The Beta Band - Hot Shots II (2001)
Cex - Role Model (2000)
Firewater - Psychopharmacology (2001)
The Beta Band - Hot Shots II
1 - squares
since i'll be seeing these gents tomorrow, figured i'd get all intimate with the new album. listened to it a bunch already, but what the hell. this song is like built around this sample of some orchestra thing. it's a sample i feel like i've heard before... in a portishead song. it's definitely got a triphop feel to it. well, once the sample kicks in. the beginning is all a cappelly and beta bandy.
2 - al sharp
this band has a very unique sound, and i think it's due to steven mason's voice. don't know how to describe the sound, but it's definitely there. lots of layered vocals in this one. I wonder who al sharp is. ends with all the layered a cappella, nice.
3 - human being
acoustic guitar opening a little like dry the rain. cool choruses. nice little horn sample. i also really dig the acoustic guitar riff from the beginning, it just came back. little rock out end here. hmm, you know, i bet if i ever started writing reviews, these little things i do would be invaluable to the process. this is a total rock n' roll outro, very un beta band, but cool.
4 - gone
kind of spooky sounding. lyrics about guy who fell from a spaceship and would "like to fall in love with you." then posing only here for a little while, will you think of me when i'm gone. fluid guitar strum, piano incidentals, and "ooohs" make up the background. god, the layers are so thick.
5 - dragon
little reverbed keyboard groove, and slow but phat beat. kind of slow melodic rapping from mason. ooh, i love this part. "i've never been the type to sing all night but ahhhh" over and over, really cool. then there's this slow outro type thing "how the west was won / it's a lie / but it's made to sound like fun."
6 - broke
these titles suck for the most part. it's gonna be hard writing a setlist, cause a lot of htem have nothing to do with the song that i can tell. ooh, i like the main part of this one. "you won't cry for me..." over first just a little bel lthing, then the bell thing and huge perc and harmonies. it's great. this is just a really good album. mmm.
7 - quiet
this is like the first song without a really memorable hook. oh never mind, there it is. forgot about it. damn them. this one is another kinda rocker . ends with tihs piano thing over aggressive rock drums and fuzzy freaky bass.
8 - alleged
"oh ma there's a hole in my head / i used the bullets that came with the gun that you gave me." hmm, it's a fairly poppy song, has a nice little lilt to it. song changes up a bit around 3-4 minutes, it's cool. "don't know why i didn't [something]" with lots of variations over and over in typical mason style.
9 - life
probably the most unremarkable song on the cd. i don't dislike it, but it doesn't have anything really memorable.
10 - eclipse
this one's fun. little a cappella raps here and there. and the definite beatles drop "we all live together on a little round ball." and devolves into some talk about smoking pizza pie. with spoken replies from some beatles sounding guy. fun stuff.
11 - won
samples of "one is the loneliest number." and this dirty growly rap. it's odd. kind of out of place, yes but i can still dig it. it's billed as a "bonus track." I think bonus tracks should be preceding by minutes of silence. the "one" samples fit in really well.
hmm, my favorites eh? eclipse wins, and then everything else is really good too. alleged is up there, life is down there. the others are all strewn about in the middle.
Cex - Role Model
1 - at least i can say i tried
phat beats. this is straight up electronic music, something i haven't really been into before, but this track is working. nice little keyboardy melody, nothing too abrasive. but definitely click and cut electronic. i wish i had any understanding whatsoever about how this music is made. nice structure to this too, 7 minutes are doing well.
2 - again and again
i will not be listening to this 45 second mess again and again.
3 - love cop
more aggressive perc and less melody than 1.
4 - wall street kid
i'm not cutout for electronic analysis. it's not the type of stuff i can really sit, give my full attention to and have things to say. i can certainly give it full attention, but what to say really? with that being said, this one's cool.
5 - see, track 5 just passed by in the backround without me noticing, so i guess it was ok
6 - am i soundboy
nice, more of those chimey noises
7 - academy award (cex's radio edit)
remix of the plan song. it's fun.
8 - julia walsh
pretty chimey melody again. yeah, this one's really good. nice farty outro.
9 - ice
a mimnute long
10 - theme song to cex
included girls laughing. but another nice synthy chimey percy song.
11 - the angles are there
the first song on this disc to include that noise that kills my ears. but i'm still kinda down with it. very atmospheric.
there were some more songs.
i listened to this mostly in the background, cause that's where it fits. but there still were some that i picked out. at least i can say i tried, academy award, julia walsh, rjyan kidwell's funeral, have
cex.
Firewater - Psychopharmacology
1 - woke up down
this guy's got a dirty voice, reminds me of another. ooh, nice, hi-hat ride with little chord doobies. oooh, nice at "i woke up down," it turned the rock up a notch, and that's c great line. rockin'. promising start.
2 - psychopharmacology
sounds like the vamp to "one." not anymore. it lasted for like 3 seconds. sparse verses big choruses about being prescribed pills that are bad for you. don't kill yourself, take pills. "cause god is great and got is good / but he's also made of wood." i got a really high quality insert with this, very high grade thick paper.
3 - fell off the face of the earth
sounds like a beatles song i can't remember the name of, that indian style guitar and shit. oh yeah. nice build to chorus, nice chorus. i like the military drumming for the verses. oh man, that last "why should i try to hang on" RULED.
4 - get out of my head
rock and roll. "baby i could be a billionaire if i wasn't always broke." true. "being born is where i went wrong." ha, this is loaded with those couplets, and great one liners. "my ambition is lying underneath the bed." i hear strings in the background. OH MY GOD! Handclap bridge! woohoo! this guy has such a crass voice, it rules.
5 - 7th avenue static
less rock than the other songs. it's a bittersweet march. dad goes off the war/prison, mom kilols herself, kid hits the streets. ooh, almost had this guy's voice. oh, its blake schwartzenbach from jawbreaker/j2b. this song is working as well. picked up intensity, kept the march. reminds me a little of new drink for the old drink.
6 - car crash collaborator
whoa, thickest guitars ever. dunno how i feel about this. ok, they're gone. it was thick guitar with thick keyboards and it was weird. there's horns in there too, they came back for the chorus, but worked better with him singing. this song appears to be about a guy who plans car crashes. hmm, after denouncing the guitars earlier, the choruses where they appear are my favorite part of the song.
7 - bad, bad world
hmm, trading off vocals with a chick. who sounds like some smokey lounge singer. she's got to be a guest. "i'm a bad, bad girl / i read it on the bathroom wall." not a remarkable song, just like the last, hopefully they'll bring it back.
8 - the man with the blurry face
driving verses. choruses actually take it back a notch. ha "the man with the blurry face / he's got a future in television." better than the last two, but still lacking the awesomeness of 1-5.
9 - black box recording
"and as the fuselage goes dark / you're thinking: ain't if funny / you still owe some people money." morbid. ahahaha "it's hard to keep from laughing / the 'no smoking' sign's still flashing ... you still could use a smoke right now." getting a space oddyssey moment now. this sound is cool. morbid and weird, but damn good.
10 - she's the mistake
was reading an article through this one, but i think it was good.
an exceptionally strong album when you take out the middle 6-7-8 trio, which wasn't bad, just not great. 9,3 and 4 are the tops.
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