enimmi wrote:Here's mine. Hope it makes sense.
(off to bed now cause it's 2 in the morning and I got a festival to go to tomorrow.
)
Exclusive listening session, September 4th 2013, Melkweg, Amsterdam.
The listening session took place in a small cinema room with a large
screen and about 60 seats, with us taking the first row. This turned
out to be a good place to listen to the album because everybody kept
quiet when the album was played, like you would also do in a real
cinema. It started off with a 10 min video promo in which we were
shown bits and pieces of the songs and interviews with the band which
were done by 4 different persons, mainly Judd Apatow, Carrie
Brownstein, Mark Richards and Steve Gleason. These were just really
short cuts and I bet we will get to see the complete interviews later
on, perhaps as a part of the digital package.
Steve Gleason started with saying it's been 5 years since the last
record, what the fuck? Which made the band just sit there and laugh.
The record was described as a stormy dark imagery and Ed said that you
just needed to pay attention to the planet to find something to get
angry about pretty quick. Carrie asked about hearing loss because of
the loud songs in the past and Mike said he suffered from tinnitus
right at that very moment. He is really proud about Sirens and it was
said that Ed stayed up the night before in Los Angeles, writing the
lyrics, and hearing the sirens at night and writing about that.
Jeff said he was writing more the last 4 or 5 years. Ed compared the
record to a flophouse and that he was always glad to finish an album
so he could kick out the current tenants, meaning the songs, and he
hoped the new ones would behave better.
The promo ended with Ed and
Danny Clinch sitting in a car getting ready to listen to the new album
and when it started, the volume was too loud and they couldn't turn it
down, which made Ed turn it up even more instead, to the point of
distortion.
Then it was time to listen to the album itself.
Getaway (+/- 3:00)
I brought a stopwatch to time the songs, but I was too excited so I
forgot to time Getaway but it's about 3 minutes long. The song itself
sounds hip and fresh and could easily been written by one of the
current rock bands. The song started with the lyric "Everyone's a
critic", which I guess will prove itself once the record is out.
Other lyrics included '"Find a lighthouse in dark stormy weather",
"it's ok,....make your getaway". The song had a start/stop feel to it
and ended with a guitar shredding outro.
Mind Your Manners (2:40)
The sound on this was much clearer than Getaway to me, but all the
songs were in a compressed format anyway so it was hard to tell
exactly what caused the difference.
My Father's Son (3:02)
This song begins with some spoken wordish lyrics a la 'Bushleaguer'
about insemination and getting a release. This song had a pleasant
rhythm (my notes read tadadadum), and halfway it descends it something
a bit slower and with more bass. The way the lyrics were sung here
reminded me of 'Johnny Guitar'.
Sirens (5:37)
It starts off with the line "Hear the Sirens" x 3 and something about
a circus profound. I liked the start of the song but later on it
becomes a bit more like a power ballad, but the "Hear the Sirens" line
might save it. Need to hear it more to make a better judgement. It
ends with a guitar solo that reminded me of something you would hear
on a Guns N' Roses song.
Lightning Bolt (4:35)
This song features a piano and a guitar fade out. It felt to me like
this song will work better live than on the album somehow.
Infallible (5:15)
This is the song that was played during the soundcheck in London,
Ontario this year, only it has a different intro than the way it
started live. Lyrics featured lines such as "Keep on locking your
doors", "Won't get you this time", "Ships coming in and sinking",
"Thinking we're infallible, we're tempting faith instead". It features
a guitar solo and ends with a fade out.
Pendulum (3:36)
This one starts with some drums and lyrics "We are here and then we're
gone", "My shadow left me long ago", "Understand what we don't know".
Later in this song the guitar sounds a bit like a slide guitar. It's
definitely a darker song, also because of the lyrics which further
include "Into the fire but still I'm cold", "Nothing works for me
anymore". Ed later on starts singing "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" and singing over
this as well. I liked the different layers of this song. Could become
one of my favourites on this album.
Swallowed Whole (3:49)
I pictured this song to be more somber but it actually is quite a lot
more happy sounding. It begins with some nice strumming guitar sound
and the lyrics seemed to be more darker than the song itself. It
features some rhyme repeating words like drown, drown, drown and loud,
loud, loud, the currents pull me down, the songs are like wind,
breathing forgiveness. Thinking back on it, it could have the same
meaning as 'In Hiding' and it definitely features typically Ed ocean
imagery. Enjoyed this song as well, also because of the way it was
sung. Ends with a guitar solo.
Let The Records Play (3:42)
The most blues rock song on the album but with a fun feel to it and
therefore it stands out from the others, like someone in a party mood
suddenly enters a room where others are having a serious discussion.
Typically a goofy Stone song. Lines include "When the kingdom comes,
he puts the records on", "Shaking but waking, wisdom in his bones".
Features a Stone solo and handclaps (according to my fellow companions
but I did not notice them myself) and ends with a fade out. This song
could go any which way after a few listens. Difficult to say if it
stays with you or not.
Sleeping By Myself (2:59)
Considering the reactions this song got from the rest of the company I
was in, most people are going to shit all over this song. Brendan
O'Brien even said they had a hard time making this song sound less
commercial, which makes you wonder you even more about what the other
versions of this song sounded like.
This is definitely the Speed of Sound of this album. I actually still
kind of liked it. It's as if they made a happier sounding version of
this song, like it is actually quite swell to be sleeping by oneself.
I wrote down that this version reminded me of 'Soon Forget'. It still
features a uke as well. Looking forward to people's reaction to this
once the album is officially out.
Yellow Moon (3:47)
Here we arrive at my personal favourite song on the album. I was even
singing along halfway into the song, which prompted Mirella to shush
me. Not really sure what made me like the song so much but it was just
like seeing a great jacket in a shop and when you try it on it fits
like a glove. It could have been the words as well, which went
something like "Here far away, feel the earth vibrate, the moon
chasing shape", "Round we go, where we stop no one knows", "As the sky
grows dark, we're falling stars". The chorus goes "Yellow moon on the
rise" with the rise part being sung as riiiiiiiise. Looking forward to
hearing this song again soon.
Future Days (4:20)
The album version opens with a piano, at least to me it sounded like a
real piano and not a keyboard. A lot of different instruments can be
heard on this song. A mandolin, a violin. I asked Brendan about it and
he said that only the violin was played by someone outside the band
and the rest was all played by the band itself and Brendan. The
beginning is just a single guitar with Ed singing. The song itself has
a Springsteen feel to it. It ends with the piano as well and
eventually fades out. Lots of fades on this record. There were two
songs which sort of seemed to blend into each other but I cannot
remember which ones these were.
So that is my take on these songs. It seems I enjoyed the second hakf
of the album more, and it looks like I will be in the minority on this
one, judging from other people reviews so far. Let me just say that I
found it very difficult to describe what I was hearing. The album is
not easily digestible in one go, which usually is a good sign. Time
will tell how all these tracks will hold up and how they will stand
when played live. I think we are in for an interesting ride to say the
least.
no need to scale anything back
