The Review Revue: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Forgotten Music Thursday: Moving Pictures - Days of Innocence: The Ultimate Collection (2003 expanded re-release of 1981 album)

In the early eighties there was a spike in interest in all things from Down Under. Little River Band who had risen to popularity in the late seventies saw their popularity grow. Groups like Split Enz, Men At Work, INXS, the Hoodoo Gurus, Crowded House, Icehouse, and Moving Pictures also made their indelible stamps beyond their own watery borders. While some of these groups are still remembered fondly, some are still even active, many of them have also faded into obscurity. Moving Pictures fall into the latter category.

Initially their success was limited to their own native shores. They saw moderate success on Australia's Countdown with their song, Bustin' Loose and then it all blew wide open when they released What About Me? It quickly became a worldwide hit, buoyed by its rotation on the then rather new and fledgeling MTV (remember when they still featured music videos?)

Their debut album, Days of Innocence which features both the minor "local" hits, Walls and Bustin' Loose as well as the worldwide smash, What About Me? is a delight with its sax-laden power-pop, catchy hooks, forays into New Wave, and the vocals of Alex Smith. In 2003, with Moving Pictures back catalog out of print. This collection featuring Days of Innocence in its entirety along with a handful of non-album singles and the stronger material from their follow-up album, Matinee, which remains out of print to this day was released to sate the public interest in this band.

Given the extra material on the album, one can easily determine why Matinee remains out of print. While the material is enjoyable it hasn't aged well and is not as strong as the first 10 tracks that make up the original Days of Innocence album. That being said, this import is a thoroughly enjoyable snapshot of the best this band had to offer before they split up, went their seperate ways and the band became but a footnote, the subjects in a grainy music video, and an ocassional earworm that would surface on eighties themed radio shows in the United States and Australia.

With the album's dated sound, listening to it is a time machine of sorts. If you close your eyes when listening to it you can not only hear the eighties but feel them seeping into your pores and taking you back to the era in which the music was recorded.

Related Media and Links
What About Me music video

Days of Innocence: The Ultimate Collection (Allmusic.com review)
Days of Innocence (wikipedia)
Moving Pictures (Allmusic.com)
Moving Pictures (wikipedia)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Gotye - Like Drawing Blood (2006)

Normally electronica is not a musical genre I pay much attention to. Other than my forays into the solo work of former Dream Theater keyboardist, Kevin Moore, under the Chroma Key moniker I've given electronica a rather wide berth. That's not to say I dislike electronica more that it's never really been on my radar.

I was recently introduced to Gotye by the husband/wife musical blogging duo YourZenMine who were generous enough to send me Gotye's 2006 album, Like Drawing Blood. Given Wally De Backer's rather transient nature, the story behind the recording of the album reads like lost chapters from John Birmingham's He Died With a Felafel In His Hand- as the album was recorded in various Melbourne bedrooms between 2003 and 2005.

Gotye (pronounced go-ti-yay, like you would pronounce the French "Gaultier") is Belgian born, Australian bred Wally De Backer and while somewhat unknown here in the United States, De Backer is an ARIA award winning singer-songwriter who derives his music (self-admittedly) about 99% from sampling.

Like Drawing Blood is a delightful lo-fi album with a decidedly indie feel that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. De Backer's voice is very listenable and well suited to his music. The mastering however is purely brilliant and betrays the lo-fi nature of the recording of the album giving this lo-fi gem a well polished hi-fi feel.

There's an ambience to the music that feels perfect for long relaxed drives with the windows down. While the CD is still only available as an import here in the United States it is available for download from Amazon's mp3 store for a very reasonable $6.99. The album is well worth such a reasonable price tag. Given its accessibility and pop sensibilities I'd argue that this is the perfect "gateway" album to either introduce new listeners to electronica or to win over listeners who in the past have been rather apathetic to the genre.

Related Links

Hearts a Mess video

Learnalilgivinanlovin' video

Like Drawing Blood (YourZenMine review)
Like Drawing Blood (wikipedia)
Gotye (official website)
Gotye (wikipedia)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Dream Theater - Train of Thought (2003)

After the rather uneven double CD, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Dream Theater showed a tremendous return to form in this prorgressive heavy metal onslaught.

Where previous releases and even subsequent releases featured a somewhat more polished or refined brand of metal... Train of Thought has a gritty and raw edge that sets it apart from much of the rest of Dream Theater's musical oevure.

Its this grittiness that makes this one of Dream Theater's best albums, if not their best overall. From start to finish, with a short respite in the middle of the album with Vacant there's an edge to this album that seemed to have been missing from Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

The album opens with As I Am. While the lyrics are almost groan-inducingly bad at times, the music more than makes up for the song's subpar lyrics ("I've been trying to justify you/in the end I will just defy you"- c'mon guys, we know you can do a lot better than THIS!).

And thankfully after the lyrical hiccup of As I Am the album improves substantially with This Dying Soul the 2nd part of Mike Portnoy's Twelve Step Suite which he began on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence with The Glass Prison detailing Portnoy's battle with and recovery from alcoholism. Many of Dream Theater's fans have gained inspiration from Portnoy's suite and the band does a brilliant job of giving Mike's story a fantastic musical voice.

On Endless Sacrifice the band really stretches out with some brilliant solos. And as one who has never been tremendously keen on James LaBrie's vocals I'd argue this song features some of his best vocals since Images & Words. The song builds slowly until about the 2:07 mark when the band shifts from gentle and melodic to raw and crunchy and back again. It's easily one of the best songs on the album as it shows the versatility and breadth of the band's talents.

Honor Thy Father is one of the heaviest songs the band has ever recorded. It starts chugging along building in intensity like a freight train with no brakes. There's a greater anger and bitterness to the lyrics that the band had not really exhibited since 1994's Awake. This also features some of Jordan Rudess' better keyboarding.

Vacant is a brief slow, somber, and melancholic piece and at just shy of 3 minutes easily the shortest song on the album-- it gives the listener just enough of a respite to catch his or her breath before the metal onslaught continues with Stream of Conciousness and In the Name of God which finishes out this brilliant album.

For many fans this was the album they'd been waiting for since Awake. For others it was just a bit too raw and crunchy and lacked enough of the band's softer and gentler side and polish of some of the band's other albums. But for this listener, this was the album that put the METAL back into progressive metal for Dream Theater, and it did so with a large bold-faced exclamation mark!

Related Media & Links
As I Am video