Author Topic: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner  (Read 11801 times)

Offline DJ Logicalia

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DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« on: June 18, 2015, 05:10:58 am »
I've been wanting to do this for a while. I'll be making replies to this post where I rant about albums I like every once and a while. It'll be fun! As the leader of the Bards, and a member of the human race, I listen to a lot of music from a lot of different genres. Input is welcome about artists I'm discussing, but I'd rather not have the thread thrown off track by people tossing out music that isn't part of the conversation at hand. But, please don't let that discourage your input! As much as I love music, I love dissecting it. Finding out what makes it tick. I just don't want this to be a "everyone tell me your favorite musician" thread, as much as I love those.

LET'S GET STARTED. 


Offline DJ Logicalia

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2015, 05:12:52 am »
  Gnarls Barkley
St. Elsewhere



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex46uMw_jyg

This is a record I listened to a lot for years. The record, as a whole, is a beautiful work of art. It's as powerful and colorful and full of emotion from start to finish. In my opinion, it's genera breaking, but if it has to be labeled, it's alternative. Alt Rock/Hip-Hop if it must be more specific. Gnarls Barkley is a combination of vocal power house Cee-Lo Green and godlike producer Danger Mouse. Both have been in countless projects over the years, but Gnarls Barkley is my favorite from either of them, hands down. St. Elsewhere is their 2006 debut album, it dropped at #1 on the UK charts and peaked at #4 in the states. Sadly, the mainstream as well as most of the underground scene seems to have forgotten about this killer of an album. The reason as far as I can tell is a self inflicted wound called Crazy. Crazy is the second track on the album and was so absurdly popular that the group ended up being labeled a one hit wonder by many. It's a great song, but GB offers so much more than that single song. You've heard it, we all have. But for the purposes of this review, I'm going to be spending as little time as possible talking about Crazy, mostly because I'm so sick of it.

The chemistry between Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse is great. The instrumentation and Cee-Lo's vocals are indescribably heavenly on this record and their follow up (which I'll get to talking about some other time). Danger always has this cool, lo-fi, dirty, 60's rock and roll/Motown feel to all his music, and Cee-Lo's voice also has that classic, retro twang to it everything just feels so right. This record is a bit more hip-hip than their follow up (an album I happen to like just a tad bit more), something that some people might have an issue with, but I suppose it all comes down to personal preference. I love all of it. Almost every track on this album is a masterpiece, and as a whole, this album is flooring.

I guess I'll do some track analysis or something now

The record opens with Go-Go Gadget Gospel, an energetic ballad about the freedom of self expression and being able to let go. Musically, this song is great. Cee-Lo's vocals are so great here, bellowing out of his diaphragm like a freight train. And the instrumentals, as always, are so unique and beautiful. Great song

Crazy  is next. It's good, everyone thinks so. Moving on

St. Elsewhere. I love this song so much. It's haunting and melodic and so powerful. A lot of this record is about Cee-Lo's battles with depression, and this song is one of those. St. Elsewhere is his happy place. At the start of the song, he's secluded himself off into it. It's a wild animal, in that when it's good, it's great. He gets the sunshine all to himself, but he gets all the rain as well. He;s still there when you need him, but until he's called on, he'll be on his island. By the end of the song he's ready to make a change and try and find a "new frontier", but none of his friends are willing to put themselves out of their comfort zone to help. Love it. 10/10

Gone Daddy Gone is a Violent Femmes cover. This is a super rad cover, and if you haven't heard the original, go listen to that. Not much else to say

Smiley Faces is just grand. This has such an old school vibe to it. Bit... clean, maybe? But I think it's great anyway.

Boogie Monster is part mostly comedic partly about someone trying to confront his biggest fear. There's a twist at the end, I won't spoil it.

Feng Shui is alright. I never really understood it, but it's ok. I certainly don't hate it. It's not the strongest song on the album, but it's only like two verses either way.

Just a Thought. Oh man, here's another one of those really heavy ones about depression. This one's straight up about how he can't find peace and nothing at all works. No matter how badly he wants things to be right and to just be happy, he just can't get there. Not a happy one. Great song, but not one you wanna play at a party to lighten the mood.

Transformer. This one is super hip-hoppy and I love it. Just give it a listen

Who Cares is more or less about someone trying to stop them selves from going crazy. Having all these things they want to say, while being aware of how pretentious it sounds and how no one cares. All backed by the persistent thump organ and a gospel choir.

Online is a weird song I would gloss over a lot, but it's actually pretty great. It's really short, but it's got enough funk packed into it to make your clothes change hues.

Necromancer. Ok, so this one's a bit weird. The entire song is about necrophilia and murdering a woman.  I never understood what the metaphor was, and I still don't. I did some research on the lyrics and most of the internet seems to take it literal, and I can assure that is not the intention. I don't know what the intention is, but it's not literally about necrophilia. It would be way too out of place on the album for that to actually be the case. The instrumentals are pretty good, but it's totally fine to just skip over this one. It doesn't add much to the record as a whole, in my opinion.

Storm Coming incorporates a lot of different musical ques and changes a lot in it's run length. It's energetic and powerful. Honestly, it feels like a storm in a song. Lyrically and muscially, it's one of the stronger songs (not that there are many weak ones) and I do quite enjoy it.

The Last Time feels like a call back to a time when it was acceptable to boogie on down in public. This song is so happening, it's great. The 70's guitar twanging, the chorus of back-up vocals, and the whole composition of this track feel like they're all reaching into the past. It's great, and I love it. A terrific track to close on.

And, yeah. That's it. I'm gonna toss some promo photos of the band down here, just because they're so great. Hope this wasn't total rubbish and I hope you give the album a go!


« Last Edit: June 18, 2015, 05:20:01 am by DJ Logicalia »

Offline The Mann

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2015, 05:28:17 am »
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere is a great album!

The energy it produces brings a smile to my face everytime i listen to it!

My favorite song has always been Crazy. Reminds me of myself in real life in some ways.

Offline The Mann

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2015, 05:29:10 am »
As a keyboardist in real life, I one day hope to join a band where I can wear Jedi Robes  :P

Offline DJ Tipz N Trix

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2015, 05:31:27 am »
Hey, can I cut in?

Offline DJ Logicalia

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2015, 05:38:46 am »
Ammendment to the original post. Sensei Tipz n Trix is allowed full reign to post whatever he wants here

Offline DJ Tipz N Trix

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2015, 12:30:03 pm »
My most recent praises go to a 2015 album by an Australian soul band named Hiatus Kaiyote.  The album is called Choose Your Weapon and features a whopping total of 18 tracks for a total of 70 minutes.  Now, that means nothing if you don't like to hear it, but I will appeal to authority here and quote Questlove's raving recommendation of this band, "[ O ]nce in a blue moon something moves me so much im willing to alienate friends when an UNDENIABLE project comes along. THIS is that project."  His full review is here: https://instagram.com/p/QEcr68yki-/



The band is a very New Age sort of soul, with all the technical chops of jazz musicians, polyrhythms, multiple stylistic changes, and an insane groove that really keeps your head moving.  This isn't simple easy listening 4/4 music.  The vocalist truly has a powerful soul voice, so much so that I originally thought they had to have come out of New York or Chicago.  Her name is Nai Palm, and she has most of the named credits for composition on the track, but she says that composition is a band collaboration.  She also plays guitar at a high level, and has no other rhythm guitarist in the main band to back her up.  The band is composed of a pianist/synthesizer of the electric persuasion, a bassist who is insanely technical, a solid percussionist plays all kinds of drums, and backup singers.

However, I think the best thing is to listen to a song.  I will put here for sample the second track, Shaolin Monk Motherfunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya7aDtEdTTo

This is my favourite tune on the album, and a perfect demonstration of the down-to-earth songwriting topics they use.  Other straightforward songs are "Laputa", about Nai's love for the anime, "Atari", about the nostalgic feelings of old video games and the great tools they are for music making, and "Breathing Underwater", which sounds like an excuse to play around with a very cool-sounding set of words in different polyrhythms.  There are also songs that hide their meaning a little deeper underneath the surface, like "Molasses", which is not actually about the food product, so if you're one who likes to look into lyrics a lot, you will also find some there for your liking.

Overall, I haven't felt so good about an album from the 2010s since they started five years ago.  The sound these guys produce is unique in their own way, and are all wonderful musicians in their own right.  Check it out.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2015, 12:31:42 pm by DJ Tipz N Trix »

Offline The Mann

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2015, 01:05:28 pm »
Wow Tipz! That song is really catchy, I really like it!  :D

Offline Schwalbe

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2015, 04:52:20 pm »
Hmmmmm... May I try? ^^ Though... I think my album might be "a little" (I mean a lot) off.

Offline Skrimskraw

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2015, 03:03:34 pm »

Offline The Mann

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2015, 03:14:41 pm »

Offline DJ Logicalia

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2015, 04:21:47 pm »
can you review this album?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xn5p6fVzWI
10/10, no one needs to make music ever again

Offline DJ Tipz N Trix

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Re: DJ Logicalia's Album Review Corner
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2015, 01:45:39 pm »
can you review this album?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xn5p6fVzWI

Music is typical pop fare, their voices are autotuned so I don't know what they really sound like.

THAT HQ VIDEO THO.  IT'S HIGH QUALITY