ALBUM REVIEW: Editors "In This Light and On This Evening"

I first discovered Editors on the Myspaces of all places back in aught 5. Back in the dark ages when you could only post one song on your profile, a friend of mine who I'd never met in real life had a song posted labeled "Editors - Munich." I was intrigued, as Munich seemed like a cool name for a song, so I pressed play, and was a fan ever since.

In their third album, the band have gone in the opposite direction of their last, "And End Has A Start," and ditched the layered guitars in favor of synthesizers. As those familiar with my tastes in music will know, this development pleases me. They have embraced the instrument with an earnestness and lack of pretension that one rarely finds these days, and the result is that it both enhances and feels completely at home in every song, and never seems added in later for some sort of vintage flair.

Rather than try to summarize I'll just say a bit about each of the nine songs on the album:

In This Light and On This Evening: From the moment the first song begins the sound throws off those familiar with Editors. We would expect to hear a screeching guitar or thunderous drums, but instead the first sound is a throbbing, driving arpeggiator, followed soon by lead singer Tom Smith almost whispering "I swear to God/ I heard the earth inhale/ moments before/ it spat its rain down on me." At this moment it's clear the band is doing something different this go around, but even though the opening track is intriguing and drew me in, I wasn't sure whether this change would result in a success or an embarrassing failure. Luckily I soon discovered it's the former.

Bricks and Mortar: This song begins with a perky beat that soon is elevated by the sound of a celestial synth patch, which establishes that the dark tone set in the first song wont be carried over into the entire album. For some reason this track reminds me of the The Cure song "Push," perhaps because they are both oddly uplifting without resorting to lame, life-affirming lyrics. The phrase "This home is more than/ bricks and mortar" brings a smile to my face and requires no explanation.

Papillon: This is the first single off the album, and aside from the synthesizers, is more or less a normal Editors single in the vein of "Munich," "Blood," and "An End Has A Start" with charmingly hostile lyrics and a strong hook. Good song but nothing revelatory.

You Don't Know Love: This is a mellow and haunting song that requires a few listens to figure out. I love the opening lyric "You ran with the dead today/ with the moles from the C.I.A./ they say more than you ever say" and the synth patch underlying the verse is the type that is not used nearly enough today. It conveys a haunting mood a guitar or a piano just can't. At the chorus the guitar jumps in with the synthesizer, bass, and drums to create a sound that I can't really say I've heard on an album produced since the 1980s. I can't really describe it, but songs just don't sound like that anymore.

The Big Exit: This is a another calm, measured song. It's probably my least favorite on the album, but that's not too damning an assessment. It is well crafted and I enjoy the percussion especially, but musically, the songwriting isn't up to the level set by the rest of the album.

The Boxer: This song is masterful example of how to use a synthesizer. It begins with a slow drum beat accompanied by a sequencer, then a distorted bass line, and then the most emotive, simple synth part that invokes perfectly the canonical film noir "The Set-Up" about, what else, an aging boxer going in for one last fight. The band goes on to blur the lines between synth and guitar, tricking the listener by eventually producing that beautiful synth part with an electric guitar. The swell at the end, as Smith sings over and over "Dazed in the final count," is flawless.

Like Treasure: The band picks up the pace a little with this song, which has more of a playful mood. The layering of the synths in this song is so dense I can't discern everything that's going on, but it sounds lovely, and lyrically this song is the gem of the album:

You are what you eat

You'll become digested

Well love, it isn't felt

Love is tested

You will keep forever

I'll bury you like treasure

A love song possibly about murdering your loved one, possibly burying or storing the body in a freezer, and then eating it, is always a winner in my book.

Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool: Musically this is the most playful song on the album and one of the few instances where use of the synth gets cute, but it's not necessarily a problem as the band doesn't overdo it. This is catchy and will probably be the second single from the album, but it's not one I want to listen to over and over, but it may grow on me.

Walk The Fleet Road: Haunting, subdued, and brilliantly restrained close for a brilliantly restrained album. Here the band employs a choir, but to completely different effect than on their last album's theatrical opening song "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors." "Hold your tongue/ swallow your venom/ you're too young/ hold your tongue." The End.

Anywho, I enjoyed this album more than any that's come out this year. I will admit that it is heavily tailored to my own niche tastes, but hopefully it can inspire you to stop worrying and love the synthesizer.

Feel the Boyle-mentum!

I fear Susan Boyle may have forever tainted the song "Wild Horses." Shame, because I really dig that tune, especially the mid-nineties cover by The Sundays. Oh well. Such disappointments are the fabric of life.

EDIT: The worst part of it all...the Susan Boyle version is kinda sorta achingly beautiful.

Lists Are Stupid

When I was a wee baron, I used to love lists that attempted to rank music and films, like the "AFI's (the American Film Institute, not Mark's beloved band) top 100 Films" or "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Albums of All Time." Now I hate these things with a passion, along with award shows. Here's why.

Nothing New Under The Sun

Ok, let's see if you can follow me here.

This is The Postal Service from 2003:

Ok, now this is Owl City from 2009 (keep in mind none of the parties involved in The Postal Service are involved now):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw

(embedding is disabled on every version of this video for some reason, so you'll have to go to the yootoobs yourself to view it)

I mean, there's ripping off, and then there's...I mean, goddamn.

No, Creed and Limp Bizkit Still Suck

Jonah Weiner of Slate.com thinks it's time we reassess alt-rockers Creed and give them their due (Weiner is a repeat offender and has made the same claim about Limp Bizkit). I would argue that it's too soon. I will confess that I enjoyed the song "My Own Prison" at the time. It was a dark, grungy ditty that paired well with the woes of high school. However, after that they lost me with the rest of that album and all their followups. In fact, rock and roll doesn't get much more ridiculous than "Higher." Weiner is correct in saying that:

Along with Limp Bizkit (who made fun of Creed, too), Stapp and Co. are remembered today as poster boys for a turn-of-the-century musical nightmare we're happily past.

We should leave that nightmare in the past. The late 90's was a terrible period in popular music. The charts were ruled by boy bands and über-macho neanderthal rap-metal. I know some day Creed and all the other shitty bands of that era will come back into vogue, but lets at least hope that it's in the same form the hair-metal bands of the late 80's (Creed and Limp Bizkit's developmentally challenged forefathers) did, and that is that they are only allowed in the name of irony or at strip clubs.

EDIT: Matt Yglesias had the best line about this story today:

I bet al-Qaeda plays [Creed] to recruits in order to whip them into an anti-Christian fervor.

MUSIC: Live Review of AFI's new album "Crash Love"

So, I'll admit. I've had AFI's ("A Fire Inside") new album, Crash Love, on preorder since it was first available on iTunes. This review will track my feelings on the album as I listen to it for the first time--as I drink wine.

So far, it's f*cking awesome. Now, I realize it's a bit early for real unbiased review, but I'm loving it. I'll also admit that I was actually scared to listen to the album, because I had terrors bubbling to the surface of how I felt when I heard AFI's December Underground back in 2006. I felt so disappointed. I was actually sad. I felt like I was forcing myself to finish December Underground. What happened to AFI? Here was this band waving AFI's banner, a band I've been following since riding around in my brother hatchback in '99. What I did know is that this band on December Underground was not Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Eyes, The Art of Drowning, or even Sing the Sorrow. It was so...foreign. But, ultimately, December Underground was a solid album.

Okay, the album starts a bit different than I thought it would with "Torch Song." There's no intro, per usual. The album just jumps right in. It's good. It's got the rifts of an opening one minute intro, but it's a whole song that sort of reminds me of the Mars Volta, surprising enough...but not for long.

It's getting better. So far, I'm digging "Beautiful Thieves" and "End Transmission." "End Transmission" starts with the lyrics, " pull the top down, use your knees to drive," which just brings up a vision I'm falling in love with, only to be soon followed by "go grab your bag, I'll bring the gun." Images of John Dillinger are filling my head.

"Too Shy to Scream" has an interesting big band beat. It's good. I want to mosh.

Some of the guitars, beats, and melodies on the album are reminiscent of The Smiths to me, especially on the present track "Veronica Sawyer Smokes." Which isn't surprising, seeing as Davy Havok is a huge fan of The Smiths. "Beautiful Thieves" kinda made me think that way until the choir singing, not sure what I think about that...

"Okay I Feel Better Now." Track 6. Just okay, starts off with a Red Hot Chili Peppers re "Californication" guitar riff, a little boring because it's at a tempo that isn't slow but not fast, so it's easy to not notice. I'll have to give it another listen because I felt my mind drifting off to other things, but felt it was pleasant.

Alright now, "Medicate," it's pure AFI on Sing the Sorrow, which is awesome. Given that, it's not surprising this is the first single off the album. It's pretty kick ass, up tempo. Pretty awesome.

Some synth work in the background of "I'm Trying Very Hard to Be Here." Chris will dig that. A lot of layering, very busy. It picks up on the tempo of "Medicate" and keeps it going, so I feel like jumping around and dancing. And it's short at 2 minutes 44 seconds.

Digging track 9 "Sacrilege." Starting to notice I've yet to hear any of Davy Havok's signature screaming/shouting, just hints of his rasp/verge of screaming, but not quite there. This song is serious, lyric wise, and reminds me of The Art of Drowning or Black Sails in the Sunset. The melodies sound like God Call in Sick Today or Ghost Under the Stairs, but sped up.

Track 10,"Darling, I Want to Destroy You," seemed so promising from it's title. Pure crap. Tediously grating voice effect. Sh*tty sharp key. Very disappointing. It's noisy. I don't like it at all. Ugh...

"Cold Hands" starting well. God, I hate voice effect. Davy's voice is layered or something, it's irritating. I HATE it when singers do that. The song is a bit boring and noisy.

If AFI could make a song that sounds like Chris Isaak, they've done it with "It was Mine," at least with the main part. I never dreamt I would say that. And they've got some Queen-esqu elements in the breakdown. I don't know what this song is about, it's all over the place. Not digging it.

"Too Late for Gods," track 13. Some good group chanting. Which reminds me that AFI held a contest to get fans on the album for the chants. I can't recall if there was any real chanting before this, beside track one. This is making me a bit perturbed. But this song is pretty good. But, it just ends.

BONUS TRACK: "Breathing Towers to Heaven." Why is this song a bonus track. Am I the only one who thinks most bonus tracks are actually better than tracks that made the actual album?

END RESULT: Crash Love is a pretty good album that will take multiple listens to really get into. It's not as good as Sing the Sorrow or any of the predecessors. Unfortunately, it's also not as good as December Underground. But, then again I had hopelessly high hopes for this album. And it's still good. There are some truly great songs on here, which is why AFI is still around. I LOVE the track "End Transmission." And, I still can't wait to see them in November!