Falling Up – Dawn Escapes
This is the second album from Falling up. It was released in 2005. This album is not quite as over produced as its predecessor, Crashings. However, there is more use of electronic sounds, strings and the piano. For me, the changes that were made on this album actually keep it very similar to Crashings. I like both of the albums very much though. This album, Dawn Escapes, is just a little bit less poppy than Crashings and not so focused on divine grace. On the other hand it is more poetic and uses conceptual ideas to offset this fact. The lyrics remain openly Christian making reference that God is the only source of salvation. The liner notes also make a point of showing that the lyrics reference scripture. I bought this album when it came out. The problem is that there is no radio station in my city that played this type of music, Christian rock. It is because of this that I have no idea what the single are on this album. Because of this I will list some stand out tracks for me. The very first song on the album as a resonance of a track called Bitter Sweet from their first album. It is not that I don’t like this. It is actually a smart move on a sophomore album. It shows that they are giving the fans what they want. It shows that the band can make new music and that they have room for growth. The next track that stands out for me is called Flights. The bass guitar in this song has a very unique distorted sound that has been applied to it. It gives it that gritty edge sound that I really like. In my playing of the bass, I have yet to achieve that sound, although I have not messed with my bass amplifier enough to push it that hard. I don’t want to break the speakers since they are not designed to be used with the amplifier. There is s nice tinkling guitar part that uses a delay pedal to help it get there. It is very pretty sounding. The next song that I think is very good is called Contact. This song is more slowed down utilizing the piano as the focal instrument. For me the song is about getting baptized as an adult. The chorus sings, “Erase, everything within you will feel erased.” With a slow “Erase, now” flowing behind that lyric. In my heart, via scripture as well, it means that anyone who believes in Jesus as the savior and goes through the ritual of baptism will have all of their sins erased. It is a powerful message if you so chose to believe in Christianity. The last song that I am going to go over is called Fearless. The song starts out with the drummer making triplets on the snare drum. It makes the start of the song sound off. But then it kicks into the song and smooths itself out. It is a really cool effect to use in music in my opinion. It also uses the harmony vocals that were used on their first album. It is a two part harmony that makes me feel so good inside. This is another song that makes use of water as a metaphor. They are basically saying that if you believe in Jesus and Christianity you should be drinking from the waters of life and you are sure to find yourself in heaven when you leave this world you are in. It is a beautiful metaphor but obviously works only in Christianity.
Go Sailor – Go Sailor
This is a short lived twee pop group out of Berkeley. It is a compilation of their three seven inch records and songs that were on compilation records that were originally released in the mid 90’s. My current favorite independent record company has culminated all of these songs onto a twelve inch record. It is a perfect snapshot of where the indie music was at in the mid 90’s before the internet was the primary place to search for music releases. The music that they put out was simple. There were no extra effects. It was a three piece band with a high pitch female vocalist. The music that they put out was very infectious. They made the listener want to listen to what they had to say weather it was surface level easy to listen to songs or in-depth music about long distance relationships. This grouping was originally released on CD in 1996. Slumberland records have started a new Slumberland Archive series which will feature almost exclusively vinyl only releases of great musical and historical interests. This is their first release in this archive series. On the back of the jacket of this album are all of the covers of the seven inch records and compilations so that if you are really into them you can hunt down the original music if you so chose. For me this is a really fun album with just enough sugar to listen to a few times in a row. It is a very pretty album. Now go get it! You can still get it on CD, probably used if you look hard enough and it shouldn’t be too expensive. If you are still not sure you can listen to at least one track on the Slumberland website.
Led Zeppelin – Coda
This was the last studio album from Led Zeppelin. It was released in 1982. It is a collection of outtakes from previous recording sessions spanning over their twelve year career. The album was released two years after the band had broken up following the death of drummer John Bonham. The title of the album has meaning for that band at that time. The definition of the word coda goes as such in reference to music: a more or less independent passage, at the end of a composition, introduced to bring it to a satisfactory close (first definition from Dictionary.com). There are only eight songs on this album. There were no official singles released from this album. There were three tracks that did get radio airplay though. The first of those three is a track called Darlene. This song was recorded during the In Through The Out Door sessions. It was left off the record because it would not fit on the record. The song has a real cool guitar/piano solo on it. It is another song about getting the girl though so it is not a stand out track for me. The second track that was aired on the radio was Ozone Baby. This was also a track left off of In Through The Out Door. This song is an up beat track about the love of someone or something. It is a good song and plant makes use of a harmonizing pedal on the vocals making the song sound just a little bit more unique. The last song that got some air play on the radio stations is a song called Poor Tom. This song was originally recorded in 1970. The song is supposed to be about a laborer who murders his unfaithful wife. There is a reference in the song that Tom was the seventh son. This may have meant that Tom saw that his wife was going to be unfaithful. It is said that the seventh son in a family is clairvoyant. It is an interesting turn in the lyric at any rate. The title Poor Tom could be referencing lines from John Steinbeck’s East Of Eden or William Shakespeare’s King Lear. These are unconfirmed that I am aware of.
Servotron – No Room For Humans
Servotron is a science fiction based group formed in 1995 and ended in 1999. They claimed to spread the word of robot domination. This was their first full length album. I just happen to find it used at a Half Priced Book Store. The groups’ influences are along the lines of DEVO and Kraftwork. Half of the members are from Man or Astro-Man? so you can see why I picked it up. The album has 14 tracks on it all about robot domination or human extinction but in a comedic way. I will just go over a few of my favorites here since I have no idea what or if there were any singles released from this album. I think that this song is so funny. The song is called I AM NOT A (Voice Activated Child Identicon). It is a song about the cyborg child TV show called Small Wonder. The chorus of the song goes, “I am not V.I.C.I., I am no small wonder.” The name of the cyborg was V.I.C.I. but the tonality of the vocalist makes the song so much funnier because it does sound monotone and little kidish like the girl in the show. The other track that I find very funny is a song called Red Robot Refund (The Balad of R5-D4). This is a reference to the red astro droid that malfunctioned when the Jawas were trying to sell bots to Unkel Owen and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope. The lyrics to the song go on to explain that if it weren’t for R5-D4 malfunctioning the rebellion may not have won the attack on the Death Star. The last song that I love from this album is called Gammatron. Gammatron is the name of one of the “robots” in the band. It is a song about how it is wrong for Gammatron to have human feelings. The other bots in the band saw it as a weakness to be anything like a human.
I also recorded three tracks, drums, bass and rhythm guitar, for a song that I have been working on for the past few weeks. Yeah!!
That is all I have for now...
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