This is an extra post this week. There will also be a concert post this week too barring that I don't mess up the recording of the concert like I did on the last concert for the Oh Hellos.
Here we go...
This marks the fourteenth album from Weird al Yankovic and
his first number one album in that time. The album has parodies from Pharrell
Willianms, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde and Imagine Dragons. There are also
pastiche songs that imitate Pixies, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Southern Culture On The
Skids. Yankovic created the originals first and wrote the parodies last to get
the parodies to be as relevant as possible. It was decided by Yankovic to not
release a lead single. Instead eight music videos were released one a week
after the release of the album. Each video was released through a different
video portal. I have always liked the music and lyrics that Yankovic has
created but this new record hits that right chord for me and will sit on top of
the stack of his albums for a while. The songs are so much fun.
The eight videos that have been released are some of the
best spots on the album. I will go over a few of my favorites but there are
also some great ones that have not been put to video and may not be. First, my
favorites that were put to video. Word Crimes is my favorite song from the
album. It is a parody of the Robin Thicke track called Blurred Lines. I did not
like the lyrics that Robin sang and stayed away from the track even though the
music was amazing. It then makes me very happy that Yankovic made a parody of
the track because I can be happy listening to the song makes fun of people that
don’t understand how to write. I don’t claim to be the best writer on the
planet but the stuff that he sings about are hilarious simply because they
happen all the time because people seem to forget the rules to writing.
Although Tacky is a great song I think that the twist that
happens through Foil is so much better. It starts off simple with favoritism
toward using aluminum foil to cover uneaten foods. It twists after this to talk
about conspiracy theories and using foil as a hat as many conspiracy theorists
seem to think is needed to protect them from mind control. It is a straight
forward song with fun twists.
I really like the style parody of the Foo Fighters called MyOwn Eyes. The music may match the Foo Fighters but Yankovics’ vocal sound is
more like Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. This isn’t a style thing because I
might like Kroegers’ vocals if he had Yankovics’ style. I have always been a
fan of the Foo Fighters and this song makes me feel a bit odd. I think that is
what Dave Grohl would want any way so this song fits well I think.
This is the eighth album from The Smashing Pumpkins. It was
released in June of 2012. The album was released as a part of the ongoing 44
song box set called Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. Billy Corgan sort of abandoned
the idea of singles and EPs after realizing that he wasn’t getting the exposure
that he expected. This is the reason that Oceania
was released as an album. The album, over all, is not as heavy as albums in the
past. The new guitarist mentioned that this was because of the political and
social climate. The band thought that the album should be more spacey and
dreamy. I think the band needs to revisit what spacey and dreamy sound like if
that is the case. They should look up shoegaze and where that style has gone to
better understand what those terms mean in music today.
There were two singles released from the album. The first
single is called The Celestials. It is actually a promo single from the album
to try to gain some interest through the radio stations. The first third of the
song is done in acoustic instruments. The last two thirds of the song are
focused on flowing into a rock song then into a heavy grunge song with a not to
the Smashing Pumpkins hey day in the mid to late 90s. I was not all that happy
with the track as it took to much time to get to what the song was meant to be
in the long run. It did accomplish the slow build though. I wouldn’t have done
the build the way that he did it I guess.
The second single from the album is called Panopticon. This
track was also released as a promo single to the radio stations. This is the
type of song that I would rather hear from the Pumpkins. It is hard and
emotional at the same time. The beauty comes from Corgans’ movement from a
major key in the verse (D) to a minor key in the chorus (A). the song truly
embodies what the group were in the 90s and that is what Corgan wants from the
group I think.
In December 2012 beck released the art and sheet music that
is Song Reader. It was released as a compilation, meaning that different
artists have recorded each song including one from Beck. All twenty of the
songs are represented on this compilation from some famous and some that I have
not ever heard of, not to say that they are not famous. Some of the artists
that I recognize are Fun, Tweedy, Norah Jones, Jack White, Beck (of course),
Laura Marling, Jarvis Cocker, Jack Black and Loudon Wainwright III. Honestly, I
can’t say that I like this album all that much. There are some special tracks
on the album that I do like but, I think, less than a hand full. I am not a big
fan of the alt-country genre and that is where most of this music falls. It is
twenty tracks of music that I don’t really have any interest in. This doesn’t
mean that it isn’t good music and I may come back to it some day and find that
I was completely wrong and like the music a lot.
I will highlight the few tracks that I do like though. The
first song that I like from the album is called The Wolf Is On The Hill sung by
Tweedy. This is the father son duo of Jeff Tweedy and his son, Spencer. The
pair will be releasing an album together this September. The song has Jeff’s
amazing vocal style combined with slow music that still keeps my interest. I am
not a fan of Wilco but There is something special about the delivery of this
track. It may be that Beck composed the song and Tweedy’s interpretation of the
music is a perfect storm of music. Either way It is a nice spacious track that
I do like.
The second song that I like from this album is called Just
Noise sung by Norah Jones. I like what Nora has created in the past. I have
never liked her solo work enough to buy anything my self though. This song would
be the same. I like the track but if it were an album of this type of music I
would not run out and buy it. That being said the chorus is what grabs me. The
chorus is a call and response where her vocals are echoed by the music. It is a
short track but it gets the point across.
The third and final song that I actually like from the album
is called Heaven’s Ladder by Beck. It is all Beck and this is probably the
reason that I like it. Beck wrote the music and has played the song making it
everything that I like from beck not just the song writing. It is sweet and
reminds me of the album that he put out at the beginning of the year. It could
have easily been a part of Morning Phase. The song is sweet and slow and uses
the sounds that you would have expected from beck and his backing group.
I can not recommend this album to anyone unless you are into
compilation or cover albums.
That is all I have for now...
No comments:
Post a Comment