I'm Only Joking KONGOS: Song Review

    Kicking off a week of haunting, spooky and otherwise dark reviews leading up to our Halloween special this weekend is the KONGOS track I’m Only Joking. KONGOS are an Alt Rock band from South Africa made up of 4 brothers who use a mix of African tribal drumming, epic slide guitar and mastery of bouncy accordion riffing to create their sound. They had a huge hit with the single Come With Me Now off of their Lunatic album and a minor hit with the track I Wanna Know from the same album. While these tracks had a mainstream Alt Rock sound to them, my personal favorite track was a darker and more mysterious song entitled I’m Only Joking.

    I’m Only Joking uses those tribal drum patterns I mentioned earlier to conjure up the feeling and imagery of a Voodoo ceremony while the Accordion brings to mind an insane carnival. The dark and mysterious vibe of this song is helped out by the eerie vocal performance of the verses and the conspiracy theory and mystic ramblings of the lyrics. The whiplash from the very dark and serious imagery of the verses to the singer insisting that he’s only joking as a way to mess with the listener only adds to the carnival theme, portraying the singer as a carny telling ghost stories to scare patrons.

    As the song stretches on, it builds to a crescendo of insanity on the noise filled bridge of the song. This track overall works well as a sequel to Come With Me Now’s quest for freedom and losing one’s mind in debauchery and fun. Even the bit of the chorus where the singer states he’s just saying a “...crazy little thing he read.” fits in with Come With Me Now, where he made the comment that “I open my mouth and it’s something I’ve read.” Thus in many ways the insanity of this song can be seen as the follow up to the letting go and loss of control in Come With Me Now.

    Regardless of the way that this track fits into KONGOS’ discography it is an awesome and eerie song. The madness on this track is so much fun and always makes me feel like a horror movie villain when I listen to it. The energy is infectious and powerful and the various changes throughout the track make it one of my favorites.

The Killers The Man- Single of The Week

    The Man is a powerful and anthemic track that draws on every single element of The Killers’ sound with a sheen of Bowie tinged funk holding it together. The Killers avoid the trap of sounding like a novelty act here, using New Wave and Funk elements to create something that sounds modern and clean with old school roots. This track sounds like what Panic Station by Muse would sound like if it were produced by Daft Punk.

    The lyrics are very straightforward, knowing the situation and objectively stating that he is The Man, second only to God. While this track is destined to be an uplifting jam, it’s actually written from the somewhat unhealthily arrogant personality of lead singer Brandon Flowers in the band’s early days. Despite the self deprecation associated with the lyrics, Flowers does a brilliant job of selling the song’s boisterous confidence.

    Aside from the amazing lyrics that blur the line between awesome and cheesy, this track has gorgeous instrumentals throughout. While the obvious stars are the bass and drums the guitar work is top notch, including two mini solos and the constant  rhythm playing on the verses. Similarly the synths and keyboard elements wrap around the song giving it the glossy sheen of New Wave that makes this track sound so amazing. The production is flawless, giving just the right amount of space to each element of this really thick sounding track.

    There is really nothing about this track that I don’t adore, as far as I’m concerned this is a masterpiece of how to write a Rock track with crossover appeal in 2017. It would be nice to see The Killer step back into the same mainstream consciousness that Imagine Dragons and Portugal The Man currently are in.

Coldplay Ghost Stories: Old(er) Album of The Week

    Today we are looking at the album that killed my interest in Coldplay; Ghost Stories. From about 2008 to 2011 or so Coldplay were one of my favorite bands, I absolutely adored Viva La Vida and the Prospekts March EP and I at least enjoyed the singles from Mylo Xyloto even if I never got into the full album. Then Coldplay released A Sky Full of Stars as the lead single from their album Ghost Stories and I pretty much lost all interest in this band until I rediscovered Viva La Vida in 2015 and heard some of A Head Full of Dreams.

    Now let’s be clear, I went into this album more biased than usual because of the disdain I had for A Sky Full of Stars. I could not stand the boring instrumental and excruciatingly repetitive lyrics; and yeah those criticisms kind of apply to the album as a whole. I don’t dislike dreamy ambient sounding music as a whole, in fact one of my favorite albums this year, Vitamins and Flowers by Trophii is a card carrying Dream Pop album. The difference is that Coldplay are at their best when they mix ambient elements with more traditional rock elements and always benefit from having interesting soundscapes.

    The only track with any real energy Sky Full of Stars, with the only other thing keeping me awake being random drum machines. I get that Coldplay leaned on similarly dreary sounds for some of their hits like Yellow, Fix You and The Scientist but those songs still had some sort of rock edge or changes throughout the song. Yellow has gorgeous delay filled guitar passages, Fix You turns into a rock track with group vocals and The Scientist eventually turns into a rock song as well. On top of instrumental shifts that keep these tracks interesting, the lyrics are much deeper and more interesting than anything on Ghost Stories.

    Overall this feels like an album where Coldplay weren’t sure what direction to go in, adding in 2010’s pop elements like the heavy use of drum machines and the dreary introspection of their earlier work. The issue is that the album isn’t as good at being dreary and introspective as Parachutes or X&Y and it is nowhere near as good at being a pop album as A Head Full of Dreams. If I were to rank all of Coldplay’s album this would by far be the worst, at least in my opinion.

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QOTSA Villains: New Album of The Week

  

  So I meant to write this Friday when the album officially released, but being one of the few people

who did not listen to it when it leaked I was caught rather flat footed. Now I've done quick

turnarounds before, particularly with the How Did We Get So Dark review; the difference there was

that I knew exactly what my thoughts were after two listens. With Villains however, it's taken me a

little longer to get a grasp on this thing. This album features some of my favorite QOTSA songs of

all time as well as some that I can't stand.

  Starting off we get a slow Stranger Things synth filled buildup that quickly turns into funk and

fuzzy masterpiece Feet Don't Fail Me. Mark Ronson's style is all over this track, with the heavy

compression and retro styling he is known for blending with QOTSA's Stoner Rock filth. This is

precisely what I was expecting after hearing The Way You Used To Do as the lead single. This song

also features a really slick solo and a dynamic end that fades out before turning into aforementioned

The Way You Used To Do (review here).

  After a strong start we go into a somewhat darker track called Domesticated Animals. This track is

filled to the brim with the snark and wit that Josh Homme is known for, featuring cynical lines that

explore themes of dominance and power. The chorus seems to be commentary on the cyclical nature

of power and freedom; every revolution just leads to another leader to revolt against

(as illustrated below)

The songs' mysterious feeling is aided by it's 7/8 time signature adding an off kilter rhythm to it.

Homme appears to be using the metaphor of domesticated animals to allude to the way people

are essentially tamed by their leaders and governments.

 The next track Fortress is one of my favorite songs on the album and is by far the most touching

thing I have ever heard from QOTSA. The song uses the metaphor of the heart as a fortress at first,

describing how people hide away their true feelings by locking their heart away. The metaphor can

then be linked to the first chorus with the line "every fortress falls" relating to a broken heart. At the

same time the rest of the song seems to be talking in terms of more general hardship and darkness,

likely referencing Homme's own depression.

Where the song takes a really touching turn is when you realize that at least part of the song is

written to Homme's children, with the lines,"...I pray you won't feel as alone as I have felt...I tell you

the awful truth, Everyone faces darkness on their own, As I have done, so will you" being particularly

heartbreaking. Homme then wraps it up by simply letting them know that even if their Fortress falls

they are always safe in his.

 Following that emotional strong point is the track that only QOTSA could record, a slightly insane

track called Head Like A Haunted House. This song features Homme doing his best Elvis / Michael

Poulsen from Volbeat impersonation over the rest of the bands take on  Psychobilly. I've heard some

people say the track feels out of place on this album, but I think it works perfectly as a call back to

the more typical QOTSA sound. While this song is fun and pretty solid, the same can't be said for

most of this album's second half.

  Despite the strength of the album up to now, I just can't get in to any of the last 4 tracks except for

The Evil Has Landed (review here.)  Un-Reborn Again and Hideaway are forgettable and Villains of

Circumstance is just kind of okay. So yeah, in total this album is pretty awesome; even though I don't

like most of the the second half of the album, the first half is so good I'm still recommending it. Plus

I understand my opinion on those 3 songs might not be in the majority here, so give it a listen for

yourself.

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Megadeth Risk- Throwback Album of The Week

Throwback Album of The Week is posted every Wednesday

    For last week’s Throwback review I looked at the universally hated St. Anger by Metallica; this week we are looking at the biggest flop by fellow Big 4 band Megadeth. While Metallica’s worst effort was due largely to under production and being extremely un refined, Megadeth’s worst album kind of had the opposite problem. Megadeth’s 1999 album Risk strayed far too close to mainstream rock, mixing in a lot of Alternative Rock and Industrial elements that made a lot of Megadeth fans very angry. Dave Mustaine has said before he believes if the album had not had the Megadeth name on it, it would have been a huge success; today I aim to put that to the test.

    As I have never really been a huge Megadeth fan I feel that I can be impartial in looking at this album as it’s own entity. Honestly I kind of see what Mustaine meant, listening to the first couple of tracks it doesn’t really sound bad so much as weird. The first track Insomnia has a definite Nine Inch Nails sound to it, with some driving synths under some downright nasty sounding guitars. The thing that will sound familiar to Megadeth fans here is Marty Friedman’s epic guitar solo on the bridge of this song.

    Moving on to Prince of Darkness I’m seeing a very specific style for this album, kind of a blend of old school Metal and 90’s Industrial. Prince of Darkness is really close to Insomnia in style, but as the album goes on tracks start to feel more Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden influenced. One track in particular sounds like it draws heavy influence from a particular Thrash Metal band by the name of Metallica. I’m honestly surprised no one has brought this up before but The Doctor Is Calling main riff sounds extremely similar to Metallica’s One. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s kind of shocking that as petty as Metallica fans can be that no one brought this up.

    Honestly though, I kind of dig parts of this album. Not going to try and say this album isn’t still pretty bad, but it’s nowhere near as bad St. Anger. The biggest issues on this album is that this style isn’t Megadeth, it feels like a half hearted attempt to sell out by incorporating popular elements such as Industrial and Alternative Rock without going full bore into those genres. On top of that, a lot of the lyrics and deliveries on this album are really cheesy without the full bore Metal attitude that would normally cover that up.

    For comparison to Metallica I’d say this is better than St. Anger but worse than Load and ReLoad, mostly because Metallica went a little more hardcore when it came to jumping around new genres and ideas on Load and ReLoad. So I’d say Risk would have been an average album by anybody else, but from Megadeth it’s confusing and kind of disappointing.

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QOTSA The Evil Has Landed-Single of The Week

Single of The Week is posted every Tuesday

    Today we are looking at the newest single by Queens Of The Stone Age in anticipation of their new album Villains, due for release this Friday. This track called The Evil Has Landed is a bit different from the previously released The Way You Used To Do, feeling much more like a blend of classic QOTSA and Them Crooked Vultures. Unlike the majority of Villains (according to those who have heard the leaked version) this track doesn’t feature many funk elements, instead being mildly bluesy with a straightforward rock sound overall. The one similarity this song does have to The Way You Used To Do is that at least parts of it have the same signature Mark Ronson production.

    The only real issue I have with this track is that the first 2:30 or so is extremely thin sounding with the drums and bass being barely audible and the guitar being compressed to hell. On further listens I realized that it works as a bit of a buildup as the subsequent sections get progressively nastier and thicker. Even though the sterile production on the first section of the song is a bit much for me, I still find this track to be a great effort from QOTSA. I think this is a nice middle ground between their usual sound and the more polished and funky sound of Villains overall.

    I’m curious to hear how Mark Ronson’s clean cut and compression heavy production style works on the full album as QOTSA are generally a pretty dynamic and lo-fi band. The combination could certainly work as previous artists like Jack White and Muse have taken very raw and nasty sounding music and converted to clear and sharp production similar to Ronson’s. From the clips I’ve heard of other tracks, Feet Don’t Fail in particular this album appears to have a really nasty funk vibe to it, similarly to The Way You Used To Do. While funky QOTSA might not sound appealing to everyone, I really dig what I’ve heard so far.

    Overall I think this track is good, it’s a bit of a struggle for me to get past the first section because the drums and bass being so low in the mix and all of the empty space bugs me. Once I get past that section though this song absolutely rocks. I get the effect they’re going for, and they do accomplish it by starting small and then ramping up, but I just don’t like the beginning that much. So yeah, I’d quantify that as like a 6 or 7 out of 10 if I did ratings.

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Tame Impala Lonerism: An Album a Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

    Today I am reviewing an album I had recommended to me by a friend of mine, Lonerism by Tame Impala. The recommender of this album said that this is one of his favorite modern album, and given that he generally has pretty good taste in music I decided to give it a listen. Now I’ve heard of Tame Impala before, but I’ve never heard any of their music. My initial thinking with this band is that they would be somewhere in the ballpark of bands like Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys or Wolfmother, which wasn’t a completely wrong assumption.

    First things first, Tame Impala are a band in the same sense as Nine Inch Nails; one guy writes and records everything and then gets other musicians together to tour. In this case that one guy is Kevin Parker, a multi instrumentalist contrarian who has an affinity for the music of the 60s and 70s as well as modern pop music. This album shows off all of those interests as well as some downright dirty guitar playing at times.

    Apparently their first album was a much more straightforward rock album, at least in Parker’s mind and he wanted to experiment with their follow up. He even stated that he got bored messing with guitar sounds after the first album and became inspired to work with vintage synthesizers for the sound of Lonerism. On top of that he wanted to have the music wash over the listener rather than striking out the way it had on the first album.

    These desires mixed with a love for pop melodies is what spawned the half dream pop half garage rock album that is Lonerism. Some of the stand out tracks on this album are Endors Toi and Elephant. Endors Toi caught my attention at first because of the main synth line throughout the song sounding like a combination of Free Bird and the Metroid Theme. The other thing that caught me is the fuzzy guitar solo towards the end of the track that differentiates it from the rest of the album.

    Elephant is the track that made me realize I had heard one song from Tame Impala before, and this is definitely my favorite track on the album. As I haven’t listened to their first album yet I don’t know for sure but I’d imagine this is close to what it sounded like. And I’ll be honest I prefer this mix of fuzz bass and synths to most of the rest of this album. I think I just prefer to have some elements of the song stick out rather than the whole thing wash over me. The instrumentation on this track is excellent and overall has damn near perfect construction.

    While the rest of the album doesn’t stick out to me like these two tracks, it’s not because they’re bad but because they work best within the context of the whole album. Lonerism works best as an album, much like ones from the 60s and 70s. Despite being a pretty loud album the constant waves of synth and guitar layers makes it a soothing experience, much like shoegaze. For the same reason that I don’t listen to Pink Floyd very often I probably wouldn’t listen to this too often either, because it’s going to make me feel tired.

    Overall this is an excellently put together album with a few track that really stand out on their own. If you’re sleep deprived like me though, listen when you don’t have anything to lose by drifting off because the dream element of dream pop is heavily emphasized here.

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Coldplay A L I E N S: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

    After their latest hit came via collaboration with the reigning kings of pop The Chainsmokers, Coldplay have ventured further back towards their rock roots. Their new single Aliens (stylized
A L I E N S) is a mature and more modern take on Coldplay’s earliest melancholy alternative rock sound. The sound of this track is absolutely beautiful, full of sweeping soundscapes of synths and ambient guitars that are anchored by piano, bass and drums.

    The songs itself tells the story of aliens escaping a monstrous force trying to destroy them on their own planet and desperately finding a new place to live. Chris Martin takes a page straight out of Gene Roddenberry's book by using Sci-Fi motifs to talk about a somewhat touchy issue that people would have a strong reaction to, in this case refugees. Despite various article I’ve read about this song trying to make it specifically about Syrian refugees (imbuing this song with the article writer's political leaning) this track’s purpose is to promote and raise money for the Migrant Offshore Aid Station Foundation.

The MOAS Foundation is a charity organization that conducts search and rescue missions along what they call the deadliest migration routes in the world. With that said, I’m sure Coldplay intended this song as a more general statement on refugees and migrants in need as that fits the mold of their humanistic political stances that generally call for love and understanding of each other. Regardless of political stances on refugees and migrants, MOAS is a good cause and this song is fantastic even at face value.

The song itself features swirling synths and piano that fill out most of the mix, along with Martin’s reverb drenched vocals echoing across the soundscape. A sparse drumbeat, bassline and various guitar licks go the forefront in this spacey (no pun intended) alt rock track. I have always been a huge fan of Chris Martin's natural baritone voice so I couldn't be happier to see him using more of his low register in their newer music.

This song reminds me of a few other artists, containing elements that invoke Muse and even Gorillaz at times. It also strikes me that the sound of this song is the perfect blending of Coldplay's rockier sound with their poppier sound, striking a balance that Maroon 5 has been desperately searching for this entire decade.

Rather you want to delve deep into the metaphorical meaning of the lyrics or just take it as a trippy song about aliens, this music is just gorgeous. Hopefully this sound will be found throughout Coldplay's future releases. Their new EP Kaleidoscope drops next month.
All the money made from this song will go to the MOAS Foundation, if you'd like to find out more about them click here.
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ZZ Ward The Storm: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

    I first heard of ZZ Ward a few years back when her single Put The Gun Down was a fairly successful hit. In many ways how I saw her back then was about the same way I saw Elle King earlier this year; as a breath of fresh air. For the longest time there were no new rock stations around where I live, so I toggle back and forth between top 40 and the same 3 Journey songs being played on the classic rock station. Given how much I listened to pop music I found both ZZ Ward and Elle King’s blues based pop rock to be more than welcome. So today I’m looking at ZZ Ward’s new album The Storm, mostly to see how it matches up against Elle King’s Love Stuff.

    The first thing to note about the difference between the two is that while Elle King is a solid rhythm guitarist/banjo player she’s never the one playing lead on her tracks, leaving that up to her backing band. ZZ Ward’s thing is being more of a classic blues frontwoman so she plays lead guitar as well as occasional harmonica soloing. A track like Cannonball provides a good example of Ward’s soloing on a strong blues rock track that has just a hint of pop polish.

    The one issue I have with a lot of this album is though is that pop polish makes a lot of it too clean. Whereas Elle King puts forth this dirty and real persona in her music ZZ Ward plays it safe a lot of the time. Tracks like Ghost have a cool kind of darker feel because of the lyrics but some of the middle tracks on this one are very boring. Not to say that Elle King’s album was perfect, Love Stuff had some dull pop or country tracks as well.

    Don’t get me wrong, I do like this album and ZZ Ward, but her crossover appeal shows a bit more than King’s. With Elle King’s hits it always felt like it was a fluke that she got on pop radio but a lot of ZZ Ward’s songs have that clean pop sound on top of the blues based music. The strongest songs on this album include Ghost, Cannonball, Ride and Help Me Mama, all of which are strong blues rock tracks with folk and gospel elements.

    Overall this is a good album and ZZ Ward is certainly a talented singer and musician, but a lot of her music is a bit too clean and sterile sounding for my tastes. This is less a knock against her and more in praise of Elle King, but I would prefer to listen to Love Stuff. King just has a lot of the nastier elements that I love about blues based music, especially the fuzzed out guitars on Devil Don’t Go and Exs and Ohs. So yeah, solid album but not as good as Love Stuff.

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Twenty One Pilots TOPxMM: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

While Twenty One Pilots have not released a full album since 2015’s Blurryface, they did release an EP of reimaginings of their songs with MuteMath in late 2016. These renditions of some of their best tracks off of Blurryface are really incredible to hear. The way that Twenty One Pilots and MuteMath mesh on these tracks puts them in a whole new context, adding new elements and filling out the sound of some tracks.

Much like seeing Jack White with a full band after being in The White Stripes it's awesome to see just how much can be added to these songs that were originally from a two piece. It isn't quite so dramatic since Tyler Joseph often layers synths and instruments in the studio, but what is dramatic is hearing other artists bring their own individual styles to these tracks. From the funk disco groove added to Tear In My Heart to the dual drumming on HeavyDirtySoul, the added style from the members of MuteMath makes these tracks come alive in a whole new way.

The first track from this session is Twenty One Pilots’ hit song Heathens from the Suicide Squad soundtrack. The slower more somber pace of this version combined with cello, marimba and synth layers add a darker tone to the song. This version plays up the dark and introspective nature of the lyrics a bit more than the original version, which had some aggression on it.

The next track is the one which is the closest to the original, HeavyDirtySoul. This rendition pretty much just exchanges a few of the synth textures for real instruments and adds a heavy breakdown at the end. This version also features dual drumming in parts with Josh Dun and MuteMath drummer Darren King both playing the frantic drumbeat on this track. They did keep in the main background sample that many fans believe to be the character of Blurryface screaming, which I thought was a nice touch.

This version of ride is slightly different, with the piano rhythm being replaced by an echoey electric guitar and arpeggiated synths. A lot of the synth textures are changed to analog sounding synths straight out of the 80s. The overall feel of the song is a little different but it’s mostly just a bigger reverb filled version of the original.

Tear In My Heart is the biggest departure from the original as it features a funky disco vibe and completely changes the instrumentation. This version also uses Josh Dun’s trumpet playing in a few more spots than the original, such as in funk swing intro. This version also features Darren King playing bongos throughout the bridge, adding to the retro vibe that they’re clearly going for here.

The EP closes out with a version of Lane Boy that isn't much different from the original. The main differences here are the ukulele riff being played on keyboard as well a smattering of echoey guitar fills. Also the tempo is slightly different like with Heathens. The last drop is then replaced by an epic sounding jam session between MuteMath and Josh Dun that closes out the EP perfectly.

If you are a fan of Twenty One Pilots already I absolutely recommend this EP, however if you have never got into them I'd also recommend checking this out. These different takes on the songs might just be the flavor of Twenty One Pilots that’s for you. Either way, I'd urge you to watch the full session video the first time you listen because it really does enhance the experience.

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Coldplay Viva La Vida or Death And All Of His Friends: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

    Today we are covering one of my favorite albums of all time, Viva La Vida or Death And All of His Friends by Coldplay. Now, Coldplay are not generally a band I get all that excited about. Even back when this was my favorite album I understood that I didn’t really care for most of Coldplay’s other stuff. Not to say that they are bad or uncreative, their earlier style just wasn’t my cup of tea. But Viva La Vida is exactly the type of alternative rock that I absolutely adore these days. I enjoyed this album when it first came out in 2008, in fact I enjoyed the lead single so much that I made this my first album purchase ever.
    I bought this album from Whole Foods in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when I was 11 years old and made my brother put it his CD player while we sat in bumper to bumper traffic in the rain. This album was the second CD that I discovered sounded really good being endlessly looped through my boom box, the other being America’s Greatest Hits album. I’m not sure what about the track Viva La Vida first grabbed my attention; I think it was either the fact that he was clearly telling a story about a Napoleon type character in a pop song or simply the viva la revolution! Feel of the whole thing.

    While I’d describe a lot of the elements on this album as vaguely world music sounding, there was something definitively French Revolution about the sound of the title track. From the beginning to end every song on this album is fantastic, with the mix of strings, world music, piano rock and Johnny Buckland doing his best The Edge impersonation meshing perfectly together.

    This album mixes arena rocking and ambient music together into a fairly unique and awesome combination. The best tracks on this album are the two title tracks, along with Yes and Violet Hill, while the only real low point for me is Strawberry Swing sitting between Violet Hill and Death and All Of His Friends.

    As previously mentioned, Viva La Vida is an anthemic rock track that oozes with the French Revolution vibe the band was evoking with this album. The song tells the tale of a dethroned king who now lives in poverty and isolation, seemingly being sung from the perspective of a Napoleon like character, post exile. This was certainly the most radio ready song on the album but it’s style is very weird for top 40 success as it is one of the most definitively rock songs Coldplay have ever had get popular.

    My personal favorite track on the album, Yes, features Chris Martin singing in his lower baritone register to add variety to the album. As a baritone myself I always loved this song because it was one of the few Coldplay songs I could sing easily. Along with Martin’s seductive low vocals this track features some of the coolest violin parts on the record. Apparently this track was inspired heavily by The Velvet Underground, which are supposed to be the originators of the alternative rock sound. Along with this influence, band members have commented that the hidden track Chinese Sleep Chant at the end of this song is meant to be a parody of shoegaze and of My Bloody Valentine specifically.

    Next we have Violet Hill, a track that is vaguely political but in the kind of way where you can pretty much insert any political opinion into the song. I actually really like these kinds of songs, because I really don’t care to hear political ranting in music, with exceptions made for Rage Against The Machine and anti-Vietnam songs because of the quality of music. This track works amazing well at making me feel the cold winter that Martin sings about, the synths and piano stabs convey this feeling very well. The lyrics are kind of a mash of jumbled words that sort of tell a story, but the delivery of the song makes up for the sometimes disjointed storytelling.

    Lastly we have the other title track and album closer Death and All of His Friends. This track could easily be described as Violet Hill part 2, with the same cold feeling and disjointed storytelling over music that pulls the whole thing together. The album actually closes with a hidden track inside of Death and All of His Friends called The Escapist, which seems to be the existentialist crises of Chris Martin leaking out.

    The track features the repeated line “And, In the end we lie awake, and we dream of making our escape” over the music from the album opener Life In Technicolor. This makes the album easy to listen to on repeat because of it's circular nature. I always took the lines to be a poetic description of being dead; the lines are also likely a reference to The End by The Beatles which has Paul McCartney singing “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

    As I said at the beginning of this review, this is one of my favorite albums of all time, turning this review more into a sales pitch to go listen to it. While I’m biased in favor of this album because of the nostalgia for me, I legitimately believe this album is just as good as I’ve said it. One of the strongest points of this album for me is it enough of an arena rock album to be a pump up daytime listen and ambient enough to be listened to at night. I can’t even count how many times I fell asleep to this album as a kid or even as an adult. I’ve enjoyed this album for 9 years now and I fully expect to be enjoying it for many more to come; do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

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X Ambassadors VHS: An Album a Day

 An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

   Is it just me or do a lot of people act like Imagine Dragons are the new Nickelback? People act like they are nothing more than a soulless money maker without a style; hell I’ve found out a lot of people who don’t like Dan Reynolds voice. I personally don’t get it, but to those people I would say go listen to X Ambassadors, because after listening to their crappy album VHS you will beg for Imagine Dragons.

    Generally I’ve seen these two bands be put in the same category and they’ve even collaborated a few times; because of this I think it only fitting to compare the two. While Imagine Dragons do make a fair amount of obvious radio bait songs, they also make some solid tracks that are deeper cuts on the record and it’s not like most of their hits are bad. Compare to that X Ambassadors, a band so ready to sell out they are literally only popular because of a car commercial. And if it was a case of them getting big off of that and the rest of their album was good or even average, I’d give them a pass but this album sucks.

    On the topic of style, Imagine Dragons have a very definitive and recognizable sound even with the way they blur genres a lot. Imagine Dragons two most distinct elements are pounding rhythms and Dan Reynolds very unique voice, now their softer tracks usually drop the huge drums in favor of acoustic guitars, but Reynolds voice is still instantly recognizable. X Ambassadors claim to be a real rock band with some things taken from indie music, and that pretty much holds true. They are an alternative rock band with the pretention and boring sound of indie.

    As for the songs on the album, all of them are forgettable as hell. The two exceptions are Renegades and Unsteady which are okay enough songs that get stuck in your head and just become aggravating. Those two tracks are actually pretty good, along with Nervous and B.I.G., but the issue that even these tracks suffer from is sounding generic. The first 6 tracks on this album could literally just be called “The jeep commercial”, “The pop song”, “Bastille knockoff”, “Nick Jonas knockoff”, “even Dan Reynolds can’t save you now” and “Why is this drum and bass?”.

    The only thing that almost counts as a constant style is the inclusion of acoustic guitars on most of these tracks, but nothing about the playing is unique or memorable. Lead singer Sam Harris isn’t a bad singer at all, but he suffers from sounding way too much like everybody else. At times he sounds like Dan Reynolds, at other times Adam Levine or Chris Martin from Coldplay with an American accent. He occasionally dips into a more soul singer kind of voice that has a bit of it’s own sound, but overall Harris is just too generic sounding, just like the rest of the band.

    Maybe this album is a combination of songs that were written or partially written over the course of the years since they formed and that’s why it feels so disjointed, or maybe it’s just the crappy first album bands put out that used to only go out to a couple of people before the internet. Either way, these guys need to cultivate their own sound before they attempt a follow up. I’d like to see them either take the Panic! At The Disco approach and sound like a slightly different version of a more popular rock band or simply expand on the sound from Renegades more. Who knows, maybe they’re next album will fantastic, after all Harry Styles is now a rock star and Pantera were originally a glam rock band called Gemini; things can change.

Album on Google Play
Album on Amazon
Album on Itunes