Circa Survive - On Letting Go

January 29th, 2017

Circa Survive - On Letting Go

Circa Survive is one of my favorite bands for many different reasons. I remember jamming out to Pandora back in my punk skater days and a song from Juturna came on. It was the first time I had heard Circa and I fell in love. I am choosing to review On Letting Go, because they are currently on tour where they will play it in its entirety. I love this album, the artwork, the songs, and the production it's all perfect. I would sit in study hall when I was in high school and just listen to this album on my iPod. The ambient guitar and Anthony's voice would just soothe me. That's one thing I've always loved about Circa is the spacey floaty ambient sound of their instruments. This album starts off so strong. with Living Together, In The Morning And Amazing, and The Greatest Lie. The song In The Morning And Amazing there is a line "I can not sleep without the radio on and how could anyone." That lyric right there always related to me. I can't sleep without music now I don't know if that's what Anthony meant or not, but it was what stood out to me the most. The next three songs are The Difference Between Medicine and Poison Is The Dose, Mandala, and Travel Hymn. The Difference being their most popular song off the album I remember watching the music video for that song on Fuse TV when I was younger. Mandala is in my opinion one of the strongest songs on this album when it comes to instruments. The drums in the song are impeccable. Travel Hymn comes in as one of the strongest songs lyrically in my opinion and its the song right after Mandala. Next comes two of my favorite songs on the album. Semi Constructive Criticism, and Kicking Your Crosses Down. Semi is a vocal powerhouse Anthony just unleashes it all out. I show that song to anyone I am trying to get to like the band. Kicking is the complete opposite of Semi I think. It is a slow melodic song that just puts you in a trance almost. On Letting go is the song up next. The title track its status quo when it comes to what this album is. It continues the sound of the ambient space feeling. It's simple when it comes to instruments, but the lyrics is how it makes its impression. The last three songs are a different feel. These songs sound like the belong on some of their newer albums. Carry Us Away and Close Your Eyes To See sounds like it should be off their album Blue Sky Noise based on the instruments and flow of the song. Your Friends Are Gone is a great song for it to end on. It has a very strange intro, but once you get through that the song comes out and practically hits you in the face. The song changes so much in the course of the time it commands. This song has it all, the instrumentals, the lyrics, the vocal melody, and the future sound. It really wraps the album up nicely. I recommend everyone goes out and listens to this album! I give this album 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈 out of five! Extravagant!

Favorite Tracks!

1. Your Friends Are Gone
2. Semi Constructive Criticism
3.  In The Morning And Amazing

I do not own any of the pictures or songs associated with this review. All rights belong to Circa Survive, and Equal Vision Records.

http://www.circasurvive.com/

http://www.equalvision.com/

Noah Gundersen - Brand New World

January 27, 2017

Noah Gundersen - Brand New World

In a massive late night music overhaul I scoured the vast web that is Spotify's "Related Artist" tabs and found Noah. I first listened to some of his most popular songs and liked enough to give him a follow. It wasn't until I saw a video for "Girl from the North Country" that he and David Ramirez had done on youtube that I started to really listen to him. I started with his newer stuff and bleh. It's not that it is bad, but being linked to David Ramirez I was expecting more of a folk guitar sound. I looked further and found it! This album matches it all! It's a mix of Death Cab For Cutie, Pedro the Lion, and Ryan Adams to me! I love this album. It's deep, its sad, and it is raw. I love the guitar work and of course Noah's vocals. Having Noah's sister Abby also adds a great touch to this album. The opening song on this record starts it off the way you would want it to! It hits you with a nice acoustic folk feel that tells you "hey this is going to be a folk record!) Noah's vocals follow it up with a hushed shy tone mixed with universal deep lyrics. Moss On A Rolling Stone is more of an upbeat song, but yet it matches the feel of the album. This song is more a chordal song and less of a finger picking jam. The song sounds upbeat, but it is also a deep meaning song. Burning Fences gets back to the folk roots while adding in Abby's soft sad violin sound. The song continues to hit you in the feel box with the lyrics "If you want to take me home baby tonight, I will go willingly, or if you like these city lights baby tonight I will go walking with you." I don't know if you feel the same way I do when that line hits, but it just gets to me. It is also the line the damn starts to so you know this song is going to be great. The First Song seems to be a song about a love that you have to leave or has left you. You can't seem to just rid yourself of it yet you have to go. More tugging on the heart strings. If the music you listen to doesn't make you feel then whats the point in listening? Winter by far has the best instrumentals in it. It isn't a slouch when it comes to the lyric department either. A song that seems to be about change, or death, or both. Something everyone has to go through at least a few times in life. The last song which is The Current State of Things seems to be about dreams and aspirations. Striving to want something more from life. What you need to and want to accomplish. A strive for for something better. This album all in all is fantastic. It hits you in the gut and makes you think. People always tell me "Ty, the music you listen to is almost always sad." I can't help it. The music I listen to is made from real people, real things. It's not made to rave to and to overlook. I like to feel connected to the artist and to feel connected to myself. I believe all the music I listen to and make accomplishes that. So with all that being said I give this song 🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅 out of five! Extravagant!

Favorite Tracks!

1. Burning Fences
2. Winter
3. Brand New World

I do not own any of the pictures or songs associated with this review. All rights belong to Noah Gundersen.

http://www.noahgundersenmusic.com/

Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness

January 25, 2017

Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV

Good freaking Apollo. One of the most recognizable albums from my favorites over in Coheed, but no where near their best. I was not planning on reviewing this album at all. Like I said in my previous Coheed review since they are my favorite I am very picky on how I review them. Although in light of them announcing their Neverender tour for this album I just had to review it! This album will be the album non Coheed fans can tell you a little about. It has Welcome Home on it which is by far their most popular song. Welcome Home has been on video games, movies, and TV shows so it's understandable that it is the most recognizable one. On top of Welcome Home it also has The Suffering which to this point has been another one of their most popular songs. Those songs are great, but still are not the best in my opinion. So for this review I am going to try a little different of a format so please forgive me if it gets a little jumbled. This album starts of with a nice little intro song with Keeping The Blade with just sounds that leads to a soft acoustic sounding song Always & Never to accommodate the intro song. You then hit the first wave of impeccable songs. You get Welcome Home and Ten Speed which are both pretty punchy tunes. You get about three great hold over songs after those two that keep you wanting more, but nothing the masses would really love(Crossing The Frame, The Writing Writer, and Once Upon Your Dead Body.) You get the second wave of top notch songs up next with Wake Up, and The Suffering. Wake Up being a love song that is both happy and sad. The Suffering is a nice bouncy head bobbing tune that helps lead into the last stretch of the album. The next two songs are filler songs that help build up the ending of the album. You have The Lying Lies & Dirty Secrets Of Miss Eric Court, and Mother May I. Both are up and down runny songs with great fills and lyrics that keep up the feel of the album to this point. Finally we hit the last run. These last four songs are the greatest on the album in my opinion. All four Willing Well songs are long songs that have so many different changes in them and posses such power and meaning behind them. Fuel For The Feeding End is the first one. If you base if you are going to listen to this song or not on the first couple of seconds then you are going to be disappointed. It starts with a computer sounding noisy intro, but quickly picks up if you stick around. It turns into a great one two punch song with punchy guitar and bass runs followed with clean drum sounds with insane lyrics. From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness is a great continuation of the first Willing Well. It to starts with a computer sounding intro. This one is not near as "heavy" instrument wise at least. The real kicker on this song is the vocal melody that Claudio uses. It all seems to match the upbeat up and down guitar sounds and deep drums while being a beast all on its own. The last two Willing Wells are some of the deepest meaning songs to me at least. First is my favorite song off of the album. The Telling Truth. It is practically the same song as the Writing Writer except there is about two minutes of added content and some of the lyrics are slightly changed. Other than that it is essentially the same. Same instrumentals and such. Like the other Willing Wells it keeps the computer sounding intro that leads into the great instruments. It utilizes a nice running guitar riff that continues throughout the song that seems to sound like it is something you would hear in a movie of a guy running through a woods(at least to me ahaha.) The lyrics on this song are some of the best off of the whole album I think. There is a lot of lyrics in the song first off, but they are also deep and thought provoking. The last song and the last Willing Well is a doozy. If you have girl troubles I recommend you listen to this song.... I won't say much more than that and ruin it, but just listen to it. As in actual lyrics on this song it doesn't last much longer than two minutes. After the two minutes or so of lyrics you get to enjoy a few minutes of great guitar solos and riffs until it hits this upbeat folk guitar riff to end the song. All in all this album is fantastic and worth the listen. I hope my new review format wasn't too shitty I just wanted to try to get more of a "review" format. I give this album Ⅳ Ⅳ Ⅳ Ⅳ Ⅳ out of five! Extravagant!

Favorite Tracks!

1. The Telling Truth
2. Wake Up
3. Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial)

I do not own any of the pictures or songs associated with this review. All rights belong to Coheed and Cambria, and Columbia Records.

http://www.coheedandcambria.com

http://www.columbiarecords.com/

Wilco - NPR Tiny Desk Oct 2011

January 22, 2017

Wilco - NPR Tiny Desk Oct 2011

I am going to try something different. I am going to do a review on a video. A concert video to be exact. I figured this would be fun to do, because it's different. So with that said lets start the review! I love Wilco.... Correction. I love Jeff Tweedy. Wilco is great, but they have some songs that I just think are kinda "so-so" I still think they are great. This video is great in every way. I really love all of NPR's Tiny Desk concerts. They always seem to have great singer songwriters and folk artists on there. This is no exception. I knew Wilco just from knowing the folk music scene, but I didn't really know them until my friend told me about Uncle Tupelo which is Jeff Tweedy's old band with Jay Farrar. I didn't really like Uncle Tupelo... I liked them I just love Jeff Tweedy. I love Tweedy's charisma and personality. I love his songwriting ability and his voice too. So I didn't like Uncle Tupelo, because it was all Jay Farrar really. anyway this Tiny Desk concert has four songs on it. Three which were on their most recent album at the time "The Whole Love". The first three songs Dawned On Me, Whole Love, and Born Alone were all from that album. War on War is the last song in this video and it is from an older album. The Whole love is so far my favorite Wilco album so of course I love this video. What I like the most about NPR's Tiny Desk concerts is that most of the time the songs are stripped down to a minimalist fashion. The way its just basic and simple appeals to me. I recommend you go watch this video! I give this video/concert 🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬 out of five! Extravagant!

I do not own any of the pictures or songs associated with this review. All rights belong to Wilco, NPR, and dBpm Records.

http://www.wilcoworld.net/

http://www.npr.org/event/music/141331825/wilco-tiny-desk-concert

http://www.dbpmrecords.com/