Who likes music reviews?!?!?!?!?!!!!??!?
I've got two music reviews for you, for the upcoming *CENSORED DUE TO SECRECY OF PROJECT*. Unedited (by my editor) and commercial free!
Get Behind Me Satan Review
--Jordan Scrivner
Three Stars out of Five
The title of the new White Stripes album is Get Behind Me Satan and the opening track is a rampaging, rollicking thrill ride called Blue Orchid. With a title like that and an opener that grabs you like this, its fair to say that one could most certainly expect a classic rock album to come from the Detroit duo. You would expect the next hour of the White Stripes latest endeavor to be this frenzied all the way through. However, disappointment comes quickly with track 2, a dopey and drowsy marimba-driven thing called The Nurse, that only has the occasional suggestion of the rock promised us earlier. And its effect is just as affecting as a plane crash. The album never regains its earlier promise of becoming a classic that it made with the title and the first track.
Then, with the third track, another promise is made. The ridiculously cheerful and contagious My Doorbell suggests that maybe this isnt a whole album as it is a garden of different evocative moods strung together behind the barest guise of a classic album. My Doorbell is a song that, if youre not careful, you will find yourself singing. A lot. In the shower. While youre sleeping. In between phone conversations. Everywhere. Then comes another marimba number, Forever for Her (is Over for Me.) Now Im thinking. Huh. Maybe Jack White is just making a radio album. A string of 13 singles called Get Behind Me Satan. and THAT perception changes, along with every other perception one gets from this album, with Little Ghost. A fairly clear reference to Jack Whites time spent with Loretta Lynn atop the Cold Mountain, Little Ghost is a mini-ballad about the narrator dancing with an apparition that only appears in his mind. The use of vocals in that song, about three or four vocals from my count, with one singer sounding like hes swallowing the mike, is just incredible. The song is just two minutes long, but its two minutes that you want to last.
The White Stripes first major-label album, Elephant, was the most visceral and aggressive album The White Stripes have put out. It was also something of a complete album that kept a consistent sound all the way through, (though it ranged in many different moods and emotions.) It also flowed well. You can still run through the whole gamut of human emotion with just an electric guitar and a drum kit and, until this most recent album, it looked like that was going to be the White Stripes forte. However, with Get Behind Me Satan, The White Stripes make their first move to branching out, utilizing piano, banjo, marimbas, and bells to make the record, using electric guitar and drums only sparingly (or at least more sparingly than youd expect.) Even though Elephant was written and recorded in just a few weeks, you cant really tell from the finished product. With Get Behind Me Satan, its a different story. The songs of Get Behind Me Satan seem much more thrown together than the songs of Elephant. And there doesnt seem to be much reason for that. The White Stripes should have spent a LOT more time on this record, especially since theyre using instruments they may not quite be used to using. Although, as far as songs are concerned, Get Behind Me Satan boasts some of the catchiest and cleverest songs the White Stripes have ever written.
However, the five songs I mentioned in the first paragraph are the first five songs on the album. And they range from metal disco, to dopey-pop, to audial-infectious bubblegum, and into appalachian folk. After that, the album kind of goes into your pre-treaded path of blues-inspired White Stripes albums of the past. Sure, it rocks, but after Little Ghost, suddenly theres nothing on the album that feels unique. It feels like The Whites got the radio hits out of the way and then proceeded to do their own thing. And when they do do their own thing, the album kind of meanders. With one exception, none of the songs on the second half really stand out.
Although all of this gives the album an uneven feel, (I feel the album would have worked a lot better as an EP of just the first five songs. At least that would explain the four-directions-at-the same-time feel of the first half) Get Behind Me Satan is still certainly worth the price of admission. At least for the exceptional Red Rain, which is really the only interesting song in the last half of the album. The main melody comes from what sounds like those bells you ring in hotel lobbies when you want service. It uses the simple jingling to bring lots of crunching guitars and tweaked vocals. The bells come back and Jack intones If there is a lie/ then there is a liar too/ and if there is a sin/ then there is a sinner too. The guitars pick back up again, and the listener may get the feeling one would expect from a title like Get Behind Me Satan. Its a shame that it isnt this crazy-feeling all throughout the album. Then again, it is equally regrettable that the album doesnt seem as experimental or diverse as the first half. Its never quite clear, when you get down to it, what you should expect from Get Behind Me Satan, or even what it expects from itself. Therein lies the problem. This album has been described as the White Stripes transitional album, and this reviewer feels the description is apt. The White Stripes tried to make an album that was both experimental and traditional, and ended up straddling the fence. The White Stripes have reached a crossroad, and it will be interesting to see what path they take.
Lost in the Woods
A Review of Sleater-Kinneys The Woods
by Jordan Scrivner
5 Stars out of 5.
You know, most of the time, when a band starts to come up towards releasing albums in the double-digits, they start to show their age. Either the music mellows out, or they try to overcompensate by rocking out harder, and thus showing their age even more (see also R.E.M. circa Monster and Jon Spencers Blues Explosion circa Plastic Fang.) Its perfectly understandable why a band starts to rock less, and thus get less cool, once they get older. Call me ageist, but you can tell when a band is getting old. They start getting kids. And mortgages. This has got to affect the rock-and-roll psyche. Its hard to know when and why a band starts to feel like theyre getting old, but when your favorite band gets there, no matter how much you try to suppress it, you will know it. You will hear that little voice in your head whispering: theyre getting older... theyre getting older...
Not so with Sleater-Kinney, who have just released their 7th and best album, The Woods.
With the release of 2002s One Beat, it looked like SKs path was going to be at least halfway predictable. After all, that was the album they started implementing certain things such as guest vocalists, horns, and even theremins for the first time. Surely, soon, SK would start releasing full-studio concept albums like the Flaming Lips, right? Now, with The Woods, Sleater-Kinney proves you can still expand your horizons simply by rocking harder than the boys next door.
Sleater-Kinneys new album is called The Woods, and the cover is a curtain on a stage revealing trees that extend out of the box that confines the space of the cd. Its easy to imagine, with the opening track, those trees extending up and out and taking over the space beyond the space. The loud and organic, The Fox has an air that is thick and choking as SKs lead singer, Corin Tucker, relates, Peter and the Wolf style, a fable of a fox and a duck. With Corins trademark polarizing voice and Janet Weiss suddenly violent drumming, the song acts as a harbinger for the rest of the album.
The next standout track is Whats Mine is Yours. With the guitar shifting playfully from ear to ear, Tucker invites sit down honey/ lets kill some time/ rest your head on/ this heart of mine. The song continues with a beat like a stone skipped across water until it all comes crashing down with a guitar solo straight out of Woodstock. The faint of heart might be concerned at this point that the girls of Sleater-Kinney made a psychedelic hippie album. Not so. They just made one that rocks. And you almost want to stomp your feet on the sidewalk when Tuckers voice comes back and echoes off your eardrums.
From there, the album goes in a myriad of paths, all down the deep woods of rock. Jumpers, a song about suicide that makes no apologies, is defiant rather than depressing. Modern Girl, the only track on the album that flirts with poppiness has teeth and bites. The album is even funny, with Tucker skewering todays nostalgia-riddled music industry with Entertain. And the eleven-minute Lets Call it Love feels like having very loud sex with an insane woman.
Sleater-Kinneys The Woods rocks without trying to rock (the epitome of coolness as far as Im concerned.) SK has not grown old. They have grown up. They are no longer girls with three chords and a dream. As far as rocking is concerned, they are masters of the form.
I've got two music reviews for you, for the upcoming *CENSORED DUE TO SECRECY OF PROJECT*. Unedited (by my editor) and commercial free!
Get Behind Me Satan Review
--Jordan Scrivner
Three Stars out of Five
The title of the new White Stripes album is Get Behind Me Satan and the opening track is a rampaging, rollicking thrill ride called Blue Orchid. With a title like that and an opener that grabs you like this, its fair to say that one could most certainly expect a classic rock album to come from the Detroit duo. You would expect the next hour of the White Stripes latest endeavor to be this frenzied all the way through. However, disappointment comes quickly with track 2, a dopey and drowsy marimba-driven thing called The Nurse, that only has the occasional suggestion of the rock promised us earlier. And its effect is just as affecting as a plane crash. The album never regains its earlier promise of becoming a classic that it made with the title and the first track.
Then, with the third track, another promise is made. The ridiculously cheerful and contagious My Doorbell suggests that maybe this isnt a whole album as it is a garden of different evocative moods strung together behind the barest guise of a classic album. My Doorbell is a song that, if youre not careful, you will find yourself singing. A lot. In the shower. While youre sleeping. In between phone conversations. Everywhere. Then comes another marimba number, Forever for Her (is Over for Me.) Now Im thinking. Huh. Maybe Jack White is just making a radio album. A string of 13 singles called Get Behind Me Satan. and THAT perception changes, along with every other perception one gets from this album, with Little Ghost. A fairly clear reference to Jack Whites time spent with Loretta Lynn atop the Cold Mountain, Little Ghost is a mini-ballad about the narrator dancing with an apparition that only appears in his mind. The use of vocals in that song, about three or four vocals from my count, with one singer sounding like hes swallowing the mike, is just incredible. The song is just two minutes long, but its two minutes that you want to last.
The White Stripes first major-label album, Elephant, was the most visceral and aggressive album The White Stripes have put out. It was also something of a complete album that kept a consistent sound all the way through, (though it ranged in many different moods and emotions.) It also flowed well. You can still run through the whole gamut of human emotion with just an electric guitar and a drum kit and, until this most recent album, it looked like that was going to be the White Stripes forte. However, with Get Behind Me Satan, The White Stripes make their first move to branching out, utilizing piano, banjo, marimbas, and bells to make the record, using electric guitar and drums only sparingly (or at least more sparingly than youd expect.) Even though Elephant was written and recorded in just a few weeks, you cant really tell from the finished product. With Get Behind Me Satan, its a different story. The songs of Get Behind Me Satan seem much more thrown together than the songs of Elephant. And there doesnt seem to be much reason for that. The White Stripes should have spent a LOT more time on this record, especially since theyre using instruments they may not quite be used to using. Although, as far as songs are concerned, Get Behind Me Satan boasts some of the catchiest and cleverest songs the White Stripes have ever written.
However, the five songs I mentioned in the first paragraph are the first five songs on the album. And they range from metal disco, to dopey-pop, to audial-infectious bubblegum, and into appalachian folk. After that, the album kind of goes into your pre-treaded path of blues-inspired White Stripes albums of the past. Sure, it rocks, but after Little Ghost, suddenly theres nothing on the album that feels unique. It feels like The Whites got the radio hits out of the way and then proceeded to do their own thing. And when they do do their own thing, the album kind of meanders. With one exception, none of the songs on the second half really stand out.
Although all of this gives the album an uneven feel, (I feel the album would have worked a lot better as an EP of just the first five songs. At least that would explain the four-directions-at-the same-time feel of the first half) Get Behind Me Satan is still certainly worth the price of admission. At least for the exceptional Red Rain, which is really the only interesting song in the last half of the album. The main melody comes from what sounds like those bells you ring in hotel lobbies when you want service. It uses the simple jingling to bring lots of crunching guitars and tweaked vocals. The bells come back and Jack intones If there is a lie/ then there is a liar too/ and if there is a sin/ then there is a sinner too. The guitars pick back up again, and the listener may get the feeling one would expect from a title like Get Behind Me Satan. Its a shame that it isnt this crazy-feeling all throughout the album. Then again, it is equally regrettable that the album doesnt seem as experimental or diverse as the first half. Its never quite clear, when you get down to it, what you should expect from Get Behind Me Satan, or even what it expects from itself. Therein lies the problem. This album has been described as the White Stripes transitional album, and this reviewer feels the description is apt. The White Stripes tried to make an album that was both experimental and traditional, and ended up straddling the fence. The White Stripes have reached a crossroad, and it will be interesting to see what path they take.
Lost in the Woods
A Review of Sleater-Kinneys The Woods
by Jordan Scrivner
5 Stars out of 5.
You know, most of the time, when a band starts to come up towards releasing albums in the double-digits, they start to show their age. Either the music mellows out, or they try to overcompensate by rocking out harder, and thus showing their age even more (see also R.E.M. circa Monster and Jon Spencers Blues Explosion circa Plastic Fang.) Its perfectly understandable why a band starts to rock less, and thus get less cool, once they get older. Call me ageist, but you can tell when a band is getting old. They start getting kids. And mortgages. This has got to affect the rock-and-roll psyche. Its hard to know when and why a band starts to feel like theyre getting old, but when your favorite band gets there, no matter how much you try to suppress it, you will know it. You will hear that little voice in your head whispering: theyre getting older... theyre getting older...
Not so with Sleater-Kinney, who have just released their 7th and best album, The Woods.
With the release of 2002s One Beat, it looked like SKs path was going to be at least halfway predictable. After all, that was the album they started implementing certain things such as guest vocalists, horns, and even theremins for the first time. Surely, soon, SK would start releasing full-studio concept albums like the Flaming Lips, right? Now, with The Woods, Sleater-Kinney proves you can still expand your horizons simply by rocking harder than the boys next door.
Sleater-Kinneys new album is called The Woods, and the cover is a curtain on a stage revealing trees that extend out of the box that confines the space of the cd. Its easy to imagine, with the opening track, those trees extending up and out and taking over the space beyond the space. The loud and organic, The Fox has an air that is thick and choking as SKs lead singer, Corin Tucker, relates, Peter and the Wolf style, a fable of a fox and a duck. With Corins trademark polarizing voice and Janet Weiss suddenly violent drumming, the song acts as a harbinger for the rest of the album.
The next standout track is Whats Mine is Yours. With the guitar shifting playfully from ear to ear, Tucker invites sit down honey/ lets kill some time/ rest your head on/ this heart of mine. The song continues with a beat like a stone skipped across water until it all comes crashing down with a guitar solo straight out of Woodstock. The faint of heart might be concerned at this point that the girls of Sleater-Kinney made a psychedelic hippie album. Not so. They just made one that rocks. And you almost want to stomp your feet on the sidewalk when Tuckers voice comes back and echoes off your eardrums.
From there, the album goes in a myriad of paths, all down the deep woods of rock. Jumpers, a song about suicide that makes no apologies, is defiant rather than depressing. Modern Girl, the only track on the album that flirts with poppiness has teeth and bites. The album is even funny, with Tucker skewering todays nostalgia-riddled music industry with Entertain. And the eleven-minute Lets Call it Love feels like having very loud sex with an insane woman.
Sleater-Kinneys The Woods rocks without trying to rock (the epitome of coolness as far as Im concerned.) SK has not grown old. They have grown up. They are no longer girls with three chords and a dream. As far as rocking is concerned, they are masters of the form.