The Chorus Music Club Society • Page 242

It can. And it is.


Right @skurt ?

 

FIFY

 

I’m not knocking Renacer at all, it’s my third favorite album by them.


I just prefer Still Searching and ITILIWFY. Personal preference I guess

 

Still Searching is fantastic. ITILIWFY just seems too bland music wise, like it sounds just like his side project with the Finch dudes. SF to me always had really compelling music and crazy guitar parts, even in softer songs.

 

@cshadows2887 gave me Like An Old Fashioned Waltz by Sandy Denny and Satellite Rides by Old 97'S

Sandy Denny was a British folk singer in the 70s who unfortunately tragically passed away at the age of 31. It took me a little bit with this record to get into her voice but then it clicked.


standout tracks- Friends, Dark The Night, At The End Of The Day; also upon further research it was interesting to see that Whispering Grass and Until The Real Thing were covers of Jazz songs, I thought her version of Until The Real Thing sounded like jazz which I wasn't expecting


Old 97's are an alt-country band fronted by Rhett Miller
This was fun album , I was familiar with this band and Rhett's solo work but I think this is the first album I've heard by them I'm pretty sure

standout tracks- What Wouldn't I Do, Question, Designs On You,Book Of Poems

 

It's kind of weird that The Canyon has become this punching bag on Chorus. There are worse bands and albums discussed on this site (and in this thread).

It's certainly not the best album, but it's also hardly as bad as people make it out to be. My primary issue with it is that it's about twice as long as it needs to be.

 

lol

 

im sorry i couldnt resist

 

i legitimately had no idea there were people who dont consider life is not a waiting room their best album. for those people: you're wrong. it's their best by a mile.

 

Its up there for me, but you don't like The Fire or Renacer a bit more?

 

Holy shit I've missed a lot on here.

 

You have! Are you wanting to join this cool little club we got here??

 

Let me read through that first post and check out how it works for a bit then I'll let you know.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was paired with @Larry David (of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, as the avatar confirms) and I was recommended The Gridlock by Cecil Frena. I have seen quite a bit of praise for this album on the website in the past few months, and I will admit that I listened to one song on release day and jumped to the conclusion that the band wasn't for me. I am glad this recommendation encouraged me to give the album a shot, because I ended up finding a lot to like.



Having never heard of Cecil Frena, I assumed this was a new band releasing their debut album. I was surprised to find that it is actually the name of a Canadian experimental pop artist who has been releasing albums for almost 10 years under previous monikers Gobble Gobble and Born Gold. This is Frena's first album released under his own name.

This album is stylistically very diverse, as it contain elements of rock, pop, electronic, orchestral, and even some hardcore. The album opens with dirty electronic tones in "Nerves Grow Rust," which is soon accompanied by some strings, intermittent guitars, and Frena's processed vocals. The melodies are poppy and inviting, and the combination of elements is somewhat reminiscent of Grimes' style of vocal electro-pop.

The next track "All of My Heroes" introduces rock guitars and is built around a cyclical riff. Chords and crashing cymbals accent the chorus, and Frena's delivery is much more commanding, sounding similar to popular mid-'00s alt-rock singers. "Unknow Yourself" find's Frena's vocals morphing once again to sound fuzzy and raspy, and in some moments he is outright screaming. The drums are fast, pounding, and propulsive, and they never let up through the brisk two-minute runtime.

"I Want to Guard You from Boredom" returns some of the electronic elements and is the most straightforward pop song to this point in the album, including a catchy chorus. "Die Old" is another great pop song and probably my favorite track on the album. It's got a bouncy chorus melody that was stuck in my head after a couple of listens. It builds to a climax with Frena breaking out into an emotional wail over cymbal crashes and dissonant guitars.

"I Believe in Dancing" has a breezy quality, bringing in some African percussion and an interlude that sounds like it may be played on bagpipes. "Hyphen" is a delightful love song which highlights piano and strings while including some "whoa"s and backing vocals that sound inspired by '70s soul music. Closer "Human Math" is a captivating listen that starts quiet, explodes into a wall of sound, and then retreats to a whisper to close out the album.

Overall, this album is a very enjoyable blend of genres. Frena manages to straddle many sounds and influences while the common threads of his songwriting, thoughtful lyricism, and charming arrangements keep the album relatively cohesive instead of sounding like a disjointed group of songs. It is difficult to characterize this album or succinctly define it, but I can definitively say that it is an engaging listen that holds that listener's attention throughout.

 

Ugh I disagree so strongly with both of these, and I was as stoked as anyone about getting a hardcore record.

I find this incredibly hard to believe. I can’t remember hardly anyone around here, at least in the SF threads, saying LINAWR is their best let alone everyone lol

Still searching > fire > LIEY/ITILIWFY > LINAWR/renacer > thorns

 

yeah im not gonna lie LINAWR is legitimately the only senses fail album i can listen to front to back

 

Guys, guys. Can we all just agree Thorns is their worst album?

 

I did mention Bottom of the Locker in the third paragraph :)

I don't think that album is as bad as everyone makes it out to be. He told me that he started listening to it and meant to go back to it but didn't have time. So I said I could give that one to him if he wanted to. My big gripe with the album is that it's way too long. I probably would go back to it more if it was like 5-6 songs shorter, but 17 songs is a lot.

 

That is their two best though.... There is no way LIEY/ITILIWFY are above anything but Thrones though. That has to be nostalgia talking there

Besides LIEY/ITILIWFY, I can get down with that.

You know I can't read.

 

Nostalgias part of it but I do think LIEY has many of their most creative melodies and is easily their catchiest. I’m not as sold on ITIL’s placing bc it’s relatively boring musically but I think it may be the second catchiest.

I think half of LINAWR is relatively boring and while I enjoy renacer when I listen to it, I think the lyrics are among his worst (I find them painfully repetitive and cheesy) and the guitar tones ugly, idk how else to put it haha).

To be fair, I say this all as a big fan of everything. Except thorns.

 

I am unstoppable in my mission to catch up on reviews. Here is another one. It is for The Cab's Symphony Soldier, recommended by the lovely @nickyeatworld.



The Cab is a pop rock band active from 2004-2014. This is their self-produced second album, released in 2011. According to Wikipedia, a website called AbsolutePunk gave this album a 95% review and called it a "masterpiece." While I would not praise the album quite that highly, it is definitely very good. Singer Alex DeLeon has great pop songwriting sensibilities to match his vocal range and powerful singing voice. Every song here has a catchy pop chorus, and the album is littered with stadium-ready hooks and bright, upbeat musicianship. Groovy guitars, keys, and strings provide additional flourishes that had me nodding my head along to these songs.

"Angel with a Shotgun" starts the album off with a rallying-cry type singalong chorus. "Temporary Bliss" has another big hook and probably has my favorite vocal melodies on the album. "Bad," the first single, strips the music back to feature piano and falsetto vocals in the verses. "Animal" and "Another Me" hint at some harder rock guitars, the latter being my favorite song on the album. "La La" and "Her Love Is My Religion" are both plenty catchy, but I found them to be a bit cheesy in their over-the-top bubblegum melodies and somewhat shallow lyrical content. The album closes with the triumphant "Living Louder," which contains an extremely catchy prechorus which builds tension perfectly for the chorus. This is something that the band does very well and implements on many of the tracks on Symphony Soldier.

This is a very catchy and enjoyable album, but make no mistake; this is straight up pop songwriting. It is very well done, but these are the kinds of songs that wouldn't sound out of place if they were performed by '90s boy bands. If you can get on board with pop that sugary sweet, you will absolutely love this album. Personally, I enjoyed Symphony Soldier very much and had a fun time listening to it. If it had a bit more edge along the lines of "Another Me" I would be all in on this band. As it is, it's a bit too "pop" to connect with me on a deep level, but I really appreciate the songwriting and impeccable production on display on this album. I see that DeLeon now has a solo career under the moniker Bohnes. I will have to check that out and see what direction he's gone with that project.

 

So last week I was paired with @bachna84 and he gave me the following album to review:

Casey - Where I Go When I Am Sleeping (2018)



So I didn't really know much about Casey before this rec but I had seen this album cover recently and I think one of their songs might have been in my Spotify's Release Radar playlist sometime last month. Anyways Casey are a post hardcore band from the Wales and this is their second album and first on Rise Records, which I think is pretty cool to see another UK band getting on Rise.

So from the few listens I managed to give this album I really enjoyed it, they play melodic/post hardcore in a similar vein to bands like Touché Amoré. This album tends play on the melodic side of things more often than not creating great atmospheric soundscapes building the songs into big layered guitars and drums crashing in.

They have two vocalists Tom who provides the lead vocals and Toby the rhythm guitarist provides the backing vocals and (whom I'm guessing) screams. I find the this dynamic works really well on this album but I am glad they lean on Tom a lot more as I prefer his sombre vocal style really suits this albums lyrical themes. Talking of which this album seems very personal to Tom where it deals a lot with his health, near death experiences and personal loss. The spoken word part of Wound is extremely personal taking about contemplating suicide at such a young age.

So to sum things up basically this album is incredibly good and it blends a mix of post rock/post hardcore effortlessly creating such beautiful landscapes across it 40 minutes run time. I'm definitely going to be going back to this album a lot and as they're a British band I'll be sure to keep an eye out for tour dates close to me.

Great work @bachna84 for another awesome rec.

RIYL: Touché Amoré, Pianos Become Teeth, earlier Moving Mountains
Favourite Tracks: Fluorescents, Flowers By The Bed, Funeral and Making Wait

 

Awesome review! I'm glad you enjoyed it - it's an album that I've listened to several times in the past month and I've really been enjoying it as well (otherwise I wouldn't have recommended it!). Your RIYL is pretty spot on.

 

I really enjoyed it on first listen and it's been growing on me even more on every additional listen. This is definitely going to be in rotation for me for a while. Was fun being rec'd a band from the UK I wasn't that familiar with.

Hopefully you've found my album ok, it was one of those where I was just curious for someone to review to see what their/your take on it is. I really like it but I know it's definitely eclectic.

 

Never heard of them, I'll have to check them out. I dig that album art too.