SharingLungs music reviews.

[lostpilot]

Since I've got some spare time on my hands I decided to compose reviews of some of my favourite albums. Everyone else interested in sharing your reviews are welcome to post them here. Maybe that will help some of us to find new music to please our ears with.




   The Appleseed Cast - Low Level Owl, Volume I

What a fantastic album.

The delayed textures of soft guitars raise the sound like the sun rises on a warm late spring day, shaping the prologue and evident atmosphere - which in this album is essential and well constructed. Echoes and small fragile noises mixed with the intimate acoustic / electric guitar conversation creates this rare distanced scenery, a landscape filled with hope and stories. The first tiny steps in this story - 'On Reflection' - starts and finishes in a slow yet certain explosion of emotion and musicianship and then drops the listener into a somewhat deep end - 'Blind Man's Arrow' (with the glorious outro monotony), 'Flowers Falling From Dying Hands' (yet again fragile distanced sounds, reminiscent of silent walks in foggy forests) and 'Messenger' are really needy pieces of music, for a moment there seemingly misplaced in the album, yet serves a different (obviously, different from a general filler) purpose. As I see it, whole 'Low Level Owl' is mostly strong in architecture - songs flow one into the other with purpose and - yes - technical precision; so these three songs contain a bridge-like function, whereas the emotional "plot" suffers a twist at this point. To be honest, until I fully came in contact with the album's essence, I used to fast-forward these songs in my head.

'Doors Lead to Questions' - whilst still being a filler-type song serves another purpose - a mood changer and a prequel for the fantastic 'Steps and Numbers', which is pretty much the album's core - epic in every way, well-written and innovative. A spring breeze filled with a soft and stable emotion suddenly crashes into a repetition of moody self-discovery within the distance and the story this album is giving us. And even though one would think this final motif of 'Steps and Numbers' is the final boundary to the self-continuing album, the band pushes it through once again - upon 'Sentence', a mesmerizing reprise-like (in my eyes) track to once again reminiscence about the best things we ever had in our lives. At this point the album's emotional "plot" twists again, back to the self-contained distanced world the Appleseed Cast created with this album. 'Bird of Paradise' is different - an exquisite piece of experimental sounds (for me personally this track synchronizes better with the second part, 'Low Level Owl, Volume II' which is stronger in the pure form of experimental song-writing, while first part is stronger in the emotional "plot").

..and then - a sudden twist - 'Mile Marker' in a form of a light-rock band song, uplifting yet still within the structure of the album. This is an attribute I noticed in most of the Appleseed Cast's later albums (Low Level Owl, Peregrine, Sagarmatha) - the musicianship skills allow these guys to differentiate their music into two stable poles - an almost acoustic light rock-y sound with tambourines and hi-hats and the other - heavily effect-ed dreamy soundscapes; so pretty much all the music they make balance out in this equation, like - 'Mile Marker' is a light-rock song, 'Convict' is an effect-driven soundscape; equation fulfilled.

This band enjoys mixing in a lot of acoustic percussion, and of course, acoustic guitars (Christopher Crisci, the flagman of the Appleseed Cast proves this again with the dementia-driven acoustic solo project 'Old Canes'), so 'A Tree of Trials', as short as it is, fills our ears with a perfect example of what I call landscape-rock (or you could say space-rock, yet his genre is irrelevant in this context) - where the sound translates to you in a form of scenery. It is interesting how the album here reaches the "autumn" phase, while the first songs would strongly suggest background as early spring - or, sometimes, late summer. And then to finalize the atmosphere of a soft autumn day, 'Signal' sparkles like sunlight among reddish leaves and the final emotional "plot" twist and transformation holds place - this day which we experienced with this album is slowly dying, giving birth to 'View of a Burning City', where the flames licking this city are the red brushes of a lowering sun. A static, nostalgic, melancholic and even somewhat sad album closer is definitely one of my favorite the Appleseed Cast's songs.

The band easily and skillfully maintains the atmosphere, structure and emotional background of this absolutely amazing album. Definitely in top five of my all-time favorites. Thank you, the Appleseed Cast, for giving birth to this flawless piece of music.

   The Appleseed Cast - Low Level Owl, Volume II

'Low Level Owl, Volume II' picks up where Volume I left us - on a stranded scenery in our ears with a dying autumn day as a setting. As I see it, the transition between volumes I and II is a somewhat transition from a distant reality to an intimate dream within the same rules and atmosphere. Of course, when talking about the album generally one has to wonder why the second part of this epic duo is a little weaker (though stronger on the experimenting on sounds, but lacks the finality of emotion that volume I presents us). Of course, the second volume is constructed in a similar flowing manner, yet still there is something missing.

'Strings' sets the tone, an intimate and moody repetition-like dream-scape, until - a "backward" emotion inversion ('Steps and Numbers' in my eyes had a "forward" inversion - content/happy changed with moody/self-contained), moody/self-contained becomes a more uplifting light-rock sound with 'A Place in Line' (in the context of bands discography, I see this song as a prequel to 'Peregrine'-like sound). Uplifting singing, a glimpse of a spring breeze that surrounded us during Volume I, until a transformation to an autumn-textured 'Shaking Hands' (well, we have to agree that this band writes perfectly shaped transitions to create this flowing feeling - especially in the second part of Volume II, where you simply get lost in the crescendo-like pulse of depth of the distance this album locks us in.

'Rooms and Gardens' is highly reminiscent of 'A Tree for Trials' with the self-contained autumn atmosphere; and you would dare to expect this song to be a short filler-like piece, yet it bursts out into full scape of sound and generally becomes the central piece of this album (at least for now, until the second part kicks in and confuses our senses to the maximum). There is something really catchy about those rooms and gardens, wives and mothers that attracts us to go by the band's rules, to simply obey and not question the sound and where is it going. And this song gives prelude (yet ends in a manner which is reminiscent of 'View of a Burning City' finale) to the "confusing" part of the album, where the confusion lies within a perfectly chosen mixture of sound levels, layers and reverbation. It changes like a text-driven movie changes into a quite radical sequence of silent surreal images.

'Ring Out the Warning Bell', 'Sunset Drama King' and 'The Last in a Line' keeps us wondering in a instrumental progression of the atmosphere. The first song of this trio is a mixture of everything we've heard before in both volumes of LLO - a deconstructed cut-beat waves turn into a compound of well written percussion, delayed guitar moves and keys (which is one of the general elements to join both volumes in sound). Then again, a continuing feeling in 'Sunset Drama King', an evolving story like instrumental piece where a lack of vocals is an excellent choice - it's again an example of post-rock built collision of sounds (which the listeners encounter more often in 'Peregrine' ('Sunlit and Ascending, 'The Clock and the Storm', etc)). The song fades out into a phenomenal passage of noise which always confused me (in context of whole album sequence). I remember numerous times where I'd get lost in this noise and would always think that this is the final transition towards 'Confession'; until 'The Last in a Line' fades in slowly, a clearly experimental soundscape, bumping back and forth with that enormous bass-line. I've always seen this part of volume II as a prelude to the finale; a sign that this part LLO is coming to an end and a recurring theme (seeing the album as a curve, where the beginning is repeated in the end; to me 'The Last in a Line' contains the recurring themes from volume I).

To be honest, at this point I would think that the album lacks finality, but to my pleasure a certain combination of emotion-driven 'Decline' and 'The Argument' proves me wrong - it's like a step both forward and back: through the confusion of the "second block" of the album to the end, and back to the more direct approach towards the listener. 'The Argument', while being a little less immersive comes to an epilogue too soon (for a third or fourth time in this album), and the band tricks us again - with yet another upcoming wave of sound, 'Reaction', you could say, a final song to whole LLO - and this, sadly, is a little disappointing. The second volume of 'Low Level Owl' lacks finality, a strong bracket to finish the album, cause all we have is 'Reaction' and 'Confession' (which is only enjoyable for first couple of minutes).  The only sign of finality of recurring world of LLO is the drumming - 'Reaction' and 'View of a Burning City' share the same mesmerizing drumming pattern, but that is pretty much it.

Maybe this lack of finality was created on purpose - to keep the pulse of the emotional depth of this album, to leave the listener confused and somewhat unfulfilled so one could "create" a personal end to this masterpiece. All in all, volume II does not fully keep up with volume I, yet still presents a quite interesting variety of experimentation and musicianship.

[ben]

I'm seeing both of those albums played back to back live in 3 weeks.  Wa na na....

[lostpilot]

I'm seeing both of those albums played back to back live in 3 weeks.  Wa na na....

I know, it sucks that it's only played in USA. I'm quite down cause I can't see them live performing LLO, and probably won't ever be able to. Sucks to  be me.

[ben]

=( yea sorry for rubbing it in.  I'll try to film some highlights though.

[_Fireal_]

Wrote this in 08.  It's short because of limited space in the publication.



Coheed and Cambria: No World for Tomorrow (2007)

From acoustic soundcapes to adrenaline fueled guitar solos, Coheed and Cambria's latest album is ripping guitar heroism out of video games and cementing it back to its foundation: music.  If contemporary rock albums are leaving you dissatisfied and out in the cold after fifteen minutes and 15 dollars, No World for Tomorrow is a refreshing blast of music that's sure to get your fingers burning for air guitar once again.  This is Co & Ca's fourth studio album, and in my opinion their most dynamic.  My personal favorite songs include: No World for Tomorrow; The Running Free; Gravemakers and Gunslingers; and The End Complete III: The End Complete.

On this record, Coheed and Cambria push the boundaries of multiple genres, ultimately settling into progressive rock/metal territory.  Lead singer/guitar player Claudio Sanchez's vocals achieve new heights, so much so that on current tours he has three female backup singers accompanying him on stage. Both Travis Stever and Claudio Sanchez continue to prove that they have a seemingly endless supply of original guitar riffs at their disposal. Also of note: 10 out the 13 songs have blistering solos.

If you're tired of the recycled "music" that dominates modern radio, listen to this album with an open mind.  You won't be disappointed.

[Jacob]

I'll go ahead and sticky this, hopefully it'll help keeping it going.

[BBfan]

I did one on Backstreet Boys' latest disc but I'm sure no one wants to read that so I won't post it up. 

[E-Money]

I did one on Backstreet Boys' latest disc but I'm sure no one wants to read that so I won't post it up. 

does BBfan stand for Backstreet Boys Fan?

[BBfan]

does BBfan stand for Backstreet Boys Fan?

While I am a fan, it actually doesn't. (Never thought about that honestly) It's Breaking Benjamin (I suppose that doesn't make it any better? lol)

I swear,  I don't have horrible taste in music! 

[Saturday Night Whiskey999]

I did one on Backstreet Boys' latest disc but I'm sure no one wants to read that so I won't post it up. 

post or youre lying.

[black coffee]

I did one on Backstreet Boys' latest disc but I'm sure no one wants to read that so I won't post it up. 

post or youre lying.

[bright lights, big city]

we can only hope it's a review of the classic "Millenium" album

[BBfan]

post or youre lying.

we can only hope it's a review of the classic "Millenium" album

Are you guys actually serious? Haha. Sorry to disappoint Bright Lights, it's of their latest - This is Us.

If you guys really want... I apologize for it's length:


Genre: Pop
Release Year: 2009

With six albums, numerous hit singles, and over ten years on the road under their belt, the Orlando, Florida quartet, Backstreet Boys return with their seventh release, This Is Us.

A promise to return to the euro-dance-pop sound of their early work, This Is Us completely rids itself of the rock-driven ballads of 2005's Never Gone in favour of a more modernized take on the pop, dance and R&B - laden hooks of their roots. The end result is a band rediscovering and revitalizing their sound.

First track and lead single, "Straight Through My Heart" is evident of this new found confidence. Starting off with a staccato dance beat, you soon hear the crooning of Brian Littrell's soulful vocals before the beat is accompanied by "drums" and the song takes off with one of many get-stuck in your-head choruses. A catchy number to begin with, and it is assurance to old school fans that BSB is back and stronger than ever.

"Bigger" is a sing-song track slightly reminiscent of those on their first and second CDs. While this track may seem out of place within the whole context of the CD it is one of the stronger, as the harmonization is more present (though you do have to listen for it) and it doesn't ride on a "hot beat" (but it does have another catchy chorus).  Title track, "This is Us" slows down the dance-party with a beautiful, piano laden track showcasing the stunning talent (honestly, why didn't they give him more parts!?) of the "Latin crooner", Howie Dorough. While "This is Us" may not be another "I Want It That Way", it is still a stand-out track and one of BSB's stronger ballads of their later CDs.

With all the catchiness, and soulful balladry to be found on this seventh outing, there are also a few missteps. "Masquerade" seems more of a potential B-side to Unbreakable or even their earlier CD's than a track deserving of a spot on this album. Starting with a "You're listening to..." type introduction by a producer, it quickly goes into an up-tempo, bass-pounding staccato beat that ultimately seems to go nowhere. Also, add on the cringe-worthy chorus of:

"It's a Masquerade / a love parade / so won't you stay / and dance with me all through the night and day / a masquerade / I need you babe / so stay with me tonight"

And you have one of BSB's worst songs. I know the boys aren't known for their lyrics, but this song is just plain bad and definitely not up to par with what they can do. Another (major) misstep is "She's a Dream" which was produced by T-Pain. The reason I mention that is because it sounds like a T-Pain track that didn't make the cut on his album. With a horrible, odd African sounding "Hoo-Hah!" beat, a partial auto-tune section (AJ McLean gets the honours) and the unsettling notion of Nick Carter and co., using the word "Shorty", this track earns the title as worst on the CD.

All in all, with all its pop, dance and R&B hooks, This Is Us isn't necessarily a return to form; there are no "Get Down", "Quit Playing Games with My Heart" or "As Long As You Love Me" type songs to catapult them to the top again. However, after ten plus years, they don't need that kind of success. And while it may be a grower, This Is Us is successful in itself, in that it illustrates the sound and confidence of a band finding themselves refreshed, remembering why they started and why they continue to do what they love, create good ol' pop music.

Rating: 3.5/5

[Saturday Night Whiskey999]

didnt read everything, but this album sounds promissing.

A come back? maybe, cos theyre from the backstreet. but Im a member of FAG, the Front Avenue Guys.

[Deftones-argentina]

Actually my first cd was the fisrt backstreet boys album (yeah I said that shit).

I'd like to see Sl member reviewing SL bands. Who has a band here? (besides decapod's, which I'll do the rundown as soon as the cd is out) I want to try to write something.

[lostpilot]

well you could always review my upcoming Constellations, or any other album, but I'm not sure it would get much praise, lol

[Deftones-argentina]

well you could always review my upcoming Constellations, or any other album, but I'm not sure it would get much praise, lol

why so unsure about constellations?

[lostpilot]

well you could always review my upcoming Constellations, or any other album, but I'm not sure it would get much praise, lol

why so unsure about constellations?

well, I was unsure until some point when people started to say good things to me.
Is anyone maybe maybe maybe going to review it?

[blixa]

i love the backstreet boys. i get so mad when people say nsync were/are better. no, they ain't!

[Deftones-argentina]

I don't know lady, 5ive had its moments, too.