There's a lot to say this week, and not much of it is good.
April Art - Big Bubble B-
Every so often, a song comes along that makes me ask questions about why it exists at all. This is one of those songs. No, I'm not saying it's bad, because it isn't. I like April Art as a band, and they have one song in "Not Sorry" that is one of my favorites of recent years, but they have left me scratching my head at this particular moment. As you can see from the title, this song is called "Big Bubble B-", where the hyphen is standing in for the word "bullshit". Ok, I understand that you can't put an expletive in a title on every platform, so I don't begrudge them that one.
Where things break down is that if you encountered this song through the YouTube algorithm, as I did, the song itself censors the word. Every time the lyric comes along, the word is replaced with a sibilant skittering of electronic noise. It is an even more annoying version of radio censorship that cuts the vocal out with a second of silence to cover what can't be aired. So why is this so terrible? Because I can't stop myself from asking why a band would write and record a song to release as a single that needs to be censored in that way. Yes, I can listen to the song somewhere else and not have that experience, but the first impression was so awful it had already soured me. At least if I thought it was satire, I might understand why they went with what I still would think is a bad joke. But since that's not the case, I'm left shaking my head at what terrible judgment it is to ruin your own song in one of the places people can discover your music.
The bones of this song are good, but the execution is severely lacking. And on top of that, I'm struggling to figure out exactly what "big bubble bullshit" is even supposed to mean. If it's real slang, I'm too old for this stuff anymore. If they coined the phrase, it isn't explained well. It also sounds too comedic to be a putdown. So there's that. I would recommend skipping this song. Just about everything else April Art has done is better.
Greta Van Fleet - Play Your Games
The hype has been dead and buried, because I barely heard a work about the band's fake retirement tease. No one I take note of talks about Greta Van Fleet anymore, and I think it's safe to say they have shown their trajectory is very much like Evel Knievel at the Snake River Canyon. That is to say I had no care or expectation that they were in fact only trying to drum up attention for their return.
Now that we have this song, I have even less care. I'm sorry, and maybe it's just a function of my abnormal neurology, but high-pitched screaming vocals are one of the few things in life that give me the urge toward violence. The band's throwback music is inoffensively fine, but the vocals make me long for the days of silent film. When the chorus comes along, and the wailing turns into a warbled scream, the pitch and tone is unmistakable as fingernails on a chalkboard (or for me, rubbing Styrofoam). It is so painful to listen to, I can't remember why I actually liked a couple of songs off their initial EPs.
Normally, I would say replacing a singer is a death knell for a band. But when it comes to Greta Van Fleet, it might be the only way they'll ever get any respect.
The Iron Roses - Dead Eyes
A few years back, I found myself fond of the debut album from this dual-vocal punk band. Their melodic hooks and intertwined lead singers made for a unique package, and it was something that stood out from the usual crowd. The wait for what comes next is now ending, with their follow-up due in August. The first song released is what we are talking about today, and it's a case of a recipe not always turning out the same way, even when you follow the directions.
The core of the band's sound is still there; fast tempos, a bouncing hook, and those harmonized vocals. They get their political message across in the candy-coated way that makes the bitterness of the times harder to taste, but there's something a bit off about how they are doing it this time. The mix puts the vocals lower in the mix, which dulls the intent of the lyrics. Sussing them out is more difficult, and the interplay of the voices is harder to hear. That is a main appeal of the band, so having to work harder to pull out what I liked so much about the band is exactly the wrong thing to do.
Maybe it fits the punk ethos more, but it adds a layer between me and the music. To me, punk is at its best when both the songs and the messages are razor sharp, and this one is hinting at a hazier sound. Maybe it will hit harder when the full album is out, but right now I'm feeling a bit disappointed that this song hits softer.
Lex Legion - Sleep Eternally/Gypsy Tears
I'm going to be a cynic for a minute. We've been hearing for nearly ten years that the next King Diamond album is almost ready, and it will be "out next year". This band tells me that's always been a complete and total lie.
Lex Legion is made up of members of King Diamond's band, with Nils K Rue fronting them. They sound exactly like King Diamond, but without as much charisma fronting the group. That means Lex Legion come across sounding like a second-rate version of their own history, which is exactly the reason I don't get excited about the dozen or so new releases that come out every year with combinations of old rockers who were never the primary writing forces in their bands. Merely knowing how the music was made doesn't mean you'll be able to do it yourself.
Nils is a capable singer, but he's not King Diamond, which to be fair - no one is. Him trying to ape the falsetto style at all is a massive mistake, and only makes the comparisons between this group and King Diamond more blatantly obvious. The band is hardly carving out an identity of their own, and these two songs show they don't have enough of the flair and storytelling that makes the ridiculousness of King Diamond work. This sounds too stiff and too straight to be campy fun, which means it just sounds like people trying to hard to make the album they're waiting to really be playing.
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