The Sun God Shines Above The Fray on This Day

History

Hello and welcome to Rock D3C0D3D where today we are going to take a look at latest effort by the Colorado-native band The Fray entitled Helios.

Forming in the yester-year of 2002 the band was formed by reformed Teen Titans villain/part-time singer 'Slade,' guitarist Joe King, and Ben Wysocki. They would find a fair amount of success in their native state, though it was not until the release of How to Save a Life that the band catapulted to superstar with it's hit singles "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and "How to Save a Life." The band itself then followed that up with their self-titled release in 2009 solidifying they were staying in the spotlight with the lead single "You Found Me (though in this reviewers open "Never Say Never" was the much better song)." After only two years since their last effort, the hit-or-miss Scars and Stories, can The Fray bring back that alternative pop-infused spark? Let's find out

The Review

 Singles:

 Love Don't Die:

So, remember The Fray right? The guys who mostly sing very downtrodden songs about love lost, missed, or still had? Yea, this song is nothing like that and is probably hands down my favorite pop song in the past 2 years. It seriously has everything from the chanting choir, to the big booming drums, and that guitar/bass line is just amazing on the ears. I wish more pop music took a page from these guys about diversity as the song starts very calm and jazzy but turns into this hugely epic/intense romp about the eternalness of love. 100% BUY.
 

The Rest of the Album...

Honestly the album itself is very well put together and escalates through a multitude of genres. One minute it's your normal romp through alternative rock, the next is a jazzy adrenaline pumper, then to funkiest pop songs imaginable. Seriously this album is quite good from a musical standpoint, sadly from a lyrical standpoint it starts to waiver.

Now Isaac Slade has never been one for deep philosophical lyrics juxtapositioning a common man's existence in a tyrannical 'live-fast-die-quick" world, but that's not always a bad thing. In pop music it is good to be general even in one's specifics and it's here that 'Slade' has it nearly perfect. Take a good listen to the songs "Break Your Plans," "Hurricane," "Shadow and a Dancer," and "Hold My Hand." All of these songs are amazing at causing an emotional resonance in the listener but upon further inspection it is not due to the words that are being said as they are the ideas being presented and the music filling in the story-scape for the listener. This is by no means a terrible thing but after eleven songs and countless singles before-hand, one starts to wonder why 'Slade' seems to be so afraid to put himself in the story.

 There is a lot praise that can be put on this album as I was not expecting much after their last effort which resonated a very underwhelming 'meh.' In the end though The Fray deserves to be commended for the amount of risks placed on Helios as the mixture of real instrumentation and electronic is phenomenal which is in a huge part by producers 'Stuart Price' and OneRepublic's lead man 'Ryan Tedder.' I say if you are a fan of their older stuff a majority of this album, "Love Don't Die," "Closer To Me," "Our Last Days," and "Break Your Plans" will be a few for sure listen picks though I cannot stress enough this whole album is quite good. While it may not push-the-envelope on what pop music can do it does stretch the door pretty open for a promising future for this once behemoth of a band.

DECODED: 8.5 out of 10

As always please like, share, and comment below!

All the music covered above is available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify for your listening pleasure.

BUY IT: Love Don't Die, Keep On Wanting, Our Last Days, Break Your Plans, Shadow and a Dancer

 

HEAR IT:  Hold My Hand, Give It Away, Hurricane, Same as You

TRASH IT:  Wherever This Goes

 

*As with all things, the opinions expressed our purely that of the author and should be taken as such. ** All images, music, and information used are for entertainment/review purposes. No copyright infringement intended.

Fading West Never Sounded So Heartless...

History

Welcome back to the first 2014 album review here on Rock D3C0D3D. Today we will be taking look an Alternative Rock band that have their roots soiled in Christian Rock. That band of course is the "hit or miss" Switchfoot and their newest venture Fading West.


As many of you may know this San Diego originating band broke into the mainstream with their first full-length album The Beautiful Letdown in 2003 which included the megalithic hits "Dare You To Move," "Meant to Live," and "This is Your Life." While resulting in huge success for the band it also became a bit of their Achilles heel since a majority of their best known work is from that album alone, which with a band that is on their ninth major outing, can be seen as a tad sad. But lest we fret for a band that has been touring and re-engineering their craft for the better part of a decade. So there is something to be said for a band that has withstood the test of fame and has not lost a single original member or call a hiatus. With all that being said is the newest venture by the band an amazing reinvigoration, or is it becoming obvious they are simply spinning their wheels? Let's dive in and find out

The Review

 Singles:

  As of 2013 the band has released two singles for the album. The obligatory second track track, call to arms anthem, "Who We Are" and the lead off track "Love Alone Is Worth The Fight." Out of these two songs the only one I find any resemblance of heart and drive is the latter. 
"Who We Are" may leave a few with the theme of being yourself and knowing that yourself will pull you through any experience you come into. but dear lord is there no soul in it.I don't know if it's the monotone vocal stylings of Jon Foreman or the incredible amount of electronics in this song, it just feels like any call to arms message has been muddied out.

"Love Alone Is Worth The Fight" is a tad bit better as the vocal dynamics are very well established showcasing the range of emotion we are used to by Mr. Foreman. Sadly it never reaches the depth of vocal emotionality of their most well known songs, but it's a step in the right direction for the lead-off song on the album.

  Originally thought they were on a mountain but the surfboard would make no sense

The Rest of the Album...

Now, I don't want to dislike the rest of this album as it incorporates a lot of what I love in music. The unwavering ability to mix electronics instruments with live instrumentation, crowd chants, and in the rare song, an inane sense of what the song means to the writer. In this album though I feel it is the worst example of how to do an album, it is no means a good album but it is also not bad enough to create any sense of rage inside someone (unless you are a huge Switchfoot fan then you may feel yourself in either camp). The album itself is truly just an "okay" album, the worst part of it is when it ends one just sits there thinking, "Well I was a tad bored but at least I didn't hate it." One may be able to boil down the boring-ness of the album to the fact that what it is trying to be is already on the market and done SO MUCH better by those artists. The singles sound like they are channeling the likes of OneRepublic and The Script which is not a bad thing since Switchfoot has always been in that same genre as the two, though they do come off as the poor mans attempt to emulate.

Of course with all albums there are always going to be the good songs with the bad songs so we'll just quickly run through them as this album sadly is not warranting the energy to be ripped apart or put on a pedestal.



"Say Like You Mean It:" Brings the energy missing in the first few entries full force allowing the band to have fun at a higher tempo. The electronics are well used here to chop up the sound and keep the entertainment value high enough for a 3 minute song. The vocal mixing is quite superb as it creates a garage rock sound before bellowing down to a Beatlesque acoustic instrumentation ending.

"The electronics are well used here to chop up the sound and keep the entertainment value high"

"The World You Want:" A great song showcasing the emotional depth missing from the majority of the album and switches the sound to a Third Eye Blind send up. While a majority of the song has Mr. Foreman stay in his solemn singing tone, it allows for his backing vocals (as well as groups of chanting) to fully illustrate and dance in the background gaining momentum until the final chorus where he goes full force in classic Switchfoot style.

A majority of the rest of the album stays within the same tempo and dynamic range presenting one with a song that starts out its build from heavily compressed electronic drum sets to the full band entrance around the second verse/chorus. I am not stating that this is a bad album by any means but sadly in 2014 Switchfoot is not adding anything to the musical formula that we have not seen already. Maybe back in 2007-2010 this would have been thought of as a much more inventive/stylized album, but in today's world of ever-evolving genre bases, Switchfoot's Fading West falls short of the mark in every regard, not reinventing the wheel. Which is not a bad thing as Switchfoot fans may love the direction of the sound I was just expecting a little bit more from a band on their ninth album outing.

DECODED: 5.0 out of 10

As always please like, share, and comment below!

All the music covered above is available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify for your listening pleasure.

BUY IT: Love Alone Is Worth The Fight, The World You Want, Saltwater Heart

 

HEAR IT:  When We Come Alive, Say It Like You Mean It, Slipping Away, Let It Out, Back To The Beginning Again

TRASH IT:  Who We Are, BA55, All Or Nothing At All

 

*As with all things, the opinions expressed our purely that of the author and should be taken as such. ** All images, music, and information used are for entertainment/review purposes. No copyright infringement intended.

"Fooled By Ramen" Month Part 1: Twenty One Pilots

You can check out the sequel review for "Blurryface" here

History

Hello everyone and welcome to the first part of "Fooled By Ramen" month. This week we're going to be taking a look at the one of the newest bands to join the label known as Twenty One Pilots. The band started from humbling beginnings when friends Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas, and Chris Salih formed the band in 2009 in Columbus, Ohio. The band's name originates from studying Arthur Miller's All My Sons in which a man commits suicide after causing the death of twenty one pilots during World War II. Eventually after their first self-titled release, Nick and Chris left the band because of scheduling conflicts and Tyler was joined by Josh Dun. The duet created a second self-release entitled Regional at Best which dropped July 8, 2011 eventually attracting record label attention with a sold out show. It was not until April 2012 that they announced they were to become apart of the label "Fueled By Ramen" and released a three song EP that year. After extensive touring with Neon Trees and Walk the Moon they say down in the studio to write a new album. That album is the one we are looking at today, Twenty One Pilots' mainstream debut album entitled Vessel.

You know what sells albums? Pictures of old men!

The Singles

So far there is only one single on the album which may honestly be the only single considering it was released last year in August to luke warm airplay. I find this very sad as the only single for the album, entitled "Holding on to You," is by no means the worst song on the album but it is certainly not the best on the album. Quick side note, does anyway find it funny that the second song on the album is almost 95% of the time the first single? Just some food for thought there.

Now for the single itself it is a pretty fun song, with a wavering keyboard part that gently flows in and out before the drums launch in and turn the sound on it's head. What I mean by this is, lyricist, Tyler Joseph comes out of the gate swinging with his hip-hop inspired verse work. It's here that the band shine as being something very different from what the market has been churning out for years which sadly as we'll see not all artists on "Ramen" can hold this honor. One part I would love to point your attention to is the lyrical repeat in the bridge to which Joseph is begging the mass market to stop praising songs with little to no lyrical depth in them as we were "gifted with thought." Some more food for thought. 

The Album Itself...

This band (and subsequentally this album) were brought to my attention by a fellow music lover and a friend of mind who had heard them through the grapevine and thought I would enjoy. And you know what? He could not have been more right! I feel that Twenty One Pilots were the band The Flobots wish they had been as they write song bigger and better with two members than most bands now a days do with 3+. This album is a testament to what one can do with pure willpower, synthetic instrumentation, and a dynamic drummer. It should be noted that very little if any guitar parts are in this album leaving the melodies to be crafted by multitudes of synths and bass lines.

The opener "Ode To Sleep" starts well enough with a very ominous before cutting down for completely except for twirling air and Joseph's vocals. Then something strange happens, the whole song shifts to an upbeat bass walk complete with background claps and bright piano creating a much happier tone. This song goes in many different directions and it a fun ride every single listen through as it cuts between the two sounds creating an awesome album opener.

 "Migraine" starts with a vocoder effect that makes the vocals sound incredibly robotic without reverting to the tale tell autotune sound effect. It's here I'd like to note not only does Joseph have a great tonality in his vocals but he also is very poetic in his lyrical styling. It's a refreshing part of the album as he adapts his styling throughout the song (and others) that unknowingly keep the attention of listeners as they hear him variate his tone slightly making him stand out as a true performer. His ability to get in character isn't the only amazing this as Joseph did a majority of the instrument though I'm sure Dun had a say on what would and would not work in some songs.

I do not know what I love about this but my is it badass...

House of Gold seems to be a track that sticks out to people whenever I ask them about the band and can you guess why? IT FEATURES A UKELELE... What the hell is this world coming to? Yes, I have a huge dislike for the ukelele as it seems all the douchey characters that used to play "Wonderwall" to make the women swoon slowly flocked to the ukelele to show how comfortable they are with their masculinity. But we aren't here for that debate... Maybe another day... Anyway the song itself? It's quite good and has a sweet sentiment to it ("She asked me son when I grow old will you buy me a house of gold?"). Of course does that make it an incredibly song? No but it's damn better than a majority of songs on the market and I dare you to listen to this song twice without humming along! SERIOUSLY DO IT!

Oh "Car Radio" do I love you so much. I feel like this song has to be about more than a car radio but what could it possibly be? Maybe the car is a representation of him ("I hate this car i'm driving there's no hiding....") and the aforementioned "Car Radio" is actually his heart that he can't find the will to move forward and truly find peace in what has left him... Or maybe I'm reading to far into things. Either way this is an amazing song an instantly won me over as Joseph slowly seems to go more insane as the instrumentation gets more and more presence in the song eventually leading to Joseph just screaming "NOW I JUST SIT IN SILENCE" repeatedly. All in all one of my favorite song on the album with a surprise dance floor breakdown/bridge.

A good majority of the rest of the songs leave me reminescent of other songs such as "Semi Automatic" sounding like a Passion Pit song I swear I've heard and "Screen" oddly like a mixture of "Boston" by Augustana and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (yes the ukelele returns). Though needless to the sound alikes these songs are both great representation of the variety of styling Twenty One Pilots can pull off. "The Run and Go" has an oddly country sound to it which unlike other bands "Ramen" has signed it pulled off nicely in this old-timey saloon sounding tune.

"Fake You Out" and "Guns For Hands" are songs I cannot understand are not singles. These songs are screaming for airplay as they offer a danceable hook, an awesome blend of Passion Pit and Awolnation, and the first a great message about youth. I feel like these songs should be sent out to a mass majority of people so we can start requesting them all over the nation and cause mass chaos among radio stations when they realize the amount of requests for a song that wasn't officially released to them. You get on that internet. 

Listen to it!!!!

To be honest the rest of the album is just as great as I've been preaching and I am deeply saddened that a band as revolutionary, or at least in sync with what the music market needs, is not as famous as other bands and artists releasing songs with minimal musical craftmenship. Honestly if I have not convince you to go out and buy this album than click the video above and just give it a minute of your time as this is true alternative rock genius. From the poetic hip-hop inspired lyricism by Tyler Joseph to the incredibly addicting production behind a majority of the songs on the album don't let this pass you by. Be a hipster and know them before there popular! Yea I know that sounds horrible who wants to a hipster anymore? But seriously give Vessels by Twenty One Pilots an honest listen.

Sadly the awesomeness of "Fooled By Ramen" month cannot continue with a slight misstep or two so next time we take a look at A Rocket to the Moon's Wild and Free. Pray for my soul...

 

DECODED: 9.0 out of 10

As always please like, share and comment below!

BUY IT:  Holding On To You, Migraine, House of Gold, Car Radio, Fake You Out, Guns For Hands

 

HEAR IT: Ode To Sleep, Semi-Automatic, Screen, The Run And Go, Trees, Truce

TRASH IT:  NONE

*As with all things, the opinions expressed our purely that of the author and should be taken as such.
** All images, music, and information used are for entertainment purposes. No copyright infringement intended.