I am back from the dead. I took a bit of a hiatus and we can discuss this and how it was good for me to find the fun in blogging again, or we can jump right in. It truth it took a really important album to make me really want to write again and I got a couple to work with. This week I am going to review the long awaited new albums from Radiohead and the Deftones. As well as a new album from the Goo Goo Dolls.
Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool Review-
The forces that be dropped this album on us suddenly just like the last two times and it was one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Just like every album they put out. I personally really liked King on Limbs, but not everyone did. A lot of people consider that the one bad album in this Alt Rock titans career. I think the Kings of Limbs live from the basement album really helped me, but with album nine we have no idea what to expect and it’s just the way it should be. I waited almost a month to review this because a Radiohead album needs time to grow on me. All of those next day reviews of this, were all way to soon. Every time I listen to a Radiohead album I get something new out of it. Which is why I love them and why this needed more time. This album comes hot on the heels of Thom Yorke separating from his partner of 25 years and really dives into the pain of loss and the passing of time.
Radiohead performing Paranoid Android Live.
1. Burn the Witch-Is actually one of the previously released songs from 2000 that has been reworked here beautifully. They have extra help on this song from Portishead drummer Geoff Barrow who plays on the whole album like he did on King of Limbs and Orchestral sections from the London Contemporary Orchestra. The backbone and driving force of the song is the bombastic strings arrangement. Thom delivers the vocals in usual floating beauty about a very personal subject his subtle panic attack as he deals with loss and the rest of the world moving on without him. This album is a definite highlight and one of my favorites.
2. Daydreaming-is the most beautiful and emotional song on the album. It deals heavily with the loss of love, “Dreamers they never learn, but it’s too late the damage is done”. He sings at the top of his floating falsetto and the smooth and minimal orchestrations and arrangement of synths just float behind him. This is a much more stripped back song that flows and builds over time to make a very wave of time feel. This is an album highlight and is the best description of what it feels like the to just float as time moves around you. The strings come back in at the end to add an extra punch.
3. Decks Dark-Starts very simply with Thom on vocals and a quiet synth line that feels like a song that could have fit on Kid A or Ok Computer. This song has a very atmospheric feel to it and as synths and pianos swirl around and Thom sings about space. The latter half of the song shows some intricate guitar lines from Jonny Greenwood.
4. Desert Island Disk-Starts with a beautiful finger picking acoustic guitar line. The song is very quiet and simple. It has a very staring up at the stars and mass of space feel to it.
5. Full Stop-This is my personal favorite song on the album. It starts with a droning bass line and fluttering chaotic synths. From the more relaxed feel of the album, this track is one of the few that feels like it has a bit of urgency as panic sets in on past mistakes. This songs finally gives other members of Radiohead some time to come off of the leash with great guitar lines, precise percussion, and droning bass. Thom delivers a very quirky vocal here. This is an album highlight.
6. Glass Eyes-slows things down for another beautiful floating synth and string ballad. This song has a very stuck in a moment of time feel like if Doctor Who’s Tardis broke and a single moment was captured as a still image.
7. Identikit-is another previously released song that I actually heard live on the Kings of Limbs tour. This song has one of the best musical arrangements on the albums with a catchy bass line and driving synths. Johhny Greenwood also shines here on guitar as he jumps around like a mad man. The style of a songs is very progressive as it shifts in pace, style, and sound constantly throughout. This is an album highlight.
8. The Numbers-starts with swirling piano and synths before acoustic guitar joins over top. This is a very simple sparse and beautiful song that slowly builds and adds on more layers as it goes along. The strings at the very end really pull the song together nicely.
9. Present Tense-Sees Thom start the song with flowing falsetto over a simple guitar line. Guitar lines get added and layered over each other as well as synths to create a very complicated and dreamy sound for Thom to croon over. Layering dense and complicated parts over each other has always been a Radiohead staple and shows here.
10. Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man-is a very spacy and minimalistic song that again features the London Contemporary Orchestra as the backdrop and highlight of the song as the play eerie lines over the vast nothingness and quiet.
11. True Love Waits-The Beautiful and emotional album closer has been an existing Radiohead song for a very long time first seen in 1995 and just now recorded for release. The style is the closing style we have seen from Radiohead many time almost Amnesiac in its atmospheric sound. A very stripped down and painful song. It’s about the moment when your lover leaves to never come back and all you can do is call out to them as they walk away. “I’ll Drown my beliefs to have your babies”, Thom sings in the flowing chorus. Musically it’s just a simple piano over quiet vocals but it’s delivery is powerful and beautiful. You can hear the pain in his voice as the track slowly fades out.
2. Daydreaming-is the most beautiful and emotional song on the album. It deals heavily with the loss of love, “Dreamers they never learn, but it’s too late the damage is done”. He sings at the top of his floating falsetto and the smooth and minimal orchestrations and arrangement of synths just float behind him. This is a much more stripped back song that flows and builds over time to make a very wave of time feel. This is an album highlight and is the best description of what it feels like the to just float as time moves around you. The strings come back in at the end to add an extra punch.
3. Decks Dark-Starts very simply with Thom on vocals and a quiet synth line that feels like a song that could have fit on Kid A or Ok Computer. This song has a very atmospheric feel to it and as synths and pianos swirl around and Thom sings about space. The latter half of the song shows some intricate guitar lines from Jonny Greenwood.
4. Desert Island Disk-Starts with a beautiful finger picking acoustic guitar line. The song is very quiet and simple. It has a very staring up at the stars and mass of space feel to it.
5. Full Stop-This is my personal favorite song on the album. It starts with a droning bass line and fluttering chaotic synths. From the more relaxed feel of the album, this track is one of the few that feels like it has a bit of urgency as panic sets in on past mistakes. This songs finally gives other members of Radiohead some time to come off of the leash with great guitar lines, precise percussion, and droning bass. Thom delivers a very quirky vocal here. This is an album highlight.
6. Glass Eyes-slows things down for another beautiful floating synth and string ballad. This song has a very stuck in a moment of time feel like if Doctor Who’s Tardis broke and a single moment was captured as a still image.
7. Identikit-is another previously released song that I actually heard live on the Kings of Limbs tour. This song has one of the best musical arrangements on the albums with a catchy bass line and driving synths. Johhny Greenwood also shines here on guitar as he jumps around like a mad man. The style of a songs is very progressive as it shifts in pace, style, and sound constantly throughout. This is an album highlight.
8. The Numbers-starts with swirling piano and synths before acoustic guitar joins over top. This is a very simple sparse and beautiful song that slowly builds and adds on more layers as it goes along. The strings at the very end really pull the song together nicely.
9. Present Tense-Sees Thom start the song with flowing falsetto over a simple guitar line. Guitar lines get added and layered over each other as well as synths to create a very complicated and dreamy sound for Thom to croon over. Layering dense and complicated parts over each other has always been a Radiohead staple and shows here.
10. Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man-is a very spacy and minimalistic song that again features the London Contemporary Orchestra as the backdrop and highlight of the song as the play eerie lines over the vast nothingness and quiet.
11. True Love Waits-The Beautiful and emotional album closer has been an existing Radiohead song for a very long time first seen in 1995 and just now recorded for release. The style is the closing style we have seen from Radiohead many time almost Amnesiac in its atmospheric sound. A very stripped down and painful song. It’s about the moment when your lover leaves to never come back and all you can do is call out to them as they walk away. “I’ll Drown my beliefs to have your babies”, Thom sings in the flowing chorus. Musically it’s just a simple piano over quiet vocals but it’s delivery is powerful and beautiful. You can hear the pain in his voice as the track slowly fades out.
Radiohead performing 15 Step Live.
This is by far the most personal and humanizing album Radiohead have ever written. They weren’t trying to change or evolve their sound into something else here, but simply create a poignant and beautiful of the feeling in the moment. It was an album with the anxiety of time an pain of love lost. It is written with the modern day in mind instead of a metaphor for something else. It could almost be described as a beautiful, painful album about a fixed moment or moments in time that are forever frozen in his mind as he has to move on and face the passing days of the future. They were somehow able to kind of mend the sounds of Kid A and In Rainbows with the vast percussion sounds of King of Limbs into a beast all its own, and a masterpiece of an album.
Here is my video review of Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool.
Recommended songs: Burn the Witch, Daydreaming, Full Stop, Identikit, and True Love Waits.
5/5 Stars
Deftones- Gore Review-
In 2008, while Deftones were working on an album tentatively titled Eros, bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a traffic collision, leaving him in a minimally conscious state which ultimately led to his death in 2013. During that time, Deftones halted production on Eros and released Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan in 2010 and 2012, respectively, with current bassist Vega. In 2016, the band released a followup, titled Gore.
The Deftones are one of the last modern bands who truly have never had a bad album. I would go as far as to say that they always put out great albums. The Deftones were one of those bands labeled with that toxic phrase nu metal in the early days, but are so much more than that. When creating this album is was apparent that singer Chino Moreno and Guitarist Steven Carpenter were budding heads over the direction of the album. We will have to see if that effects the album but this is not the first time the two have budded heads creatively, it also happened on a little album called White Pony.
1. Prayers/Triangles-The album Opens with a beautiful and melodic guitar line over a dark and soothing vocal line form Chino. It builds up to a much bigger guitar part for the soaring chorus. This song is beyond beautiful musically. I wouldn’t exactly call it a ballad but more of a signal of the sound of the album a great mix of grindingly heavy and dark smooth beauty. Chico lays it on smooth and Steven Carpenter never lets him get too comfortable with that and as strives for heavier sounds. This song is an album highlight.
2. Acid Hologram-Starts even slower with an almost doom guitar line behind the vocals. It is one of the lightest Deftones songs but it never loses its intensity. It’s a like a moment of intimacy that never loses its spark or fire. Chino grinds vocally along with the guitar in the bridge and finds that smooth but intense tension.
3. Doomed User-is my favorite song on the album and the song that caused the most tension between Steven and Chino. The Guitar line on this song is my favorite line on the whole album. Vocally Chino is forced to come out more even in his attempts to keeps it calmer and lighter. His vocals shift form almost shouting to smooth sailing, all while the guitar never lets up. This song is an absolute highlight and proof that the tension here adds something great in the bands overall sound.
4. Geometric Headdress-takes the pace up a couple notches right from the start and finds a balance between calm tension and barely contained fury. The choruses are sung and pretty while the verses are shouted and screamed along with the grinding guitar line.
5. Hearts/Wires-starts with a dark and wavy synth line while guitar lines noodle quietly underneath. Finally a more solid melodic guitar line leads slowly into the vocals. Over all this is a much quieter and darker song. It slowly ticks along and Chino sings his pain away.
6. Pittura Infamante-The songs starts with a melodic dueling guitar line before a powerful vocal line breaks the line up. This a much lighter and happier sing along song. This song is a great song and a highlight. This song will be fun to sing along with at live shows. In the bridge sonically changed, the song comes back with much more intensity and a guitar solo.
7. Xenon-The song is led into and driven by a very unique and edgy guitar line that is very unique Steven Carpenter is great at this type of the line. The guitar is the backbone of this song as Chico sings soaring choruses over top. The song really comes together with the variation of the two parts coming together. The grinding guitar lines build and get louder into the end.
8.(L)MIRL-quiet strums begin the song before slowly finds grooving pace. This is another song example of dangerous and intimate. Chino has one of the best vocal lines as he shows huge range over a flowing guitar line. Beautiful dangerous, intimate best describes this song. It ends at the edge of almost heavy as chino screams “Right Now”.
9. Gore-the title track starts with a quick and driving guitar line, before exploding into the one of the heaviest moments on the album. It switches between melodic driving and a grinding heavy. This song is everything about this album that I love so much. Its huge melodic beautiful, heavy, and dark. This is an album highlight. This guitar line is again the backbone.
10. Phantom Bride-Calm and quiet and beautiful. This song floats along a melodic guitar line and the huge chorus soars. This is my favorite quiet song on the album. It perfectly captured by the name as a haunted failed love not willing to try anymore. You can hear the emotion in the vocals as he sings, “You waste your life trapped in emotion you will waste away”. The guitar solo in the middle is absolutely beautiful. This in an album highlight to me.
11. Rubicon-the album closer starts slowly with a grinding guitar line and soaring vocals bringing home the overall feel the album has had since the beginning. It’s beautifully composed and perfect as an ending a dark beautiful album.
Sometimes the thing that makes an album so great is the amount of dysfunction and disharmony that comes tighter to push everyone involved to new heights. It’s a rarity but here and on White Pony Chino Moreno and Steven Carpenter disagree about the overall album sound and refuse to compromise on their visions and they make each other so much better for that. Chino comes in on a lighter side after crosses wanting to fuse that here, and Steven wanted to bring out the heavier side of Deftones heard on albums like Diamond Eyes. It just comes together so beautifully as a dark, emotive, beautiful, and grinding album that soars by refusing to compromise.
Here is my video review of Deftones Gore.
Recommended songs: Prayers/Triangles, Doomed User, Gore, and Phantom Bride.
5/5 Stars
Goo Goo Dolls- Boxes Review-
I have a been a fan on this band from the first time I started buying albums and I think that makes me one of their biggest and most dedicated fans. I bought like every album up until I bought the last one Magnetic and I hated it. They changed their entire sound to a more modern synth pop sound and I hated it. They changed everything I loved about them. I was so angry that I skipped them on tour last year because they played so many new songs on that tour. I was very apprehensive about this new album but I picked it up anyway, I still like these guys a lot. So here’s hoping they went back to their old sound.
Goo Goo Dolls performing Iris.
1. Over and Over-Any hope of a return to the old school guitar driven 90’s sound is violently killed with the first sounds of the opening synths. It moves and waves just like every other modern syth pop song of the past few years. Even the sing along chorus is so simple and lazy, not that they were wordsmiths but they always had heart before. This song is the sound of a band who’s sound and heart have been ripped out and strained through a synth cheese grading producer to stay relevant.
2. Souls in the Machine-Starting with a guitar could be promising and a real vocal intro. This song actually sounds really promising with a bit of a folk county twinge until the chorus comes in and washes away that with over bearing synths and forced and bad sing along lines. Over all the song fares much better than the one before it.
3. Flood-A Coldplay sounding syth leads the song before it takes an even worse spin with lyrics that would choke hallmark. This is a duet song that vocally sounds great, but it’s hard to pay attention to that when they keep beating you over the head with the huge and horrible synth walls. “You’re the flood, You’re the flood, you’re the flood that opened my heart”. That is an actual line from the song.
4. The Pin-Another promising guitar start crushed by sythns and horrible lyric and chorus cliches. It continues the same simple start and builds to the huge wall of synths sound that the album has been doing so far.
5. Boxes-This is actually the strongest opening of the album with all the pomp and fanfare and a beautiful vocal line form John. Even with a more simple and beautiful ballad they can’t help but to try and sneak a few weird over sythns and high fake vocals sounds. Overall this song has more good than bad and that is more than can be said for most. It is a bit repetitive but that’s pop at its least annoying.
6. Free of Me-We finally hear the first lead vocal from co-goo man Robbie. He has a much different sounding voice but I actually works a little better with this over the top synth style because he sticks out more. He’s not trying the sound the exact same as every other pop vocalist, and that grounds the song a little. Musically still hugely over the top synths and bad choruses, more of the same.
7. Reverse-John is back at lead vocals with a cool little piano intro… and its gone. This is the worst over the top synth beating on the album. I practically choke on it. Hey the piano line is back…and its gone.
8. Lucky One-No cool intros, no fake outs, straight into the overbearing Christian rock meets modern synth producer form hell sound.
9. So Alive-This is my favorite into on the album but with a piano line dueling with a guitar and a catchy and fun vocal line from John. I don’t even mind the background chorus here. The synths bother me, but even still the music here stands far above the rest of the album and becomes the first real album highlight. The song works so much better because the synths take a more background here and John seems like he is actually trying with the lyrics for once.
10. Prayer in my Pocket-Remember all the compliments I gave Robbie when he took lead vocals from John, I take them all back. He leads to most over the top nauseating song on the album. Here not only are the synths being shoved forcibly at you but so are the really bad bible chorus sections. Not bad because it’s pro Jesus, just bad because its bad. REALLY REALLY BAD.
11. Long Way Home-The album closer starts with piano and John stripped back before guess what comes next. If you guessed this was the best song on the album with genuine great lyrics, get out your wrong. They do the exact same thing again, horrible sing a long choruses with a huge synth wave carrying it.
2. Souls in the Machine-Starting with a guitar could be promising and a real vocal intro. This song actually sounds really promising with a bit of a folk county twinge until the chorus comes in and washes away that with over bearing synths and forced and bad sing along lines. Over all the song fares much better than the one before it.
3. Flood-A Coldplay sounding syth leads the song before it takes an even worse spin with lyrics that would choke hallmark. This is a duet song that vocally sounds great, but it’s hard to pay attention to that when they keep beating you over the head with the huge and horrible synth walls. “You’re the flood, You’re the flood, you’re the flood that opened my heart”. That is an actual line from the song.
4. The Pin-Another promising guitar start crushed by sythns and horrible lyric and chorus cliches. It continues the same simple start and builds to the huge wall of synths sound that the album has been doing so far.
5. Boxes-This is actually the strongest opening of the album with all the pomp and fanfare and a beautiful vocal line form John. Even with a more simple and beautiful ballad they can’t help but to try and sneak a few weird over sythns and high fake vocals sounds. Overall this song has more good than bad and that is more than can be said for most. It is a bit repetitive but that’s pop at its least annoying.
6. Free of Me-We finally hear the first lead vocal from co-goo man Robbie. He has a much different sounding voice but I actually works a little better with this over the top synth style because he sticks out more. He’s not trying the sound the exact same as every other pop vocalist, and that grounds the song a little. Musically still hugely over the top synths and bad choruses, more of the same.
7. Reverse-John is back at lead vocals with a cool little piano intro… and its gone. This is the worst over the top synth beating on the album. I practically choke on it. Hey the piano line is back…and its gone.
8. Lucky One-No cool intros, no fake outs, straight into the overbearing Christian rock meets modern synth producer form hell sound.
9. So Alive-This is my favorite into on the album but with a piano line dueling with a guitar and a catchy and fun vocal line from John. I don’t even mind the background chorus here. The synths bother me, but even still the music here stands far above the rest of the album and becomes the first real album highlight. The song works so much better because the synths take a more background here and John seems like he is actually trying with the lyrics for once.
10. Prayer in my Pocket-Remember all the compliments I gave Robbie when he took lead vocals from John, I take them all back. He leads to most over the top nauseating song on the album. Here not only are the synths being shoved forcibly at you but so are the really bad bible chorus sections. Not bad because it’s pro Jesus, just bad because its bad. REALLY REALLY BAD.
11. Long Way Home-The album closer starts with piano and John stripped back before guess what comes next. If you guessed this was the best song on the album with genuine great lyrics, get out your wrong. They do the exact same thing again, horrible sing a long choruses with a huge synth wave carrying it.
Goo Goo Dolls performing Over and Over.
This album cements a fear I had after that last album Magnetic in that the Goo Goo Dolls are no longer for me and my time actively following the band is over. The one bad album rule applies, but this is two horrible misfires attempting to gain footing the modern day pop audiences hearts. I honestly don’t get it, they have a huge following they haven’t been modern or really relevant to new fans since Dizzy up the Girl or maybe arguably 2006’s Let Love In. That didn’t stop them from making good new music for the fans they already had and playing fairly large crowds at their concerts. They won’t get new fans form this over produced stynth ball of trash, they will just alienate the core fans they had. It might be time for a greatest hits tour and no new albums like this ever again. Trust me a lot of 90s fans won’t want to see these songs live.
Here is my Video Review of Goo Goo Dolls Boxes.
Recommended songs: So Alive and that’s a stretch.
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