Album Review: Silversun Pickups – Swoon
A look back at Swoon: Silversun Pickup’s second full album from 2009.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWMiXffgT8M
https://vimeo.com/141357404
Album Review: Clutch – Psychic Warfare
After twenty years, ten albums and a lifetime worth of travel; Clutch show no signs of slowing down in Psychic Warfare.
https://vimeo.com/141236113
Text Review:
After ten albums and over twenty years it would be normal for a band to start winding down in their career and becoming more casual with what they produce. It’s a natural order of events in life for any profession, but somehow the men in Clutch have not only stayed at full throttle for most of their career, they don’t show any signs of slowing down.
The eleventh full album Psychic Warfare is just another testament to the work ethic and devotion that Clutch have become associated with. After so many years of working together though you have to question how a band doesn’t get burnt out or become undone in the process of touring, performing, and writing. One would think that making an eleventh album must be a completely different experience than making a debut.
But in that creative experience in making music, nothing changed too drastically for Maryland’s Clutch. When asked about writing, Jean-Paul Gaster said that: “”The creative process really hasn’t changed all that much. It’s really just the four of us getting together and banging out jams, so to speak.”
Some people may take that as a “business as usual” type stance for rockers who have perfected their craft, but I see that as a huge accomplishment for a band to work together for over twenty years and still know how to get together and create and write and construct what they know will be good for an album.
And in this new album Psychic Warfare is the same gritty, rough, bass filled, distorted hard rock and roll that they have drawn cult like fans from and in the process made a legacy out of music the old fashioned way. And you can tell that just from the only song released before the album came out, X-Ray Visions.
Hearing the opening Affidavit and then the story of X-Ray Visions is a huge trip to go on when starting an album. Being thrown into the supernatural and paranormal while listening to an amazing bassline and the growling of Neil Fallon sets the mood of a concert hall in the northeast with a thousand 20 to 30 year olds drunkly bumping into each other while trying to headbang.
This opening song X-Ray Visions is the style that Psychic Warfare does best. When the guitar has a little more of a dynamic and Fallon is a little more loud then you’ll notice a definite raise in attention to the music. The raw groove in the heavier songs are what carry this album.
That’s not to say the more simply toned songs that don’t range as much don’t have any value, but when tracks like X-Ray Visions and Noble savage and Firebirds kick in are the times you will find yourself moving uncontrollably one way or another to the rhythm.
The chorus of Noble Savage makes you come alive. Hearing the energy and passion in this song from everyone in Clutch is instantly visible in your mind when hearing this track. When Tim Sult picks up the shred at the word “Go”, it becomes overwhelming and being unapologetic for rock and roll turns from a line in the chorus to a life statement.
Even if there are some tracks that don’t lay in the mood or the dive bar groove as strongly as intended like Our Lady of Electric Light or Your Love Is Incarceration, it can’t be stressed enough that when the intensity is raised with Fallon’s vocals is when Psychic Warfare shines.
While Psychic Warfare may not be the greatest spectacle of an album in Clutch’s 20+ years, it still stands well in their discography as something worth getting behind AND is a testament to the fact that these men are incapable of slowing down or showing any signs of age.
Overall, the fury and energy in Psychic Warfare is the reason why many Clutch fans and new comers will love this album. Even if not every song is something you instantly hit replay on, the grit and groove in many of these tracks make this album worth listening to.
Album Review: Tool – Lateralus
A look back at Lateralus: Tool’s third full album from 2001.
https://vimeo.com/140787641
Album Review: Silversun Pickups – Better Nature
Three years after Neck of the Woods, Silversun Pickups bring in the deep and rhythmic new album Better Nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fZWTZip9U
https://vimeo.com/140140758
Text Review:
The term alternative gets thrown around a lot but rarely are people able to define just what genre of music it is. It used to be that the styles of Nirvana and Soundgarden were once alternative but when THAT became the biggest thing in the world, it wasn’t an alternative to anything.
In my opinion, I label alternative as a band with the basic rock instruments and elements but isn’t the rock formula. When digital effects, soft vocals or an accordion get thrown in, it’s definitely an alternative to vocals, drums, guitar and bass.
BUT, then you have a band like Silversun Pickups. Masterful musicians with those instruments with an added keyboard, but what makes them alternative is some of the softest whispery vocals of any band in the last 15 years. After two top 10 charting albums and consistent radio play even now from albums over five years old, in comes more stylish rhythms and high-range singing on the band’s fourth album Better Nature.
While your mileage may vary depending on which songs you prefer (if you prefer the bands style at all), but some things are guaranteed in almost every album produced by Silversun Pickups. Amazing basslines by Nikki Monninger, atmospheric buildups in tracks that add depth, and a distinctive feeling that each song is its own unique entity.
So in 2015’s Better Nature, it is safe to anticipate some definites, but there have been problems in the past with skipable songs such as with their 2012 release Neck of the Woods. It is easy to keep hopeful however with the album’s first single Nightlight and its accompanying 7+ minute video. The imagery and story involved are scripted perfectly to match the fantastic deep, rhythmic new song from Silversun Pickups.
After the first minute of listening to Nightlight you realize it’s a song that you may never be able to forget. The haunting guitar riffs and the bass brought to the front makes the perfect opposition to the higher pitched vocals of Brian Aubert.
Lyrically this song is another example of just how well this band’s music is written and it’s a shame because when many people think of Silversun Pickups, the writing is NOT what comes to mind. The opening verse of Nightlight proves that this band not only know how to craft something more thought provoking then basic words to get to a chorus, but it makes it that much more powerful when sang along to.
Of the two released singles to tease the upcoming album, Silversun Pickups made incredibly smart choices. Both Nightlight and Circadium Rhythm demonstrate the band’s talents at their best. These songs are slower but become loud, and create an environment where you can let your imagination run loose and match it to music like this.
Hearing Monninger’s vocals at the front for this track with Aubert singing backup add a refreshing change in style without sacrificing any identity of the group. The slid up guitar chords are gorgeous that create a great effect as a vocal break up and the chorus is another instance of something you may never get out of your head.
When listening to the full album stream on Pandora you do notice there are songs that don’t flow together. The opening tracks Cradle and Connection start at a higher pace while the album becomes slow and deep near the center, and THEN fall in between the two near the end. While I feel the opening of the album is not as strong as the rest, that doesn’t mean they are in bad, and it also doesn’t mean some of the songs with a little more speed don’t have the same talent.
Silversun Pickups spaced out three years between album releases and you can tell in the quality of mixing and production that they paid attention to the details. There is a very reminiscent quality of Better Nature that Neck Of The Woods possessed. While not every song felt spectacular, the songs that stand out make the ENTIRE album.
Overall, Better Nature will not only satisfy the Silversun Pickups fans back from the days of Carnavas and Swoon, but the new fans that are jumping in to own the atmospheric tracks will love owning an album like this.
Album Review: Skillet – Rise
A look back at the winner of Loudwire’s Best Rock Album of 2013: Rise by Skillet.
https://vimeo.com/139101422
Regretting The Past: Puddle of Mudd – Come Clean
What’s brown, sticky and smells? If you answered feces or this album then you are correct!
https://vimeo.com/138622731
Album Review: The Wonder Years – No Closer To Heaven
Pennsylvania’s Pop-Punk performers present their fifth full album No Closer To Heaven and attempt to push themselves while staying true to their sound.
https://vimeo.com/138156200
Text Review:
Once you are defined as being Pop-Punk it can be hard not to be compared to the likes of Blink 182, Fall Out Boy or All Time Low. It’s not a bad thing to be compared to successful bands in a sub-genre, but Pop-Punk now has a predetermined mold that makes it hard for other bands to fit in if they vary their style, even if their style has been pop punk for a decade.
So when a band like The Wonder Years who tries to vary their style and branch out in different directions while staying true to their sound, it can be hard to define for many listeners if it’s the same band they’ve been listening to for years. But this comes natural for fans of Pennsylvania’s sixpiece.
No Closer To Heaven, the band’s fifth full album, plans to do just that. Expanding their sound in different ways while still resembling what they are known for. In an interview with Fuse TV, Dan Campbell said: “We want to walk a line where every record we’re doing we’re taking one nice step forward but we’re not taking a giant leap…We just tried to push out in every direction…It’s meant to expand the understanding of what our band is.”
In a media market where repeating the same successful thing for years on end still brings in money, it’s extremely rare and refreshing to hear musicians who continue to strive for more. So along with the ambition to create, The Wonder Years put everything in full drive for what Campbell described as: “their best work to date.”
Early this summer we were presented with the track lineup and the first single Cardinals with a unique video to introduce everyone to No Closer To Heaven. This would be the band’s first new work after the critically acclaimed The Greatest Generation.
Cardinals has a great elevation and slow build throughout the first minute. The use of two drums sets to make the percussion and rhythm loud and consistent is mastered perfectly here along with some great chord progression in the guitars. It feels like a complete song and sounds like it has depth.
Compared to other songs on No Closer To Heaven, Cardinals feels the most systematic and obvious of what they were going for. Through the rest of the track list there are many different emotions and styles in this album. There is a brooding and soft sense in one song, only to be ramped back up with some screaming and symbol bashing. There is variety.
It goes back to branching out pushing in every direction. It feels like natural progression to expand as opposed to throwing everything in one direction and hoping it lands in the right target. The Wonder years prove that when the roots of a tree grow in every direction it makes the tree that much stronger.
In the sense of Pop-Punk, this definitely has the feel of Pop-Punk grown up. Rather, it definitely feels like it fits the same genre but not in the same way as young tweens are going to be downloading it as their ringtone. The chorus and hearing the lyrics about running until your lungs give up make a huge exclamation in this song that make it feel like an anthem.
Whether it’s the deeper meaning tracks like Cigarettes and Saints or the smoother instrumental standouts like Stained Glass Ceilings and A Song For Patsy Cline, there is something to get from this album regardless of what mood you are in. The tracks may have different content and feels, but they definitely complete a whole picture.
There are some bands you grow out of, and there are some bands that you grow old listening to. Now, after a decade of music and five full albums, The Wonder Years proved they are the latter. Overall, No Closer To Heaven continues the example they have set for the genre. Even if there are a few moments where there is more going on than your ears and brain can handle at once, the music and lyrics from The Wonder Years will make everything worth it to many listeners.
