Heads We Dance – Love Technology
Now after listening to Love Technology – what I can only surmise is the debut album of Heads We Dance – I have to wonder who HWD’s influences might be. The essence of groups like Daft Punk, The Faint, and Cut Copy are present in every song on the record. But I guess that’s to be expected from an electronic dance album. And, to be fair, those are not bad comparisons at all.
“The Human Touch” summons the classic ebb and flow of Daft Punk’s hyper-electronic compositions sans any vocal accompaniment. Songs like “When The Sirens Sound,” “Love In The Digital Age,” and “My Heart Is Set On You,” have the nigh-British vocalist singing over decidedly more structured songs still infused with dance influences so prevalent in Cut Copy’s works. And nearly every song summons the undulating bass line of The Faint.
It’s too bad, though, that these are the only ideas conjured up when I listened to Love Technology. There is a solitary song (“Low Carbon Life”) with a tamer pace and instrumentation, but its (mostly) too little and (kind of) too late by the time you hear it.
Heads We Dance knows how to make a good dance record by referencing the success of peers like Daft Punk and Cut Copy. The record is a solid attempt to create an album to dance (almost) the whole way through to. The only improvement on HWD’s future albums may come in the form of injecting more of the group’s own style and innovation, and straying a bit further from the tried and true methods of their genre.
Method Man and Redman – Blackout 2
Ever since seeing their performance at Rock the Bells last year, I’ve held Method Man and Red Man in high regard in terms of chemistry and synergy. The new collaborative album by the Wu-Tang emcees, Blackout! 2, reinforces this idea pretty succinctly. Backed by tracks put together by the likes of Erick Sermon, Reggie Noble, and DJ Scratch, Meth and Red show why they’re still revered within the rap game.
Unfortunately, in between the guest appearances, the swagger, and the bass, the dudes keep it relatively vanilla in terms of paradigms and lyricism. Oozing with cannabis references, dolled up with images of glamorous women and ambiguous weapons, the Men are “so 2005.” This, however, does little to take away from the addictive hooks (what else does mainstream hip-hop have?) on songs like “A Yo” and “City Lights,” the latter featuring a chopped chorus with UGK’s late Pimp C.
Blackout! 2 gives fans what they want from the duo; an equal dose of both emcees with tried and true topics and beats. Anyone new to the pair would do well to delve into their discography before trying to enjoy what is otherwise a just-above-mediocre album in an increasingly hard to please market. A well-done album not quite suited for the annals of history.
Karate High School – Invaders
Paul McGuire may be pop-punk’s Jesus. Or at least he’s learned how to make it a bit more refreshing in a scene oversaturated with bubblegum bands so similar they could swap monikers without the bat of a listener’s eyelash. With his third album under the Karate High School banner, entitled Invaders, he makes an attractive Frankenstein of a record pieced together from the 80’s (keyboards!), 90’s (rock!), and 2000’s (gang vocals and hand claps!). And I thought I stopped liking pop-punk (read: thought the genre was dead) in 2004.
With songs about zombies (“Zombies Everywhere”) and space suits (“One Trip Around The Sun”) and mechanical girlfriends (“Fell In Love With A Robot”), McGuire artfully blends his hooky pop tunes with lyrics very obviously penned by a living, breathing, youthful, sardonic dude. Really, its pretty apparent; his songs are much less concerned with relating to girl and guy teens whose perpetually pout-y mouths are filled with braces, but more for those slightly more discerning individuals prepared to decipher the (usually) playful metaphors meticulously planted in his writing.
And even when McGuire threatens to punch you in the face (“If You Don’t Live Here, Don’t Surf Here”), it’s because he doesn’t want you to surf on his property, and because you’ll never be as cool as him and his crew. It goes to show that even when McGuire is “mad,” he’s gleefully jamming away on a keyboard playing a tune stolen from a cute Japanese video game (I’m guessing).
But, by far, the best part is that the expected generic tracks (“Under The Microscope” and “The Horror Show”) are severely outnumbered by the creative, playful, and well-written songs.
To be fair, it’s going to be difficult to revive a genre like pop-punk that has been absolutely fucking trampled into the ground. But if there’s an opportunity left to still become popular with a beleaguered label like “pop-punk,” Paul McGuire and his Karate High School will most assuredly find it. To an area in music that I had long ago given up on, KHS injects a little bit of hope.
The Brownies – Our Knife, Your Back
Man, I love the Brownies. At least, I love their new album “Our Knife Your Back.” The songs are as catchy as the swine flu in Mexico and the singer’s voice is nestled comfortably between being cutesy British and a welcomed lack of rasp for a female singing within any punk genre. But the punk is still ever-prevalent with the unimaginative rhythm guitar in a constant joust with the a drum kit consisting of one cymbal and a snare drum.
Man, I hate the Brownies.
Almost every song can be categorized in this manner, with the catchiest of the tunes coming out on the top of the album like “Dance Romance” and “Cougar.” But the style begins to tax the listener by the end of the album, where “Woodchuck” ushers in a chorus of that antique tongue twister over, and over. And over. Oh, punk, will you never learn? Overall, the album has more hooks than a tackle box, but falls short by consciously choosing to stay squarely within the boundaries of all punk genres before it.