Non-Prog Album Reviews

I don't have much experience doing reviews, so bare with me. :)

Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear

Overall Rating:  (One of my favorite albums)

Progginess:  (Butterflies is kind of weird but it's an alt rock album, not prog in the slightest)

Personnel:

Glen Phillips: Lead vocals, Guitars, Mandolin

Todd Nichols: Guitar, Mandolin

Dean Dinning: Bass, Keyboard

Randy Guss: Drums, percussion

1. Walk On The Ocean (3:00): The somewhat laid back somewhat cynical sort-of-vacation-song opener is quite a good song.  The verses initially start pretty spare with just strumming and light percussion backing up Glen's voice, but it becomes much more lush during the choruses with violin, keyboard, bass, and harmonies joining in.  After the second chorus we get a nice instrumental break with the same lush sound and some slide guitar and then one final chorus and verse.

2. Is It For Me (3:25): Next up comes this exuberant tale of childhood curiosity.  This song is fairly energetic and has much more prominent percussion and electric guitar than Walk On The Ocean.  The song has a kind of sunny sound to it, and it's hard not to feel a bit uplifted when Glen sings out the chorus, "Through the dooor, what do I seeeee?".   In addition, the "Open your big eyes and take in the sunrise" part is probably my favorite moment on the entire album.

3. Butterflies (4:26): This rather unusual song opens with guitar, heavy percussion and surreal spoken lyrics by Glen's wife Laurel ("I saw something gigantic, out on the water.  I asked my dad for a nickel.  He gave it to me, it was kind of misty.  I couldn't be sure of what it was and of course he wouldn't tell me").  Then Glen's voice comes in singing about several people's approach to life, represented by butterflies (one person crushes them, one person collects them, etc.).  It retains the somewhat unusual sound with a the last couple of lines of the verses being sung in a somewhat frantic monotone, although the chorus is still fairly catchy.  This is probably the most complex song on the album, although it still sounds alt rocky (especially the guitar during the choruses).

4. Nightingale Song (2:03): This short little mostly acoustic piece serves as a break between Butterflies and the next song, but it's quite good on its own, with a catchy melody and a vaguely country beat.  Simple song, but nice and painfully short.

5. Hold Her Down (3:07): And now we enter the darker center of the album.  Despite starting with a somewhat cheery-sounding guitar riff, this song quickly reveals itself as what it really is: an angry anti-rape song.  This song has perhaps the most REM influence of the songs on the album, but sounds considerably more pissed off as Glen sings about the horror of rape and admits he has a hard time facing the victim.  The song has a false ending before going into a nice guitar solo and repeated almost-chants of "Take the night back, all they've stolen, all we took from you".  This is a very powerful song, it gives me chills.

6. Pray Your Gods (5:03): A beautiful but melancholy song that decries the violence of religion and champions love.  This is another powerful song, with a great chorus and some nice ethereal female vocals as the song fades out.  It also contains some nice piano work, which there isn't much of on the album.

7. Before You Were Born (3:44): Currently my most played song on my music player, it's also my favorite song off the album.  A song about somebody who's had life stacked against them since they were born, but with the underlying message of "things suck, but we're here for you.  It gets better".  The arrangement's fairly simple, with guitar strumming, electric guitar coming in, etc. but it all just jells together perfectly with the lyrics.  Great song.

8. Something To Say (4:02): On Something To Say the music becomes a bit more upbeat, with a nice waltz feel and prominent accordion.  Lyrically the song is about a man with a shell around his emotions, and Glen saying "come on, talk to me".

9.  In My Ear (3:10): Another upbeat rock song with some prominent keyboard work, that (I think) is a breakup song.  This is a very catchy and enjoyable song and the chorus is great.

10. All I Want (3:18): One of Toad's most famous songs, All I Want is a song about acceptance in a relationship.  A very strong, solid tune with a great chorus and nice Buck-esque guitar work.  At the end of the song, Glen employs a similar device to Before You Were Born, singing different lines over the rest of the band singing the chorus.

11. Stories I Tell (5:35): A melancholy song that veers towards being fairly hard (for Toad) at some points.  The lyrics are Glen asking for someone to listen to his stories, he says he doesn't have anything big or important to say and he doesn't want criticism, he just wants someone to listen to him.  It's quite a desperate song and, although I tend to forget about it because if its placement, it's quite good.  Especially the "Do we ever wonder, did you ever care?" part.  The song has a real sense of desperation and serves as a great contrast to the next track.

12. I Will Not Take These Things For Granted (5:46): The mellow melancholy finished of the album is a poignant reflection on the smaller things in life and one of the best tracks on the album.  This is a very powerful and quite comforting song and is an excellent finale.  It has a subtle crescendo throughout, progressively becoming more hopeful-sounding as the song continues before fading out.

The descriptions got shorter as the review went on because I got tired of writing, so I may come back to it and flesh it out more.  But anyway, overall this is a really great album and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes alt rock or just good music.

Fanfare (1:23)
2. Just a Boy (2:37)
3. Odyssey (5:29)
4. Only You (4:16)
5. Under the Rose (4:48)
6. Dark Light (4:13)
7. A World Without Heroes (2:46)
8. The Oath (4:32)
9. Mr. Blackwell (4:56)
10. Escape from the Island (2:51)
11. I (5:04)

The album is strangely compelling but has attracted many haters. I think Kiss did make a mistake on this one but it is so hugely entertaining and diverse that I can easily rate this 4 stars.

The Devil's Blood are an occult rock band from the Netherlands that formed in 2006. They have had a strong following (mostly in the metal community) ever since their Come, Reap EP in 2008. Their shows are known for having a ritual-like atmosphere.

Album: The Thousandfold Epicenre

Genre: Hard rock/psychedelic rock

Release date: 11/11/11

The first time I heard this album I honestly was a bit underwhelmed. It was good, but didn't really match up to how great I thought it would be. However, after more listens it became more enjoyable each time. The first thing that most people will notice is that The Devil’s Blood have taken on a more psychedelic sound and have structured their songs in a more progressive fashion. This is most apparent in songs like “On the Wings of Gloria”  “Madness of Serpents”  “Feverdance” and the title track. It is also apparent in between songs, since many of them are connected by way of the song slowly fading away into a fog of effects and solos. Fans of their first album and EPs don’t have to worry, there is still a good amount of straight forward hard rock that the band built their reputation on. Songs like “Die the Death”  “Cruel Lover”  “She” and “Fire Burning” would fit into the band’s back catalogue quite nicely. One song that seems to stand out among all of these is “Everlasting Saturnalia” a calm, almost ballad like song with vocals and a piano and some guitar effects/solos in the background for good measure. Its something very different for TDB. Given the description it might sound out of place on the album but it actually fits into the big picture quite nicely. Overall this album has some interesting experimentation and song structures, but there’s enough energy and no BS rocking out to keep the listener’s attention.

However this isn’t the perfect album. The faults that this album has are minor but still worth mentioning. There are a few elements here and there that just seem a bit frivolous and generally unnecessary. The way that some songs are strung together just doesn’t really seem like it adds anything to the song. For example the transition between “She” and “The Thousandfold Epicentre” is a string section accompanied by an acoustic guitar playing in a classical style. It doesn’t sound bad, but the question I keep asking is “are the cellos/violins really necessary?” we’re talking about a band with 3guitar players here, couldn’t one or two of them handled the part the strings have? It seems like the only reason the strings are there is to make the song seem more “epic”. It’s a similar thing with the song “Within the Charnel House of Love” in this song there seems to be a horn and string section playing with the band in some parts. There are other various instruments that the band doesn’t have scattered throughout the album but their contribution seems only minimal. Also the closing song “Feverdance” seems a little bit anticlimactic, especially since it clocks in at over 15 minutes; it’s a good song but I just think that it could have been a bit stronger.

Despite a few frivolous tendencies I still think it’s a very strong album and I would still recommend it to fans of 70’s hard rock and Psychedelic rock. You may not be blown away at first listen but its still much worth putting time into.

 

 

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A number of significant things happened between Rave and this one, and their combined impact was enough to shake Prince out of a rut and set himself up for a surprisingly good 00's. The first is that he finally worked out everything he needed to with regards to his old contract with Warner Bros., and because of this he finally felt comfortable returning to using his name, rather than attaching the TAFKA prefix or identifying himself using the Love Symbol. The second, of course, is that Prince became a Jehovah's Witness; while he had long had clear spiritual undercurrents in his life and music, he had never really followed any specific religion, nor had he really shown any clear moral sensibilities in the music he chose to release. From now on, though, Prince's music would be heavily affected by this new conversion; casual swearing quickly became a thing of the past, as did any serious explicit or implicit emphasis on sexuality.

The third major development was the introduction of a secondary music label, where Prince, rather than issuing albums in a traditional distribution mode, would instead make albums available only through the internet, and only to members of the NPG Music Club. And fourth, the new decade introduced a new musical approach: the quintessential Prince electrofunk of years past was suddenly replaced with a kind of jazz/funk/gospel sound, and the contrast with before is stark. It's still recognizable as Prince at the core, of course, but it's an aggressively uncommercial Prince that hadn't been heard in a long time, and this change would have driven away many fans even if it weren't for the subject matter.

Ah, the subject matter. I'm pretty sure this is basically a rock opera, but I still haven't the slightest idea what the story is supposed to be, or if there even is one. What I do know is that the album is dripping with social and spiritual metaphors, and that Prince lets his newfound Christian faith shine through as much as possible. On a certain level, the entire thing comes off as really ridiculous, and yet, aside from the terrible minute-long "Wedding Feast" (which sounds like a reject from a Gilbert and Sullivan musical), there aren't really any bad tracks on here. Sure, the slowed down deep vocal effect (speaking great profound spiritual statements) gets tiring after a while, and sure, there are some relative fillers like "Digital Garden" and "Deconstruction," but overall I find myself pretty intrigued by the mishmash of different styles, both across the album and within individual tracks.

The opening title track, for instance, has to be one of the most fascinating (for better or worse, though I think better) things Prince has ever done; Prince had done long tracks before, but never before had he done something so blatantly prog-rockish as to do a ten-minute multi-part suite as a leadoff track. Nothing in this track is especially original, but it's just so interesting to hear Prince bounce between Miles Davis-ish jazz/funk and parts that sound so quintessentially Prince. Sure, the track has lyrics that set up much of the empty fluff that makes up so much of the album, but they're absorbing when the track is on, and that's enough for me. I'll admit that my first instinct was that I was listening to Prince's very own "Jazz Odyssey," but the thought soon passed.

The rest of the album is mostly 3-5 minute songs, before finishing with a trio of 8-minute tracks (some of which appear to have been recorded live). The shorter songs aren't generally spectacular, but some of them are really good: I'm especially fond of "The Work, pt. 1" (a nice tribute to old-school funk, filtered through the sound of the rest of the album), "Everywhere" (sung by one of his female proteges, I presume, and featuring some of the most personal lyrics on the album concerning Prince's conversion), "1+1+1 is 3" (there's a fascinatingly intense groove here) and "She Loves Me 4 Me" (one of the few songs here that could have worked just fine in a completely different context). The longer tracks, then, were destined to generate controversy, but I generally like them. "Family Name" has sound effects and lyrics that are a little over-the-top in their preachiness, but their goofiness is kinda charming, and the music has a strong enough groove that I end up enjoying the track more than not. "The Everlasting Now" has all of the elements of a great traditional Prince live jam; it just so happens that the lyrics are about spiritual things and personal salvation and stuff. Look, if I can enjoy a jam that's based around the "oh-wee-oh" chant from The Wizard of Oz, why can't I enjoy a great track that just happens to be preachy? And finally, "Last December" is definitely in the upper echelon of slow Prince guitar-driven ballads, with strong gospel elements to boot. Anybody who rejects this just because of the way the spirituality is now explicit instead of implicit is only depriving themselves.

Look, I'm not saying this is a great album, or that there isn't a good chunk of relative filler (there are a lot of songs I didn't mention), or that I can't see how people wouldn't like it, or that it ultimately makes any sense. I am saying that it's an intriguing listen, one that has a lot of elements I enjoy (and a lot of things other people find boring), and one that holds together well despite its overemphasis on story elements that are both unclear and overbearing. It's also, strangely enough, probably the best thing Prince could have done at this point, and while I can't say that any Prince fan should like this, I can say that a Prince fan that doesn't like this is missing out.

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