Second Guess the Critic: SMACKDOWN! Round 1

[bloop]

You know the rules:  Guess how many stars from 1-5 (5 being an A, 1 being an F) for each critic.

bloop:  Canopy Glow, Anathallo
Brendan:  My Coming Day, Julian Drive
plvarona:  Cold In California, Ingram Hill
murlough:  Temporary People, Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts
Josh:  Fever Ray, Fever Ray

Get your guesses in by the end of Friday, EST.

[Josh]

Bloop: 4
Brendan: 2
Phil: 3
Mur: 2

[Brenden]

Bloop: 4
josh: 3
Phil: 3
Mur: 2

[murlough23]

bloop: 4 stars (This strategy is called "Think 5, vote 4.")
Brendan: 2 stars (What's worse, covering Hoobastank, or the fact that the Hoobastank cover is a welcome relief from their "original" material?)
plvarona: 3 stars (You have a higher tolerance for "average" than I do.)
Josh: 2 stars (Hmmm, sounds like a bad Bjork knockoff to me.)

[plvarona]

Here goes nothing.

bloop: 4
Brendan: 2
murlough: 2
Josh: 3

[NinjaRob17]

All 3 except for Bloop, who I'll give a 4.

[ajyouthguy]

Bloop:4
Brenden: 3
Plvarona: 3
Murlough: 2
Josh: 3

[bloop]

Brendan:  My Coming Day, Julian Drive:  I'm excusing myself from this one.  I overheard Brenden in a chat room on this album, so I don't think it would be fair for me to then get it.
plvarona:  Cold In California, Ingram Hill:  3
murlough:  Temporary People, Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts:  3
Josh:  Fever Ray, Fever Ray:  2

[bloop]

OK, guesses are closed and soon to be recorded.  Critics, you may reveal your verdicts.  Since I don't have a theme at this point, choose your next album as well.

[Brenden]

Julian Drive is the band that finally got me to lower my standards. From now on, any band I review, I will say, "Hey, at least they aren't Julian Drive". I had to lower the standard just to cope with a world where Julian Drive is given a record deal and people seem to buy into it. The fact that a cover of a lame Hoobastank song was better than their own material just shows how pathetic, toothless, and trite this miserable excuse for a band really is. Cliched lyrics, insincere vocals, boring music, I can find literally nothing to praise about this album. Even with Joseph Arthur's Let's Just Be, I found things I liked, making Julian Drive's label debut possibly the worst album I have ever heard aside from Paris Hilton's debut.

In my review for Soul-Audio, I gave the album a 2/10, which is essentially me saying that I gave the album a D-, which here rounds up to 2 stars.

For my next album, I choose The Alternate Routes - A Sucker's Dream.

http://www.myspace.com/alternateroutes

[murlough23]

Wow. Worse than Joseph Arthur's Let's Just Be and you still gave it 2 stars? At least I was right on the money predicting that one.

Speaking of Joseph Arthur, I think a lot of you expected me to loathe Temporary People  based on how I eviscerated Let's Just Be. However, keeping their blood alcohol levels within reasonable limits and actually writing the songs ahead of time transforms what I thought was a group of no-talent hacks into a halfway decent band. The worst of Temporary People is on par with the worst of Arthur's records, putting it more in the neighborhood of mildly annoying/not terribly exciting, rather than downright embarrassing. There are points where Arthur's gravelly voice grates as much as it always did, or points where the sleaze is a little too much to handle - and there's one off-key experiment gone extremely awry ("A Dream Is Longer than the Night"), but most of the record is full of sturdy rockers and mildly intriguing ballads. These guys sound pretty good when they bring in quirky experimentation (the bozouki or whatever in "Faith" or the heavy wah-wah of "Look into the Sky") or give themselves time to jam in a song's coda ("Temporary People") without dragging it out forever like the God-awful 20-minute song on their previous album. And Arthur's caustic reflections on life and love and religion, while depressing and self-absorbed, are reasonably interesting this time around.

So, in the end, Temporary People gets a B-, which rounds up to 4 stars.

For the next round: Fiction Family's self-titled album.
http://www.amazon.com/Fiction-Family/dp/B001KL3GYK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1232780242&sr=8-1

[bloop]

Canopy Glow is, to put it quite simply, a joy to listen to.  The band is a little reminiscent of Sufjan, but that's just fine with me.  Canopy Glow, in particular, adds something of their own with stronger vocal work, even if it is still rather basic as that fits the stylistic choices of the album best.  The drumming, and rhythm section in general, also stuck with me as being just the right kind of off-kilter to keep it interesting throughout.  However, the best thing I can say about it has little to do with technicality: if I'm looking for an album just to listen to beautiful sounds, this is on the short list as it is all tasteful without being the least bit boring - an accomplishment in itself.  I would go with an 8.5, which is an A = 5 stars

For Round 2, I will also do the Fiction Family album.

[Brenden]

Wow. Worse than Joseph Arthur's Let's Just Be and you still gave it 2 stars? At least I was right on the money predicting that one.

I think I gave Let's Just Be a D+, since there were a few songs I enjoyed outright and some where I enjoyed the music but they were ruined by Arthur's vocals and lyrics.

[Josh]

The Fever Ray album sustains the same ominous, spooky mood throughout its ten-track duration-- which is both its blessing and its curse; any album that can sustain a consistent mood is obviously the work of an artist with a vision and a sense of tone and atmosphere, but, then again, there isn't much in the way of variety, and you have to be in a specific mood to listen to it. And, as murlough mentioned, there are several songs here that sound like Bjork B-sides. All in all, I'll give it somewhere in the 6 or 6.5 range, which, for the purposes of this game, works out to 3 stars.

Next round, I'm going zydeco! BeauSoleil's new album, Alligator Purse, just released on Yep Roc, and you can hear some samples here.

[plvarona]

Julian Drive is the band that finally got me to lower my standards.

Somehow I figured you'd score that album low, when even I couldn't even make it all the way through the songs they had on their myspace page because the lyrics were so bad.  I'm probably one of the more lenient people on this board too!

It looks like everybody's just waiting for me to reveal my score.  I'll oblige.

Album Reviewed: Ingram Hill - Cold in California

Pros: Much like its predecessor, June's Picture Show (Which BTW I reviewed during Mach 2 of this game), this album mostly consisted of the acoustic-based roots rock sound that is right down my alley musically.  There are plenty of catchy songs on this album, especially "I Hear Goodnight" and "Four Letter Word", both of which have been stuck in my head quite a bit.  I do also think the song quality is much more consistent than on June's Picture Show, as there is not a single song I dislike on this album.  (Maybe a few I'm "meh" about, but no stinkers.)  Overall, I just find this CD a lot of fun to listen to.

Cons: The lyrics really haven't improved since their last album.  While there's nothing overly embarrassing here, there's nothing terribly insightful either.  While the music is quite enjoyable, it isn't terribly groundbreaking.

The Bottom Line: While this is not a great album by any means, I still enjoy it quite a bit, and I personally think it's an upgrade over June's Picture Show.  If you remember from the "Mach 2" season, I gave that CD a "B-".

Rating: Solid "B", which translates to 4 stars.

On Deck For Next Week: Ruth - Anorak (Link to full stream of album: http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/features/listeningparty3.asp)

[murlough23]

Canopy Glow is, to put it quite simply, a joy to listen to...  I would go with an 8.5, which is an A = 5 stars

Dude! Shoulda gone with my gut on that one, but I was hedging my bets. Oh well, you loved it, so I can't complain.

[bloop]

Scoreboard:
bloop   5
murlough   6.25
Josh   5.5
Brendan   5.5
plvarona   6.75
ajyouthguy   5.4
Ninjarob   6

Congratulations for the Round 1 Win, plvarona!

I lose.  :-(