With the new video/single release from Family Force 5 comes
the announcement of a pre-order going up for the new album on the 27th.
Check your favorite etailer or go directly to the bands web page for special packaging.
Here we go...
I have finally gotten my copy of the album. I opted to get
the deluxe CD version instead of the vinyl version. The deluxe CD comes with five
bonus tracks and Louisa signed some the deluxe copies (my copy is signed). I
still don’t understand why the album was released so long after the album was
recorded let alone back in February after Louisa had signed all of these deluxe
editions. This is the first full length album from Foxes. It was released on
scheduled to be released on the 28th of February but was pushed back
to 12th of May 2014.
There has been quite a few singles released from this album
The first of which was the song Youth which was originally released on Neon
Gold Records before she was picked up by the majors back in 2012. It was then
re-released on Sony/Sign Of The Times in 2013. The version on the album is
slightly different from the mix on the Neon Gold 7” but both sound good. I had
this to say about the song back in Vol. 3
Episode 33, “[Youth] starts out with her vocals only with the music fading
in slowly. There are lots of synth strings and a low under current bass line
and light drums. It builds into a bass driven track with glitch drums that
sound really good. The song drops this all off with only her vocals about half
way through the song. The piano comes in slowly and then everything picks back up.
It is a great song with great song craftsmanship in my opinion.”
White Coats was also included on the album. This track was
originally released on the Warrior EP and is the reason that I got into Foxes
in the first place. I had this to say about the song when it was originally
released back in 2012 also in Vol. 3 Episode 33, “White Coats, has some
really cool digital backing vocal samples that are very intriguing. It has that
mountainous feel with tympani drums used in the chorus and the sampled vocals
having a nice clear echo on them. She sort of has a bit of a whine in her
vocals. Some people may not like this sound. For me, listening to Thom Yorke
for so long, it is all right.”
In Her
Arms was also included on the album but as one of the extra tracks on the
deluxe version. This is another track that was originally included in the
Warrior EP. I talked about this track in Vol. 3 Episode 33 as well. I had this
to say about the track, “This track has a really awesome big distorted bass
drum sound. The melody of the song sounds like it is coming from a set of pipe
bells that are all bent out of shape. They have a slightly out of tune sound
that works so well with the song. This track is one of the two that are only
available on the download version of the EP [at that time].”
The B side to the Youth 7”, Home, record was also included on the
new album, also as a extra track on the deluxe version. I had this to say about
the track also in Vol. 3 Episode 33, “This track is much simpler. It starts out
with her vocals and a music box sounding melody behind. The drums pick up with
a slow big sound. There is also some synth parts that support the music box
sound that continues through the verse. There are some strings that pick up in
the chorus to pick up where the music box leaves off. It reminds me of a child
moving with his or her parents from town to town. The child in the story almost
never gets to make any friends. It is a heart wrenching story that rings true
to me through some of my friends who have had to live like that.”
Beauty Queen was also released as a digital single. I wrote
about the song in Vol. 4 Episode 23. I had this to say about the song, “This
track is a poppy, almost marching, song that talks about the true beauty in
each and every human being. She sings about beauty being only skin deep and
that true beauty comes from within. It is a good dance track but I have heard
better from Foxes.” It is still a good song but not as strong of a contender as
some of the other tracks already released as a single.
The song Echo was also released as a digital EP. It was
really a single with remixes of said song but what ever. I wrote about this song
in Vol. 3
Episode 48. I had this to say bout the song, “It is done in her usual
style, electronic style drums with a good beat, synth backgrounds and bass with
twinkly sounding piano. It is a really great song that I like a lot.”
The album also included a studio version of Let Go ForTonight. I had previously only heard a demo version of the song from the
download version of the Warrior EP. The demo version is scaled back compared to
this new studio version. This new studio version packs a punch and is so much
more energetic. It also has drums adding to the dramatics of the song. I really
like how the plucked strings and the bowed strings interact with each other as
well. I can’t say that one version is better than the other. I think that it is
just that this new studio version has more in it. I like both versions but I
think that I would opt to listen to this version first.
The last song that has been released as a single is called Holding On ToHeaven. This track was only released as a digital single in the UK. The song is a great dance track with a speedy verse and a somewhat slowed chorus. The song is not so deep with bass as much as it focuses on the vocals, both backing and multi-tracked lead vocals. The lead singer sings about holding on to the last important things in life to keep her going. The song is very good and I am happy to hear new music from Foxes.
I hope that Foxes will gain some traction here in the US. She is doing
great in the UK
though.
This is the groups sixth album. It was released through
Parlophone/Atlantic records on the 16 (UK) and 19 (US) of May, 2014. The
album is partially inspired by Chris Martin’s rocky relationship to Gwyneth
Paltrow at the time of the recording. It is a concept album that tells the
story of a man going through a dramatic and sudden breakup, with the narrative
following the man's various emotional states leading up to his eventual
acceptance of the situation. The album revolves around a central theme of
"opening yourself up to love", and accepting that love does not last
forever. In the US,
Target released a deluxe version with an additional three tracks.
There have been three singles released from the album at
this point. The first single released is called Midnight. The song is based on
an incomplete unreleased track called The Fourth State II. This music that is
used is very simple and majorly electronic in nature. There is piano added over
the top of this ambient music and a vocal from Chris that sound like there was
a lot of fun with a vocoder. It reminds me of what Bon Iver did but turned
around to make it electronic instead of acoustic. It is a new view of what can
be done. I like it a lot.
The second song from the album is called Magic. The vocals
are super clean, no extras on Chris’s vocals. The same can be said about the
backing vocals. The drums are slightly muffled giving an almost electronic
sound with the decay on the snare being cut short. The piano and guitar work
are done very well too. Because the music is straight forward this leads me to
actually listen to the vocals. Even though I can sing along they are just
words. With this song I saw the video. The video brought more emotion than the song
did. It depicts a magician, his helper and her abusive husband. The magician
learns to float himself and then others in the air as if they were weightless.
He then sends her abusive husband up in the air to never come down. That is
where the video ends though and we never find out if the magician and helper
have a serious relationship or if he was just protecting her because she needed
it.
The newest single is called A Sky Full of Stars. This song
is the groups big dance track. It enters into the realm of EDM (Electronic
Dance Music). A piano-centric song, the track opens as a piano ballad, with progressive
house-influenced electronic music that plays out in between verses. The track
is full of good feelings and pushes the idea of what can be a rock song. It is
a lot of fun and reminds me of the mid to late 90s house music.
Overall, this is another good album from Coldplay. I think
that the concept works as well, aiming to teach people about what love is and
how it really works. It shows that it is not a fairy tail and that it can
crumble for no reason at all but it will come back.
This is the second album from Gold-Bears. It will be out on
June 3, 2014. It will be released on standard formats; CD LP & DL. The
limited edition vinyl is pressed on white and green swirl and comes with a hand
numbered green screen print. As written on the SLR web page for the new album,
“Gold-Bears' second full-length, Dalliance, is a record about
regret…Gold-Bears' second full-length, Dalliance, is a record about regret.
[The album] is more focused and abrasive than that 2011 debut, combining their
noise-pop influences…with shades of the post-hardcore, emo and post-punk on
which the band all cut their musical teeth. This is not to say that Gold-Bears
gave up impossibly catchy song-writing, just that their signature indie punk
anthems are now even sharper, the guitars even more slashing, and the songs
even more harrowing and heartfelt than ever.” “Gold-Bears cover a lot of
territory, musical and lyrical, in Dalliance's 32 minutes and by the time that we reach the miniature epic of
closer "Fathers And Daughters" we realize that we're watching a band
and a song-writer hit their stride, turning in an album that's exciting,
thoughtful and infectious.”
There have been two singles released from the album digitally
so far. The first song is called Yeah, Tonight. The song is nothing like the
Yeah, Tonight that is the last song on the first album. The new Yeah, Tonight
is filled with distortion noise and feedback and hard hitting drums, All the
things that make good noise pop. The song sounds like it could have been lifted
from the first album though. This is not a good or a bad thing, merely just an
observation. It is still a good song that I am happy to have a copy of.
The second single from the album is called For You. This
track is a new view of music from the group. The vocals have become sharper and
cleaner than they ever have before. The bass can actually be heard on this song
and the drums have been dialed back a bit adding to the clarity of the song.
The guitars still have that wonderful noise and little bits of feedback popping
in every now and again, maintaining the sound that I have come to expect from
the group.
On a side note, I can't get over how much the song From Tallahassee To Gainesville sounds so much like the music created by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart track called The Pains of Being Pure at heart. I like both songs but thought that it was curiously interesting.
I hope that the song Death With Drums will be released as a
single. There is something special about that song. Over all the entire album is a
great jaunt through the different sub-genres of punk music. It is so much fun.
That is all for now...
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