Tourist History review

This is the first album by the Irish band Two Door Cinema Club, who I saw giving a solid if unspectacular live performance at Parklife. Even if you don't think you know this band, the chances are you've heard their songs playing somewhere.

Tracks:

1. Cigarettes in the Theatre: 7/10 a nice relationship beginning song which tells an interesting story in an effective and concise way, even if it breaks no new ground at all.

2. Come Back Home: 8/10 well, that relationship was short. This song sees the relationship ending, and it tells the narrative well thanks to a catchy chorus and good storytelling.

3. Do You Want it All?: 7/10 very repetitive, but catchy enough to satisfy.

4. This is the Life: 6/10 the catchy tunes remain, but this fails to actually say anything.

5. Something Good Can Work: 8/10 one of their famous ones and understandably so; it's a fun, well-written and pleasingly indie track that makes for a nice listen.

6. I Can Talk: 7/10 once again: inessential and unoriginal but genuinely fun and enjoyable.

7. Undercover Martyn: 8/10 a nice message and the yet-again fun yet delightfully indie instrumental mean this song will appeal to the commercial and indie crowds.

8. What You Know: 8/10 easily the band's biggest song. Why? It's a banger; pure and simple.

9. Eat That Up, It's Good For You: 8/10 easily the album's best track, this may not be that high-profile but the emotional lyrics and most technically complex and skilled instrumental on the album see the album hit its peak.

10. You're Not Stubborn: 7/10 similar to much of the album; in other words, a summing up of everything people like about it.

Best song: Eat That Up, It's Good For You
Worst song: This is the Life    

Summary: Not bad at all. Basically, this is light, gentle and pleasant music with a focus on being catchy and easy to dance to. Nevertheless, some good lyrics are thrown in for good measure. As undemanding music goes, it's pretty darn solid. This is a fun, if slight work which mixes commercial and indie rock music really rather effectively. It might not engage your brain that much, but you will have a good time.



Final rating: 7/10

Everything Now review

Everything Now is the much-anticipated 5th album from Arcade Fire, who are one of my favorite bands. As I've previously mentioned I have seen them live, but they didn't play any songs from this album or any new songs at all aside from 2 very brief covers of Nirvana and The Sex Pistols. With this album going even further away from their earlier stuff than Reflektor (Anyone else getting Kid A/Amneasic vibes?) and provoking polarized reactions across the internet, here are my thoughts.

Tracks:

1. Everything_Now (Continued): 6/10 a decent if overly short prequel to the album's main song.

2. Everything Now: 7/10 it'll take a few listens, but there's something here for sure. It's generic pop sound will put many off, but its sunny vibes, interesting lyrics and fun dance soundtrack will probably win you over.

3. Signs of Life: 4/10 what were they thinking?! Lyrics which feel like an inferior pop band trying to copy The Suburbs and a painfully generic instrumental make this one of the worst Arcade Fire songs ever.

4. Creature Comfort: 7/10 a solid single with an interesting electronic instrumental and some thought-provoking lyrics, but it unfortunately forgets to be enjoyable. Meanwhile, it's nice to see Regine Chassagne back doing more vocals having been neglected on Reflektor, but she screams her way through her lyrics like some animal throwing a tantrum.

5. Peter Pan: 6/10 in both its instrumental and lyrics, there are some good ideas yet in both its instrumental and its lyrics, it's too minimalist and repetitive to really make a dent.

6. Chemistry: 4/10 chemistry? What chemistry?

7. Infinite Content: 5/10 a fun rock instrumental saves this bizarre experiment from being a total disaster.

8. Infinite_Content (2): 5/10 the instrumental is nice, so it's not as awful as it could have been so easily.

9. Electric Blue: 6/10 definitely a better single. Some nice sounds in the instrumental and the powerfully melancholy tone manage to get past some overly high-pitched vocals and general pretentiousness.

10. Good God Damn: 6/10 this has powerful, meaningful lyrics. If it only it wasn't so dull on a musical level.

11. Put Your Money on Me: 8/10 with this moving and lovely (If slightly pretentious) song, the album finally gets back up onto the level of earlier Arcade Fire stuff.

12. We Don't Deserve Love: 8/10 a wonderful song which has the band back at their peak. Such a shame it's at the very end of the album.

13. Everything Now (Continued) (2): 6/10 yet another short thing linked to Everything Now. There isn't much to say. It's fine. It's just fine. It's got enough nice sounds to drown out the loud "Why?" presumably going through your head.  

Best song: We Don't Deserve Love
Worst song: Chemistry

Summary: This should go without saying: this album is a crushing disappointment. A lot of the hatred it's got all over the internet is well-deserved. Reflektor didn't seem so great at first but it was better the second time. This really wasn't. At least I saw it coming, as a string of increasingly mediocre singles were released prior to the album coming out. Basically, this has 2 decent lead singles, 2 very good songs at the end and everything else is average or worse. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Arcade Fire's lyrics have been pretentious in the past, but at least there was something there. Here, there's really not very much in the songs at all except for repeated phrases. Meanwhile, the music is painfully repetitive and often dull, and the album is missing the sense of energy and humanity that defined the band's other albums. The middle section is particularly dire. All in all, this album, despite some good moments and nice notes, doesn't indicate a bright future for Arcade Fire. What a shame.




Final rating: 6/10