People send me music, often by the truckload. (At my
request, I love nothing quite as much as finding new cool music, and
subsequently sharing it with all of you) Because my friends know me, the music
ranges from “this is hilariously bad” to “this is amazing” and hits all the
points in between. It’s a point of pride for me not to be genre biased, so It
also spans an insane number of styles.
In the sprit of keeping this place active I’m going to start
reviewing that stuff, from the terrible to the amazing. Even if it’s older.
Ladies and gents, you’ve seen speed dating now: Speed Reviewing.
First up today:
Eli Lieb-3.5/6
Some of my favorite youtube gems are covers, Lieb is no
exception. I stumbled onto Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” (reviewed below) and I
took a shine to Lieb’s more energetic, innocent take on the song. Add to that
Katy Perry’s “Firework” and I was interested enough to check out his original
work . His voice is lovely, if a little plain. In his covers, i find his
ability to simultaneously bring his own interpretation to the song and respect
the emotion involved in the original refreshing. It is all to common to see an
artist either cover a song verbatim how it was originally sung or in a “unique’
way with does not respect the original artist’s presentation of the song. I
find the former boring and the later an insult. Lieb balances his covers
nicely.
His interoperation of Rebecca Black’s Friday is priceless.
Just priceless.
Leib’s original work is night and day different from his
covers. More instrumental and fairly innovative, despite tis pop sound. Lieb
takes full advantage of electronic media to synthesize instrumentation that
cannot otherwise be made in a one man set up. He also use layered recording to
simulate other vocals. However, unlike most artists who do so, he uses the
exact same vocalizations with both layers most of the time, consequently I find
it a bit excessive and distracting.
In that vein, I find his use of auto-tune unnecessary and
obnoxious. He already has a very nice voice and altering it is only
detrimental. Its not even used to deliberately distort the vocals, so all that I
notice is a very sleigh tininess.
The instrumentation is cohesive throughout the enter album,
without making all of the songs sound the same. Rather the album sounds like
one continuous song with a lot of variation. Excepting one song it is fluid and
smooth. This creates a double edged sword. ON the one hand, it create for a
consistent sound and style, on the other hand, none of the songs jump out at
me, exempt the one stylistic diversion me toned.
I would encourage him to explore the more minimal approach
that he uses in his covers as occaiosnally he adds a little to much to the
instrumentation.
Lyrically, Lieb is hit or miss, the songs the are strong are
sexy, haunting and just plain wonderful, the others are less than mediocre and
as redundant as the bad parts of pop get. I wish that element was more
consistent, because it can really work well.
I think with a little more polish and honing he could be the
next big pop thing.
Next we have:
Lana Del Rey(4/6) Born
to Die
I actually paused when I heard Del Rey’s sultry, muted voice
for the first time. It is not a sound you hear often, especially not today.
There is a weight to her voice that you don’t see often in modern music. More
reminiscent of a 30s jazz singer than of a modern day chart toper Del Rey
brings an at once smooth and fatalistic sound with otherwise upbeat lyrics that
call your attention not by grabbing, but with a firm, gentle pull.
In particular, “Born to die” would be one of those upbeat, “you can do anything” songs that are so common
on the radio. Instead, it is a muted look back at a dangerous, painful time.
Lyrically, Del Rey has a bit of a pop sound to her, but what
makes her investing is that the same lyrics at a faster tempo would be
inspirational, almost happy. Instead, we have a resigned, sorrowful album that
touches deep beneath the veins. Rather than the typical nostalgia for
teenager-hood it is a resigned look back at the stupidity that comes with that
age. It feels like something terrible happened, but it was so long ago that the
pain has dulled.
The instrumentation is cinematic and polished with minimal
layering and a surprising complexity. It complements Del Rey’s contralto
stylings without being overpowering or being overpowered.
One more:
Halestorm (new
single, album review no doubt forthcoming) 5/6
I confess I’d grown a little disillusioned with Halestorm. I
love them, don’t misunderstand me, but I’ve seen them five times and things were
feeling a little repetitive. The vitriolic ex-lover songs are only really
powerful so many times.
As I said before, It may haven been one hell of a trick, but
Halestorm still felt like a one trick pony.
“Here’s to us,” still holds that country-rock flare and
gutsy voice Lzzy Hale is known for, but brings a softer edge and happiness that
we don’t see on earlier albums. I have no doubt The Strange Case of…. will
have the same sass and ferocity we’ve seen in Halestorm time and again, but
perhaps we’ll get a little more depth with our vitriol.
Next up: Mona Mona; Halestorm Hello,
it’s Mz. Hyde (EP)
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