Well I can finally give my first impressions of
Light Grenades. It's pretty much the longest thing I've posted here, and is probably more rambling that I wanted it to be, but I'm glad to have the freedom to write whatever the hell I want to here.
Like I said before, this is my 'review' of the album, but my opinion of each song will change numerous times over, so from this point onwards I'll be enjoying the album as a fan rather than as a critic.
One of the first things I noticed about
Light Grenades, and what probably pleased me the most initially, was that the production was a step up from
A Crow Left of The Murder. There were a number of production-related issues that particularly irked me about a few of the songs in
ACLOTM, especially considering how sublime
Morning View was in that respect. As highly as the band would praise Brendan O'Brian, his decisions on various aspects of
ACLOTM left a little to be desired. For example, the leveling of the instruments were sometimes quite strange. One of my favourite songs on the record,
Agoraphobia, had some great guitar riffs, and Mike ran it under some cool pedals as well; however the guitar was really low in the mix as to take away from some of the impact. The song to follow that,
Talk Shows on Mute similarly kept Mike pushed back a bit, and brought the drums to the forefront which I found quite jarring and made it a lot more pop-sounding than it needed to be. The guitar wasn't the only thing that suffered, DJ Kilmore probably had the worst treatment out of the three records he had been in, his presence on
ACLOTM could easily be mistaken to be non-existent despite some of the cool sounds he brought. The problem was you had to listen really carefully to find him at all on some of the songs. On
Pistola during the bridge there is a part where Brandon's djembe comes in, but it's almost impossible to hear, not only is it really low but it's right behind the guitar and follows the exact same rhythm so it's pretty much completely useless in the song. On the whole I found
ACLOTM a great record despite the shortcomings brought on by O'Brien in a few songs. Coming back to
LG, I noticed quite a difference in the production, ie. it was markedly better. Not only does it bring Mike back up front but it balances the instruments really well, even Kilmore's contributions - resulting in something that sounds a lot more full and truer to the band's live sound.
Another thing that was quite evident from the start was that every song sounded great to me; there weren't tracks that that sounded ok or not so good and which needed some time to get used to before I would take to them, which was the case with
ACLOTM. The whole of
LG was listenable and enjoyable. I don't know what that means about the long term, whether it will have lasting appeal or not but it seems like it will. I think as far as structure and pacing goes it is excellent, the songs follow a general heavy/fast song then mellow/slow song pacing, but on top of that there is a sense of deliberate structure which can be seen in how the album starts with starts with
Quicksand, and how
Earth to Bella is split up and placed in the record. That, to me, means a lot because as of recent I've really started to appreciate the concept of music albums as a whole rather than as a collection of individual songs. My very favourite albums are all very good examples of that, and even if a particular album that I'm listening to has some awesome tracks on it, if they don't all work together as a record my enjoyment wanes quite a bit.
Well that's the general aspects of
LG covered, I'll go into more of a blow-by-blow of it now. As a starting track,
Quicksand is brilliant. I have a thing about album intros. I don't know what other people think about them, maybe they are considered corny or something but with me they really strike a chord because it ties into what I was just saying about albums as a whole; I love to be eased into an album, or at least given the impression that the first track wasn't just tossed in that spot without a thought. I think out of all of Incubus' previous albums,
MV was the only other one that really began like it was taking you on some kind of musical journey. I personally though
MY could have been re-arranged better, and while
Privilege is a great track I felt it could have started off with one of the other ones, like
When it Comes. So I was pleased about
Quicksand and don't mind at all that it's so short; in fact I think it works for the better. The strange electronic, trippy feel of it is something that's reminiscent of the band's recent experimentation in
The Odyssey, and it's good to hear them continue to experiment in that vein. I suppose the lyrics being about the nature of love and relationships is quite fitting, as a lot of the songs on
LG follow that theme as well. I quite like that the song segues into the next track, it gives a good sense of how the album flows and the next song,
A Kiss to Send Us Off, kind of continues the non-conventional and interesting ideas.
A Kiss to Send Us Off is a great proper track to start the album with. It combines a lot of what the band has done in the past, like heavy riffs and trippy drum and bass sections. Like I mentioned in a previous post, something that struck me about the song was how heavy and solid the distorted intro riff was, because we'd not been hearing this sound since a couple of albums back. After
MV,
ACLOTM kind of left that heavy distortion and for the majority of the tracks Mike used a rather different tone that distinguished the record from the rest. It was kind of refreshing to hear the return of this guitar sound, because while I loved
ACLOTM sometimes you just want to rock the hell out and I couldn't call any song on
ACLOTM particularly explosively distorted enough save for say
Made for TV Movie. I think
AKTSUO balances the loud and heavy parts with the quieter, drum'n'bass parts really well, and the juxtaposition makes for a really moving song. I'd been hearing the live version of this song since ages back, so I pretty much knew what it was like, I didn't think I could be surprised by it. However, there's a lot to the song that just doesn't come out in low quality bootleg recordings, like the effects that accompany Brandon's voice in the chorus and bridge. I feel that the bridge in particular was masterfully done, with the effect that Brandon's voice is put through, and the closing of it just before the wall of guitars when he sings
"Here I am/There you are/Could I ..." and the subsequent blast of riffs is my favourite part of the song and probably one of the most beautiful moments on the album. Speaking of Brandon's voice, this song is also a great introduction to the fact that he really outdoes himself on
LG. His range and strength is just fantastic on this album and this song is a good demonstration of that. Lyrically the song is eloquent and powerful, reminding me of the vibe from
MV rather than
ACLOTM.
I've said a few words before about
Dig, so I might just recycle a bit of it here. It's good to hear something that is really different from the band, Dig was quite a pleasant surprise. It's definitely a case of the band trying something they've not before. There's a nice 90's sound to it and I'm kind of getting a self-aware feel about it, like they know exactly how it sounds and don't care one bit. There's also a serene vibe that's reminiscent of Wish You Were Here. On the podcast Mike and Brandon spoke of how much work they did on the song, it being in fact "the most toiled-over" song on the record. That does come out in the song, it sounds like it has a lot of polish, a lot of care over what direction it takes them and how it sounds as a whole. I think that if this track had been on the previous album, it would have sounded really different, perhaps quite empty and raw - or a little minimalist like Southern Girl is - when this song really needed a warmth and depth to it. Which is the case, as it feels quite lush. I'm interested in seeing how this does as a single, how the public reacts to it.
I'd heard
Anna Mollly quite a long time before the whole album, which I wish I hadn't but it couldn't be helped. I love the song; I think it will take some time for my opinion of it to normalise as I get used to the other songs. I think it was a good indication of the overall sound of the album, and not too bad a choice as a first single. It has a pace that I really like, a medium-fast tempo that not many of Incubus' songs have and it makes for a upbeat song.
I've also given a few words about
Love Hurts in that previous post. I've since heard the studio acoustic version of it as well. I think it works very well as an acoustic song, and Mike plays the guitar expertly and with clarity as to keep the song very simple. However I missed the vocal harmonies that were present in the album version, I think that was one thing that was done really well and could have made the acoustic version better. I think the guitar filters and additional sounds from Kilmore add to the song so it's still great on the album. I'm expecting the band to choose this song as one of the singles, as it is pretty much 100% single material (and it would perform really well), but I really hope they don't as there are much more interesting and more worthy songs on the record.
The title track
Light Grenades is well placed smack dab in the middle of the album. I guess the best word to describe is explosive. It was definitely a surprise to me, and a pleasant, refreshing one at that. It reminds me of the more chaotic moments of
ACLOTM like during
Priceless, but really the energy of this track harks back to the days of
S.C.I.E.N.C.E. What's good is that while it seems unpredictable and random, it's actually going about in a very controlled and precise manner. I really like the concept behind the song, it was pretty much what I had imagined when I first heard the album title being announced, and think it's fitting as the title track of the album, just as much as
ACLOTM was for
ACLOTM. A very intense two minutes.
Though I'd heard
Earth to Bella in acoustic form back in April, I knew at that time that I wasn't really getting the song, that there was much more to it that was happening that one couldn't hear. And I was right, the song is definitely deeper and more complex on the album. I was still a little disappointed in the song in that I didn't agree with the decision to split up the song in two. I'll talk more about it when I reach the second part, but basically I don't see there being enough difference in the two parts to warrant a split, and I feel it would have been more effective as a single track.
Oil and Water is pretty interesting, it's something that I wouldn't really expect from the band. It starts off quite mellow and beautiful, and just keeps going, spinning out like cotton candy. I do feel this record on the whole is quite more accessible than
ACLOTM, and this song is one of the more pop-sounding songs. It's not something I mind too much if it's with something this good. Brandon brands this song as the best on the album, which I don't quite see myself. But it's still a solid number.
I think out of all the songs on the album,
Diamonds and Coal could arguably be the weakest. That's not to say that it's a bad track, it's a nice song and quite straightforward, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't have been missed if it had made way for other pieces, like say
Look Alive (and I'll come back to this later). Apparantly this is another song that Brandon wrote (the first being Earth to Bella), which is good news as it's a good development for the band. I think that musically it's solid and even both the vocal melody and the lyrics are pretty likable, it just doesn't as a whole stand up as well as the other songs do. It follows
Oil and Water, which is similarly quite poppy, but that track manages to strike a chord with me in a way that this doesn't. I may completely change my mind about this at some point in the future, so I guess I will leave it at that.
There's something about
Rogues that made it quite expected, in other words I felt like it was familiar the very first time I heard it - it made perfect sense. I think it is a true logical step forward for the band, like everything they've done before this point could predict this song. Which is a good thing; this songs screams pure energy, pure fun, pure Incubus. I've seen a couple of live vids of this song which I've linked to here in previous posts, and while the quality of the audio is rubbish what's crystal clear is how much the band is enjoying themselves on the stage. Melodically it's very catchy and it has a real upbeat pace. The drums in particular are just fantastic, I think Jose really rocks this song. Lyrically the song has an interesting concept that I'd never considered myself before, and the ideas really fit the song's feel. I think this could develop into one of my favourite songs by the band. This would be perfect as a single.
At first I thought
Paper Shoes was pretty tame, and didn't think much of it as it started, but within that first play it grew on me. I think that it's a very simple song that's made better by the way it's executed. The guitar riff is repetitive but catchy and has an interesting time signature; the rhythm of the song could have been very straightforward but Jose interpreted it very well and instead gives it a cool drum beat. Even vocally it was pushed up a level. I don't quite yet get what the song is really about, and Brandon gave no clues in the podcast, so it may take me a while to fully get this song, which is yet another indication of the song's depth.
Pendulous Threads was pretty much the song that blew me away, and it's a song that I think people may not realise is a lot more genius that it sounds at first. Up til this point I was enjoying the record, and feeling happy that it turned out ok. But this song was what made me sit up in awe. I think this is the peak of the album and could be reasonably considered the song that defines what direction the band is headed into. Comparing it to what they've done before, I think they take elements from
Priceless and more melodic songs from earlier albums and really push them forward into something that's a lot more of everything they've done. I am reminded of the bridges of
Pistola and
Leech as well. The song is more progressive sounding, maybe a bit like The Mars Volta who I have recently gotten into. I think the main reason this song really screamed out at me was because of how well Brandon managed to read the chaotic music and on top of that lay some amazing vocals. With a song like
Priceless it might have been a similar situation, an offbeat, crazy song that didn't have a definite melody to it, and with that he chose to stray from straight out singing and instead went with a more chanting, beat-poetry kind of thing. But with
Pendulous Threads he came out with something that perfectly complements the manic and intense energy of the other elements of the song. The whole band really works together brilliantly, each person playing off the other with the kind of tight musicianship I've not seen from them since their
Enjoy Incubus and
Fungus Amongus days. What's interesting is that this song also brought on one of my greatest disappointments of the album as well. If there was one song that could have benefited from more exploration of the likes of
Sick Sad Little World, this was it. The song starts off with a fade-in of the crazy and noisy sounds, and symmetrically fades out at the end as well. Now, I in general quite hate fade-outs, I think that songs should have a definite end and should conclude themselves in a proper manner to bring closure. I think that with the last record,
Leech, which also faded out, managed to stay my annoyance by doing it well and as it was the last song on the album it worked ok. But with
Pendulous Threads I was just enjoying myself too much, and would have loved an extra minute or two of the chorus or ending moments. What makes it worse is the amazing stuff that's actually going on as the song fades out; Ben in his typical fashion changes up the bass line over and over, creating some awesome variations behind Mike's increasingly chaotic guitar and Jose also starts bringing in some creative fills and alterations. I truly hope that the band gives this track the kind of treatment they gave
Vitamin and
Sick Sad Little World on their recent tours, ie. inject a bit of improvisation and creative extension into the live song. This would be a most unlikely track for a single, but somehow I feel that it would an adventurous choice that is worth a try.
The album closes with part two of
Earth to Bella. It starts off sounding just as the first part does, but slowly becomes more noisy and disentegrating as it spirals to a close. It reminds me of the end of
The Odyssey, and is very much an asymmetrical response to the opening of the album in way. I still don't feel it was really worth splitting up the song. I think the song suffers from being divided as it isn't particularly clever or complicated. As a single song they could probably have explored further that transcendence and descent idea that Brandon was talking about in the podcast. However as it actually is, I think it's quite a powerful closer because of the lyrics and the aforementioned spiralling conclusion.
The two bonus tracks of the Japanese import of the album,
Look Alive and
Punch Drunk, are also worth a mention. I don't feel they would have been too significant an addition to the album, and are different enough in style to warrant their absence from the tracklist. However
Look Alive is a great song, and I hope that people get to hear it somehow. It has a nice build up in the intro, and then starts off with reckless abandon. It's probably has the fastest tempo of all the songs they've ever done, and it's refreshing to hear them try this because it's very contagious in it's energy and movement. The bassline is incredibly catchy, as are the vocals, making for a really enjoyable song. I think it wouldn't have been too conspicuous on the album, but it really feels like a different song, almost like they were covering another band. I don't really take to
Punch Drunk as much, though it's still a nice song. It's a slow song that reminds me of
Monuments & Melodies. I think it's lyrics bring it up in my eyes, and musically it has a vibe that perfectly fits the song's theme. Thanks to these songs I am madly suspicious of the band and the remaining songs they did for the album which didn't make the cut (apparantly they did about 20 or so). While they may have not fit the album, they are probably pretty damn good in themselves, so I hope they release them in time.
Well, that's the album in a grossly overworded nutshell. I feel that the individual members of the band have really moved forward in their own way and helped make the album not be centered about any single member, and in particular Jose and Brandon have shone. Jose's drumming has always been quite excellent, but here I think it's a lot easier to realise that, thanks to the improved production. Brandon really surpasses himself, I go back and listen to the earlier records and think, he sounds like he's really pushing himself, but with the advent of
LG those earlier songs would probably be effortless. I guess I'm exaggerating a little in my new-album-excitment, but vocals are a general weakness for me, if a song is sung in a way that gets me, it brings up the song in my eyes a lot. Brandon performs well throughout, which I didn't think in my first impressions of
ACLOTM. It's been a hell of a long wait for this album, and it's a relief that it's finally here and that it doesn't disappoint. I think one of my biggest and only real beef with
LG is that it is quite a short album. The average song length is sorely lacking and there are a few occasions where they really could have lengthened the song with something interesting, but they stuck to the usually song formula of ABABCBB which doesn't really allow for much creative freedom.
Alright, I think that's all I can really say at this point, and I guess it's more than enough.
Light Grenades was the album I was waiting for all year, and it's pretty much the album of the year for me - and I did go through a heck of a lot of music this year, more so I think than any year in the recent past. Incubus managed to outperform all the other bands that came out with new releases this year. I hope like hell this gets noticed and they get a bit of success with it after the arguably lukewarm reaction to
ACLOTM despite strong singles. I am really excited to hear these songs live, I hope that some decent videos are gotten of performances as I obviously cannot attend any of the shows. I'm still really sore about the VH1 performance of the two new songs which never surfaced, as I know that
AKTSUO was performed amazingly. Anyway, there'll probably be more opportunities to get good live versions of the songs. Now I really have to end this bleeding thing, it's not a review, it just goes on and on and
An acoustic version of Anna Molly is available on iTunes. I'd say that even without listening to the song that it's not one of those tracks that necessarily needs an acoustic translation, though that's not to say it won't be a successful one, of course. There have been times before where it doesn't seem possible to make a worthy acoustic song and they've done it, like with A Certain Shade of Green and Pardon Me. The main issue is that the guitar not only needs to retain it's original music but has to compensate for the other instruments that will be absent, taking control of the rhythm as well as the lead. With something like Pardon Me it was very drum and bass heavy, and the guitar really wasn't doing anything at all during the verses other than adding ambience. Mike managed to transform the song into something that didn't need the bass at all during the verse, and that was an excellent effort. With Anna Molly, while the bass isn't doing something that carries the whole song it's doing something on it's own that compliments the guitar rather than follow it. Mike hasn't done anything particularly different with the acoustic version so it feels like it's missing a lot rather than being able to stand up on it's own. That'd be ok if it were already a song that was slow and laid back, but the album version is an energetic, paced song and so I don't really feel the acoustic song is anything special. Brandon does fine, but he doesn't really do anything to pull it out of it's mediocrity. All in all an ok track.
Actually that's an exaggeration, it wasn't all of Flagship Studios, just a couple of guys in the team ... and I didn't interview them, just asked a question. But I'll start at the beginning.
The album being so close to release, it's inevitable that it'll leak. However, it's been strange that it hasn't already, I think it's quite interesting that it's taken so long to; a big album release is usually predated by a leak by a couple of weeks. I do know that some people have gotten hold of it though, so it could reach the p2p networks any time now.
I've not said a word about Bioshock, but this game was another reason for starting this blog - so that I could post up whatever news I'd find anywhere about it since I'm looking forward to it so much I scour the web for any little mention of it. As it so happens I started this up just at the end of a torrent of news of the game so there has been absolutely nothing to talk about. In fact, this is not even news, but what the hell. The first issue of Games For Windows magazine had an online poll for the top ten most anticipated games of 2007, and Bioshock tops the list - though it was a close thing with Team Fortress 2 and Spore taking up almost all the rest of the votes.
Steve Rennie, Incubus manager, released podcast #3 today. After a few seconds of listening I found out that they would be playing clips of the album, and like I said before I didn't really want to hear the album before it came out. I managed to keep clear of the 30-second clips, but this time I caved. Basically Brandon and Mike say a few words about each track, and that was too much for me to resist. I did intend to listen to the album without any real expectation or preconceived notions but it's been agony waiting so I decided to hell with it and just listened to the podcast. I think it's awesome of them to do this kind of thing, and while I wish they had answered questions posed by the fans like they've done in previous podcasts, this was pretty special too and I'm glad of the insight into their music. It was short but very entertaining piece and it's made me a lot more excited, as much as I hate to admit.
Seems like there's now a street team for the band, taking registrations. I've never been on a street team before but it doesn't sound too difficult; it's essentially spreading the word about the band and putting up banners and posters etc. wherever you can. In any case the important thing is that you get free stuff, posters, stickers etc.
I finally finished Knights of the Old Republic this morning. I'd started the game at the beginning of this semester, so about 3 or 4 months back, and got to about 2 hours from the end, and then I kind of left it. I'd played through as a completely Light character and I wanted to start over as Dark so I had to at least finish my current game. The game's pretty easy so it was no big deal getting back into it and finishing it off. I guess I should post a review or something, one of the reasons I'd started this blog in the first place, but I'm feeling a bit lazy right now so maybe I'll put it off til I finish the second run, if I ever do. I'm definitely going to have to try the second game, if I can get hold of it. I have quite a large backlog of games that I need to finish - I have a recurring habit of starting a game and then leaving it, even though I do badly want to reach the end. I just tried the demo of Beyond Good & Evil which I thought was really good, so now I'm tempted to start that.
"... I started imagining imagery of students in different countries protesting and throwing Molotov cocktails with masks over their faces. But there's one brave student who runs up to the police line and, as opposed to throwing rocks or things that destroy, there's this concept of that one courageous, lonely student running up and throwing ideas and having them actually change things."
