Personal Life

I'm back!  I know its been a while since my last review, but worry not my few readers!  I've been busy settling into my new, awesome apartment, figuring out my classes, and, most importantly, I've started volunteering for the student run radio station here at CU: KVCU 1190.  This, my friends, is incredibly good news because 1) I have a whole slew of brand new, independent music at my finger tips 2) I may be able to start writing long reviews for KVCU and may get some more people trekking through my blog and checking it out and 3) I'm going to be listening to and writing reviews for a significant amount more music.  With that being said, I got my first CD to review a couple of days ago and I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised.

"There's nothing we can do if I don't believe you..."

When I got The Thermals' album "Personal Life," I was a little skeptical.  The person that gave it to me at KVCU said it was one of her favorites and the review that came with it was spotless.  Now, its not that I didn't trust these sources, but I definitely didn't want to be let down.  Suffice to say, I should have believed them because The Thermals definitely made me a fan with their fifth LP.  Immediately from starting the album I was surprised.  The album definitely has a strong sound, in part due to Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla who helped produce the album.  The sound is more than enjoyable for casual listeners, but will also be enjoyable for audiophiles seeing as how a majority of the album was recorded live to tape, the album was mixed to tape, and the vinyl was mastered straight from the tape.  Furthermore, The Thermals definitely have a more successful punk, pop, almost garage sound, something that hasn't drawn me in for a long time.  

The Thermals typically tackle ideas of love in their albums here and there, but "Personal Life" in its entirety is devoted to the concept of love as can easily be seen in the track list with songs like "I'm Gonna Change Your Life" and "Your Love Is So Strong."  However, what is nice about The Thermals is that, while they have sort of a grainy,  fixed punk sound, they manage to twist and turn it so that each song has a different feel.  My favorite song on the album, "I Don't Believe You," has a string of bouncy guitar chords strewn throughout with soft percussion occasionally coming in strong to fill the vocal silence.  While the song is simple lyrically, it is incredibly catchy and will definitely strike that foot tappin', head bangin' nerve in your spine.  

Complimenting the first song, "I'm Gonna Change Your Life," is the track "You Changed My Life" at the tail end of the album.  The slow steady bass line and almost apologetic vocals of Hutch Harris really show how The Thermals' sound can morph and make you feel something entirely different.  Instead of head bangin', you're definitely going to want to sway back and forth to this track.  The lyrics in this song are a bit more complicated than in "I Don't Believe You" and provide an interesting juxtaposition of feelings with those expressed in "I'm Gonna Change Your Life."

While the album is pretty short (only ten songs, barely an LP), and some of the tracks don't seem to carry the same weight some their stronger songs do, The Thermals manage to convey a wealth of emotion and sound within the short track list.  From the uptempo guitar licks of "I Don't Believe You" to the more mild mannered, empathetic tone of "You Changed My Life," The Thermals carry the listener across the pains, warmth, struggles, and treasures of love.  I would definitely recommend picking up The Thermals' "Personal Life" when it comes out on September 7th and enjoy a sound that is seldom seen in the popular music light.

The Odd Couple

"Got some bad news this morning/  Which in turn made my day"

Much like the Arctic Monkeys, I've been on a bit of a Gnarls Barkley binge as of lately.  For some reason, I just can't stop listening to them.  This is good because it gives me something to write about.  Now, while Gnarls Barkley's first album, "St. Elsewhere" (2006), received higher reviews than "The Odd Couple" (2008), I find myself enjoying the latter more.  Some may disagree, but I'll give you a few reasons why I like it so much.

First off, I want to start by saying that I do enjoy "St. Elsewhere;"  in fact, I enjoy it a lot.  However, something that makes "The Odd Couple" so great is that it has a much more seamless and encompassing mood throughout the album.  "St. Elsewhere" tends to be a bit all over the place and "The Odd Couple" flows much more smoothly from song to song.  I will agree that in terms of individual songs, "St. Elsewhere" is stronger: songs like "Crazy," "St. Elsewhere," and "The Boogie Monster" really show Barkley's creativity and versatility.  However, "The Odd Couple" definitely has the same juice.  More upbeat songs like "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" hearken back to "Go-Go Gadget Gospel," while "Would Be Killer" reminds listeners of "The Boogie Monster," solely because of its creepy factor.  

While Gnarls Barkley was praised for their experimentation in their first album, their second album is a bit more tame and down to earth.  Some might see this as a set back, I see it as a positive, only saying that the duo has found a bit of direction.  However, don't take that to mean there isn't any diversity within the album; "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" definitely strays from the common sound of "The Odd Couple."  Gnarls Barkley also manages to pull their funk roots back into "The Odd Couple" with "Neighbors" and "A Little Better."

Cee-lo's lyrics are inspired as ever, especially in "A Little Better" (Also, check out this cool video of "A Little Better" for MTV) which consists of rhyming triplets and really rounds the album out on a pleasant, ambient note.  While Cee-lo's range isn't as drastic as on "St. Elsewhere," he is much smoother and consistent, adding to the sound that branches through "The Odd Couple."  Dangermouse's beats are just as creative, some of the most impressive coming from the song "Charity Case," where he not only plays with the synthesizer and a running base line, but also manipulates Cee-lo's vocals in an impressively melodic way using several layered samples, as well as complimenting his voice with an almost omnipresent female vocalist.  Both Cee-Lo and Dangermouse successfully combine to take the smooth, yet some times heavy atmosphere from start to finish of "The Odd Couple."  

While there aren't as many stand out favorites as in "St. Elsewhere" and experimentation both vocally and instrumentally isn't as strong, "The Odd Couple" is a worthy successor to Gnarls Barkley's critically acclaimed debut album.  Cee-lo carries a passion and emotion in his vocals that is seldom seen in the music world and Dangermouse never ceases to amaze with his creativity and inspiration.  "The Odd Couple" successfully shows that Gnarls Barkley cannot only produce one great album, but two, and hopefully several more to come.  Take a listen here.  Also, I'd be lying if I didn't half write this review to put this picture of me and Cee-lo up:

"The Odd Couple": 84/100

Humbug

Seeing as how I haven't been able to find any new music that I've really wanted to review as of lately (outside of "Suburbs," but I still have to give that a solid listen), I've been rummaging through some albums over the past couple of years that I really enjoyed.  I managed to stumble across Arctic Monkeys album "Humbug," which was released in August of last year.  On another note, I've noticed that my reviews have gotten a bit wordy, so I'm going to try and keep this review around 700 words, excluding this intro paragraph.  Alright, here we go:

"Puff your chest out like you never lost a war"

With the release of "Humbug," listeners that enjoyed Arctic Monkeys' album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (2006) will certainly feel like they're listening to a completely different band.  As one can guess from the album's title, the Arctic Monkeys decided to go in a much darker direction compared to their previous album.  Some people I've talked to think this was a bad move, but personally, I think it was a successful experiment, if nothing else.  

While the album doesn't contain anything funky or necessarily fun like "Dancing Shoes" or "Fake Tales of San Francisco," songs of the sort wouldn't fit into what "Humbug" is overall.  As a total album, "Humbug" seems to have a much more pointed direction than any of Arctic Monkeys' other albums.  The album seems to be driving at a much deeper, darker feeling both instrumentally and lyrically.  Songs like "Crying Lightning," "Dangerous Animals," and "The Jeweller's Hands" rely on heavy bass lines and slow, steady lyrics to convey a somber, yet almost angry and bitter mood, something that isn't common to Arctic Monkeys.

However, while the album does have a much gloomier overall mood, softer songs are present as well, such as "Secret Door" and "Cornerstone," both of which give a pleasant break about a third and two thirds through from the heavier songs that make up a majority of the album.  These also help frequent listeners of Arctic Monkeys to recall songs such as "Mardy Bum" and "Riot Van" (my personal favorite Arctic Monkeys' song) from their album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not."  

While some have said that "Humbug" is the weakest of Arctic Monkeys releases ("Humbug" received a 75 whereas "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" and "Favourite Worst Nightmares" both received an 82), I think it only strengthens their musical repertoire and is a step in the right direction towards finding what sound suits them best.  While more upbeat songs as well as slower works garnered fame for Arctic Monkeys in the past, the bleaker, more morose sound of "Humbug" only adds to the unique sound they have managed to build up over the years.  Alex Turner, the band's vocalist, manages to still keep the creativity of his lyrics fresh and interesting (especially in "Pretty Visitors" and "Crying Lightning"), something that would seem difficult with such a drastic shift in mood of the band's encompassing sound on "Humbug."  However, the album very well could have been influenced by some sinister and/or somber lyrics Turner had come up with.  Regardless, the sound is successful.

If anything, the direction Arctic Monkeys chose to go with on "Humbug" doesn't hinder them, but rather should lead listeners to speculate where the band will go next.  The album overall isn't necessarily superior to either of its predecessors, but it certainly is different.  It is well understood that listeners may have a hard time adjusting to Arctic Monkeys' new sound, but if anything, they should be intrigued that such a different mood can be represented so well by a band not known for its morbidness.  Arctic Monkeys has unearthed a new side of themselves and have managed to triumphantly mold their talent into a completely different voice.  In the future, fans can only hope to hear a culmination of all of the great sounds Arctic Monkeys have found success with over the years.  Take a listen to "Humbug" here.

"Humbug": 86/100

(583 Words, boo-yah)

Music Discovery #2

"I thought Eminem killed all the boy bands off"

Alright, so, after having made it through Disco64's "The First Estate" I've had a little difficulty getting a hold of a new album that I really want to review.  I've tried to go back and listen to some older albums such as T.I.'s "Paper Trail" and Porcupine Tree's "Fear of a Blank Planet," both of which are great albums, but they're not really anything I want to talk about.  Plus, I do like to try to keep my reviews fairly fresh, so I'd like to do something more up to date.  With that being said, I think its time I do my second issue of "Music Discovery."

As with the last entry, I'll start with bad music.  If you remember from my last post, I mentioned having found an Korean boy band (at least that's what I thought at the time) thanks to a friend of mine on Facebook.  This artist goes by Taeyang and evidently started out as a hip-hop artist.  Now, seeing as how I don't speak any sort of foreign language very well, let along an oriental one, I can't really comment on his flow or his rhyming because I have no idea what he's saying.  However, there are some things he says in English, and these things I can analyze.  The song I chose from Taeyang is called "Where U At," which consists mainly of him singing in what I assume is Korean and saying in English "Where U At" come the chorus.  Now, its not his talent that I think is bad; he has a fairly good voice and a decent range.  However, what I do think is bad is that I feel like he should have exhisted in the boy band era.  He looks and acts very similarly to a contemporary N'Sync or Backstreet Boys, except without the boy band part because evidently he flies solo.  I don't know if this is where his country's pop culture is at or if he's just behind in the times compared to America's time line, but either way, he gets the same sort of disgust I showed N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys when they existed.  Taeyang is way over the top: he's decked out in a flat rimmed hat cocked to the side, all sorts of bling, and designer clothes.  However, that's not the worst part about it.  While rocking this soft boy band persona, around 1:50 into the music video we see him for how he really is: a bad ass wearing all leather, leaning up against his motorcycle, tossing up a delicious red fruit and/or ball; Oh, and what's under the hat?  A mohawk.  Yeah, that just happened.  This seemingly contradictory persona really makes me cringe.  One second he's the soft, sensitive guy: singing, dancing, and picking flowers;  the next minute he's decked out in leather with a mohawk making sure he gets his four daily servings of fruit.  Now, this double persona doesn't just happen in this video, but it seems to happen in all of them.  There might be two entirely different people, but I'm pretty sure there aren't seeing as how Taeyang is one person and there aren't any featuring artists.  As far as I'm concerned, he's the perfect contradiction of sweet and fluffy, bad ass and healthy, I mean... leather?

Now, more importantly, let's talk about the good music I stumbled upon: Jesca Hoop.  Now, while her name only makes me think of Brian Regan ("Hi, Jes...sica?" "Its Jesca, Bryan.  Jes-CA"), she seems to have a fair amount of talent musically.  Her most recent album release, "Hunting My Dress," received an average Metacritic score of 78 and is one of the highest rated albums for the month of July, 2010.  Unfortunately, I'm not really sure I would enjoy her whole album, so I won't be getting it, but one song in particular of hers really blew me away.  I took a listen to her song "The Kingdom" just to see what she was like.  She seems like your typical girl who has a pretty good, somewhat unique voice and can play the guitar.  As I was about to close out of the YouTube video, I couldn't help but notice the song had taken a bit of a turn; just before I clicked the "X" the song picked up, transitioning from soft singing and gentle guitar plucking to some sliding guitar licks and heavy, almost tribe like drumming.  This, to say the least, peaked my interest in the song.  Not only does she have a beautiful voice, but she seems to have some creativity lyrically that really creates an interesting picture.  On top of that, the music video is really intense, transitioning back and forth between several different characters, each of which Hoop plays.  This video is something you really have to take a look at for yourself to experience.  It has a sort of fervor and really possesses a different feel, more so than any other solo female vocalist I've listened to in her genre, save for Regina Spektor's early work.  If you like her, definitely give her album a listen,  its gotten pretty positive reviews.  I may reconsider listening to her, but we'll see.

As far as up and coming releases, there aren't a whole lot of things I'm looking forward to, which is unfortunate seeing as how I'm currently in a music drought.  However, some things are coming up that have some potential.  Arcade Fire is expecting to release their new album, "The Suburbs," some time next week and Gov't Mule is releasing a live album, "Mulennium," as well;  T.I. is also releasing a new album, "King Uncaged," on the week of August 15th.  The one thing that I am really anticipating is N.E.R.D.'s release of "Nothing," which will happen some time during the week of September 5th (check out their single, "Hot N' Fun"), as well as Eels new album "Tomorrow Morning," which is being released some time during the week of August 22nd.  So, now that I've told you, what sort of music have you stumbled upon?  Also, if you have a music suggestion for me, please toss it out there.  At this point, I'm definitely up for suggestions.

Dark Night of the Soul

"I have all the means of bringing you fuckers down"

While I haven't ever listened to anything from Sparklehorse, I have been familiarized with Danger Mouse through Gnarls Barkley and his "The Grey Album" (2004), as well as his appearances with artists such as Gorillaz and The Black Keys.  With that being said, I had been anticipating the release of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's album "Dark Night of the Soul" since I heard about it earlier this year.  Such as music is, however, label disputes plagued the release of the album, and while it was supposed to be released earlier, it was delayed until July 12th of 2010.  However, the album has been available streaming online for quite some time and memorabilia, such as posters and a book of original photographs, have been available since May of this year.  Included with these sets was a blank CD-R that Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse tossed in and, as far as I can tell, were used to speak out against the label dispute and encourage their listeners to burn their album onto the disc.  

"Dark Night of the Soul" contains tracks produced by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, as well as assistance vocally as well as in production by several other artists.  Upon my first listen of the album, it was hard to get a feel for it, what with so many different vocal styles and various moods strewn throughout the album, however, after a few listens, I haven't been able to stop.  The list of vocalists include James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casblancas of The Strokes, Frank Black (aka Black Francis) of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel.  While I don't know all of the vocalists and, furthermore, am not a fan of all of the ones I do know, each and everyone of them meld together to make an incredibly well thought out and successful album.  All the lyrics are incredibly inspired save for a few songs and every song, while some sound incredibly similar, present a different mood and a different perspective on the album as well as life. 

"Revenge," featuring The Flaming Lips, obviously kicks the album off with a very mellow, relaxed song, yet a dark message, saying "In my mind/ I have shot you and stabbed you through your heart/ I just didn't understand/ The ricochet is the second part/... And the more I try to hurt you/ The more that it hurts me."  Commenting on the idea of revenge and how it has just as much negative effect on the giver as it does the receiver, The Flaming lips manage to create a powerful message of anger through a song which sounds almost peaceful as Wayne Coyne says "Though I have all the means of bringing you fuckers down/ I can't make myself," creating a wonderful melodic contradiction.  Other songs convey a similar sort of contradiction, such as "Jaykub," featuring Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, which tells the story of a man, Jaykub, basking in glory on a podium in front of a crowd of people, only to wake up as "the alarm goes of and you're a sad man in a song."  Lytle's soft vocals manage to create a dreamlike atmosphere as he approaches the depressing turn of waking up from a pleasant dream into a less than pleasant life, something many of us can relate to.

The album also includes tracks which are bit more up beat and rock inspired such as "Little Girl" and "Angel's Harp."  "Little Girl" is by far one of my favorite tracks on the album, in particular because I seem to become a bigger fan of Julian Casablancas' vocals every time I listen to The Strokes.  "Little Girl" is seemingly one of the most creative songs lyrically, speaking on love, life, laughter, and pain.  Casablancas makes comments on people in society ("A trick that people use to make you think they are smart/ Is confidence when actually they're lost in the dark"), himself ("Because I'm ignorant as shit, not here to preach, man/ You know I just wanna have fun, go to the beach man/ That's all I am, I'm just a simple guy who talks when/ You put a microphone in front of him"), as well as money ("The wolds always amazed at how much cash you made/ But not at how you made it, it's just strange") all within four minutes.  

"Angel's Harp" has an edgier feel to it like "Little Girl," but takes it to an entirely different level.  Black Fracis' vocals are rough and raspy, shouting "Pluckin' all day on my angel's harp", which definitely create a different feel on the album, however, coupled with the heavy rock instrumentals, the song seems out of place among the rest of the album.  Nevertheless, "Angel's Harp" isn't alone in this case, and "Pain" featuring Iggy Pop seems out of place as well, another song that has rough vocals as well as a strong rock influence, only furthered by Pop chanting "Pain, pain, pain/ Bad brains must always feel pain."  Furthermore, "Pain"'s lyrics are limited as well as seemingly less inspired than the rest of the album, with lines such as "Good karma will not get you anywhere/ Look at Jesus and his hair" and "Justice, religion, and success are fake/ And the shiny people stink."  These lines, while they may seem profound, are poorly rhymed and don't contain little substance, if any at all.  However, one line saves the song: "Pretty creepy, pretty funny/ I'm a mix of God and monkey," something that I think is both clever and hilarious.

At the end of the album are two songs, both of which are my other two favorites off of the album next to "Little Girl."  "Grim Augury" features Vic Chesnutt and conveys an incredibly dark and disturbing mood not only through the somber instrumentals, but even more so through Chesnutt's shaky vocals.  As he sings "I was making noises in my sleep/ But you wouldn't believe me when I told ya/ That I wasn't with someone in my dream/ Catfish were wriggling in blood and gore in the kitchen sink" the sense of fear and disgust in his voice is almost palpable.  "Dark Night of the Soul" features David Lynch, a celebrated film director, who also took all of the original photos found in the limited edition book released with this album.  The instrumentals of the song are slow and steady, hearkening back to an old blues piano style, masked by a static like noise.  Lynch's vocals are echoed and scratchy as well, creating an almost ghost like feel as he sings "Distant bell ring/ But steps echo/ No one on these streets/ Callin' out your name/ Where are you baby/ It's a dream world/ Dark dream world/ Dark night of the soul."  And so finishes the album, an incredibly fitting end to a wonderful journey.

"Dark Night of the Soul" by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse contains a wealth of different musical moods, but has an immense amount of emotion and passion on top of that.  While some songs like "Angel's Harp" and "Pain" seem out of place, they can only help the album by creating a contrast with the more upbeat and happy songs like "The Man Who Played God" and "Insane Lullaby."  There's more on this album than I have time to talk about.  Several other songs are incredible and are worth taking the time to listen to.  "Dark Night of the Soul" conveys several human emotions in an incredibly diverse, yet structured way.  Although the variety vocally on this album is vast, each and every song comes together successfully to create an incredible album that every music listener will not only appreciate, but enjoy.

*Note: I'm fairly certain that the black and white pictures are samples from the book.  Each one contains David Lynch (man with the white hair), Sparklehorse (horse head), and Danger Mouse.*

"Dark Night of the Soul": 93/100

Take a listen here.

/\/\ /\ Y /\

Its been a while since I've last seen you!  How have you been?  Alright, enough of the small talk, lets get to business.  Its been over ten days since I last reviewed an album or even wrote about anything pertaining to music, BUT FEAR NOT!  I have been hard at work listening to and analyzing music to make sure I have something ready to go ASAP.  

 

"Eating a truffle-flavored french fry, 'If that makes me a terrorist, then I'm a terrorist.'"

M.I.A.'s new album "/\/\ /\ Y /\" (I'll be writing "MAYA" from now on) was released on July 13th as her third album following "Kala" (2007) and "Arular" (2005).  Out of the three albums, "MAYA" has received the lowest scores by far, barely scrapping a 69, where as "Arular" received an 88 and "Kala" an 87.  M.I.A. has been known as a political rebel through her lyrics and has always spoke out against terrorist regimes in her native India (EDIT: I was just informed by a friend of mine that M.I.A. is not of India descent, but rather was born in the UK and is of Sri Lankan descent.  Thanks for the correction, Robby), as well as preaching a personal story of struggle and adversity.  "MAYA" doesn't seem to have the strength lyrically that her other two albums have had and, M.I.A. being the rebel she is, has only made things worse with the whirlwind of controversy she has created for herself.  Lynn Hirschberg of the New York Times released a cover story of M.I.A. on May 25th, focusing on her new album release and shedding light on many of her personal stories through interviews with both M.I.A. and those close to her.  Hirschberg painted a less than flattering picture of M.I.A. to say the least, pointing out several lifestyle contradictions, may of which circle around the lavish life she relishes in, living in an incredibly wealthy neighborhood and wearing "millions of dollars’ worth of gold jewelry" to a photo shoot for her new album, supposedly being proud "knowing that the jewelry [required] a bodyguard."  After the cover story had been released, M.I.A. responded by Tweeting "CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day bitches ;)."  To this Tweet she attached a phone number which was Hirschberg's cell phone number.  The number was heavily spammed with several admirers of M.I.A.  Hirschberg handled the situation with incredible grace, simply stating that while what M.I.A. did was "infuriating" it wasn't surprising and joking that "The messages have mostly been from people trying to hook up with M.I.A. ... If she wants to get together with John at Bard next week, I have his number."

With M.I.A.'s immaturity aside, what the cover story was about was her new album and that's what we're here to talk about as well.  "MAYA" starts out well enough with the very industrial sounding "Steppin Up" which contains drills, clanks, other machinery masked across the back beat.  However, the rest of her album doesn't contain the same intensity that this song does, save for a few titles which only seem to be found at the start of the album.  M.I.A., known for her more rap-like style, seems to migrate toward singing in this album on several track such as "It Takes a Muscle" and "Born Free."  "Born Free" is the point at which I lost interest in this album.  The song consists of an uptempo running bass line, the pounding of symbols and a bass drum, all topped of with M.I.A., not singing, but rather shouting.  The lyrics, while inspired, are sung in such a way that they become annoying and almost hard to listen too.  Auto-tune is used fairly heavily, which comes as no surprise seeing as how M.I.A. is not one to be familiar with singing, her producer actually stating that he "made her sing" and that M.I.A. is a "big pop star now, and pop stars sing" (he also noted that in the past, M.I.A. and he worked as a team, but for this album M.I.A. was determined to show "how much she didn’t need [them]" and that she is "postmodern: she can’t really make music or art that well, but she’s better than anyone at putting crazy ideas into motion," something I found hilarious).  "Born Free" also seems eerily similar to Nine Inch Nails' "Survivalism" both instrumentally and in context of their music videos.  While there hasn't been any sort of connection between the two, Colin brought it up to me, and I thought it was something worth mentioning.  You compare the two and let me know what you think.

The latter half of "MAYA" seems to spiral downward with a mess of songs that blend together such as "Meds and Feds," "Tell Me Why," "Space," and "Internet Connection."  "Space" is one of the more successful tracks in which M.I.A. sings, creating a pleasant atmosphere both instrumentally and vocally.  "Tell Me Why," however, still presents the annoying, whiny voice that can be seen in "Born Free."  "Illygirl," while harking back to the start of the album sounding very similar in style to "Steppin Up" and "Lovealot" still manages to throw a whole lot of bullshit together and sound like a mess of noise like "Born Free."  These weaker songs, however, do have stronger songs that attempt to balance them out such as "Lovealot" and "Believer feat. Blaqstarr," both of which emulate her more successful rapping style that was seen in her previous albums.  "Believer" is perhaps her strongest song on the album, greatly to the help of Blaqstarr's melodic, soothing vocals, which are a much needed break from M.I.A.'s screeching, high pitched, annoying singing voice. 

In the end, M.I.A. creates a fairly decent album, but nothing as strong as her past albums.  While her producer seems to believe that she's turned into a pop star, there's a reason for that and it is not singing.  M.I.A. gained fame because of her edgy rapping style.  Regardless if her lyrics are controversial to her lifestyle, were her album edgy like her past albums, the swarm of controversy that has surrounded this album wouldn't be nearly as bad.  However, it seems as though M.I.A. has taken a bow to popular culture in changing her style so drastically, something that rubs what she is supposed to stand for the wrong way.  The album has some enjoyable tracks and is worth taking a listen to.  The weaker tracks, however, do outweigh the stronger ones; that coupled with M.I.A.'s outlandish immaturity in handling a bad review (if you could call what she did "handling" it) severally hurt her score and tarnishes the reputation she had in the eyes of many of her supporters.  

"/\/\ /\ Y /\": 44/100

Take a listen to it here.

Streets of Gold

For this review, I decided to take a look at something I didn't think I would like.  3Oh!3's (I will be abbreviating it as 303 for simplicity sake) has received incredibly low reviews getting comments such as "Streets of Gold is about as pleasant as a case of genital herpes" (Rolling Stone) and "Streets of Gold [is packed] with mindless, completely clustered romps through nothingness" (Absolute Punk).  Now, in all honesty, I have a bit of a soft spot for 303: they're from Boulder, they went to CU, and I enjoyed their first two albums, "3OH!3" and "Want."  Unfortunately, these comments from other reviews aren't very far from the truth.  303's "Streets of Gold" is easily the worst album the duo has released so far.

303 struck fame at first with their song "Holler 'Til You Pass Out" among native audiences, but gained national attention with their song "Don't Trust Me."  A comparison of these two songs really shows what has happened to the band over time.  "Holler 'Til You Pass Out," coming from their album "3OH!3," epitomizes what I liked about the band: they're an awkward looking, lanky white-boy hardcore rap group from Boulder, CO.  The vocals are harsh, complimented by the heavily synthesized and electronic sounding background music.  From this song comes the famous line "You'z a punk bitch if you don't know 'bout Boulda" which has to be one of my favorite lines 303 has ever come up with, just for the simple fact that I find it HI-larious.  "Don't Trust Me" on the other hand has a much different feel from that of the previously mentioned song.  While there's still a bit of edginess in the lyrics, the overall feel of the song isn't the same.  Its much more poppy and upbeat with little to no hardcore rapping, replaced by a vast amount of sub-par singing.  Unfortunately for 303, "Streets of Gold" seems to follow the trend that garnered national attention rather than that that accumulated native love.

While "Streets of Gold" isn't poppy entirely vocally, it is poppy almost entirely in instrumentals and content.  Every other song has some sort of connection to their fan base which largely consists of college students and those who which they were college students (namely guidos and high school students).  "My First Kiss" guest stars Ke$ha, who, in my opinion, makes me want to throw up all over the place, take a nap, and then throw up again.  As much as I hate Ke$ha, she seems to compliment 303's vocals fairly well and this song will undoubtedly be a hit, if not the single 303 decides to release for the album.  "House Party" is most likely 303's most ingenious song lyrically, starting off by saying: "GONNA HAVE A HOUSE PARTY IN MY HOUSE/ Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, PARTY/ Thursday, Friday, Saturday, PARTY/ Sunday better find somebody else/ So for one day i don't have to clean up after myself/ Everybody say FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)/ FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)/ Say FUCK THE CLUBS (FUCK THE CLUBS)."  This song alone drastically lowers the scores "Streets of Gold" has been receiving and is by far one of the worst songs I have heard in a long time.  I can understand writing stupid songs for an audience, but this song eludes stupid with something that stupid even thinks is stupid.  I hope that not even a drunk frat boy smashing Keystone Light in his face would enjoy this song.

*Note: After looking for links to "House Party" I found that they've already made a music video for it... this is upsetting*

One song manages to stand out among the rest on the album, however, and that song is "I Know How To Say."  This might be because the instrumentals are fairly reminiscent of an old song by The Offspring (a band that has always been a guilty pleasure of mine), but with that aside, the instrumentals aren't terrible, the lyrics are fairly creative, and 303 doesn't sound poppy but rather rock-like, which is closer to their roots.  However, as the song proceeds, it gets worse.  The chorus really takes away from the verses, but doesn't ruin the song entirely.  What really ruins it is around two minutes and fifteen seconds when 303 begins chanting "Aishiteru/ Te amo!/ I love you!/ Je t'aime!/ Everywhere I go I always say the same thing/ In Russia, Japan, Brazil, Spain/ Everywhere I go they seem to scream the same thing."  Now, this wouldn't be so bad, but they butcher the pronunciation of "Je t'aime" (French for "I love you" if you couldn't guess).  Its bad enough when the content of your song, rather, your album as a whole is stupid, but to actually get things wrong and sound stupid on top of that doesn't help.  Sure, your main audience won't care, much less notice, but its things like this that make me appreciate the fact that I don't listen to main stream music.  Lyrics should be creative and inspired and 303 is fresh out of inspiration.

3Oh!3's "Streets of Gold" caters to a particular audience, an audience that snagged them fame on a national level.  They've strayed from their hardcore rap roots so much that the 3Oh!3 of the past and the present could likely be considered two different groups entirely.  Furthermore, they insult their fan base by both lowering the quality of their instrumentals and the content of their lyrics, showing that, for now, the creativity they were once adored for has disappeared entirely.  Beyond that, 3Oh!3 decides to tack on two tracks at the end of the album which were already previously released: "Don't Trust Me" and "Starstrukk."  "Strarstrukk" makes a bit of sense because this version is featuring Katy Perry, a version that was only previously available through the duo's music video of the song.  "Don't Trust Me," however, doesn't make any sense; nothing in this version of the song has been changed, remixed, or even changed in the slightest from  the version that was on "Want."  In my eyes, its just another low ball attempt for the duo to entice fans to buy their album by placing their first hit on it just for the hell of it.  "Streets of Gold" will likely be popular among the national 3Oh!3 fan base, but native Coloradians that discovered them before they hit it big will likely be disappointed.  The duo has found success straying from their roots and it is incredibly unlikely that they will return.

Take a listen here. 

"Streets of Gold": 22/100