And yes, I know those are the singles and I should listen to more. I'm a hypocrite of my own words when it comes to Hanson (constantly saying, "listen to something other than 'MMMBop'!). But hey, that's the core reasoning behind the blog, right? And here I am talking to myself, more-or-less. While I'm on this roll - personal story: totally napped during this concert at Bonnaroo in 2009. I had no desire to fight a crowd of crazy skinny girls to see them, and could hear just enough from my friend's tent to have a nice little soundtrack to my sleep. It was really quite lovely on a warm summer night.
So this is the band's fifth album, and four singles have already come from it. The album as a whole received a grammy nod this year for Best Rock Album (hence us spending time with it today). It did pretty damn well the world-over in sales and chart positioning. Makes me wonder if I just don't hang out with any fans, or else who the hell is buying this?
Getting down to it now. Here's the link for Spotify!
"The End" is the first song (clever, right?). Slow lead-in with the drums and some low bass, until this west coast guitar picks into it. Oh and then the familiar lead vocal comes in with a sound I didn't fully appreciate my friends' opinions of until now. It's drawn out and daunting to hear. The chorus is slow and painfully repetitive. You have to listen to the verses to get any support for the reasoning for the song, and even then you don't necessarily care. And folks, this is only the beginning.
Second up is one of the singles - the lead one if I'm not mistaken. This is "Radioactive." The lay-over cute beeps remind me of Owl City, but then we loose the cuteness and move onto a song fit for a trip down a hot highway. I honestly don't know what's going on lyrically, which is a shame. But the bigger shame here is that I don't entirely care...?
"Pyro" is most definitely a single. If it wasn't, then I'm confused as to where I've heard it before. The melody is catchy, but nothing to write home about. I remember liking it the first go-around, and then the novelty wearing off. There's nothing fantastic here, and I'm growing more bored by the moment.
I was hopeful for a more rock sound in "The Immortals" as it started, but was disappointed. I mean, it's not as airy as the previous ones, but there's still just no solid, sure sound to the whole thing anywhere. These tracks sound rough instead of polished, and while that can be a sound for a band, it doesn't always mean it's the right one.
"Back Down South" actually starts with this very light, sweet guitar/almost-banjo strum, and his voice isn't completely horrible. There's (maybe) a fiddle involved that's giving this a slightly southern sound, maybe even Irish. This is the middle track of the album, and it's got a good sound to it to re-interest you in hearing the rest of the album. Musically, just really nice to hear. If you zone out on the lyrics, I think there's something worth hearing here.
No see, "Pony Up" seems to have some sense to its tortured sound. At the least, the line "I watched her go" makes some sense! He screams so much pain so constantly that I get worried what's going on in these next-to-incomprehensible lyrics. Here, every bone of this musical body displays pain, and we can finally grasp on to something - anything - going on. "Birthday" signs on with those old guitar sounds again. It's kind of a cute celebration and all sorts of having fun, it seems. Instead of driving on the hot day this time, the sun's gone down, and it's just you two enjoying the nice night. Yes, I need to put some sort of story to this to make any sense out of what I'm hearing. Sadly, nothing's hitting an okay chord on this musical heart right now.
Ooh the end of the drinking-night song. "Mi Amigo" just has that sense of too much tequila and walking down the street arm-in-arm and being stupidly drunk buds. Don't believe me? Listen in. Don't agree? Screw you. No, really, tell me why. Let's get the conversation going. Someone please convince me otherwise that this album was worth pausing "Extreme Rules" to listen to. I'll make due though. "Pickup Truck" is the final number. It's definitely a close out number, as every single instrument and the voice seems to be giving up for the night and closing things down. Maybe that truck is on the road back home, or even out of town. Regardless, it's over. The trip is done.
Added to My Playlist:
- "Back Down South"