Posts Tagged: can’t love can’t hurt

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

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anberlin / augustana / city and colour / copeland / jack's mannequin / the dodos / the new frontiers / thrice / tiger lou / year 2008 / yoav — No Comments
6
Jan 09

Top 10 of 2008: New Releases

Making a Top 10 list is practically a requirement when you have a music review blog, but it can also be a nuisance since people usually judge you based on your list. Regardless, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, chances are very high that you know exactly what albums I’m going to include. If not, here’s a hint: go to the sidebar and check out all the 2008 releases that I gave 4.5 stars or 5 stars.

So here’s the best of what I managed to review:

  1. The New Frontiers – Mending
    indie, acoustic (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    I simply can’t say enough about this album. It’s not very inventive lyrically or musically, but it’s been compelling enough that I returned to this album time and time again. It doesn’t matter what mood I’m in or what song I just listened to – the minute something from Mending came up on my shuffle, I was swept away. The fact that The New Frontiers have broken up so soon after its release makes Mending almost iconic.

  2. Copeland – You Are My Sunshine
    indie/alt pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    While I wasn’t so enthusiastic about this album when I first heard it, it’s certainly grown on me. Every time I hear something from it, I’m struck by a certain lyric or a nuance that I’d never heard before. While Copeland is certainly branching out into new directions, they do so very convincingly.

  3. City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love
    folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    I’m convinced that Dallas Green is physically incapable of writing a truly upbeat song, but this album was a strange mixture of the ironic and the depressing. I still haven’t wrapped my mind around it completely.

  4. Anberlin – New Surrender
    alternative rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This album takes the prize of Surprise of the Year. I’m a self-proclaimed Anberlin fan, but even I didn’t expect the second half of this album. Interestingly enough, it works. I’d love to see where these guys go from this excellent start.

  5. Thrice – The Alchemy Index Vol. 3 & 4
    alt rock, acoustic, folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This album is a revelation when one considers its source: a post-hardcore band expanding its horizons. Lacking the insipid love songs that we’ve grown accustomed to on the radio, this album would have been more talked about than Radiohead’s In Rainbows had all four volumes been released at once. As it is, these last two volumes are simply brilliant.

  6. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger
    piano rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    “The Resolution” is, and will always remain, the best anthem to come out of this decade. I also enjoyed the fact that McMahon returned to his roots in pop/punk, because too much acoustic just wasn’t good for him.

  7. The Dodos – Visiter
    alternative, folk (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    As an eclectic mixture of the unexpected and the familiar, Visiter is the layman’s version of Portishead’s Third. Honestly, that fact alone makes me love this album even more. Portishead, take note.

  8. Yoav – Charmed & Strange
    alternative/indie pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    Simplicity in lyrics and form haven’t failed the music scene yet, and here’s another prime example. Yoav’s voice is a bit too stretched at times, but the album as a whole is a noteworthy debut.

  9. Tiger Lou – The Loyal
    indie-rock, alt pop (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    Although it was originally released in 2005, The Loyal was released in the U.S. via Eyeball Records this year, and gave me a newfound respect for that label. The songs here are repetitive but not at all tiring. I have to get my hands on some of their newer stuff.

  10. Augustana – Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt
    roots rock/piano rock (read review)
    Purchase: Amazon, website

    This country-tinged sophomore album by Augustana might not have garnered as much attention as it deserved but it’s getting its due here. Here’s a return to the basics in a laid-back California/Texas style. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but that’s what it is, isn’t it?

Here are some other releases (in alphabetical order) that you should check out:

Boris Smile’s Beartooth EP
Dido’s Safe Trip Home
Driver F’s Chase The White Whale
The Duke Spirit’s Neptune

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2008 / 4 stars / augustana / reviews — 1 Comment
22
May 08

Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt (2008) by Augustana

Genre: roots rock/piano rock
Rating: 4½
Check Out: “Hey Now,” “Twenty Years,” “Rest, Shame, Love,” and “Meet You There.”
myspace

True to form, Augustana’s sophomore album is filled with more depressed love songs. However, there are significant differences between this album and their debut All The Stars And Boulevards.

First of all, Augustana has shed their attempts at alt rock like a threadbare coat, and I couldn’t be more thankful. Instead, they’ve reverted to their country-tinged roots. This move is drastic enough that they will probably alienate some of their old fans and will probably never get serious radio-play.

But the lyrics and arrangements here so honest that most of their truly loyal fans will probably love it anyway. And there lies the second major difference between their debut and Can’t Love – each song tells a specific story instead of a rambling mix of discontent that we saw in All The Stars. There’s an obvious maturity to this album that makes each of its ten songs a precious commodity instead of the negligible waste that most of their debut was.

With this album, Augustana is proving that Americana, with its roots in blues, hillbilly rock, and that trusty acoustic guitar, is making a major comeback in 2008. We’re finally seeing a shift from the electronic ‘nu-metal’-like alternative of the late ’90s and early ’00s. I suppose we could credit this trend to Johnny Cash’s death in 2003, but I really hope there’s more to it than that. If it’s a true love for the genre, as Augustana’s newest album seems to be, then I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next.

As a final note, did anyone notice that their album cover is eerily similar to Dishwalla’s album art for their sophomore album And You Think You Know What Life’s About?

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