Mason Jennings’ new album, Blood Of Man, is his first “electric” album but he’s not lost a step by plugging in his guitar as this album shows off his great delivery and his dark yet palatable lyrics. Read the rest of this entry »
NOFX’s latest album Coaster is their 12th studio release and their latest on Fat Wreck Chords and is a re-establishment of what made the band so popular that they have been able to put out music for 25 years now. However, there are signs of a slightly more mature NOFX and it doesn’t take away from NOFX’s signature style which can be described as a goofier version of Bad Religion in the way that Fat Mike takes on subject like politics and religiousness with a very sardonic view.
Coaster also has the most personal song Fat Mike has ever written, “My Orphan Year” when he conveys his feelings over losing both of his parents in the same year. Besides that song, there’s an absolutely hilarious recollection of Fat Mike creeping out Tegan or Sara of Tegan & Sara at some Euro music festival called “Creeping Out Sara”. The band also touches upon religious hypocrisy in the songs “Blasphemy (The Victimless Crime)” and “Best God In Show”. There’s also songs like ‘The Quitter”, “First Call” and “I AM an Alcoholic” which, like most NOFX songs, extol on the qualities, both good and bad, of drug and alcohol use. The only real throwaway track on the album is the ode to Iron Maiden “Eddie, Bruce and Paul”.
Sound-wise, NOFX sticks to what works best for them which is a blend of sped-up West Coast punk with a healthy blend of ska & reggae to make things more interesting. On the whole, Coaster is not a album where NOFX branches out into newer territory but yet another solid album where they stick to their lyrical and sonic guns and prove why they are still after two and half decades. ****
By Brian Harris (Brookdale Student),
21st Century Breakdown is the follow-up to Green Day’s epic American Idiot, and while it follow the same epic rock opera format like its predecessor, 21st Century Breakdown takes the foundation of American Idiot and built it into a less preachy but more impactful album then American Idiot.
The back-story to 21st Century Breakdown, split into three acts: Heroes & Cons, Charlatans & Saints and Horseshoes and Handgrenades, is of a young Detroit couple named Gloria and Christian who attempt to live their lives amidst the mess left by the previous administration and a new century going wrong before it truly begins. As the album progress how even though Gloria and Christian hare united in their battle against the ever-decaying world in which they live in, they face the troubles in different fashions. Gloria is an eternal optimist while Christian is one lets his inner demons stir his hatred for what the people in charge have down to the world.
The opening act, Heroes & Cons, set the dichotomy which drives the album. “Song Of The Century”, is a song where you can picture the Gloria character reading off her wish list for the world while the title track and the first single “Know Your Enemy” acts as a primer for Christian’s inner rage and his desire for real change. The rest of Act 1 shows the strong bond between the young lovers ending with the Beatles-like ballad “Last Night On Earth” showing how real the love is between Gloria and Christian.
The middle act, Charlatans & Saints delves deeper into Christian’s rage against any and all authority, including religious fundamentalism in songs like “East Jesus Nowhere” and “Peacemaker”. Act 2 also shows that Gloria also has a combative side in the song “Last Of The American Girls”. “Murder City” is the couple’s lament over the dire straits that their hometown of Detroit has fallen into. The final two songs of the act, “¿Viva La Gloria (Little Girl)” and “Restless Heart Syndrome” tell of the couple’s rapidly declining faith that there will actually be change.
The final act, Horseshoes & Handgrenades, is the act where the couple stands together and declares that they will not back down in the face of adversity as stated in the opening song of Act 3, “Horseshoes & Handgrenades”. The next song, “The Static Age” is not a cover of the classic Misfits song but Billie Joe Armstrong taking the meaning behind the song and making the message much more palatable to the public at large without losing any of the vitriol that the Glenn Danzig-penned song possessed. The second single, “21 Guns”, is your standard anti-war song but packs more punch then your standard protest song. “American Eulogy” is closing that any song on this album comes to aping American Idiot with the song being split into multiple part like Idiot’s epic “Jesus Of Suburbia”. The song’s two parts, “Mass Hysteria” and “Modern World” is the couple reaction to the previous administration’s destruction of everything they know and their utter disdain for the world that resulted!
from it. The final song on the album, “See The Light” is a song where after going through various ways to numb the pain, the couple yearns for the desire to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel where there’s no disorder and disarray.
With 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day has not only matched the genius and masterful songwriting and storytelling in American Idiot, they proved that the previous album was not a fluke in the slightest and that they are truly the benchmark for any other band out today.
By Brian Harris (Brookdale Student)
John Wesley Harding’s latest album with The Minus Five is called Who was Changed and Who was Dead and it’s a great showing of the different and eclectic styles and interests of Harding, who got his stage name from the Bob Dylan album John Wesley Harding, who was a famous Old West gunslinger.
Harding has been compared on more than one occasion to Elvis Costello and I can see the comparison as Costello also had many different influences. Unlike Costello, Harding comes across as somewhat goofy on this album. Hell, one of the songs on the album has Harding breaking out a kazoo solo. The rest of the album is your standard acoustic tinged rock record with Harding cheekily refers to as “folk noir” and “gangsta folk”. The albums sounds good but its schizophrenic changes in style make it hard to give it a solid recommendation. Fans of Harding will enjoy it but this isn’t the type of album to get people into John Wesley Harding.**
By Brian Harris (Brookdale Student)
White Lies for Dark Times is the debut album for Ben Harper’s latest project, Ben Harper and Relentless 7. The sound is heavier than most Ben Harper albums but it doesn’t take away for his musicianship as this album should be the album that is put on at all parties this summer. It’s a very good blues-rock album that melds together the signature blues lyrics about love and all of its many different feelings that it could make a person have with a more modern rock sound.
What stands out most about White Lies for Dark Times is the sound. Harper and his band mates have created a sound that stands out among the other bands of today. They have created a sound that comes across as part-James Brown, part-Stax and part-BB King. Even though the lyrics aren’t the most cheerful lyrics ever written, the musicianship of the entire band and Harper’s great skill for writing music has manifested into a great debut album from the band and hopefully a follow-up sooner than later.****
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