site news

2005 / 2007 / 3 stars / reviews / site news / the fray — No Comments
19
Feb 09

How To Save A Life (2005) by The Fray

How To Save A Life by The Fray

The Fray
How To Save A Life
2005, Epic
piano rock, alt rock
3½

I won’t deny that I’m a fan of piano rock, but that genre requires careful craft work before the song edges from ‘respectable’ into ‘nonsensical sentimental sap.’. Strangely enough, The Fray manages to cover both types in their full-length debut, with no middle ground. Sometimes, The Fray mixes pop, rock, and piano in a potent combination that catches your ear. That would explain why “Over My Head (Cable Car)” was the big hit from this album. But at other times, the album seems to drone on with no end.

To this day, I can still only listen to 5 of the 11 songs on this album – I consider the other 6 essentially useless in sound, structure, and lyrics. And while I’m a fan of good production quality, it seems The Fray needs that production like a crutch. Keep that in mind if you like this album, and for the review of their new album tomorrow.

“Over My Head (Cable Car)” “Trust Me,” “Vienna.”
website, last.fm
Jack’s Manneqin’s The Glass Passenger, Augustana’s Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt

  • Share/Bookmark
2005 / 2008 / 4 stars / boris smile / reviews / site news — No Comments
11
Dec 08

Beartooth EP (2008) by Boris Smile

Genre: indie pop, rock
Rating:
“Beartooth (spooky version)” and “Program Me To Love.”
myspace, garageband.com
Boris Smile’s artistpreview, The Pierce’s Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge

This newest by Boris Smile features the same low-fi California dream pop of their previous releases, but tinged a little darker than usual. Thankfully, all of that darkness is pretty much contained in “Beartooth (spooky version).” The seriousness continues through the next four songs, but the arrangements prevent the band and the listener from getting too bogged down. Lead singer Wes Chung’s voice is as matter-of-fact and jarring as ever, which can be annoying on repeated listens. But for all that, the lyrics are as honest enough to lure you back again.

While this EP shows some maturation in arrangement and general coherency, it still screams the easy pop that you’d expect from Boris Smile. Honestly, my only complaint is that this EP is far too short with five songs. Buy it and show your support for this ‘undiscovered’ band.

Disclosure: Free sample of this EP was provided by lead singer Wes Chung. Please see my review policy for more details.

  • Share/Bookmark
site news — No Comments
18
Nov 08

Site Changes

As usual, this blog is evolving almost beyond my control. To help things along, I’m implementing a few changes:

  1. Say ‘goodbye?!’ to the ‘tunereview’ posts. I know I wanted to urge more commenting/participation, but I’ve noticed that most people just prefer commenting on a particular review. So, if you ever want to catch my attention about something not related to a review, I have an email address that’s begging to be used.
  2. Say ‘hello!’ to new icons and/or features. In an attempt to streamline reviews even more, I’m substituting cute pictures for words. Here’s the handy key for figuring what things are:
    • translates to: “welcome to my ratings system.”
      (all reviews are rated by a total of 5 stars, with 5 as the best)
    • translates to: “songs on this album that deserve to be checked out.”
    • translates to: “listen to parts and/or the whole album on the internet!”
    • translates to: “you’ll like this band if you liked these bands, and vice versa.”

Feel free to let me know if you love it or hate it.

(if you ever forget what they are in the future, this key will be permanently added to the ‘about’ page)

  • Share/Bookmark
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →