Am I Old, Or Is This What Music Is Now?

It feels as if I am reminded that I see the world differently than most everyone each and every time I open my mouth. There isn't much I can say that doesn't get met with derision by someone, leaving me floating alone on an island of opinion that makes me wonder if I will ever learn to swim well enough to make it to the opposite shore. It isn't that I want to be a conventional thinker, or that I have a deep desire to fit in with the popular crowd, but I would like to be able to feel excited about what is going on these days.

Music, among many other things, feels like it is slipping away from me. I hear talk about what is becoming the next big thing, and when I go to explore for myself, I wind up more confused than when I hadn't heard about such things at all.

That's what I'm facing as I listened to LS Dunes new album. I saw multiple outlets calling it a remarkable album from one of the best new bands on the scene. The critical acclaim was nearly universal, so surely in a time when music has been so disappointing, this was going to be an easy way for me to score a win. Right?

Well... you can already guess how that went.

Their album left me asking a nor familiar question; What happened to songs? As I went through the album, track after track was guitar textures and flat vocals. Not a single riff or melody had anything close to a hook to it. Everything that made the emo scene the album is paying homage to fun is completely absent, replacing the dark eyeliner and frosted tips with the grey haze of looking in a mirror whose silver backing has rotted away through time.

For the life of me, I don't understand what other people are hearing in this music that makes them rave. I have long thought there is a type of person who doesn't actually have taste, and who will praise anything they assume took talent to make. That is the best explanation I can come up with for the praise LS Dunes has gotten. If I let myself believe people truly thought these songs were examples of great songwriting, I would have given up on trying to write my own music many years ago. Given my failure, I probably should have.

This is not exclusive to LS Dunes. There is another critical darling who falls into this category. Ethel Cain received raves for her "Preacher's Daughter" album, and went to make a massive 'artistic' statement with her 89 minute long EP, "Perverts". The reviews have been more mixed, but plenty of critics still laud her for her efforts, and they convince me the theory that we experience sensory information differently has to be true.

Her record is an exercise in drone, by way of 'pop'. We've gotten to the point where that word is meaningless, as the only thing pop about her record is the sound you make trying to clear your ears, because you are certain you must have a sinus infection if this is actually what she intended to make. Time stretches on with barely any notes being played, just washes of noise that feel as if we accidentally put an LP on at the wrong speed. She is making music that is not musical at all, and doing so in the dullest way possible. At least when Scott Walker went out of his mind, the atonal artistic bullshit he produced had a flair for absurdity.

Ethel Cain's music is more akin to holding your hand over a candle to see how close to setting your skin on fire you can come. Eventually, the nerves get damaged, and you can smell your own flesh cooking. Of course, that is more interesting than her music, because at least you can notice when something is going wrong. Cain's music is one long soundtrack to lobotomy.

So as I listened to both of these bits of music, I found myself asking what the heck I'm doing. If this is what music now is, and this is what fans and critics are willing to praise as greatness, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. Trends come and go, but I had always thought there was a fundamental base-line where we still expected the sounds of the day to be put atop actual songs. But no more.

And so I'm feeling rather distressed, and out-of-place. Something will come along to pull me back into believing music still has a future, but I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure when.

It better hurry its ass up.

Album Review: Spiders - "Sharp Objects"

It seems like every year in music, we’re forced to grapple with the same question - is something new still good even if it’s a copy of something that has come before?

Not an easy subject to tackle, certainly - especially when digital recording technology effectively ceases the aging process of music - audio recorded digitally from thirty years ago sounds, within reason, just as vibrant now as it did then.  On the off chance it doesn’t, well, time to run it through a re-mix, repackage it, and sell it again as ‘digitally remastered,’ which, coincidentally, just about every rock band from the ol’ analog days has done to gin up some royalties.

Attentive readers can probably already tell where this discussion is headed…yeah. there’s a new Spiders album.

Spiders has been worthy of keeping on the radar ever since their single “Mad Dog” more than ten years ago.  The song was a glimpse of a Swedish rock band on the come up, and every successive album gives these little tastes of the band that Spiders could be.  Cynically, it remains true that they have yet to display the kind of consistency that makes for a transcendent act, but there’s always one or two songs that stand out.

“Sharp Objects,” the band’s newest effort, ends up emerging from much the same mold.  The album begins with great promise with “Rock n Roll Band” (not a cover of the Boston song “Rock & Roll Band,”) with an edgy chorus and bitten verses set against some honest-to-goodness rock riffs.  

That promise comes back toward the end, with “Love Yourself to Death,” which is the best song on the record, and frustratingly exemplifies all the talent and knack that Spiders can bring to bear when the stars align.  These two songs are everything that Spiders can be - high energy riffs, easy choruses, fun themes and lyrics, and good pacing.

Frustrating though, because most everything else on the record sounds like something else, and not in a complimentary way.  “Fun in the Sun” sounds like a Rolling Stones song, “Valentines” wants to be Bob Seger, and “What’s Your Game (Miss Insane)” borrows heavily from the early days of the Clash and the Kinks.

And they’re all fine for what they are - they’re not flawed in any way, except that they don’t exceed the memory of the acts they borrow from.  A Rolling Stones fan might enjoy the bulk of “Sharp Objects” for a while, but before too long, they’re just going to go back to their Rolling Stones vinyl and move on, because those songs are either more familiar, better, or both.

Which loops us back to the question we discussed at the beginning - is something new still good even if it sounds like an imitation of what has come before.  The answer, in the case of “Sharp Objects” is yes, it can be good…but not compelling.

All credit in the world to Spiders for trying their best to keep this particular brand of lighthearted, two-beat rock alive.  There’s a billion bands out there who mistakenly think the world needs another Quiet Riot clone, so it’s refreshing in its own way to hear rock and roll taken, if not all the way back to Elvis and Chuck Berry, at least to its most celebrated form.  Since those celebrated albums still resonate, though, and with bands like countrymen Graveyard advancing the genre…it’s hard to see where Spiders and “Sharp Objects” will have a lasting impact.

Singles Roundup: Bob Mould, Laurenne/Louhimo, Harem Scarem, & Elton John

Let's dig into the grab-bag today and see what goodies we can find.

Bob Mould – Here We Go Crazy/Neanderthal

Here is one of those artists I should like, but really don't. Mould's thick guitars and shimmering 'pop' overtones are a combination that should hit me pretty hard. Instead, I listen to his music and can't quite get the point of how it's put together. I occasionally put on "Sunshine Rock", and I can hear the pieces of a fun record, even if it doesn't quite work. These songs previewing his upcoming album don't have that feeling anymore. Listening to these, especially "Neanderthal", gives me great pause for what the trend of the day is going to be. That will come up again later. The point is that the mix of the song is a complete detriment to its own success. The guitars are their usual saturated wash, but Mould's voice is put so low in the mix he is barely audible. The pop element is therefore utterly thrown away, leaving the song to be practically nothing but droning guitar chords. That alone is not enough to be interesting, and these two songs prove the point. I don't get it.

Laurenne/Louhimo - Damned

And here is where I question my ears. I liked the first collaborative album these two ladies put together, thinking it was one of the better melodic metal records to showcase such powerful singers in recent times. I was happy to hear a new one is coming, but this first song leaves me in the same position as Bob Mould's singles. I like this song, and I think it fits in well with their previous catchy yet heavy sound. The problem is that the production puts their voices low in the mix, to the point where I feel like I am straining to hear them. For an album named after the singers, and for having two exceptional voices, they need to be the centerpiece. And yet, it seems like several releases in recent times have been turning down the vocals. If that is the trend of this moment in time, I am not happy. The melodies need to be at the front, and this song sounds like two ladies holding themselves back. That's a disappointment.

Harem Scarem – Reliving History

If you ask me what the best melodic rock album of the last ten-ish years is, I'll tell you it was Harem Scarem's latestn, "Change The World". That album is absolutely glorious, with passionate vocals and massive hooks. There isn't word yet if this song is the first tease of a full album, but we can only hope it is. They don't change the formula at all, with the elements of this song sounding possibly too familiar if you've heard their last couple records. Harry Hess delivers a gritty vocal that never veers into sounding forced, the melody is immediately catchy, and the vibe is one of uplifting positivity. There aren't a lot of rock bands whose mere sound is that of a smile, but Harem Scarem of recent years is one of them. This is a little nugget of gold, in that regard.

Elton & Brandi – Who Believes In Angels?

This song is one of those bits that reminds us there is a line where sharing becomes oversharing. Elton John and Brandi Carlisle have made a collaborative album, and this first single announces that in grand fashion. The soaring melodies in the chorus are absolutely lovely, and the core of the song reminds me of my favorite late-career Elton work. The "Songs From The West Coast"/"Peachtree Road"/"The Captain & The Kid" trilogy was as good as anything he had ever done, and this song is ripped from that sense. There is a slight issue with the song running out of steam and ending on a weak note, but that doesn't hold it back much. The bigger issue is the press release mentioning that they set themselves a challenge of making the album in twenty days. I don't know why they would mention that, because it gives us the impression they weren't holding themselves to a standard. If they record happened to take that long, it was a bout of inspiration. By setting it as a limit, it is all they could do in that time. It's a built-in criticism if we wind up thinking the record isn't good enough. That's too easy a target to shoot at.

Album Review: Ginger Evil - The Way It Burns

There are certain sounds that echo in our heads, that remind us of feelings we had that may be long dead and buried. Time brings with it changes, and sometimes the distance that now exists between us and the artists we listen to masks the memories of how important those times were. As people drift away, we tend to downplay the importance of those memories to save ourselves the constant reminders of what is now lost to us. Metaphor gives us the rose-colored glasses that makes pieces of the past look better than the used to, but there is also a smoky grey lens that keeps us from wanting to look into the rear-view mirror.

When I think about the way pop music and I have drifted apart, there are a few touchstone artists who convince me pop music was not always a poison to me. Among those, one of my favorite strings of hit songs belongs to Pink. There was something about the tone of her voice as she sang tracks like "Sober" and "Just Like A Pill" that unlocked bits of myself that would later be shut off from the world. That infatuation would not persist as the nature of pop music changed, but Pink's voice would always have that same appeal to me. She is one of those few special voices to me.

That is what makes Ginger Evil so interesting to me. As the record played for the first time, the overwhelming thought I had was the unmistakable similarity between Ella Tepponen's voice and that of Pink. And as the record shifted from its harder rocking start to a softer ending, there were moments that felt almost exactly like those days of yore.

"The Way It Burns" is one of those albums that gets better as it unfolds, where the second half is the more interesting one. The classic rock riffs that open the record are a fine canvas, but it's the ballads and acoustic guitars that give Ginger Evil even more strength. As the mix clears out, the talents of each member are given more room to shine. The shimmering guitar tones, the melodic playing, and yes, the excellent vocal performance. Ginger Evil settles into a space where they are balancing on the edge between classic rock and what I consider the heyday of pop.

"Arrowhead" is the first stunning track on the record, a sparse ballad that puts all the attention on Ella's voice. Not every singer can shine when given so much of the spotlight, but she does so with aplomb. It's the kind of performance that made me take notice, and single-handedly puts this group on the list of bands to watch, because few can match that moment of clarity. You have to appreciate those times when they comes, because you don't know the next time you'll hear one.

Ginger Evil says that the song is everything, and as a songwriter myself I appreciate that sentiment. Too often, you hear bands who are trying to fit their songs into a pre-conceived idea of what they are supposed to sound like. They are the bands who are trying to make songs heavy for the sake of being heavy, who up the volume when we need to hear more dynamics. Ginger Evil clearly rock, but they let the songs dictate where the production goes. The guitars move from light to heavy as needed, which gives the record an ebb and flow that makes it a more thrilling ride.

Closing with the chiming ballad "Wake Me", Ginger Evil saves the best for last. The song is four minutes of nostalgia for an era of pop music I didn't always realize meant as much to me as it did. While maybe the band won't appreciate how much I am focusing on this comparison, "Wake Me" could fit into a compilation of Pink's greatest hits without missing a beat. I mean that as the most sincere of compliments. That song is so damn good.

Perhaps it's fitting that the album comes out on Valentine's Day, because in what has been a slow start to this year, Ginger Evil has made this grinch's heart grow a few sizes.

Album Review: Lacuna Coil - "Sleepless Empire"

Every time there’s a new Lacuna Coil album, I think back to the very first lyrical line of the very first track from 2014’s “Broken Crown Halo,” the anthemic and powerful single “Nothing Stands in Our Way”:

We’re still struggling / halfway through this journey.

Now, I don’t think that lyric was meant to be taken literally, but the second half of that line is worthy of some examination.  Dated back to their first EP, Lacuna Coil had been a going concern for sixteen years at the time of “Broken Crown Halo,” and it’s been eleven years since that remark was recorded.

That’s not to say that anyone believes Lacuna Coil has only five or so years left, far from it.  They can go as long as they feel compelled to do so.  It does, however, serve as a benchmark reminder of how far the band has come, and gives perspective to where they may see themselves now and in the future.

Which all serves as a backdrop to the following question that has plagued Lacuna Coil for years, and will not be abated by their new album “Sleepless Empire”: what band does Lacuna Coil want to be?  (In defense of the band, their sole answer to this question should rightfully be “whatever damn band we want.” I ask the question only as a means to frame how I believe the oft-conflicted and occasionally argumentative Lacuna Coil-imbibing public will react to this record.)

There have been multiple answers to this question over the decades, as the band transitioned through multiple phases of their identity.  The began as the revolutionary progenitors of what has since become known as ‘beauty-and-the-beast metal’ (a silly epithet, but one that seems entrenched now,) transitioned through to being something of a commercial pop metal band with a growling backup singer, and then into their third personality as an emotional and ragged metal storm, culminating in the masterpiece album  “Delirium.”  

Ultimately, the answer to that question that “Sleepless Empire” provides is that Lacuna Coil is all three of those bands in their turn, and the band is confident enough and experienced enough to be able to deftly balance all those elements into something that flows with purpose for the duration of an album.

Three of the first four cuts on this new record illustrate that very point - the opener, “The Siege” brings to mind the days of the persistent beat of “Shallow Life,” followed by the powerfully discordant “Oxygen,” a song with a hammering pulse but also a vaulted, accessible chorus, and then skip one down to “Scarecrow” and hear a song that lives somewhere in the valley between the other two.

Ah, but then the listener gets to “Gravity,” and hears for the first time a song that Lacuna Coil might not have been able to write eleven years ago.  It’s the first and most genuine synthesis of all their career phases that grace “Sleepless Empire.”  A mid-tempo, minor-keyed singalong rich with drama and heavy on power, the song is the amalgam of “Heaven’s a Lie,” “Cybersleep” and “Take Me Home.”  Spoiler, it is the album’s best triumph, the song that is most capable of tearing away the short attention span of the modern listener, that they may be consumed with the sound.

Don’t let it be sold short, though - “Sleepless Empire” brings more to the table than the single song.  Directly after “Gravity” is the wide open and almost bouncy “I Wish You Were Dead,” a song not presented with the dire tones that the title would suggest.  By contrast to what we’ve talked about to this point, “I Wish You Were Dead” is airy and light and breezy, brimming with the sort of retro-’80s goth rock beat that’s been made very fashionable by bands like Lord of the Lost.

Before we tarry too long, there’s one more song worth mentioning - “In Nomine Patris,” which rumbles with the kind of straight-ahead pummeling that so characterized “Broken Crown Halo,” which only merits mention since that’s how we started this whole conversation.

There is an inimitable truth to Lacuna Coil, which is that they’ve always been a singles band.  Each album has two or three outstanding songs, and whatever remains ranges from forgettably average to pleasantly good.  “Sleepless Empire” has some of those same hallmarks - not every song is going to hit.  However, by virtue of its versatility and reflection of the band’s entire career to this point, this may be the first Lacuna Coil album where different singles will hit for different people.  Time will tell.

Twenty-seven years into what the band loosely predicted would be a thirty-two year career, we see Lacuna Coil at a crossroads stylistically, but rather than be paralyzed by choice, they’ve chosen the most difficult but most rewarding road; the attempt to be all those choices at once.  A less experienced, less confident band could not have made “Sleepless Empire” into the success it is.

Singles Roundup: The Darkness, Rise Against, Avantasia, & Rexoria

The start of the year has been a bit slow. Let's see what the ol' grab bag of singles has in store for us.

The Darkness - Rock & Roll Party Cowboy

Have you ever had a band that made you question your sanity? The Darkness is doing that for me. I still love "Permission To Land", but everything they've done since then has me wondering if I was suffering from temporary insanity. That reaches a fever pitch here, as they have finally hit the bottom of the barrel. This tuneless mess has the most boring talk-vocal I may have ever heard, as it not only has no melody to it, but it doesn't even say anything interesting. If this is supposed to be a party, it's a suicide party. I imagine if this song had been written at the time, it would have been enough to convince even more people to join the Heaven's Gate cult as they drank the poisoned Kool-Aid. I know The Darkness doesn't take themselves seriously, but how can you be tongue-in-cheek without having an ounce of humor in it? This song is a mime at an open-mic night; it's going to get beat up in the alley when it goes to take a leak.

Rise Against - Nod

I'm a bigger fan of the band's last two albums than a lot of people, which means this new single should be rather exciting. There's something rather disappointing about it, though. We are once again feeling like the world is on edge, and this song doesn't have the same energy or anger we expect from Rise Against. It feels tame, and with a production that pushes the vocal further back in the mix, it leaves the experience sounding soft and fuzzy rather than sharp and aggressive. With no album announced, it's odd for a one-off song to be so lackluster. Did the band feel this was the strongest statement they could be making right now? I suppose they must, but that invites even more questions. All I can say for now is that I'm nodding my head in disappointment, not in agreement.

Avantasia - Against The Wind

Every album Tobi puts out has at least one song that is power metal by-the-numbers. That's what this one is, and once again it leaves me feeling flat. Avantasia plays with many other styles of rock and metal, and I prefer pretty much all of them to the generic nature of this. The constant high vocals through the choruses are not my cup of tea, and have never been. Couple that with riffs that are the basic chugging kind offering no hook of their own, and it leaves the song without a focal point that can keep my interest. I was already nervous about the album just because of the dragon theme, but now I'm concerned the slow separation between my taste and Tobi's is reaching critical mass.

Rexoria - Mesmerize

A couple years ago, Rexoria's album "Imperial Dawn" was my favorite example of power metal. They were energetic, hooky, and a showcase for fantastic vocals. That record was everything I could have wanted, and a new single is perhaps an indication that more will be on the way soon. This song... is a case of perspective. The positive is that Rexoria are doing what they do best. This song is another bit of hooky power metal that blends cheese and power in perfect quantities. It's fun stuff, all around. The negative is that it sounds so much like their previous album, I was almost doing a double-take to remember which song the melody most reminded me of. There is having a signature sound, and then there's re-writing your own songs. This one is perilously close to the latter, so I only hope the band is a bit more careful about adding some diversity when a bigger batch of music comes along.

Album Review: Dream Theater - Parasomnia

Parasomnias are sleep disturbances that get in the way of a proper period of rest. For fans of Dream Theater, the last fourteen years have felt like one long parasomnia. Mike Portnoy's departure from the band was an inflection point, where some fans were unable to comprehend their favorite band without its most vocal leader. Online discussion about this period is challenging, as there is a subset of the fan-base that doesn't want to admit the band carried on without Portnoy, or that the glory days weren't as glorious as they were made out to be.

The last few albums Dream Theater made before the split were controversial in their own right. Outside influences were becoming too blatant, the love of math as a selling point was too in-your-face, and the quality of the lyrics had descended into parody. Even if the lineup had stayed together, Dream Theater needed a reset to find a better way forward.

I am in that group who thinks they found such a reset, as not only is "A Dramatic Turn Of Events" what I consider the band's best album, but the albums that followed (minus "The Astonishing", which I think we all know was a mistake) featured a higher focus on melodic writing that did wonders for making Dream Theater a more engaging band for people who don't have music degrees as they do.

That means while so many of the fans are focused on Portnoy's return as a saving grace for the rest of the band's career, I'm looking at it more from the perspective of a parasomnia. Sleep paralysis is a terrifying phenomenon, and my greatest concern before listening to this album was that the band would find themselves picking up where they left off with Portnoy, and essentially considering the intervening years to be a bad dream where they were unable to get up and do what they really wanted.

The early singles for the record did little to dissuade that feeling, as they featured the band going back to their "Train Of Thought" era heaviness, their jigsaw puzzle song structuring, and lackluster melodies. In interviews, the band has talked many times about how they write the album instrumentally, and only then work on fitting vocals into the songs. I hate to say this, but it really shows.

The biggest difference between this Dream Theater and the one we had been listening to for the last decade is in songcraft. They are back to writing songs as if they are gluing random pieces together, having James LaBrie sing any old thing, and calling it a day if the theory behind it all excites them. Much like how "Octaviarium" being based on groups of eight didn't do a damn thing to make those songs interesting to listen to without a metronome, these songs could use stronger melodies and hooks to keep my mind from drifting when they are playing scales I don't recognize enough to be impressed.

I can't say this album feels like the band waking up from a long sleep, because in all honesty, it's still Dream Theater doing Dream Theater things. I happen to be one of those people for whom drums are the least important part of an album, so the switch from Mangini to Portnoy is not at all at the forefront of my mind. There will be people for whom that is the most important thing, but I cannot try to speak from their perspective. This record could have followed "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", yes, but it could have followed "Distance Over Time" just as easily.

I suppose that means the greatest disappointment of the album is that the huge narrative is a story that doesn't interest me. Much like how Opeth's recent album was dominated by talk about growled vocals, this album will be dominated by talk about Portnoy. Maybe that's for the best, because without that to sink our teeth into, I'm not sure there would be much else to say. Dream Theater are who they are, and it would be foolish to expect them to become something entirely new at this point.

We are talking in degrees, then. This album is solid enough Dream Theater music. So was "A View From The Top Of The World". Frankly, I don't think there's that much difference between the two, despite how I think the general consensus is going to play out. The news might make a few more people give Dream Theater another chance, but if they do, they'll find Dream Theater has been doing this all along. Sometimes even better.

Album Review: Tayne - "Love"

Lo-fi, ethereal songs are all the rage now (contrarian use of the word ‘rage’ fully intended.)  They typically provide a soothing escape, a gentle melody with a metronomic rhythm meant to induce focus, calmness, relaxation and in many ways, nothing more simple than detachment from the overbearing pace and demands of everyday life.

Now, imagine a space where lo-fi beats were amplified through the lens of true industrial music.  Think “Filth Pig” more than “One Fire.”  Automatically, the instinct would be to say ‘well, that can’t possibly be lo-fi anymore.’

…

Enter Tayne, the ambitious three-piece industrial pop band from London, and their new album “Love.”

Getting it out of the way - there’s no one single thing on “Love” that is truly revolutionary.  That’s not why the album is worthy of dissection, though.  It is the synthesis of disparate elements, styles and formations heretofore thought to be incompatible, that make “Love” an experience unlike most every other offering out there.

To understand the album is to begin with its quietest element - the airy, immaterial vocal presentation of band leader Matthew Sutton.  To take a minor liberty with a classic axiom, his performance is the calm within the storm.  As much as his vocal lines on songs like “Cause /// Worthless” may be the quietest element, they are the linchpin that sets the pace for the entire surrounding experience.  

This is where the lo-fi part of the conversation comes in.  Since Sutton delivers such an intentionally muted performance, it forces the music to conform to the timbre that he sets.  The cacophony around him is something of a dangerous, violent, but ultimately chained animal, bound to him, rising and falling as he rises and falls.  It’s not until the end of “Cause /// Worthless” that the music is allowed off the leash, and not until Sutton is done making his statement.  The end result, album-wide, is a sense of a temperate beat, even if the sounds which compose that beat are destructive in the extreme (and they are.)

Now, when the band takes the intensity up to their maximum, they’re as capable as any in the business of bringing the house down.  The song “Scars” seems to exist almost exclusively to prove this point.  For those who were weaned on the heady days of Ministry or KMFDM or Nine Inch Nails or the Kidneythieves, you’ll feel right at home with “Scars” which is an explosive, heavily distorted touchstone to the traditional elements of industrial.

Down at the end and worthy of mention, “In This Trend” is the closest that Tayne gets to a metal/industrial hybrid, and by itself wouldn’t mean all that much, but in contrast to what has come before, makes for a pleasant variety right as the album starts to tail off.

Directing attention for a moment to the album’s second cut, “Down.”  These might be words that have never been put in conjunction before - the song is something of an industrial shoegaze pop song.  As confusing and foreign as that may sound, listen for yourself - it’s the only apt description.  It is also, perhaps not coincidentally, the best cut on the record.

Is “Love” the kind of album that will enter a listener’s heavy rotation?  Likely not.  The collision of elements, heavy and soft, melodic and discordant, in some ways make “Love” more academically intriguing than accessible in a common sense.  It doesn’t quite fit the motif of mundane tasks like ‘need to pick up milk and butter,’ but also doesn’t have the dominating persistence to match activities like ‘need to do 270 push-ups in the next five minutes.’   However!  It is an experience unique unto itself, a demonstration that Tayne is a group of musicians who understand what they’re capable of, and have mastered the story they’re trying to tell.  That alone makes it worthy both of the time to listen, and the celebration of the artists who chose to make it.

Album Review: The Night Flight Orchestra - Give Us The Moon

Every once in a while we find ourselves confronted with the question of when a side-project stops being a side-project. There are cases where they clearly eclipse their origin point, sometimes to the degree that they become the only band left standing. That happened when Avantasia subsumed Edguy (much to my dismay). The same has not yet happened for The Night Flight Orchestra, as Soilwork is still around, but it's hard to deny that they have traded places.

The Night Flight Orchestra is here with their seventh album, while Soilwork has been slow in releasing new material. There are reasons for that, of course, but I think part of that we have to accept is that 'metal for life' is not the attitude everyone is going to hold to. Bjorn Strid would not have done seven albums of this old-school yacht rock if it wasn't what he wanted to be doing. I gather from listening that there isn't much fun left to be had in barking out his more metal and tortured side. Fun is more fun.

The other thing about The Night Flight Orchestra that is hard to put out of mind is how much they remind me of a rock version of Gunther & The Sunshine Girls. The full-time female backing vocalists are why, as they give the proceedings a glossy layer of camp that Strid alone would not be able to achieve. While they aren't singing comedy in the same way, it's hard to take lines about 'shooting velvet' entirely seriously. I mean, just look at their outfits. This is so camp they have a season pass at a national park so they never have to take down their tent.

The only question we need to answer is whether or not the band has enough songs in their glitter cannon to make this the fun ride it needs to be. "Shooting Velvet" certainly is, serving as the perfect sing-along for a yacht that has a high-powered engine to tear across the open seas. These are songs you could imagine playing during the montage of the villain's hedonism in an old episode of "The A-Team". It sounds so fun, but also makes you want to punch the people who live that kind of life all the time.

Music as escapism is an old tale, and perhaps I don't always give it the respect it deserves. I was forged listening to camp of a different variety, but the years have frayed the edges of the Big Top. As I listened to this album, the sunny days ethos was exactly what I needed to hear as I was blinded by sunlight bouncing off the snow outside my window.

This record is well-timed for another reason; January has been a slow and depressing month for music. Every day has felt like a snipe hunt for something exciting, so getting an album that is at least a toe-tapping bit of fun is a needed relief. I know there has been a cultural reassessment of disco in recent times, and perhaps rock is due for the same reckoning. Some of these songs have beats that are pulled from the same thread KISS used on "I Was Made For Loving You", and it's startling how good they can sound when compared to the dourness of so much rock we have to endure.

The Night Flight Orchestra has been one of those bands I appreciate without embracing. I have admired their dedication and their craft, but the music has never hit me in a way to win me over. I don't know if that has quite happened this time, but I had more fun listening to this record than any of their previous ones. Perhaps it is timing, but that's true of everything. We don't like to admit how much luck plays into everything that happens, but record need to be in the right place at the right time.

For The Night Flight Orchestra, perhaps that right time is right now. This is the closest they've ever come, if you ask me.

Intelligence, Philosophy, & Feeling "Dizzy"

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote much on the topic of genius. Despite our advances in both the hard and soft sciences, our understanding of how the brain works is still limited. Genius is a still unexplained phenomenon, as can be the way genius interacts with the rest of the world. Schopenhauer studied this very relationship, coming to an all too depressing (and keen) observation:

"A man must still be a greenhorn in the ways of the world if he imagines that he can make himself popular in society by exhibiting intelligence and discernment."

What Schopenhauer is saying here is that a genius is actually an idiot if they thinks their intelligence impresses most of the people they will come across. Rather than be a source of esteem, they will be resented for their intelligence, because everyone else will naturally be inclined to resent the 'superiority' inherent in intelligence. For Schopenhauer, this need not even be overt. The same reaction is true whether the genius flaunts their abilities, or whether the people who are not on that intellectual level merely assume such to be the case.

"They thereupon secretly and half unconsciously conclude that his interlocutor must form a proportionately low and limited estimate of his abilities."

Much as romantic comedies have tried to tell us that men and women cannot be platonic friends without sex coming into the equation, Schopenhauer is telling us that the genius cannot coexist with the rest of society without resentment coming into the equation. The smarter you are, the more you are destined to be ostracized by 'normal' society.

"The more distinctly a man knows, the more intelligent he is, the more pain he has; the man gifted with genius suffers most of all."

You might be wondering why I am spending this time talking about philosophy. When I recently encountered this line of thought for the first time in many years, I was struck by the way it intersected with a song that is threatening to break into my list of all-time favorites, and the situation my life finds me in right now.

In their song "Dizzy", Jimmy Eat World provide us with a line that boils Schopenhauer's philosophy into a single line:

"If you always knew the truth, then the world would spin around you. Are you dizzy yet?"

Knowledge is power, but it exists on a curve. Knowing is better than not knowing, but only to a point. When you reach Socrates' point of understanding the wisest man knows he knows nothing, the futility of thoughtful reflection becomes immutable. When you reach Schopenhauer's point of understanding society will never truly embrace those who can see and think things beyond the norm, the futility of socializing becomes suffocating. When you reach God's level of omnipotence, the pressure of having all of existence relying on you becomes a curse that cannot be taken off.

This is far more than Jimmy Eat World were contemplating when they wrote "Dizzy". That song is one about a relationship fracturing, but it gives us threads to pull on. As the line I quoted mentioned, knowing is power, and we live our lives in search of that very power. Not knowing is a hell of its own, a situation that tears our brains apart as the synapses burn through trying to imagine which of the infinite possibilities is our reality.

Right now, I am sensitive to this subject. There is a connection I have that has been fraying for longer than I realized, and the last threads holding us together may have lost their battle against entropy. The word 'may' is what set my mind down this path. I don't know if I am now screaming through the vacuum of space, or if enough of a filament remains to construct one of those soup-can telephones.

Not knowing feels like the worst possible outcome, but is it? As much as it has set my mind on fire worrying and fearing what is to come, there remains the possibility for repair. The full array of outcomes are still out there, are still available if we both choose the same direction.

To know that the ties have been severed would be worse, because endings necessitate the beginning of a new story, and some of us don't have enough ideas to start over again. In this case, I am the idiot, the blissfully unaware sort Schopenhauer and Socrates would both tell us has the advantage in this scenario. And yet, I find myself needing to be restrained every day from trying to learn the answer. I am smart enough to know the answer is most likely going to crush me, but I cannot stop myself from wanting to know.

So tell me, is intelligence actually all that smart?

"Respectfully, some honesty I'm asking now..." the song goes on to say.

What I think this song sums up, and why it has become so important to me, is that we're all idiots in some way. And no, that is not a comforting thought.