie bands who blew the world open with borderline classic debut albums and yet couldn't never really recapture the magic throughout the rest of the decade. Of course, it's all a manner of degree, but in the widespread public consciousness, acts like The Killers or Franz Ferdinand or The Strokes or Interpol were never able to really match the lightning in the bottle that was their debut.

And in 2005, that band was Bloc Party. I've gone back to relisten to Silent Alarm and it remains one of the best indie rock records of the 2000s, with a relentlessly tight construction, a fantastic sense of momentum, and lyrics that could match that visceral tension. And then for the rest of the decade, Bloc Party couldn't seem to match it, pivoting towards underwhelming but still pretty solid electronics for A Weekend In The City to the more riotously electronic Intimacy, which I'd argue wasn't quite as consistently good but had stronger highpoints like the absolutely amazing 'Zephyrus'.

So after that, they took four years off, came back with a return to their roots on Four... and look, if they were trying to imitate Silent Alarm, it wasn't working. The heavier guitars didn't have the same sense of tightness or tempo or groove, the production wasn't as sharp, and it felt most like a band trying desperately to recapture what came naturally years earlier. But the roots of that might have run deeper - the band was unstable, and both the drummer and bassist left the band in the following two years. Fortunately they were able to pull together new members - including Justin Harris of Menomena, which was definitely a positive sign - but then the lead-off single 'The Love Within' happened. And while you could see traces of what Bloc Party were in the multi-tracked vocals and percussion, those blocky oscillating keyboards just smothered any tightness the song might have and sure as hell were not a replacement for guitars! In other words, I didn't know what to expect with this, so what did we get with Hymns?

video review: 'anti' by rihanna

Well, this came out fast. Kind of out of nowhere record, and I'm honestly still kind of mixed on it, but I'm more intrigued how there doesn't seem to be the huge buzz and hype behind it I'd normally expect for an album like this. Ah well, that happens.

Next up, Bloc Party and Dream Theater, but I kind of want to get in some black metal along the way, so I might take a look at that Abbath record too - stay tuned!

album review: 'anti' by rihanna

...and here I was thinking that I was going to have to wait a few weeks to talk about a pop record that wasn't coming from Sia. 

And it's funny, it's been a while since I've talked about Rihanna in detail outside of Billboard BREAKDOWN, to the point where you have to wonder how much cultural impact she's left over the course of her last seven albums. Initially she got her start making slick, high-energy dance-pop that was generally pretty damn solid... only for her artistic career to be derailed painfully by Chris Brown in 2009. She was already on a path to make darker music, but things got a lot more bleak and lacking in subtlety over the next few years, with her material becoming paradoxically more sexual and yet more tired and drained. I could write a thinkpiece about how she and her songwriters responded to that horrifying incident, but what would probably end up getting missed is that the music was getting even more hit-and-miss. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to find a single from Rated R onwards that I actually could say I liked all the way through. And if anything they've been getting worse - I could forgive some of her collaborations in 2010 like 'Love The Way You Lie' with Eminem and 'All Of The Lights' with Kanye, but by the time we got 'Birthday Cake' with Chris Brown, I was done... and that was an album before Unapologetic, which was just a turgid slog of a record that featured some of her worst ever songs. 

So I had no problem with Rihanna taking a few years off outside of a few isolated collaborations - she had definitely earned it - but the lead-off singles being released throughout 2015 raised some concerns. I didn't hate 'FourFiveSeconds' with Kanye, but 'Bitch Better Have My Money' was unconvincing dreck, and as I said when it landed on my year end list for the Worst Hit Songs of 2015, I hoped this was not a sign of things to come. Well, it turns out she dropped that song and 'FourFiveSeconds' entirely from ANTi - the long-hyped eighth album that was leaked off of TIDAL, which astounds me because I was under the impression TIDAL was forgotten by everyone a good year or so ago. So of course I was curious, if only to figure out where Rihanna fit in a very different pop landscape from the one she left behind, so what did we get?

video review: 'dystopia' by megadeth

Oh, I can imagine this review will go over so well...

Eh, whatever. Either way, probably Bloc Party next, then Dream Theater (unless, for some reason, I can find a high quality version of that Rihanna leak). Stay tuned!

album review: 'dystopia' by megadeth

There's no easy way for me to handle this review. Mostly because, as I've said in the past, it's hard to talk about bands that have defined their genre and who have decades of material. And thus it should be without question when I say that I respect how Megadeth were influential in metal and instrumental to defining thrash.

All of that being said, now having revisited the entire Megadeth catalog... Well, it's mixed, to put it lightly. Yes, Countdown To Extinction and Youthanasia are good, even great records, but they are not a group that I find all that interesting or consistent. Sure, the late 90s slump happened when they went towards alternative rock that honestly wasn't all that bad, but I'm not entirely wild about their early records either, which often felt the victim of some great musicians not exactly having strong consistent songs behind them. And frontman Dave Mustaine hasn't helped - he might have power and personality but inconsistent mixing early meant he was never sounding as good as he could... and yet when moved closer to the front, his more nasal howls have always kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and it's only gotten worse on recent records. And that's even before we get to the songwriting which was never particularly clever or nuanced, or the mid-2000s where the lineup started changing with every other album that would only begin to regain some form of form with Endgame in 2009... only for most of that form to be promptly pissed away on Super Collider in 2013, a stab at more commercial hard rock that just ended up feeling formless and pretty generic - I liked Risk more than this.

Anyway, when I heard that Dystopia was reportedly going back for a rougher, more riff-intensive sound - plus another lineup change - I didn't know what to expect. Not really considering myself a hardcore Megadeth fan, I really wasn't invested enough to hope for quality, but I had also heard that the hard right political bent was creeping into his lyrics. And considering that Megadeth has never been a band defined by lyrical nuance - and having heard some of Mustaine's antics over the Obama administration - I hoped this would turn out better than I had reason to expect. Was I right?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 6, 2016 (VIDEO)

So, not quite as good as last week, but still not all that bad either. Let hope for better next week... because with this Megadeth album, we sure aren't getting better right now. Stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 6, 2016

Well, it finally looks like we're out of the January lull and into the weeks where the charts get a little busier - and sure, some of that was bound to happen thanks to the new Panic! At The Disco album doing a lot better than I'd argue anyone expected, but more of it is the feeling that things are starting to change up in force, with the chart instability of the past few weeks only further indicative of that.

video review: 'adore life' by savages

Well, not quite as great as I was hoping, but still a fair bit better than a lot of critics have given it credit. Highly expect this one will get a critical reappraisal.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN, followed by Megadeth - stay tuned!

album review: 'adore life' by savages

This has been one of my most hotly anticipated albums of the year.

And really, if you go back to listen to Savages' incredible debut album, you'd see why. Silence Yourself may have been preceded by stark proclamations that many could read as reaching for impact, but the music could back it up, a haunted cacophony of noisy guitars, pummelling bass grooves and drums, and Jehnny Beth's harsh but starkly emotive delivery, walking the line between sultry and righteous rage. And that's before we get into the writing, blunt on the surface but nuanced in the framing that contorted relationships through a fiercely dominant but complex sexual picture. In other words, with every listen it only gets better and it was definitely one of my favourite albums of 2013.

And yet since then, Savages seem to have eschewed anything that would hem them in artistically or away from the more intense, difficult music they want to create. This first manifested in 2014 with the performance art piece Words To The Blind, an improvised collaboration with Japanese acid punk group Bo Ningen that delved into failures of communication across a divide that could only be spanned by regressing down to the simplest and most raw of moments - especially considering that failure of communication wasn't shy about implicating the audience in their own lack of understanding. And thus when I heard that their full-length sophomore release was partially inspired by Swans... well, I wasn't surprised, especially considering the themes and repetition that underscored To Be Kind. So I was prepared for a tough but inevitably rewarding listen with Adore Life - did I get it?

video review: 'emotional mugger' by ty segall

Man, I was expecting more out of this. Still decent, but it should have been great.

Next up, Savages - and giving the mixed buzz, I'm praying that this'll be good, so stay tuned!

album review: 'emotional mugger' by ty segall

Ty Segall unsettles me.

And I say that as a fan of the guy, starting when I dug deeply into his discography to cover his 2014 record Manipulator. His material may be prolifically scattershot, sprawling over a half dozen albums and even more side projects, but dig into his records at length and you see a certain darkness that colours his writing, self-deprecating but a little craven and sinister, narrowing its focus on darker, venial human impulses that can feel a little disconcerting. This became most apparent with his cleanest and most cohesive record to date on Manipulator - which focused on a broad selection of manipulative situations that ultimately rung as more plainly nihilist - but I had a feeling in my gut that sound wouldn't last. On some level, Ty Segall's material has always been at its best when the rougher instrumentation matched the subject matter, like on the excellent Slaughterhouse from 2012, and when I heard that his release this year was going darker again, I was certainly intrigued.

But one thing that I also noticed was the build-up - a longer-than-expected distance between projects, the release announced through the mailing of VHS tapes, the creation of a website to announce and promote the album and the concept of 'emotional mugging', and the introduction of a new backing band, featuring long-time collaborator Mikal Cronin and a few new faces like the frontman of Wand Cory Hanson on guitar and keyboard. And when I say 'faces' I mean none at all, because the video released in that build-up features the band in baby masks, which Segall has continued to wear at live sets. So putting aside the obvious cue from modern horror games, it seemed right from the outset that Ty Segall was looking to be as unsettling as possible, strip away the prettier veneer on Manipulator for something ugly - and honestly, that made me even more excited, especially if we were descending back into the wildness of Slaughterhouse. So what did we get with Emotional Mugger?

video review: 'pawn shop' by brothers osborne

And that'll take care of country releases for the next week or so. Expect a lot of rock and metal coming, people, because between Savages, Ty Segall, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Avantasia, The Mute Gods... suffice to say, I'll be busy.

Until then, stay tuned!

album review: 'pawn shop' by brothers osborne

So I talked before about how when mainstream country hits upon a formula, they try everything in their power to replicate it to usually poor results. And when Florida Georgia Line struck it big in late 2012, label executives began looking for duos that they could slide in to replicate the success of that act, preferably under the bro country template. 

The problem was that bro-country crested and crashed relatively quickly, with 2013 being the peak before the crash and replacement with the metropolitan/R&B-leaning trend, so acts that might have been primed to be pushed in that direction had to be retooled or refocused. This seemed to be the case for Brothers Osborne, a country duo whose band name could literally be shortened and amalgamated to spell 'bros', but after single 'Let's Go There' only caught minor traction on the airplay charts, they got a welcome boost from being a favourite opening act of Eric Church. This led to a team-up with his main producer Jay Joyce for retooling of their track 'Stay a Little Longer' for release almost a year ago. And as luck would have it, it's made significantly more of an impact in recent weeks, breaking the top five on country airplay and charting real impact on the Hot 100 as we speak.

As such, given that I didn't mind 'Stay A Little Longer', I decided to check out their debut record Pawn Shop. After all, they were the primary songwriters on all of their tracks, and while Jay Joyce's presence did concern me, I'm not going to deny his work with Eric Church on Mr. Misunderstood showed measurable improvements as one of my favourite albums of 2015. So did Pawn Shop deliver?