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The spoils from my latest trip to the local Rasputin are My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade, Queens of the Stone Age’s Era Vulgaris, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s In Glorious Times and the largely overdue addition to my collection, Mars Volta’s Amputechture.
I have already expressed my slow-waning hatred of MCR and now it is in full retreat. I officially love this album. Songs that are fun to sing with explosive breakdowns and heartbreaking lyrics. Fucking adore it.
Again, another band that is winning me over is Queens. I never really got them before. Occasionally, I would download a song or two but they never seemed like a band with much range. And while the new single "Sick Sick Sick" is still totally them, it has some added edge that made me curious. As it turns out, the album is nothing what I expected. With moments that are so completely Beck, I was turned around on my heals. Their complexity level still bottoms out but groove and range among songs more than makes up for it. I still can’t believe that this is the same Troy Van Leeuwen whose whiny guitar was the backbone of A Perfect Circle’s Mer De Noms. Certainly turned it down a notch.
Sleepytime’s new album is a listen in progress much like the rest of their discography. It is not music to be taken lightly or pushed into the background. It refuses. It is even for the majority of the time uncomfortable to listen to. Sleepytime has always made music for the champion ear, the cultured listener who actually lacks enough of a social life to have time to chew on it. I, unfortunately, have lacked the discipline but have thus far liked what I’ve heard. If it is even a shadow of the stuff I heard live I’ll be happy.
Can’t believe I am just now buying this album. I’ll admit that I had the slightest hesitation from all the filler I had to endure on Francis the Mute. It had such great songs but god was it a chore to listen to, much like Sleepytime only for different reasons. Where Sleepytime’s discomfort is in the structure and tonality, Mars’ is from the sheer length of songs with their unnecessary interludes. However, Amputechture seems to be mercifully sparse of these. Of course, it wouldn’t be Mars if the songs still weren’t 14 minutes long yet they are more unified and, as a result, enamoring. However, what I would really like to see is the intensity of these last two albums molded into the structure of the first two. Deloused wasn’t as breath-taking as anything after it, but each song stuck out as a separate entity making the album more digestible and impacting. With Francis, after a while you’d zone out and the usage of leitmotif would bring you back thinking you had the same song on repeat for two hours. From the feel of Amputechture, Mars is slowly reaching a balance.
Oh. I also bought a Devo shirt. It’s fucking sweet.
-Briana Hernandez
I have already expressed my slow-waning hatred of MCR and now it is in full retreat. I officially love this album. Songs that are fun to sing with explosive breakdowns and heartbreaking lyrics. Fucking adore it.
Again, another band that is winning me over is Queens. I never really got them before. Occasionally, I would download a song or two but they never seemed like a band with much range. And while the new single "Sick Sick Sick" is still totally them, it has some added edge that made me curious. As it turns out, the album is nothing what I expected. With moments that are so completely Beck, I was turned around on my heals. Their complexity level still bottoms out but groove and range among songs more than makes up for it. I still can’t believe that this is the same Troy Van Leeuwen whose whiny guitar was the backbone of A Perfect Circle’s Mer De Noms. Certainly turned it down a notch.
Sleepytime’s new album is a listen in progress much like the rest of their discography. It is not music to be taken lightly or pushed into the background. It refuses. It is even for the majority of the time uncomfortable to listen to. Sleepytime has always made music for the champion ear, the cultured listener who actually lacks enough of a social life to have time to chew on it. I, unfortunately, have lacked the discipline but have thus far liked what I’ve heard. If it is even a shadow of the stuff I heard live I’ll be happy.
Can’t believe I am just now buying this album. I’ll admit that I had the slightest hesitation from all the filler I had to endure on Francis the Mute. It had such great songs but god was it a chore to listen to, much like Sleepytime only for different reasons. Where Sleepytime’s discomfort is in the structure and tonality, Mars’ is from the sheer length of songs with their unnecessary interludes. However, Amputechture seems to be mercifully sparse of these. Of course, it wouldn’t be Mars if the songs still weren’t 14 minutes long yet they are more unified and, as a result, enamoring. However, what I would really like to see is the intensity of these last two albums molded into the structure of the first two. Deloused wasn’t as breath-taking as anything after it, but each song stuck out as a separate entity making the album more digestible and impacting. With Francis, after a while you’d zone out and the usage of leitmotif would bring you back thinking you had the same song on repeat for two hours. From the feel of Amputechture, Mars is slowly reaching a balance.
Oh. I also bought a Devo shirt. It’s fucking sweet.
-Briana Hernandez
posted by theowlblog at 3:33 PM
2 Comments:
Welcome to the black parade, Briana. Ba dum tsshh.
-Robbie
har dee har har. :)
-Briana
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