La Gran Perdida de Energia - Self Titled ALBUM REVIEW

"Gloom & Doom that's all I'm saying...

-Austin Lovelace"

This is the first album by the instrumental post-rock outfit who's name, I believe, translates to The Great Loss of Energy. While it is their first album, it's defiantly not their first time out the gate, though it does seem to be the first impression they would rather halve. The reason I say that is because, while there isn't a huge change in style, there is a pretty big change in presentation. In comparison with their first EP the production is much more ambitious, and much grander. They take the sound that they where showing off and focus it much more on the haunting elements of post-rock to assist the production in filling every bit of empty space.

I'll admit that I was on the fence with the EP and listening to it before the album didn't give me the highest expectations. When it comes to this album I'm still not getting it completely; I'm liking the improvements on the sounds they where already using but the production isn't making up for the uniqueness that they've lost because of it. A lot like Foster, who's first EP I gave a raving review, they focus a lot on an indy rock edge. There are a lot of melodies that almost remind me of indy rock kings like Grizzly Bear. A lot of the more catchy moments on that first EP even focused on a math rock influence from the popier side of bands like Band of Horses and Minus the Bear. Under the production that Volvemos en 10 Años had, I was hoping to hear more of their atmospheric side but now that it's the majority of what I'm getting, I'm missing their fun side.

In many ways they're an apposing force to a band like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, while using a lot of similar techniques, they represent a much more optimistic side of post-rock. Where GY!BE soundtrack a post-apocalyptic, political, world Energia is more content with telling you when to relax and play. The opener, "El Mes del Viento", uses a lot of symbol crashing breaks and tremolo picking to create an environment that's easy to get lost in, something you would expect to soundtrack the most tense scene in a movie. That leads into the next track which has a surf feel but as soon as that goes out, it awkwardly transitions into something very similar to the first track. "DO!" has a very strong and cool melody but it repeats it through the whole song and just barley makes it out without decreasing the power the groove has. After about 1:00min the 4th track works into one of the coolest and most climactic grooves on the whole album, and it finishes with some tremolo picking that stops you from breathing, but the song still goes on for 7 more minuets of falling action. While you wait for moments like that everything else just feels like filler, filler that they avoided on their first EP. One of my favorite tracks, "De Los Que Viven Bajo el Agua", takes a while to get there, but it finishes with such a fun outro that I almost wanna dance to it, and the same goes for the intro to "Asia". I don't want this album to have to live up to an EP that's not as good but when they don't sound like they're having fun, they sound like they're stalling. When it feels like they're stalling, I can't say what they're doing anything unique, and those parts at many times on this album, awkwardly mix with the parts I love. That's the only difference from the first EP that isn't an improvement, making it the easiest to talk about, but it's a substantial change.

I understand that this review sounds negative, and while that is the perspective I have of this album compared to others in its genre, I want to make sure you know that I do like it. I enjoyed listening to this, and I can't rave more about how hauntingly beautiful the last track is (it should be on during the credits of Pirates of the Caribbean, it really should). Sadly, though, the best thing I can say about the parts I didn't like is "they do what other bands are doing, really well". I love every moment of this where I can picture a crowd dancing and the band jumping but for now I feel like they're still working out how they want all those sounds to work together. While I wasn't amazed by this album, I'm really excited to see what they do next.

Why Music is Less Relevant Than It Used To Be, and Where Art is Moving as a Form for All Mediums

Listening to my copy of CSN, by Crosby, Stills & Nash, I was wondering why a band whose first studio album came out in 1969 was still a common name. When they came back to putt out “Looking Forward”, as Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, how did they still reached number 34 on the billboard top 100 with “No Tears Left”, the single (Crosby Stills & Nash award list). How did The Rolling Stones premier “A Bigger Bang”, in 2005, at number 3 when they put out their first album came out in 1964(Rolling Stones award list)? All of these artists surviving for up to 50 years while Vanilla Ice peaked at number 1 with “To The Extreme”, and then never even reached 200 again during subsequent 5 album run(Vanilla Ice award list). Asking anyone else, you would get a simple answer, “good music lasts, so time will tell” but time has already shown that “good” is decided by the relevancy, lasting itself. Music lasts based on what it attaches itself to, by becoming part of history rather than just talking about it; artists have done it with their lyrics, with their sound, but most of what makes them so attached to the fans that keep them in the limelight, are the emotions they appeal to.

Then, Older artists used their influences and inspirations as references in their music. Quoting, “The king is gone, but not forgotten, is this the story of Johnny Rotten?”, Neil Young is asking the same question this is trying to answer in his own music (“Hey Hey, My My (into the Black)” off of the album“Rust Never Sleeps”). Without knowing it, he is also creating an important piece of history. . Song writers like Neil Young would still rather write about the lead singer of a band that only lasted 3 years, only because he changed his stage name. In a way this is a partnership; while this is an example, Neil Young has been famous for writing about historical events well before he wrote this song, which make his music source material for common opinions, but by writing about Johnny Rotten's change to John Lydon he is also adding even more context to what the Sex Pistols already had. Even then, some of the most popular bands can still be forgotten after a breakup, Paul Revere and the Raiders had 10 top 200 studio albums in their 18 year run, but that’s because they didn't write about anything of importance (Paul Revere & the Raiders award list). When lyrics read off the page like a history book, they become as important as one.

Now, most artists are either not giving recognition to their influences or they don’t have any. the only artist still making the same kind of effort in recent years is Maroon 5 with their single, “Moves Like Jagger”, a billboard number one hit (Maroon 5 awards list). They’re riding on the backs of The Rolling Stones who have survived for a solid 50 years and are still getting their albums in the top 5 billboard chart positions (The Rolling Stones award list). Now that most listeners are focused less on what the artists are saying and more on the choruses they can sing along to a song like “Moves Like Jagger” gives their fans a friendly nod to a band, that has inspired everyone, in a chorus that is stuck in a generations head. It’s hard to believe that people will ever walk around saying “Who is this “Jagger” guy?” and as long as current musicians still care to bring him up, neither of them will lose relevance. Hip-Hop is becoming more and more referential to it’s past as well, and most top 40 rappers feature each other on tracks, which in the short run is helping them all stay alive. It’s a very young genre though, at least at its current level, so it doesn't have the same wealth of influences to pull from.

Not all music is lyrical though so this explains the sudden rise popularity for music highly based on production, hip-hop and many other forms of instrumental electronic music, but it doesn't explain the immediate respect that each passing generation is giving it. The simple explanation for that is that most of the artists involved in that culture are creating a sound exclusive to the age of its popularity. While it can easily be seen as repetitive, as well as derivative, there are artists who are guaranteed to come out the other end of the era as legends and forefathers. It’s the result of a necessary death; a genre that comes in, over saturates itself and then leaves like, gritty, 90s Hip-Hop did at the tail end of it’s popularity and swag rap is doing now.

Considering that the past and present share a common pattern in this way more than any other and it’s easily seen that sound is still more important than a fad. Nirvana was not the first band to do what they did; Kurt Cobain even admitted that he was trying to rip off a Pixies song when he wrote one of their biggest hits (Kurt Cobain interviewed by Robert Frick for Rolling Stone Magazine), “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hitting the billboard charts at number six (Nirvana award list). Nirvana also admits to admiring bands like the Melvins who took influence from other bands, like Joy division and Soul Asylum who put out their first albums before they had their chance. Bands like Megadeth and Metallica are still selling albums off of the relevance the gained in the dead thrash metal scene that died in the 80s, Megadeth’s 2011 release, Th1rt3en, hitting number eleven (Megadeth award list) and Metallica’s , Beyond Magnetic EP, reaching 29 on the billboard top 200 (Metallica award list). They keep their fans coming back because they all want to hear an album that puts them back in the scene that used to thrive.

All fans have very strong connection with the music they listen to; it’s a part of their personality so it has an amazing emotional appeal. It takes a rightful place as part of their personality. The reason why our parents still keep their vinyl recordings, why our parents still buy CDs, and why this generation is obsessed with downloading singles on MP3 are all for this reason. The two previous reasonings are reasons why this kind of attachment exists but what makes emotion such a strong comparison between present and past musicians is that they both take it drastically different ways. The way casual listeners have been hearing music through the last decade is based almost exclusively on an emotional appeal that doesn't connect, legitimately, to the other two varieties, almost, at all. In the past few years boy bands and pop punk/new metal bands have been appealing to young people in ways that, in any other case besides music, would not hold up in the real world. While the newer acts are getting younger, groups like N’ SYNC and The Backstreet Boys had men, whose ages average out to about 20 years old, making music about love for girls budding into puberty from ages twelve to seventeen. Emotion like that can’t be considered real and nothing makes it harder to stay relevant than giving something fake to a generation approaching an age that allows them to realize that, even when your first album hits number 4 on the billboard charts (The Backstreet Boys)(Backstreet Boys award list) or you break the new millennium with a number one album (‘N SYNC)(N’SYNC award list). Even when artists like Justin Bieber or One Direction are closer to an appropriate age, they still follow the exact same song format, which is usually not even written by them, which is still fake. On the other hand bands like Black Veil Brides, Three Days Grace, A Day To Remember, and Blessthefall are all appealing to the angst of the side that rejects what pop stars are doing. They create a form of art that can only be attached to one age group or one generation and it cannot be passed down. It would be ignorant to say all radio music is like this, but that’s the exact reason why some current artists will still be able to continue moving with a healthy fan base and stay relevant.

The point of bringing all of this up is to expose what is becoming a more visible truth. Even though music goes through paces just like any other art form there is a much more linear way of seeing what will happen. In terms of what people like, and what people want on the radio, things will stay the same. This means that the level of variety will alternate as it has every decade, but as each decade goes by less artists within the popular field survive. This means that constants are becoming less and less common and when the ideas and people who remain constant leave all you have left are artists who die off with the art form itself. Music will not die, no more than literature is dead but it is still a far cry from the blossoming culture that music proved itself to be in the past. As a music lover this is my plea to see that people change the way they pay attention, and a an art lover I want to expose this as a possibility for all forms of entertainment.

Bibliography

"Charts and Awards for Crosby, Stills & Nash on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/crosby-stills-nash-mn0000131581/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for A Bigger Bang by The Rolling Stones on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-bigger-bang-mw0000408720/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Vanilla Ice on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/vanilla-ice-mn0000262445/awards>.

Young, Neil Percival, Front-man, and Jeff Blackburn. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)." Perf. Frank Sampedro, Poncho, William Hammond Talbot, Billy, Ralph Molina, Nicolette Larson, Karl T. Himmel, and Joe Osborn. Rec. 27 Aug. 1979. Rust Never Sleeps. Neil Young and Crazy Horse. David Briggs, 1979. Vinyl recording.

"Charts and Awards for Paul Revere & the Raiders on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/paul-revere-the-raiders-mn0000750456/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Maroon 5 on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/maroon-5-mn0000285232/awards>.

Fricke, David. "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview." The Rolling Stone 27 Jan. 2012: 1+. Rolling Stone Archive. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kurt-cobain-the-rolling-stone-interview-19940127>.

"Charts and Awards for Nirvana on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nirvana-mn0000357406/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Megadeth on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/megadeth-mn0000406294/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Metallica on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/metallica-mn0000446509/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Backstreet Boys on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/backstreet-boys-mn0000765595/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for *NSYNC on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nsync-mn0000516929/awards>.

El Toro De La Muerte - Dancer These Days EP Review

"I just did another review for The Brainless Horde and I liked the album a lot... I'll let ya'll know when it's up!

-Austin Lovelace"

 

 

 My first introduction to this band was four guys playing a last minuet show to fill time between two sets at the Colorado Springs Indy Music Awards (that's my guess given that the we'rent on the original schedule). For some reason they had decided to start playing an acoustic set so in my head I was watching a great folk rock band. As the cashier at The Leechepit informed me, I had not really seen this band live. IMPORTERS, I didn't see any of them scream once. It's always cool to see a band in a form that isn't what you expect, but if anyone else was there to see the same show you missed a 90s rock band, you should go and see them again and so should I.

These guys are some freak of nature built by Modest Mouse, Weezer, and The Shins like some kind of gene splicing mad man experiment. They're lost in an age that is now 12 years old. These guys clearly where their influences on their sleeves; each song is going to remind you of someone else but they do it so proudly that you've gotta love it. This is their first release and they already know their game, and they really don't care if you don't.

"BACK IN MY DAY, I COULD MOVE MY FEET WITH THE REST OF THEM", there really couldn't be a much clearer Pavement influence than on the track "Dancer", which despite the vocals screaming in your face, makes you want to get up and move. But you do it without punching someone, okay maybe, but you should, okay maybe, it depend on who, but you probably shouldn't, okay maybe.... It's hard to move through an EP when you have the first track on repeat. "Things In My Head" has one of the catchiest intros and the words are practicably coming out of Issac Brock's (of Modest Mouse) mouth, but it doesn't have the same energy until it's end, #punkfanproblems. The next three tracks bring the energy back full force and if the vocal melody of "The Chartering Rats", very Shinsy, doesn't get stuck in you're head you're just not human, nope get your gears checked you can't be human. "Animals" sounds a lot like an early Weezer track, especially when the exit riff starts playing at about 2:20min in. The last track of the album, probably my favorite, goes for a much softer approach. If Edge (of U2) conceived a kid during a conga line, you would get the chorus Riff on "Like a Ghost".

I have a feeling that everyone will be able to take these guys and put what ever label they want on them, and everyone should and will. However, what ever label you put on them wont affect that these guys are taking everything an making it their own. They give soft instrumentals a mosh worthy energy by screaming their faces off into your own. It should be clear by their name that Spanish music somehow or another makes its way into every song, and it's clear when they do. This album takes an extremely aggressive sound and makes you want to dance to it. On top of everything else they have a seance of being optimistic even when they are negative without beating you in the head with it.  If my first experience with this band live wasn't what it was, I picture the crowd split into two halves; one in a giant mosh pit and the other dancing through the whole show, me the former.

Being a part of The Brainless Horde has been my schooling on the city I live in. Discovering that Colorado Springs is cultural on a most basic level, which is contrary to my opinion of plain vanilla. It's bands just like this that I look out for SO KEEP IT UP "The Bull is Dead".



The Note Pad:

Other Bands You Might Like: Modest Mouse, Weezer, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Sugar, No Age, New Order, Joy Division, Mumrah, Radiohead, Green Day, The Replacements, Husker Du

Fav. Tracks: Dancer, The Chattering of Rats, Like a Ghost

MUSE - The 2nd Law ALBUM REVIEW

"I'm working here!

-Austin Lovelace"
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MUSE is a band that I've been trying to putt my finger on for a while. Coming out with the very ambitious space rock, Radiohead inspired, "Showbiz" they got my interests engaged. I understand how people mark them off as a copy but I saw no reason to place that name on them, yet. Fallowing that with my favorite MUSE album, "Origin of Symmetry", they made them selves out to be a band that had found their sound, one they could call their own. I loved the aggressiveness and in my opinion, it had some of the most creative bass lines of the early 00s, especially the single "New Born". Sadly they fell hard on their next album; "Absolution" was the Radiohead copy everyone always uses against them, and I can't say I disagree. I heard a very clear "Ok Comp./Bends." influence on "O.O.S." but they took it to such a level that any of their songs could be confused with Radiohead's by a casual listener. I hated that album so much that their next just skipped by me and I didn't hear it until "Uprising" dropped from "The Resistance". I listened to "The Resistance", only because I loved the single, but I found MUSE once again copying, just another band. I'm really not a Queen fan and so the only reaction I could have, to an album ripping so much from their corner, was to rush back to their last album hoping for something better. "Black Holes and Revelations" was an album I can defiantly say sounded only like MUSE, not the same as the album that sounded like MUSE before, but still strictly MUSE. 

So, we're clearly dealing with a band that has a very rocky past, with my career as a fan. One album I like, two I love, and two I hate; I hoped that this album would break that tie. I don't think MUSE did much to advance them selves from their last album. Almost every track here sound like it would have fit fine with anything on "The Resistance". "Survival" even has these background vocals that sound completely torn from Freddy Mercury's play book, along with "Supremacy" and "Explorers". "Panic Station" has a guitar riff that sounds way to close to the bass intro from "Another One Bites the Dust", to even call it a MUSE track. They even pull from a side of the 80s a lot of fans are guaranteed to hate. The only real difference between "Big Freeze" and U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is Matt's vocal. 

I know that taking other peoples songs, and sound, is a long standing tradition in music, Just Look at Balkans  and The Strokes. I'm just not hearing MUSE take these influences, or even when they take  rhythms and sounds directly, in a way that is moving them in a unique direction. MUSE is a case of a band who wares their influences on their sleeves, and they've done it very well in the past, but the only thing they're adding to all these, over used 80s sounds, are the dub step wubs that are just carelessly layered over their instrumentals.

There are tracks that brake this mold but they don't even come close to saving the album for me. "Madness" is an electronic love song that gets more and more ambitious as it runs from very dub sounds, not dubstep just dub, to a full collage of instrumentation that easily meets the volume of their older material. "The 2nd Law Unsustainable", is pretty much just a dubstep song though the aimless drop is pretty underwhelming, especially when it sounds just like all the other dubstep productions flooding the market. "Animals" is a really smooth jam that sounds nothing like anything I've heard from MUSE, or any other band for that matter, and the outro is a refreshing  instrumental, Matt's vocals are more a part of the background that foreground, that reminds me that this Album isn't all bad. Sadly the only song that I liked enough to give them the credit, that I wish I could, was "Animals".

I don't want to sound like a snob, saying "MUSE should go back to their old sound", in fact I encourage progression but if this is the direction that they're heading I have no interest in going with them. I'm also sure that a lot of readers will have a different definition of copying, and will also have a different idea of where the line should and should not be crossed. I can't recommend this album to any MUSE fans who fell of the bandwagon on "The Resistance" but if you liked that album I can't see you disliking this, but for me they've crossed a line I'd rather not cross my self, two too many times.

The Note Pad:

Other Anthem Rockers: The Killers, U2, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, The Foo Fighters, Radiohead. Journey, Styx, Kansas, R.E.O. Speed Wagon, Aerosmith

Other Bands You Might Like: Almost anything from the 80s

















-Austin Lovelace

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Big K.R.I.T. - 4eva Na Day (Mixtape) and Live From The Underground Album Review

"It's been a really bad year for singles... I keep hoping all the albums are better

-Austin Lovelace"
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Big K.R.I.T. is one of the EmSees to come out last year that, at least to me, is what made last year such a boost for the genre. I won't ever say Hip-Hop lost its charm but it was popping in and out of the dark for a while and it finally decided to crawl out. If anyone is looking for smooth southern rap that sounds out of it's own era, which is what makes it so good, then there may not be a better up and comer; this is your guy!

This tape is the end of a trilogy, the first 2 albums being what launched him to the hype he's sitting at now. When "Home Town Hero" dropped, off the first tape, "K.R.I.T. Waz Here", it was clear that there was a new player on the field. "Number one song and a Grammy, now I'm smashing Maserati crashing, swerving through the trafficWrap it 'round a pole, sell a mil off the tragedy", for K.R.I.T. to come out the gate spitting bars like that over an Adele sample... He made it hard not to like him and  even more so, he made it hard to avoid him. When part 2 came out as a free mixtape everyone took the chance check out the new kid (take a marketing hint from K.R.I.T. and make the album after your hit free). It felt weird to go from paying for a good tape to downloading an even better one, no questions asked. "Return Of 4 Eva" was a project made with no intent on being his next hit, but instead he rode the hype wave and washed the fans into a project that would prove that he could back up his lyrical capabilities with production way past where he started. I don't want to get into a review of an old tape, but I can tell you that that tape left me waiting for his next move (DOWNLOAD IT DAMMIT!). 

"4eva Na Day", as not only the conclusion to a trilogy but a pre-cursor to his debut album, was surrounded by as much hype as the public can muster up. K.R.I.T. was featured on the most recent Roots album, dispelling roomers about a lazy flow by rapping next to Tech N9ne, B.O.B., and MGK in the BET cypher, and beating about every other EmSee in lyrical ability all over the XXL "Freshman Class" cypher as well. He even returned to his older tape series with "The Last King 2: God's Machene" to help keep his fellow southern EmSees relevant over his remixes and beats (this should result in "Country Cousins" a joint mix tape with Yellawolf). Whichever end was reaching out made it hard for him to lose any relevancy in between albums; in less than a year we would get this tape handed to us before we even had a chance to sleep on him.

So if "K.R.I.T. Waz Here" was about introducing him as a star and "Return Of 4 Eva" was our introduction to K.R.I.T. as an EmSee than this tape should be about K.R.I.T. the person. K.R.I.T. knows that each perspective changes based on how he is seen in the other two and as much as each tape is based on one perspective, he has always been able to transition from topic to topic without contradicting anything himself (a skill slowly fading). He will talk about how he's the best rapper in the game knowing that off that cloud he might fall in real life. That idea transfers to this tape just as well, but concentrating on himself as a person takes the bragging down to a much more contextual level. Unless he's spiting about his performances, the context of his last 2 tapes, he leaves the bragging alone and for good reason. By taking us into a day in the life of Big K.R.I.T. we get a really personal project, one even deeper than the last tape.

The story starts at the start of the day with K.R.I.T. doing a spoken word peace about "How much effort a day takes" on "8:04" AM and bringing him self back down to reality on "Wake Up". "Wake Up" has K.R.I.T. singing the hook making it even more connected to the previous tape that ended with "The Vent" (where he sings the through end of the track). I assume the next two tracks, "Yesterday" and "Boobie Miles", are in reference to the early morning deep thinking we all get into before we officially wake up a few hours later (when did this worksheet appear in front of me?). He finds him self thinking about how much he misses the girl he left back at his home town, before he set out on tour; he thinks about Boobie Miles, from "Friday Night Lights", and how one small move could end a career (if you don't know what happened, shame on you, I'm not telling). He spends the next 3 tracks hyped as hell, I can only guess they take place on stage because he's bragging his ass off and the hooks are just infections, repetitive, and loud. In "1986" he continues the song writing style of the last two but he brings it back from a stage performance to the nostalgia of the car he uses to drive from show to show. The skit right before that track helps bring it back to reality when you hear someone walk by his car and start talking about everything that happened during the year it came out. "Country Rap Tunes" fallows it with the nostalgia of talking about the town K.R.I.T. would soon be returning to and grew up in before "Sky Club" starts the story of his return. When K.R.I.T.'s phone is off (just turn it off you'll take off so much faster) you hear the voicemail his girlfriend leaves and his response is a strong summery of his music, as much as a strong emotional response. "I'm like what happened to us, maybe I'm rapping to much" and "it's either you or this music but I can't make up my mind" are examples of how he can separate him as a star and as person without contradicting himself; the contrast between tracks like "Sky Club" and "Red Eye" are what makes K.R.I.T. so honest and so appealing. "Down & Out" is the last bit of fun he has before he touches down back home. The next two tracks, "Package Store" and "Temptation", deal with the problems of his home town, with topics like a crooked priest using church funds to buy hookers, drugs, and guns or the hood that told him he would never make it. "Handwriting" is all about how personal his music is to him and how no one will ever be able to take his style, and, I even clapped the first time I heard him say "2 free albums minus lable support, fired my publicist cause I forgot what I was paying him for". "Insomnia" is when he gets back home to his girl; it's a very sexual song and it's climax was probably just as fun for him as it was awkward for me but as an anticlimactic (it is and isn't) ending it just brings it back to being a true reality and so do the next two tracks (almost copies of the first two).

In terms of style K.R.I.T. is using more guitars the usual, he had on in the studio with him if I'm corrects, and tracks like "Boobie Miles" are a little more jazzy than he's ever gotten but no big changes are made on this tape. I would say the production on this album is less varied than all of his previous projects but because he's telling a story it makes seance for them to be able to cross over each other, a lot like chapters would in a book. The way he tells the story, and even his singing voice, makes me think he took more than a few cues from The Roots when he did that joint on their last album and I can't help but think that's part of the reason that this is my favorite project from him (see the above for more reasons).

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The Note Pad:

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Now this album comes in right after the end of the last trilogy (I will not make a "Phantom Menace" reference... okay fine I did). The reason I chose to review both of these albums together is because I think K.R.I.T. wanted the context for his firs major label debut to be different from where he started, so I had to bring it back to the start. He knows that "Cinematic Music Group" would not let his first radio record be as personal or as distant as his tapes, even  in connection with "Def Jam".

K.R.I.T. is not even trying to make a passion project here. Like any other artists who have changed their style, K.R.I.T. wants to try his hand at a pop-rap album. I try to stay away from that genre because of most of the artists coming out of it recently (I think we know who I'm talking about) but I will say that Kanye West's last album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", is one of my favorite Hip-Hop albums OF ALL TIME. So I thought about judging this on a curve because of what it is, a sort of "it's good for what it is" type of attitude but that wouldn't be fare to the readers or K.R.I.T. himself.

I can't just ask my self how well did he make this kind of album,I have to ask how much do I really like it? I had to avoid all forms of fanboyism to really get into this album, both good and bad. On first listen I found it so disappointing that I didn't even listen to it again until I decided to review it. I felt like the hooks where pretty corny and the beats where not as full as the tapes he putt out before, a comparison not worth making. Before this review, however, I hadn't listened to the tapes (because I listened to them way past enough to form an opinion any way) and after my second listen I was wondering what my problem was. Everything I didn't like was still there but I couldn't hate it nearly as much, at least for the majority of the album.

The single, "I Got This", was the perfect example of what I didn't like about this album but on the second listen (of the album) I was right with him on the hook (with K.R.I.T. on backup vocals); "fuck these hatas, fuck these hoes, fuck these hatas, fuck these hoes", shit he got me cookin' (behind the closed door of my room, of cores). The fist four tracks where just, catchy as hell, bangers and I'll credit "The Needle Drop" in saying "Big K.R.I.T. fight songs where you can't help but but cheer him on". The next track, "Money On the Floor", is easily the track he gave to "Capital" for the radio, but despite how bad the verses are (come on K.R.I.T., 2 Chainz, really?) it is remarkably produced. No matter how much I enjoyed the instrumentals on tracks 5 and 6, I just leave me tired of hearing K.R.I.T. spit below his level and I'm sad to say the next track hits me a little like that too (even though it sequels "My Sub" from "Return Of 4eva").  "Don't Let Me" is a fantastic pick me up though, with it's sole-full guitar solos and vocals in the back and K.R.I.T.'s singing on the hook is better then ever. He gets back to spitting verses like "Porin' up, I swear my liver never be the same, a pint of Hen'll help to ease the pain, world fucked up and I can't seem to leave he game". Sadly Anthony Hamilton delivers some really over-done vocals that sink the next track for me. "Pull up" hits only a little better than tracks 5 and 6 (mostly because of the great features) and "Yeah That's Me" feels like an annoying attempt to re-do "I Got This". The way the pitched vocals lay in the back of "Hydroplaning" make me want to turn off the album right there. The beat on "If I Fall" is beautiful and it reminds me a lot of "C.R.E.A.M.", from The Wu Tang Clan, but Melanie Fiona's hook is just awful and it almost sinks that track for me too. Thank God the album finished with 3 incredible tracks; "Rich Dad Poor Dad" is a great spoken word story with a beat that feels as beautiful as "If I Fall", B.B. King's vocals and lyrics add so much more to "Praying Man", and "Live from the Underground (Reprise)" just proves that K.R.I.T. can sing his hart out. It guides the album to its end perfectly.

I could have endless complaints about this album, I could rant about K.R.I.T. letting his record company stick its fingers too far into his album, and I could complain that the radio tracks aren't a good representation of the artist. The thing is that, just like his tapes, every track that he took full control of turned out so well that they have become some of his best for me and all the tracks I didn't like where only bad for small peaces of the album. Even with the huge sag in the middle of the album this managed to be a very solid release (and the first skit on this thing is hilarious, I can forgive him after a good laugh:)). This is an artists that gave me 3+ free albums and I think it's about time he gets paid so if you like this album pleas go and cop. it.
 
The Note Pad:

More Southern Hip-Hop: (this is a huge category and I'm not well versed in it; I also don't like a lot of it) Cunnin Linguists, Yelawolf, David Banner, Bun B, Ludacris, Outkast (Big Boi and Andre 3,000), Goodie Mob, UGK

Other artists you mite like: The Roots, Aesop Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Black Hippy, Ab-Soul, Danny Brown 

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Stray Suns and The State of Blues Rock

Blues Rock is one of the healthiest genres for this generation and will continue to be; “Blues Rock” being an operative term because it takes more work to find rock with out blues than with. Thanks to the first wave being the 60s with The Rolling stones, The Beatles (Revolver era), and of course (oh of course) The Jimi Hendrix Experience, it hasn't really had time to slow down. Dire Straits in the 70s, (later) Queen holding it on a thread in the 80s, jam bands like Blues Traveler with a 90s revival, and without question the 00s blues duo explosion (Thank you so much, The Kills, Black Keys and White Stripes). So now that we are in the 10s, what is the status of the genre and how does this apply to Stray Suns?

Simply writing off any band past the 60s straight blues rock is an insult to the genre. Somehow this genre has been able to keep copycats and simplifiers in the background in ways other forms of rock have failed. Thanks to the big three duos (mentioned above) every two piece band thinks they’re a prime blues rock group and every classic rock band thinks they’re Jimi Hendrix. Keeping my rant at bay, I can successfully say Stray Suns is ready to meet the expectations of their predecessors. Every new blues rock bands needs to meet a set of requirements (most of these apply to other genres as well.

Stray Suns Report Card ([x]=check [_]=nope (you don’t have to read this)

1. Originality: there are many different styles to pull from but you need to know the difference between copying and influences [x]

2. Clear Influence Outside of Blues: (the White Stripes AC/DCd the hell out it) [x]

3. Actual Emotion: fake whininess is the reason why music gets simplified too much to handle [x]

4. Disrespect the Hell Out of Your Inspirations: Do you really think music would go anywhere if we stuck to any “rules”. [x]

4. Screw Rules: Blues is as much of a statement as it is a form of music but it’s creators didn't care if anyone liked what they did, they just expressed their feelings strait to record. [x]

This is that part you put in your press kit v
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Stray Suns is a blues rock band and there is no question about it but they also managed to take the heart of grunge and crush in between their guitar strings. At times Jake’s vocals sound creepily similar to Eddie Vedder’s and every once in awhile you’ll hear a Stone Temple Pilots sounding riff sneak its way into the mix. Live they play out like you would expect jam bands like Blues Traveler would. Thanks to all the 90s influence is part of the reason that their version of Blues Rock is so hard to pin down and that’s what I’m looking for to start off the next decade of blues rock. I’m definitely a fan and that’s saying something because I’ve only heard them live and the three demos they’ve put on soundcloud. After seeing them live and knowing that they have more songs I have to ask... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?