Owl City – “Ocean Eyes” Album Review
Published February 20th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Owl City’s sophomore album Ocean Eyes has been around for a while but it only really came to our attention over the last week. It seems to be unpopular to like Owl City despite Fireflies topping the UK singles chart in January.
It’s understandable that people could easily find the songs on Ocean Eyes quite annoying. The sound is very repetitive for twelve tracks (nineteen tracks on the deluxe edition). While it’s repetitive, it’s also coherent and the melodies on every track are really strong. So strong that they will get stuck in your head for hours after listening to any track on Ocean Eyes, which is probably the reason people find Owl City annoying.
Each track is watered down, electro-pop delivered with a somewhat comic, auto-tuned vocal. The lyrics are also quite funny and nearly every track has references to the “ocean” including track titles such as Umbrella Beach, The Saltwater Room, Tidal Wave and The Tip of The Iceberg.
One of the best tracks on the album is The Saltwater Room. The chorus probably contains the strongest melody on the album and either features a female vocalist or Adam Young (Owl City’s sole band member) increased the pitch of his own voice. Number one single Fireflies is also a highlight with another addictive chorus.
The good and bad thing about Ocean Eyes is, you can decide if you like the album after listening to one track. So whether you like Fireflies or not can determine your opinion of the album as the whole album has the same sound. This can be a good thing as the singles really showcase the sound of the album unlike other artists where it usually takes a few singles to showcase the sound of their albums. But it can also be a bad thing as anyone who doesn’t like the singles definitely won’t like the album.
Paramore – “The Only Exception”
Published February 19th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Paramore are a genre-hopping band who have a lot of credibility and gain a lot of support from “Kerrang-ers” but realistically, they are just typical pop rock which definitely isn’t a bad thing. When it comes to their ballads, they do a pretty good job at them. Franklin, When It Rains and We Are Broken are three very good ballads and three of their best songs so when we heard their latest album Brand New Eyes last year, it was no surprise to come across another ballad to add to the former three.
The Only Exception is an acoustic ballad and the stand out track from Brand New Eyes. It’s about time that one of Paramore’s best songs is getting a single release. The vocal from lead singer Hayley Williams is delivered really well as always but also shows hints of Avril Lavigne at times. While the chorus is quite repetitive, the vocal makes it interesting. The way Hayley sings the words “you” and “are” right after each other, but in different octaves, sounds a bit shocking on first listen but soon becomes one of the best things about the song.
The best part of the song is the middle 8 and the added lyric in the final chorus.
I’ve got a tight grip on reality but I can’t
Let go of what’s in front of me here
I know you’re leaving in the morning when you wake up
Leave me with some kind of proof it’s not a dream
…
You are the only exception
And I’m on my way to believing
The middle 8 is the most “Avril” sounding moment of the song and sounds similar to the middle 8’s in both How Does It Feel and Fall To Pieces. The Only Exception wouldn’t sound out of place on Avril’s Under My Skin but it does sound out of place on Paramore’s Brand New Eyes in between much heavier tracks.
The video premiered on February 14th and fits the song perfectly by acting out the lyrics which gives the video a good storyline instead of just a performance of the song. You can check it out below:
The Only Exception is set for release on April 19th through Fueled by Ramen.
Kelly Clarkson Live In Dublin
Published February 19th 2010
Filed under Reviews
On February 5th we went to see Kelly Clarkson live in Dublin, Ireland on her All I Ever Wanted tour. Kelly was incredible in concert. Her vocals were on top form for the whole show. While her tours are not much of a production, with Kelly it doesn’t matter because it’s all about her voice.
The covers she performed were surprisingly some of the highlights of the night especially the mashup of Patsy Cline’s That I Would Be Good and Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody.
Other highlights included the stunning crescendo Sober, the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) mix of If I Can’t Have You and the live version of Dave Audé’s remix of Never Again.
Kelly’s interaction with the crowd showed just how normal she is and she looked like she was having such a good time on the stage for the whole show.
Avril Lavigne – “Alice” Radio Premier
Published January 27th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Avril Lavigne’s new single Alice (previously titled Alice Underground) for the upcoming Tim Burton movie Alice In Wonderland premiered today on Ryan Seacrest’s Kiis FM radio show.
Alice starts off sounding heavy and quite dark with just a piano and drums. It’s a little surprising when Avril starts singing as her voice is almost unexpected after such a dark introduction. Sonically, it doesn’t sound too distant from her sound on Under My Skin.
Penned solely by Avril herself, lyrically it’s much more mature than most of The Best Damn Thing. However, vocally Avril hasn’t managed to shake off the “shouty” voice which she took on full time during The Best Damn Thing.
The best thirty seconds of the song are when Avril sings:
I found myself in Wonderland
Get back on my feet again
Is this real, is this pretend?
I’ll take a stand until the end
Alice is a clear progression from Under My Skin and a huge progression from the step backwards she took with The Best Damn Thing. Had The Best Damn Thing never happened, Alice is exactly the sound Avril should have returned with after Under My Skin.
You can take a listen to Alice below:
[audio:alice.mp3]Ke$ha – “Animal” Album Review
Published January 17th 2010
Filed under Reviews
Ke$ha’s debut album was released digitally on January 1st following the release of her debut single TiK ToK which went to number one in several countries.
The album opens with the infectious Your Love Is My Drug which on first listen makes you think you’ve heard the song a thousand times before but somehow it still sounds fresh. While not being incredibly innovative, the chorus will get stuck in your head for hours after listening to it. As far as singles go, it’s definitely a contender but should be a later single in the campaign as it has the same sound as TiK ToK.
If you’ve been to clubs any time in the past few months, then you can’t have missed out on hearing TiK ToK which gets a spin a few times per night. TiK ToK was the perfect debut single for Ke$ha as it established exactly who she is as an artist. Like most of the songs on Animal, TiK ToK is about being drunk at a party.
Throughout the album, it’s hard not to hear similarities to Avril Lavigne’s 2007 effort The Best Damn Thing. Although it’s not surprising since Ke$ha wrote some tracks with Avril which didn’t make the final cut of the album. The sound of The Best Damn Thing isn’t only on the tracks by Dr. Luke, who worked on most of The Best Damn Thing, but also on tracks like D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R. which doesn’t sound too distant from the “rapping” and beat of Avril’s I Don’t Have To Try.
Kiss ‘n’ Tell is a strong contender for the second single. You can instantly tell it’s a Max Martin and Dr. Luke track which echos Katy Perry’s Hot ‘n’ Cold in the chorus sonically and in structure.
The slower songs on the album are quite good and while they show Ke$ha’s diversity between up-tempo and mid-tempo songs, some of them are too similar to each other. In particular, Blind and Dancing With Tears In My Eyes could interchange their choruses and the only thing that would make you realise they weren’t the real chorus of the respective song is the lyrical content. Having said that Blind is the stronger of the two and a contender for the best song on the album.
Other highlights on the album include the title track, album closer Animal and Hungover, both mid-tempo but quite different to the aforementioned with Hungover using the metaphor of a hangover to describe being broken-hearted and Animal which is the perfect way to end the album. The mid-tempo tracks really show an honest side to Ke$ha while still maintaining her party girl image in both Hungover and Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.
Overall Animal is a very nice debut and looks set to be a very successful album campaign.