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I couldn’t resist downloading this album. Really, could you? An Airplane! joke? Awesome.
The production values on the album are very high — the balance between vocals and music works well, the drums are solid without being overpowering.
I would put this album somewhere between pop-punk and straight up contemporary rock or alternative music. While I enjoy the four tracks musically, the language barrier does get in the way for me. Being unable to understand the words, the rhythm of the syntax needs to have an attractive hook to really grab me. (The ultimate Internet example of this would be the “Numa Numa” song.) That said, these four songs are promising, but they didn’t really grab me.
My favorite is “Cuervo,” which has a variety of musical sounds, varying vocals (including a delightful “oh oh oh” from a the chorus), a jaunty rhythm, and a few quick jumps into falsetto from its lead singer.
If you don’t like Punk Polka, you aren’t going to like Hoboscopes. It’s a German band (though they sing in English) that has a distinctly, well, Gypsy Punk feel.
The album has a catchy rhythm with a prominent accordion presence (which gives it the distinctive polka sound). The lyrics are generally amusing, but none of the songs stood out to me as really great. I’m not sure whether the style of music just didn’t give me a hook to grab on to, or if the way the songs are written avoids easy encapsulation.
Of the songs that I liked the most, “With Her Love” stands out as a song appropriate to the music style. It has a distinct martial rhythm and formal beat. “Who’s Going to Shoot Me” also has a distinct sound. In fact, the latter may be my favorite song on the album.
Reflecting a bit more, I think the main challenge is that the music never hits a pace much faster than what I’d think of as “standard polka” pace. While the lyrical style definitely feels “punk,” I tend to think of the need for blistering speed as the essential element of punk or pop punk. If you want to do a punk version of a genre, you do it by speeding up (c.f. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). I don’t feel like the Hoboscopes have sped up enough.
I’d recommend listening to this album to see what the sound is like, but I probably won’t be pursuing this music much beyond this initial week.
Robin Grey has a meditative, quiet quality that I really enjoy. I’ve been listening to I Love Leonard Cohen and Only the Missile this week, and enjoying them both immensely.
* “I Love Leonard Cohen” ponders changing shapes of individual tastes. He frames the song through the shifts in his listening habits, returning to the refrain: “My Weezer CDs, well they hardly get played/ My obsession with Ani DiFranco has ended/ My task is anything but certain these days/ I would probably tell you that I love Leonard Cohen.”
* “The Last Time I Saw David” similarly seems to ponder the way one’s understanding of religion shifts as one ages.
* The easygoing pace of the music is enjoyable, but not overwhelming. Good for sitting and listening. Not good for driving.
I was a bit skeptical of this album, since JW seems to be a Jamendo superstar. I am pleasantly surprised, though. Woodward has a folky, alternative style, often just acoustic guitar and his pleasant voice, with plenty of quiet and melancholy songs. I particularly like the ones that are a bit more jaunty or lively. The three that really stand out for me are “Symmetry and the Pocket of Angels,” “Let Me Talk, Carol ,” and “Josie Has the Upper Hand.” The “Carol” has a really good hook and an amusing premise and the best line on the album: “I’m sorry if your feeble brain can’t follow what I say, but I have dumbed this down as far as I will go.” I also enjoyed “River Went Dry.”
Overall, an enjoyable outing and definitely worth a listen. I would recommend downloading the three I’ve mentioned here, but take a listen before you decide about the rest. I can’t decide how prominently this will ultimately end up in my music collection, though, as the songs have a low-key flow that makes them less likely to stand out, for me anyhow.
Sinkhole seems to be a conventional pop punk group reminiscent of Less Than Jake when they trend away from the horn-based ska. They have pretty enjoyable hooks and speedy songs. They take care to give their lead singer (who tends to do a little more singing than many such bands, but also still has the spoken-word scratchy-voice aesthetic so common to the genre) enough volume and enunciation that you can understand the lyrics. Most importantly, they’re very competent within their genre–and given the three-chord, anyone-can-play-punk aesthetic, competence is crucial.
A couple of the songs stand out for me. I really like the chorus and harmony of “Donut .” “Far and Away” reminds me a lot of the song “Sugar high” from the movie Empire Records, mostly because of the timbre and character of the singer, more than because of the melody. My favorite song is “Don’t Fail Me Now ,” which has a simple-minded approach reminiscent of “The End of the World as We Know It,” but stood out to me. As a last note, following the tradition of silly/ juvenile additions to albums (like the mustache sequence on Less Than Jake’s Losing Streak), Sinkhole includes a rant against non Heavy Metal music entitled, cryptically, “Madonna, She’s a Dick.”
Worth a listen and perhaps a download.
I really like this album. The Wind Whistles has a light, poppy sound, reminiscent of the Kimya Dawson songs from Juno in which she sings along with other folks. Each of the songs has a good melody, and as I skipped from one to the next, I found myself saying "Oh yeah, I like this track too!" with nearly every song. This whole album will definitely enter my music rotation/collection.
In particular, "Gold Fever" works really well, leading off the album with a defining sound that appears in nearly every song, but with variations. The dark songs like "Devil's Cauldron" are moody and atmospheric, while the light ones--particularly the Belle and Sebastian-like "Ballad of a Jailbreak wedding"--are just lovely to listen to. I'm not as keen on the slower songs, like "River," and the feedback/distortion in "Where does the Garbage go?" turns me off. My favorite song is " Good Friends won't Rip you Off," a song that gets in your head and gets you out there to tell others about the album.
Rating: Worth downloading the whole album.
Billing itself with keywords "rock punk disco ska musette," I expected something a bit heavier, with less accordion. Then their ID3 tag in iTunes comes up with the genre blues, which absolutely doesn't fit. These songs bounce along with what I assume is whimsy, with a hint of Dead Milkmen spoken-word growl. A few of the songs, like "Un homme complexé," "Help me," and "Bourré" have solid hooks that are very enjoyable. "En Normandie" zips along enjoyably, while "Truc à l'arrache" has a jaunty electric-guitar trio feel to it. My favorite song from the album is "Teenagers," whose hilarious casio underbeat and hyper eighties "Mickey" feel makes me smile each time it comes around. In tone, though, it's pretty different than much of the album. The Pierre Richard's Family develops a wide range of tracks, from the downright goofy to upbeat songs bordering on the music I'd expect to hear from a whimsical punk or ska band.
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