Album Reviews

Leave a comment Posted on by Chloe Album Reviews, Music Talk

(Delayed) Music Monday: Kylie - Kiss Me Once

Kylie Minogue Kiss Me Once

Kylie
Kiss Me Once
Parlophone / Warner Bros.

Hello everyone, it’s me, Chloe! I know, where have I been all this time? But I am back, albeit with a slightly delayed edition of Music Monday. So without further ado, let us get into it.

I was NOT going to review this album, but to be honest I have a soft spot for Kylie. Pop music is what I grew up on, after all. Britney Spears, N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, FIVE, 911… list goes on. Do you guys remember The Moffatts? I do. I had their poster on my wall and everything.

BUT we are talking about Kylie here. Power pop dance queen Kylie. Do you remember back in the day when she was “Kylie Minogue”? Now she has one name and y’all know which Kylie we’re talking about. Move over Madonna.

Kiss Me Once is Kylie’s twelfth studio album, preceded by 2010’s Aprodite which I also own and yes, danced a lot to, shutupdon’tlookatme.

This is one of those albums with a whole bunch of songs. REALLY CHLOE? Wow. But yes, really. And while you’re listening to it, it’ll seem kinda derivative and pop, like yeah super smooth and catchy tunes Kylez, but y’know, how are you different to any other pop star who uses synths and has Pharrell channelling his Daft Punk influence behind the producers desk?

And then five hours later you’re lying in bed trying to sleep but there’s this tune in your head, like completely foreign, kind of like hearing this solemn yet moving song and not being able to place it and it plays in your head for about twenty seconds before it hits you - it’s the Game of Thrones theme song and you don’t even watch the damn show.

Except it’s the Kylie edition. And you’ll have remembered a lot more lyrics than you thought, too.

The album is about love and also sex, but more the romantic notion of love and the eventual sexytiemz, rather than S-E-X-X sex. It’s just really funky and smooth, upbeat and happy and just really… carefree, which may be a reflection of her new contract with Roc Nation Management.

Also of note re: Roc Nation - it’s Jay-Z’s label, which goes to explain the sort of hip-hop dubstep funk style thing going on with tracks such as “Sexercize.” This unfortunately did not jive with me on the music front but that’s okay.

Other producers on the album are Sia Furler, who executive-produced the album, and Ariel Reichstadt (who produced Haim’s album) for “If Only,” as well as MNEK on “Feels So Good” - and this wide variety of musical smorgasbordism shows across the album’s 11 tracks.

My favourites are “Les Sex” which I did NOT expect to like as much as I do, but it’s so ridic catchy. Close on its heels is “I Was Gonna Cancel” (our Pharrell track) which is one of those songs that you can mindlessly bop to, but take a closer listen to the lyrics:

Just hop out of the bed, go ahead face the day,
Who cares what you know?
Don’t let that in the way - no way!
Shut out all the doubt, just get up and go.
What’s on the other side?
You will never know unless you, go, go, go, girl…

I really do feel like there is a Message here until it gets to a far too repetitive pre-chorus, but you’ll never know unless you go, go, go - damn it.

And a reeeeeally nice song - actually all the songs on the album are nice, apart from “Mr President” ugh let’s just forget that’s on there - is “Beautiful,” which is a true-to-it’s-name ballad duet with the one and only singer of love*, Enrique Iglesias. It is honestly SO BEAUTIFUL albeit a little bit sad and also has sent AutoTune to therapy for being abused so bad. Okay maybe it’s not that great.

Kiss Me Once is a disco hit, although someone has poisoned my mind so every time I think of Kylie I think of gay men dancing to dark and smoky rooms with disco lights and a giant disco ball and overall it’s a really good time, but this may be a disservice to actual gay clubs which I do not frequent enough to speak upon with authority.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it and sometimes it’s good to just get back to your roots, if your roots are a genre-bending fun ride of IDGAF.

THREE-POINT-SEVEN-FIVE out of FIVE silent LOLs

*Singer of love if you are my age. If you are older it may be Elvis Presley, if you are younger I don’t know and I’m a little afraid to find out.

Leave a comment Posted on by Mata Album Reviews, Music Talk

My Chemical Romance | May Death Never Stop You | Calling The MCRmy

May Death Never Stop You

Warner Music

My Chemical Romance
May Death Never Stop You
Reprise Records - Warner Music Group
Official Release Date: 25 March 2014

It’s been a year since the MCRmy were informed that My Chemical Romance were disbanding on March 22, 2013. So it seems fitting that a year later they would release their greatest hits album and entitle it May Death Never Stop You.

“The title is fitting, because as sad as it was to say goodbye to the band, we look at this collection as a celebration of our best songs, and hope the memory of them continues to bring joy to you all as they have for us. We hope you take the journey with us into MCR’s past, and enjoy the small taste of what might have been.” - MCR

Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Mikey Way and Frank Iero

The 19-track collection starts with the previously unreleased song, ‘Fake Your Death’, one of the last songs worked on in the studio together before they called it quits. The remaining tracks continue in chronological order with songs from the 2002 debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ and ‘Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us’.

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We’re then treated to anthem hits from 2004’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’, ‘Helena’, and ‘The Ghost Of You’. ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’, ‘Famous Last Words’, and ‘Teenagers’ from 2006’s platinum The Black Parade; and ‘Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)’ and ‘Sing’ from 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys, concluding with with three songs from the infamous Attic Demos.

As with every greatest hits compilation there are always a song or two you believe were wrongfully excluded. I, for one, thought the album should have included ‘It’s Not A Fashion Statement It’s A Death Wish’ and ‘Cemetery Drive’ from Three Cheers and ‘Disenchanted’ ‘Sharpest Lives’ and ‘This Is How I Disappear’. Are any of your favourite songs missing? Make your case for them in the comment section below, after you check out the track-list.

If, like me, My Chemical Romance saw you through some of your most awkward adolescent years keep on, keepin’ on MCRmy. Take heart that you’ll always have their music to fall back on for nostalgic trips and memories of concerts- if you were ever lucky enough to make it to one (they were my first!) Know that while we’re a fandom that may not be afraid to walk this world alone, you are anything but.

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May Death Never Stop You will be released as a standard album (which doesn’t include the video content), a deluxe edition that includes the long-form video content with two hours of footage and as a 180-gram vinyl two-LP set with a gatefold sleeve, plus the DVD.

1. Fake Your Death
2. Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us
3. Vampires Will Never Hurt You
4. Helena
5. You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
6. I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
7. The Ghost Of You
8. Welcome To The Black Parade
9. Cancer
10. Mama
11. Teenagers
12. Famous Last Words
13. Na Na Na
14. Sing
15. Planetary (Go!)
16. The Kids From Yesterday
17. Skylines And Turnstiles (Demo)
18. Knives/Sorrow (Demo)
19. Cubicles (Demo)

Leave a comment Posted on by Mata Album Reviews, Music Talk

Echosmith - Talking Dreams Review | New Music You Need

Echosmith_Talking_Dreams_Cover_Art

Echosmith
Talking Dreams
Warner Bros. Records

The band’s debut album, Talking Dreams, is a 12-track alt-pop delight. I don’t use the word ‘delight’ lightly, so keep that in mind as we take a look at what worked. Released in New Zealand on the 7th of March, I’ve been listening to the album for days at a time since then. It’s a pretty neat and slightly addictive compilation of songs.

I thought one of the tracks, ‘Bright’, sounded familiar, and not because the band have a slight The Naked and Famous quality about their sound, but because I’d heard the track featured on an episode of Teen Wolf and thought ‘hey I like that song, I must find out what it is!’ I’d missed MTV‘s handy pop-up telling us what song’s playing at the start of the song, you see, and then promptly forgot about looking up the episode’s track-list because ‘oh look a speck of dust!’ Needless to say ‘Bright’ is one of my favourite tracks, the guitar riffs are clean and simple, the lyrics are winsome and it just works. Unsurprisingly my other favourite track, an even slower ballad, is ‘Surround You’- which closes the album.

“I search valleys and mountaintops
Rolling hills and ticking clocks
Were all I heard all that sound
Never thought love could be found.”

Comprised of siblings Jamie Sierota (vocals/guitar), Sydney Sierota (vocals/keyboard), Noah Sierota (vocals/bass), and Graham Sierota (drums), the band have a certain upstart fresh sound that manages to take the best of their influences and work it to their advantage that you notice from the get go. Produced by Mike Elizondo (Tegan and Sara, No Doubt, Maroon 5), who signed them to Warner Bros with WBR chairman and fellow producer Rob Cavallo, the album is filled with some great light-hearted tracks that seem ready-made for mass production while managing to come off as slightly edgy enough for the ‘Cool Kids’. Using synth to round out and pull the album together with, there’s a distinct early 80s New Wave influence most apparent on the tracks ‘Come With Me’ and ‘The Safest Place’. The first two tracks ‘Come Together and ‘Let’s Love’ are high-energy fun, doing their jobs of pulling you into the album with an uplifting premise which permeates the entire album.

Lead singer, 16-year-old Sydney has a versatile set of pipes complimented nicely whenever Jamie or Noah join in- adding a harmonising effect. The first single from the album, ‘Cool Kids’, has a very Smiths meets Foster The People feel to it- think ‘Cemetery Gates/Pumped Up Kicks’. Catchy and sure to stay in your head long after you’ve stopped listening to it.

Check out the tracklist below:

1. Come Together
2. Let’s Love
3. Cool Kids
4. March Into the Sun
5. Come With Me
6. Bright
7. Talking Dreams
8. Tell Her You Love Her
9. Ran Off In The Night
10. Nothing’s Wrong
11. Safest Place
12. Surround You

Grab the album if you’re into feel good alt-pop tracks and catchy tunes! Definitely a band to keep an eye on. FOUR out of FIVE Silent LOLs.

Oh and the title track, ‘Talking Dreams’, also has an official video clip.

Leave a comment Posted on by Chloe Album Reviews, Music Talk

Music Monday: Apocalypse Soon

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Major Lazer
Apocalypse Soon EP
Mad Decent Records

He came, he saw, he lazered his way into mainstream consciousness. Declaring himself immortal and the one and only Lazer, he struck back against General Rubbish not once or twice or even thrice, but four times he maintained an offensive against the musical sensibilities of the general public. And after he had freed the universe from the shackles of sub-par harmonies, he realised that everything in life comes full circle… and thus… Major Lazer prophesied the coming of the Apocalypse…

Where will Major Lazer take us next on our journey through Jamaican dancehall? To prepare for the end of the world and the impending zombie apocalypse as history repeats itself, the answer is obviously to dance yourself to the death in the company of the likes of Pharrell Williams and Sean Paul. Can you think of a better way to go? Diplo doesn’t think so.

With five tracks clocking in at just under twenty minutes long, Apocalypse Soon is a get in/get out celebration of life and good times. Each song is different from the next , taking you on a round trip of hip-hop, rap, reggae, and head-spinning beats.

First track “Aerosol Can” features Pharrell competing with the percussion beat for who/which can rap faster, and once you’ve just caught up to that, second track “Come On To Me” kicks the EP into full gear with Sean Paul’s characteristic vocals and style backlaid with some good old reggae.

Third track “Sound Bang” is a little bit of an odd one, opening with ukulele of all things before morphing into an epileptic frenzy of electronic dance music. Probably best for when you are stoned.

“Lose Yourself” pulls the frenetic pace back a little bit, and is probably the most earworm out of all the songs, which means it is also the most annoying to listen to over and over with its repetitive beat, and EP closer “Dale Asi” sounds a lot like a Pitbull song (just because of the Spanish, really), but which I think loosely translates into “do it like this” - is it maybe a jab at Pitbull about how to make the espanol in the musicos?

THREE out of FIVE silent LOLs

Major Lazer on Facebook | Twitter | Official Website

1 Comment Posted on by Chloe Album Reviews, Music Talk

Monday Music: I Killed the Prom Queen

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I Killed the Prom Queen (Australia)
Beloved
Epitaph Records

I’m quite happy to preface this review by saying that I am NOT by any means a regular listener to metalcore… in fact I’m pretty sure my flatmates are wondering what’s going on in my room as I listen to I Killed the Prom Queen’s latest album. BUT, I like to think I have an open mind and I have liked some metal in the past. I even went to Soundwave last year, look how hardxcore I am.

Beloved is the latest album from Australian band I Killed the Prom Queen, the first in six years in fact! So if you’re a fan of metalcore then you’re in for a treat.

Unable to figure out how to approach this album in a more traditional fashion, I’ve decided to “liveblog” my first listen.

Track 1 (“Beginning of the End”): All right, this album’s started off pretty well. I’ve always thought you can tell how an album’s going to go from the first track, it sets the mood so to speak. The vocals have come in now though and while I was expecting the screaming it’s still taken me aback a little bit.

Track 2 (“To the Wolves”): This must be how grandparents feel when listening to more… contemporary music. I’m worried that the lead singer will irreparably damage his vocal cords, however does he perform live?!

Musically it’s really gotten to the meat of the metalcore, the mains to the first track’s appetiser. I’m quite liking this. Melodic yet emotional, especially with the screaming…

Track 3 (“Bright Enough”): More screaming. What are the lyrics to this song? I have no idea. I read somewhere that good parenting means retaining your calm tone so that children can understand the words that you are saying, and not being distracted by the screeching/yelling/screaming/whatever way you communicate with your child when agitated. The chorus is a little more articulate. This is the kind of metal I like - although my indulgence in the metal genre really only has extended to Bullet for My Valentine songs and also that one by Underoath that doesn’t sound terrible.

Actually I’ve just realised that I’ve listened to more metal than I thought. I do own a copy of MTV’s Headbangers Ball Vol. 2 after all. On compact disc no less. A collector’s item come the 31st century I’m sure.

This song is actually quite enjoyable. The music itself is really good, you have to admire the guitarist and drummer especially. The breaks are epic! This kind of play requires much stamina. Well, and the vocals too of course. You can’t scream all the time without having some sort of raging capability for, well, screaming.

“I won’t give up on you,” he growls, and it’s nice to know that he understands the initial difficulty I’m having, reviewing something I wouldn’t normally listen to.

Track 4 (“Melior”): Back to the screaming. It’s really hard to concentrate and I can’t get past the screaming until - ah, a guitar solo! Interspersed with growling! Okay, I really like guitar solos in metal songs because they are just ridic awesome. Honestly it blows my mind picturing them being played. I think if “Instrumental Metalcore” were a genre it’d be quite high up in my “enjoyed genres of music” list.

“Will I ever find my way?” the singer asks and his anguished plea is backed up in musical pathetic fallacy by a dramatic guitar chord progression that evolves into a violin-infused solo that segues very nicely to the end of the song. It’s like the spirit of his question carried in the wind, on the search of the aforementioned “way.”

Track 5 (“Thirty One and Sevens”): I am really having difficulty catching the lyrics. I feel like a noob and very much my age. I am decidedly unbogan right now. I guess I never was.

Track 6 (“Calvert Street”): Proper music reviewers will be turning in their graves. Don’t get me wrong, this is actually a decent album. But the thing I cannot appreciate about metal is that all the songs end up sounding the same, kind of like how musicians like to mock the formulaic pop music chord progression. Not a criticism, just an observation, although if I am going to have any sort of career as a music reviewer (a more placid form of criticism?) I should start actually criticising something. Constructively or not. Sometimes I think critics are unnecessarily harsh just because it is literally in their job description; “constructive film critic” probably has less of a flow to it on the business card.

Track 7 (“Kjaerlighet”): I think the thing that throws me off the most about this album is that songs start off quite melodic and low key before breaking out into the more standard metal fare (although this progression is, as a whole, turning out to BE the standard melodic metalcore fare). It lulls me into expecting a certain type of song and then it’s a jab to the ribs when the heavy metal comes in… I shall be prepared for the next song!

Track 8 (“The Beaten Path”): I’m flagging. It was new at the start of the album but it’s really seeming quite derivative now. I Killed the Prom Queen has been around since 2000 which is a bit earlier than the time I started listening to PureVolume, but this song REALLY reminds me of some of the PureVolume bands I “discovered” in high school.

This track is called “The Beaten Path” so I’m wondering if it’s a homage to that sort of now old-school metalcore, taking it back to its roots and showing the new kids how they did it, so to speak. It really reminds me of the one UnderOath song I liked, which I don’t think is representative of metalcore as a whole but rather my 14 year old memory of what metal music is. And that one Killswitch Engage song as well.

Track 9 (“Nightmare”): I’m trying to remember the name of the UnderOath song that I like. Total mind blank, I thought it might be “The End of Heartache” but that’s Killswitch Engage.

I’m moving out of my flat and the person replacing me is moving all her stuff in right as I’m typing this. Wonder what they think of this music.

Track 10 (“No One Will Save Us”): Spasming thrash death metal! That is this song. It appears that the line between melodic metalcore and haphazard melodic metalcore is one that is easily crossed.

Track 11 (“Brevity”): IT’S THE LAST SONG. Despite the title it is the longest track on the album. The break for this song is my favourite even though I still helplessly cannot catch a word that’s being growled. Last tracks are usually a chance for bands to stick on that one song they REALLY liked but didn’t quite fit with the rest of the album. Brevity’s no different. It’s unfortunate that the album hasn’t had much to stand out from the rest of the tracks until now…

So that’s I Killed the Prom Queen’s latest album, Beloved. Thank you for following. Next week we’ll be back to your regularly scheduled more mainstream music reviews… perhaps maybe hopefully