Jenny Owen Youngs – An Unwavering Band Of Light
27 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
In some ways, the way Jenny Owen Youngs went about getting the ball rolling for her third album is so modern, charming and honest, it’s almost perfect. In July of 2010, wanting to keep control of her own work and make a record on her own terms, she contacted her fans about the Kickstarter campaign she has just begun, aimed at raising the funds for making An Unwavering Band Of Light. Within 28 hours, the $20, 000 target was achieved, and she went on to raise 38 grand within just a few weeks. It’s all the more impressive if you consider that Jenny’s nowhere near rolling in cash, self-released her first album Batten The Hatches and doesn’t have a label behind her to speak of at all. Even better is what started as a simple request from fans has helped to create the best work of her career.
Sure, JOY’s always been able to marry up thoughtful, smart, poppy tunes based around her acoustic, and as recently as last album Transmitter Failure, that’s taken on more of a rockin’ full-band approach. Still, every aspect of her work is more streamlined and focussed here. The uplifting, jaunty numbers like Love For Long and soaring closer Wake Up over up an almost illegal level of catchiness, the reflective fragility of the acoustic O God and piano-led So Long find new heartstrings to tug on and there’s even room for the angular, volume and Russian-tinged horns of Sleep Machine.
Perhaps the best thing you can say about this record is that it doesn’t sound like a penny of the money raised has been wasted; fair play to the lady in question as she’s surrounded herself with great musicians who play everything with effortless ease. It makes the energetic rhythms on the sugar-rush of Pirates or the insanely catchy whistled melody of Why You Fall stand out even more (seriously, that melody will burrow it’s way into your brain with the guile of an angry shark). Lyrically, it deals very openly with sticky situations of the heart, specifically their pitfalls and occasional futility, but it’s done in such a way that it doesn’t feel forced, and thankfully, massively contrived. “We make the most of the love we got, cos it won’t be love for long;” as an introductory chorus, it’s hardly swimming in aimless positivity but it’s honest, and it’s backed up by a ridiculously catchy and jaunty melody.
If this is the first you’re hearing of Jenny Owen Youngs then you’ll find instant evidence on An Unwavering Band Of Light as to why her fans responded so quickly and impressively to her call for assistance. It’s well written, varied and genuinely great to listen to. And what a note to an industry that we’re constantly told is in trouble that a singer/songwriter is able to ask the fans that buy her albums and go to her shows to fund the making of a record they were always going to get anyway.
9/10
Lamb of God – Resolution
21 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in CD Review, Metal Tags: Lamb Of God, Metal, Resolution, Resolution review, Roadrunner
In some ways, given that Lamb Of God’s stock has risen so impressively high since the release of 2006′s Sacrament that they are one of few modern metal bands able to fill arenas, their sixth offering Resolution doesn’t stand to lose much at all. Any naysayers crying “sell out” were flattened in the brutal wake of 2009′s Wrath, which came so pleasingly after the band’s commercial breakthrough. That album, once again, posted huge sales to the point where you could say this was a band that now has a safe, protected career; albums will be bought, big gigs attended, money made etc. As such, it’s perhaps not so stunning that Resolution is a particularly unsurprising offering.
There’s very little room for misinterpretation here; this is very much a solid, heavy and mostly unremarkable Lamb of God record. Sure, the introductory sludge of Straight For The Sun is a welcome surprise, yet it’s followed by the immediately recognisable groove of Desolation, which on another day could just as easily be Redneck in disguise. The follow up, Ghost Walking has been described by frontman Randy Blythe as a song fans would find familiar, which is indicative of the majority of Resolution; recognisable, comforting and pleasingly heavy. Combining the groove and accessibility of Sacrament and Wrath’s speed and venom makes for a listen tempered by the occassional sidestep but still instantly familiar.
That’s ultimately where Resolution fails as a progression for Lamb of God in that it doesn’t go anywhere particularly engaging. There are a few too many songs on it sound like outtakes from predecessors, which detracts from the power of those moments that stand out a little more like the lurching thrash of Invictus or King Me, easily the band’s biggest curveball to date thanks to a combination of grand choral work, strings and malevolent stomp.
Still, in the context of Lamb of God’s career, this represents another loud, defiant statement. If there was to be one band to profit so vastly from metal’s re-emmergence as a commercial force, then you could find many more undeserving candidates. Perhaps the lazy Pantera comparison people seem desperate to make can come in handy here, with Lamb of God’s global popularity so high and with Resolution acting very much like a modern Reinventing The Steel; solid, dabbling in experimentation but ultimately a capable statement of a band’s power that won’t stun anyone. There’s still pleasure to take from those trademark buzzsaw guitars and Blythe’s gutteral growl, just not as much as you might be used to.
6.5/10
Bleeding Through – The Great Fire
07 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in CD Review, Metal Tags: bleeding through, Hardcore, Metal, rise records, the great fire
There are few things more disheartening in music than seeing a fantastic album get bogged down in label politics. Trustkill, Bleeding Through’s previous label managed to muck up the release of 2008′s superb Declaration spectacularly thanks to a lengthy delay and barely any promotion to speak of. Considering the band’s previous effort (2006′s The Truth) sold a quarter of a million copies worldwide, the paltry 6, 000 units its predecessor shifted in its first week was a massive shame for such a epic, brutal and truly engaging metal record. Claiming that this has defined the band’s career subsequently would be a mistake, and The Great Fire, just like 2010′s self-titled effort is another solid collection of hardcore-influenced extreme metal, but it struggles to distinguish itself from the band’s career highlight.
Before angry crowds gather to pick fault with the old “it’s not as good as such-and-such album”, it’s worth stating that The Great Fire is still a beast. The symphonic keyboards, brutal blastbeats and Brandon Schieppati’s commanding bark are still here along with a more traditional, hardcore approach with most of the fourteen songs on offer clocking in at under three minutes. It’s concise, to-the-point and leaves little room for misreading its intentions of kicking your backside up to your throat. The occasional melodic passage and clean vocal do break things up from being an extended session in being pounded but this is as savage and straightforward as Bleeding Through have sounded in some time.
That’s great an’ all, but are there songs to back that up? The short answer is ‘just about’. The desperate intensity of Final Hours and the thrash fuelled one minute and fifty four seconds of Faith In Fire certainly hit some thrilling buttons, but ultimately the album suffers the same problem Bleeding Through had two years ago; it doesn’t really distinguish itself. Admittedly, Dave Nassie has proven a sturdy replacement for Jona Weinhofen in the axeman department since the latter’s departure after Declaration, but since then, there’s no denying that some of the creative spark and identity hasn’t been restored. The subtle nuances, use of different keys and variation of that period in the band’s career hasn’t been carried over into the post-Trustkill days. The Great Fire is very sturdy, heavy and well-composed stuff, and certainly some of the most scathing of the band’s career, but brutality cannot carry the weight of an entire album, and there’s getting less and less to distinguish Bleeding Through from the rest of the pack.
6/10
