Belle and Sebastian: The Third Eye Centre

Belle and Sebastian (Belle & Sebastian?) is an indie-pop group from Glasgow.  After a four year hiatus the band reunited and put out Write About Love in 2010.  Now, about three years later they released Third Eye Centre, a compilation of singles, bonus tracks, and B-sides released since their last compilation of singles, bonus tracks and B-sides Push the Barman to Open Old Wounds.

When you first get the album, it's impossible to ignore the case.  The art work is typical of Belle and Sebastian--still doing the weird monochromatic photograph thing--but the actual case is a hardback book cover (appropriate since there are songs from the Books EP, but I think I just delight in minutiae).  Anyways, the album insert has, instead of lyrics, little stories about the songs.

Figure 1.1-A picture of the album, a stack of CD's I have to

to review, aftershave, and a painting left by the previous
occupants of my house.

Some of these tracks might be familiar if you're an inconsistently obsessive fan boy like me (meaning I tracked down most their singles once, but I still don't own two of their albums because I don't have any money).  The Avalanches reworked "I'm a Cuckoo" for a single in 2004 leads the album with a Sudanese choir in the background, along with bongos and a triangle (possibly a cowbell, but I have no proof).  There is a lead flute that hangs just behind Murdoch's vocals, twisting the melody to a catchy riff (jazz flute is for little fairy boys).

While we're talking about remixes, we have to address the remix of "You're Cover's Blown," which I prefer to the original.  By giving the song a strong kick drum on all four beats and emphasizing the synthesizer and keyboard riffs, Miaoux Miaoux makes this into dance music for people having a terrible time while they dance.  As I say that I realize this is probably the least appealing song to listen to while you dance--especially if you're trying to actually have fun--but it's still a remix that works.  

Richard X also remixes "I Didn't See It Coming," which is probably my least favorite of all the remixes.  For some reason it reminds me of a less edgy version of the remix of "Escape From the City" that was in Sonic generations.

It's easy to see that some of these tracks wouldn't have fit on their intended album (specifically "The Life Pursuit," which was removed from the album The Life Pursuit), but the tracks are all strong enough to justify releasing them on this compilation.  "Suicide Girls" tells the story (from the dude's perspective) of a girl who asks her friend to take her picture for the site Suicide Girls (no, I will not post a link).  Sure this guy's a little possessive of a girl he's never actually explained his feelings to, but it's so catchy--and 80s, very, very 80's with it's synths and chorus pedals.

The one thing this album really lacks is flow--I know it's a compilation of previous recordings, but go with me on this.  There are times where songs go from one to the next very well, from "Your Secrets" to "Heaven in the Afternoon" things go pretty smoothly.  But after that there is a rough jump from "Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House" to the Richard X remix of "I Didn't See It Coming."  There are some sections grouped together by what single they were on (the "White Collar Boy" single and "I'm a Cuckoo" single), but the rest are scattered.  It seems like there are these chunks whiwhere things all come from the same era, followed by sections that mix together better.  It seems like they really tried to create coherence, but I think they just didn't quite get there.

It's not a new recording, but it is nice to have these songs collected.  I'd put it at a B or a B-minus (8/10: is that a B-minus because my teacher says C+).  That's another album down.  If you listened to it, how did you feel?  Was this review good for anything?  Did you print it out to use as toilet paper (why would you do that)?  What should I review next?

Hint: I'm reviewing a Pity Sex album so get ready for that--or give me an alternative if you want to hear my opinion (for some reason).  Leave it all in the comments friends, thanks for reading.

The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Whenever, If Ever

The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die is a group from Connecticut, and their first album is a post-rock influenced version of early to middle 90s emo music.  This band specifically reminds me of Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate with their vocal stylings--slightly off key vibrato.

While I'm thinking of Mineral, bands don't really use dynamics as much as they could, and Mineral was different in that regard. When I heard The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, I noticed how their songs build--and not just from loud to louder.  I think the swells in their music give each song weight.  "Ultimate Steve" rises from start to finish, and by the end I got chills.  The opening track "Blank #9" uses a quiet cello and percussion to create ambient noise, building tension and making the lone guitar line that much more tense.

The World Is A Beautiful Place separates from Mineral and Sunny Day Real Estate (the two comparisons that are most relevant to me) with their instrumentation and their sense of humor.  The synthesizer is reminiscent of The Get Up Kids or early Motion City Soundtrack, and on the track "Fightboat" (dude, what is a fightboat anyways?) the synth riff layers over the guitar, giving it a quicker, triumphant feeling.  As for humor, all you need to look at is their song titles, "You Will Never Go to Space," "Picture of a Tree That Doesn't Look Okay," and (my personal favorite) "Ultimate Steve."

"Ultimate Steve" isn't a funny song at all when you consider the lyrics: "Eventually, the world’s gonna end. We should stop our grieving."  The title sets a tone though.  This band reminds us that you can be serious without taking yourself too seriously.  For that, I'd call this an 8/10.

That's album #1 from Soundsupp.ly, and so far I don't hate myself.  If you've heard this album, tell me what you thought in the comments.  Don't forget to tell me how I did too?  Was this a helpful review (probably not)?

Let me know in the comments what you think I should review next (though I do have something planned).

Snoop Lion's Reincarnated

  Snoop Dogg made a pilgrimage to Jamaica and came back as Snoop Lion.  Now Snoop Lion has released the album Reincarnated.  This is Snoop's attempt at Reggae, which seems appropriate given his penchant for smoking weed.

     There is some part of me that would really love to hate this album.  Every track features at least one guest artist.  Miley Cyrus and Drake made appearances, and I've never liked either of them.  Snoop also had (according to an article by Drew Magary on GQ's website) top 40 aspirations with this collection of songs.  For these reasons, part of me--probably the part of me stuck in high school screaming about how much Geffen records suck--would love to hate this album.  But I don't hate this album, because none of the previously listed reasons have anything to do with the quality of the music.

Lyrically it's very positive, particularly on tracks like "So Long," and "The Good Good."  "Fruit Juice" is literally about juice, but it's also about the benefits of a natural diet.

This is a reggae album, and there are times where it barely feels like one.  Snoop Lion's album does not push the limits of the genre, it just feels the reggae influence is mixed into the background.  This is particularly true on the opening track, "Rebel Way."  There is a lot of emphasis on the vocals, which distracts from the rest of the instrumentation.

I'm not really a fan of Major Lazer's production on this album.  Most of the time I found his background noises distracting.  On "Here Comes the King" there was more empty space, and that only helped the track.  Probably my favorite song on the album would be "The Good Good," with "Tired of Running" and "Here Comes the King" as close followers.  The other songs feel a little thick and they don't leave much empty space for the music to build around.

When I sat down to write this review I had listened to a bit of Bob Marley and a little Desmond Decker.  I also read the up on reggae, starting with the Wikipedia page.  To me, this album feels--at least part of the time--like someone looked at the Wikipedia entry for reggae, put in a few elements of the genre, and then mixed them into the background of the music.

My biggest criticism of this album would be its lack of staying power.  After five times listening to this album, I can only really remember a few songs ("Smoke the Weed" and "Fruit Juice"), and I could live my life without ever hearing another song off this album again.   Honestly Reincarnated is not very good, but it's not like it's offensively bad--what I really mean is this album elicits no emotional response from me.  If I had to assign a number I'd say 4/10.

My question to you is, if you've listened to this album, did you love it, hate it, or feel like I did?  What would help me better understand what this album was going for?  What contemporary reggae artists can you recommend?  And finally, what should I review next?



Sources:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201301/snoop-lion-snoop-dogg-profile-gq-january-2013?currentPage=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae  (Yes I really did read this)