album review: 'do nothing till you hear from me' by the mute gods

So I'm going to start things off on a bit of a weird tangent, but I promise it does mostly make sense in context, and here it is: am I the only one who finds the whole recommended playlist or video or album concept completely frustrating?

Maybe it's because I'm a music critic, but I'd like to think the idea spreads across all forms of media: just because I like something of one genre is no guarantee I'm going to like something in the same genre, especially if I've got no historical record of liking them in the past. Just because I like Nightwish and Within Temptation doesn't mean I want Evanescence recommendations, for example. And what's exasperating is that you know it's entirely algorithm-based, off of tags and your historical viewing habits, all driven to make you consume more content - I'd prefer to take something similar to what Amazon or iTunes does, which correlate albums that people buy with other purchases they might have made. Maybe it's just me, but I'd trust the taste of people over the taste of a computer trying to ascertain what I'd think. Now the logical extension of that is that since people default to the lowest common denominator that they'd behave in a similar way to the algorithms, but you'll find when you go into smaller niche genres like progressive rock that it isn't quite the case, as people here are a little more willing to venture off the beaten path. 

I say all of this not just because this supergroup showed up a number of times when I was looking for new progressive rock, but also because bands tend to market themselves in a similar way - 'hey, we worked with these artists you liked, so maybe you should check out our stuff!' Again, a similar sense of caution needs to be there, but I'll admit I was intrigued when I first heard about The Mute Gods. Two of the members - bassist and frontman Nick Beggs and drummer Marco Minnemann - had toured with Steven Wilson and had played on his excellent record from 2015 Hand. Cannot. Erase. So when they called up Roger King to handle lead guitars, keyboards, and production, I had reason to be enthused, but I was also cautious. I might have issues with Steven Wilson, but the man is also a musical genius as a composer and songwriter, and I wasn't sure whether the stridently political approach that The Mute Gods were looking to take with their debut was as workable as they thought. But hey, at the very least these guys can all play incredibly well, so we're bound to get some great music out of it, right?

movie review: 'deadpool' (VIDEO)

I was really hesitant about releasing this video at all - it's more of a rambling vlog than anything else... but I do think it came out all right, and I'm curious how the response is going to be.

And that all means that yes, the Mute Gods and Kanye reviews are coming soon, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 20, 2016 (VIDEO)

Can't believe I almost forgot to post this.

So yeah, no review yesterday - splitting headaches will do that to you. And now with Kanye's new record... okay, I still want to get this Mute Gods review out (better late than never). Then Avantasia, Kanye, maybe this Charles Kelley record... although if I'm looking towards country, Wheeler Walker Jr. and Dori Freeman both look fun too. Stay tuned!

video review: 'all i need' by foxes

Yeah, I know Billboard BREAKDOWN is late. Turns out that file corruption makes editing an absolute bitch, especially when you only discover it 2/3 of the way through. Working to resolve it for tomorrow, but until then... well, I have no idea what I'll cover next, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - february 20, 2016

So like anyone who follows the pop charts, I've got a taste for the ironic, the sort of missed chances and opportunities that end up getting lodged in history because of how the charts put a timestamp on each moment. And this week, we got that irony twofold: not only did Drake bungle his release strategy to get a single to the #1 spot again, but now we have a new #1 smash hit from Zayn Malik, former member of One Direction - a feat that with all of their rabid fandom and push, they were never able to achieve.

album review: 'all i need' by foxes

So, do you ever have those records where you hear them, you like them a fair bit, you might have even done a review of them... but when you really think back about them, you don't remember them all that much?

Well, back in 2014 I covered Foxes' debut album Glorious, and while I definitely remember liking it for its bombast and balance of quirky indie pop with EDM bombast and for Foxes' excellent and expressive vocals, it wasn't really an album that had a lot of staying power with me. There were a few songs I liked and occasionally revisited, but in the ever expanding list of indie-leaning pop artists, Foxes didn't really stand out for me as much as I'd like - good with real glimmers of promise but nothing hugely distinctive. I think a lot of it was the songwriting - it was arguably the biggest weakness on Glorious, feeling a little amateurish and broadly sketched to really click for me - but it was also that any push behind her solo work kind of evaporated, and she wasn't getting the same feature work as she did before. And I do think that's a shame - kind of like Carly Rae Jepsen she's got a knack for infectious pop music, only where Carly Rae looks backwards to retro-80s synthpop, Foxes was aiming for something a little more modern.

Now one thing that I remembered in the aftermath of that review is that I was told much the album was intended as more abstract, not quite as focused on the bad relationships the lyrics seemed to indicate - and honestly, I'm willing to concede the point... if only because Foxes has gone on the record by saying that this new album All I Need was inspired by them, reportedly stripping things back to a more emotional core. On the one hand, going smaller and more intimate might not be a bad change of pace if you're looking to stand out, but I wasn't sure Foxes had the emotive subtlety in her delivery or writing to really pull that off. But hey, I've been wrong plenty of times before - and in this case I definitely wanted to be wrong - so how did All I Need turn out?

video review: 'this is acting' by sia

Ugh, this mess took way too long to get to, not helped by my schedule over the past weekend. Things have righted themselves, thankfully, but it's still been hectic.

Okay, next up is Foxes, so stay tuned!

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!