1 - biomusicology
this guy's voice is alright. there's a little bit of buckley to it... but without the grace. ha, i kill me. healthy addition of strings for the bridge. liked the section starting "chasing seafoam dreams" wish i had a lyrics book. good semi-rocker. nice start to the album.
2 - parallel or together
oooh, 2:15 was just something very close to another song that i can't place. this isn't as good as the first track, it's like permanent tension without release, but it's poppy, just tension seemed the appropriate word to use there.it just happened again around 3:12. i'm thinking a BDB song. this song is growing on me. oh, it's so badly drawn boy.
3 - Under the Hedge
oooh i like. started out with these huge rushish hooks, and then well, it's cool. oh god i love the beginnins to the verse, it's just a quick 10 second build, but it's really great. This was great, best of disc. err, best of disc's first 3 tracks.
4 - Dialup
Hmm, mr. leo should avoid falsetto. This song isn't working for me. he just sounds like a pretty boy singing over some boring rock beat. ok, it got a little cooler at 2.20. more energy and shit. the song hasn't really changed though. and it has a guitar solo that won't end and you can't hear over the repeating rhythm vamp.
5 - Timourous Me
ooh, a little bluesy feel to this. yeah, this guy is jeff buckley meets geddy lee. what a frightening combo. he's singing about an old friend. a fairly standard do-nothing song. ha, i just finished his line with "the day the music died." weird. this has a 70s garage rock feel to it, which isn't bad, but ain't great. uhoh, drums and bass and hand claps just made it a lot better. it's still a total 70s garage song. these guitar interludes are ass. 20 seconds of a feedback note. grrreat.
06 - Stove By A Whale
like track 2, a repetitive, go-nowhere overlong intro. even worse than track 2. it's the textbook blues background vamp here. boring. oh shit, it's a long one too. hmm, that intro vamp they keep going back to is damn familiar. and now they're giving me ample time to try and place it. now there's a lame guitar solo over a one chord blues vamp. thanks but no thanks, ted.it won't end.
07 - The Great Communicator
After the first 3 tracks this cd turned into straight up 70s rock. this is sounded better than the last two, however. This is such a classic sound, which is kind of commendabl if it's what they were going for. this song is a keeper. ugh, boring repetitive guitar solo. i guess i should be used to these by now.
08 - Squeaky Fingers
I'm trying to like this song, but really it's just not doing anything for me. I tire of your guitar solos, even if this one is better than most of the rest have been. Uhoh, hand claps. the song has just become likable. damn my weakness for rhymic clapping.
09 - My Vien Ilin
part of these songs' problem is that they take too damn long to build up. although at one minute 20, i'm wondering if this song will ever get there. its slowly building and just wants to bust out, and i'm not going to be satisfied until it does. Hmm, i wanted it to bust out with the words still going, not the method this song took at the two minute mark, which was to hit some heavy guitar solos and then do a little instrumental rock out. It's too bad, because the verses were really really cool, they just never reached where i wanted them to go.
10 -The Gold Finch and the Red Oak
uhoh, whats this? acoustic guitar and strings. this is nice. two minutes long, i guess ted isn't comfortable with these ballad type songs. you'll notice i haven't made one mention as to song content or lyrics, well maybe one, but the fact is, i've barely caught a single word. oh well.
11 - St. john the Divine
whoa, am i in some 80s dance song? grooving bass line and echo'd effect on the guitar chords. What's this? I actually liked an instrumental midsection. liked this one.
12 - you could die (or this could end)
two minutes and harmless enough.
so the album started out with a great three songs, and then just kind of died on me. a couple solid melodies here and there, 7 and 11 were nice, 10 too.
I have a feeling repeat listenings will only help the album out.
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