2013 Grammy Nomination:
- Best Dance/Electronica Album
Ah, another year, another Deadmau5 review. This guy gets a lot of traction on this blog around this time of year, jeese.
This one's album number six, and came out this past September on Ultra. Apparently, it's partially made up of songs that were previously recorded but not released as singles (not uncommon). And there's a bunch of guest artists. Guys, I'm out of interesting things to say here. Let's do this.
"Superliminal" is the first of the made-up-word titles we'll encounter here. It hits hard and heavy right away, and in any setting other than my computer I'd probably be getting an immediate headache. Luckily, the pacing picks up and, despite this dull thud in my head, it's… okay. No… not oaky… damn you spellcheck. I think my dog just started barking at this. And there's still a whole three minutes to go!
Wolfgang Gartner (aka Joey Youngman) joins in for the next one, "Channel 42." It's like a weird creepy organ playing a few octaves too high, with a whole bunch of commercial beats thrown in. I like the darker element to it, but the sound is just a bit tough to digest.
"The Veldt - 8 Minute Edit" includes Chris James, and has one of the better dance feels I've heard in a while. It's up there with the Usher standard I sometimes have in my head. The tone is fun and just enough effect is on the voice to avoid the annoying line crossed by far too many. Even at eight minutes, which is pretty intense for any song, it maintains a fun time and I think we finally have something enjoyable on our hands. This time it only took three songs in!
"Professional Griefers - Vocal Mix" is what I've sort of been waiting for. Gerald Way from My Chemical Romance is what makes it a vocal mix. While beat-wise it lacks much enjoyability in the verses, the chorus is sort of fantastic. It's just enough yelling and rock combined with dance to make it work - not an easy balance to achieve.
I'm now trying to work on my big Best of 2012 list as this album goes on, so hopefully the music is good enough to provide distraction! "Maths - Original Mix" is there, and while I can't say that there's anything necessarily special about this - I'm okay with it. I like that it's a very… eh… classic? Electronic song. I may et arguments that there is no such thing, but the sounds are generalized and familiar.
"There might be coffee" (ew). I've heard you before. I don't know when and I don't know how, but I've heard you and loved you, and still don't hate you now. This is all good news for you, because I'm at lack of how to properly describe this otherwise.
In what seems to take a little darker twist, we're on to "Take care of the proper paperwork." Lots of tribal sound in here, joined in my heavy guitar. Something insane is happening. I hate and love it all at once, and this is a part of my major reasoning on not being a deadmau5 fan. It's too aggravating to try to justify enjoying a song.
"Closer" would work as a live light show. And I say that as someone who would probably never pay for a ticket to see this performance live. It's more on the edge of pop than I think anything I've heard from him, and I want laser lights to dance with so bad right now it's not even funny.
I suppose "October" sounds sort of like a rainy fall day if you really put your mind to it. Basically, the whole first two minutes I've hear is full of little drops of sound and beats throughout, feeling to me like they hit a puddle. Again, cool light display is in order here, but the dancing doesn't feel so much on the docket as before. I like consistency most of the time, but the off sounds here are too much to really handle. At least about four minutes in a back track comes on and relieves the pain.
"Sleepless" is going to put me right to sleep if this dragging down of a decent beat continues on for the entire scheduled four minutes. Also, I hate skipping drum beats. It just comes out sounding like a CD is skipping instead of anything remotely good musically. Why, oh why, does anyone use this in music when it hurts so bad?
Oh, *this* is the Cypress Hill appearance I've been waiting for. "Failbait - Original Mix" is really great for a rap song mixed with a DJ's mix, don't get me wrong. I just could give a crap about what is going on along the way here. At least the beat is decent - many have not been. I think I'm just jaded on harder rap songs and tune them out far too easily. Look back and old rap reviews for reasoning.
"Telemiscommunications" features Imogen Heap and is the final song here, AND songs completely different than anything else on the entire album. There is a whole other world of music invaded here, and it's gorgeous. It's simple and mixed so very well, with just enough effect on the vocals to be cool without going overboard. Balance is the main word that comes to mind, and it's the perfect sweet closing for the album it totally doesn't fit in to.
Added to My Playlist:
- "The Veldt - 8 Minute Edit"
- "Professional Griefers - Vocal Mix"
- "There might be coffee"
- "Closer"
- "Telemiscommunications"
Made it through another deadmau5 album! Okay, okay, so I don't hate it all and never really have. But I fell out of my brief house love phase sometime in the past year, so I was a little worried about taking this one on. Overall, not awful.