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Archive for 2009
30 Seconds to Mars is a band which use to have an underground respect back in 2003 with their self-titled debut. In the past 2 or 3 years however, 30STM has been tarnished by douchebaggery, fashion, and ego. The last of the three being incredibly evident in their latest effort, This Is War.
I won’t lie…I actually use to be a big fan of this band. Their debut album I thought was amazing because it didn’t sound too much like everything else going on at the time, and being such a big fan of the movie Requiem For A Dream, I naturally thought it was cool to see Jared Leto having other talents outside of acting. It wasn’t so much him trying to make it as a singer because he wasn’t going on television putting his name out there as a musician. He came out with his band instead of as a solo act, which I thought was pretty humble. Even when A Beautiful Lie came out, I thought it was a pretty good album. It wasn’t until stories of Jared being a douchebag to people surfaced that I started losing respect (telling critics he wants to bash their heads in with a bat, pressing charges on a girl after getting punched in the face, etc). Along with that, every video they made was an epic attempt, which is nice at first, but can be extremely annoying three times after.
Enough on why everyone dislikes Jared, lets get to why I don’t like this album. Lets begin with the first track. Jared sings softly into the microphone similar to a Jonas brother while strings play in the background. The track ends with a choir of children yelling “this is war.” It then goes into the first fully-written song titled “Night Of The Hunter.” 30STM has always been known for their electronic sound, but the beginning of this song sounds far too similar to the cheesy Bon Jovi guitar effect. I keep waiting for Jared to scream out “it’s my life and it’s now or never.”
The rest of the album goes on to reveal more songs similar to “Night Of The Hunter” and the single, “Kings and Queens.” Though the production on this album is pretty amazing, I can’t help but feel that this album went far beyond what it needed. The song-writing is mediocre, and without the huge production budget this album would sound as terrible as the lyrics. In their previous albums, there was always a constant theme, but the songs seemed to differ from one another enough lyrically and musically to the point where it seemed justified. With This Is War, the theme is constant with the lyrics and all the songs sound far too much alike. At most times you can take the chorus to “Kings And Queens” and sing it over the others.
Jared seems to have bit off a bit more than he can chew with this album. The production is much bigger than his vision, and his writing has greatly suffered because of it. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll find the album entertaining, but you certainly won’t like it as much as their previous efforts. It’s a shame to see such great production and engineering go to waste on mediocre music. For Jared’s sake, I know he’s been having a lot of money troubles so I hope this helps him, but I’m only giving this album a 2 out of 5. It’s not something I have much interest in listening to ever again.
This is a review I’ve been meaning to do for a bit, but kept putting it off due to whatever stupid crazy shit is going on in my life at the moment. I apologize about the lateness. But now that I’m doing it, I have to start off by saying how much of an absolute frustration this album is. I’ll get to that soon, let me rant a bit on my history with them first.
Weezer is a band that took my generation by storm in 1994 with the release of the blue album. I was 9 years old and had only started realizing what differentiates shit music from amazing music. You gotta realize all the amazing shit going on those years. Nirvana’s Nevermind. Sublime’s Sublime. Dookie. Siamese Dream. These were some of the greatest albums of all time. Weezer’s debut was, in my opinion, certainly up there because it broke away from the grunge, dark and brooding writing going on and it brought about a happier side to things.
They fell off afterwards with the release of Pinkerton, though it remains to be a fan favorite and certainly one of the most critically underrated albums of that decade. It wasn’t until 5 years after Pinkerton that they came out with the green album, certainly one of the most anticipated albums of that year. I remember that day very clearly because it was the same day that Marilyn Manson’s Golden Age Of Grotesque came out. Needless to say, this was possibly my most disappointing day in music purchasing. I listened to both albums back to back, countless times, trying to convince myself that they were good. There was no way that both influential artists could put out something so aggravatingly disappointing at the same time. I ended up, literally, being so angry I threw both albums out of my moving car.
Since then, they’ve had several albums. Starting with Maladroit, which they released nearly a year later to the day, almost to make up for the shittiness of the green album. Maladroit was a throwback to their more rock sound that put them on the map in the first place, though many say this album was a bit heavier than usual, but maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much. What followed after this album was their dive into experimentation with different sounds, a stray from their raw guitar feel. They started with Make Believe, continued with the red album, and now with their recent release of Raditude. It seems that as each album goes, they delve deeper into using poppy synth noises, breaking away from the sound that their fans love them so much for. This has never been so apparent with the release of Raditude.
Raditude, as bluntly as I can put this, is just bad. I am close to saying it’s horrible, but I would feel guilty. I don’t want to go to any extreme adjectives just because I wanted to sever a newborn’s head after I heard it. It starts off with the greatest song on the album, which is absolutely amazing the more you listen to it, but is followed by what can easily be argued as the worst Weezer music to date. The songs are heavily compressed, overproduced, and devoid of anything you loved about the band before (aside from the first track, “If You’re Wondering”).
Rivers, what the hell is wrong with you? You can’t just tease us with a brilliant first track and then continue with absolute mediocrity. You need an example of why it’s so bad you say? Listen to the song “Can’t Stop Partying” and you’ll forget why you ever loved this group. It’s a club song. I know that sounds odd, but just listen. It’s a fucking club song. It has a programmed beat, and the chorus is about drinking Patron and dancing with hot chicks in a club. Not only that, but Lil’ Wayne has a guest appearance in the third verse rapping about how he mixes pills with alcohol and how he loves to party with beautiful women. I realize that Weezer more than likely did this as a joke, but it’s not funny. It’s not witty. When listening to this I can only imagine my friend Sarah from high school listening to it and crying through her Cuomo glasses.
The entire album is so overly-rich with pop that it makes you immediately turn your iPod to Pinkerton just so you can justify ever enjoying them. I was horribly angry when the green album released, but move over my green enemy, you just got bumped a spot. If it wasn’t for the first track, I would have given this album only one star, if any at all. Therefore, I’m giving it two stars out of five. Just to give you some glimmer of hope, I’ll post the music video for that song below. I actually love the video, it’s one of the best ones I’ve seen in a very long time, but I beg you. Save yourself by only listening to this song. If you really want to be disappointed, listen to the rest. But take my word for it, this is the only promising part of the entire thing. Good luck. **
I get it. Around 75% of my visitors and readers are friends of mine, or at least people that know me or follow me on twitter or something. With that reasoning behind me, I think I’ll try doing a new thing where I start posting segments about local bands in Nashville that I feel are worth a damn. If you live in Nashville (if you’re reading this review then you more than likely do), or especially if you don’t live in Nashville and are a random visitor to the site, then you should definitely check out these unknown bands. The first I will mention is a band called H-Beam. Their album was just released and it’s pretty awesome.
H-Beam is the Frank Zappa/Mike Patton fix that you’ve been needing for the past 5 years. Their music is spastic, eccentric, non-sensical, and terribly amusing to the point where you find yourself chuckling in your car-seat while on a business call. Their debut album, Useful Box Of Hair, has the Dune Review Seal-Of-Approval and is certainly something to check out. When I say its a mix between Zappa and Patton, I mean just that. But in NO way is that a bad thing in this situation. I’ve heard bands influenced by Zappa and Patton before, and it sounded like absolute garbage. When bands try to pull it off it sounds tried and unoriginal, but H-Beam pulls it off so well that it makes you wish Frank was still alive so that he and Patton could do a double-album together.
Don’t be fooled; I’m not just going to be praising this album or this act out of bias or favor, there are things about this album that I am not too fond of. The vocals are spread out so much in stereo sometimes that the alignment seems off, out of personal preference I’d enjoy more snare, and other simple things that all come from me being overly critical. These minor complaints, however, are not enough to dislike the music. It’s not a major label act; it’s two guys from Nashville creating a monster of an album with a low budget, so don’t get excited thinking that it’s a production masterpiece. The album sounds amazing for what it is, and The Dune Review feels you should give it a listen.
Head over to their official WEBSITE, or check them out on their MYSPACE in order to grab a listen. You’re welcome.
Brand New came on the scene alongside bands like Thrice, Taking Back Sunday, The Used, and all the other acts that blew up around the same time as Fuse TV and Hot Topic. After their album Deja Entendu, I didn’t think too much of them and I honestly didn’t really expect to hear of them again. Though they were more original than the other screamo/post-hardcore bullshit coming out at that time, I kinda expected them to fall through the cracks with everyone else. To my amazement, they put out the album The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, which, if you haven’t heard it, you should go download it immediately. That album blew my fucking mind.
Daisy seems to pick up shortly where The Devil And God left off, though this effort is not nearly as poignant. Daisy is a good album, but compared to their previous, it just doesn’t do the band justice. Through several front-to-back listens, I found myself becoming almost bored (though it honestly may just be coming from the comparison). The songs are more than decent, but I can’t help but feel a lack of passion in the writing. This almost feels like they tried too hard to keep writing in order to avoid the road.
One thing that is very noticeably different on this album is the overall vintage feel it has. It opens and closes with a female opera singer belting out notes behind old-school, mono vinyl effects, giving the listener phonographic images. Throughout the entire album, the production gives you this feel, however modernized it may be. The vocals peak (on purpose) at times and the overall feel of most songs bring you back to a time before radio. This album is good, but for Brand New, it’s borderline mediocre. Fans of the band will love it, but for me, it will only get so many rotations in my iPod. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. ***