SoundCheck: Issue Three (05.26.2017)
Spotlight: Linkin Park – One More Light
I have long been a supporter of Linkin Park moving away from their Nu-Metal sound and embracing a new territory sonically in the name of artistic freedom. For the most part, I quite enjoyed the direction they took after Meteora. I was quite excited when I heard they were hard at work with a new album. I got to thinking, “If it sounds anything like 2014’s The Hunting Party, then I’m in for a treat” then last week, I received an advanced copy of One More Light. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling it at first, but around the third or fourth listen it began to click for me. Major props to LP for thinking so far outside the box and producing a very solid Pop album. Slickly produced and great incorporation of guitar work (wear headphones and you can really hear all the nuances and layers) You can tell great care went into the making of One More Light.
That said, the knock against the album is that it despite the efforts of genre-bending, the album at a few points almost sounds like pretty much every current pop song on the radio today, which honestly is pretty disappointing. It doesn’t help that LP have never lit the world on fire with their lyric writing, so bringing in co-writers this go around actually hurt the lyric writing more than helping them as it all comes across pretty generic. The saving grace is that underneath the processed vocals, bells and whistles that goes into a Pop album, it still sounds distinctively LP and I can’t be mad at that.
In short – this assuredly won’t rank as one of my favorite LP albums, but if you take this work for what it is and NOT what you want it to be, you’ll find a very cohesive, competent and well produced if not a slightly middling Pop/Pop-Rock album that could easily hold it’s own against it’s contemporaries.
Other bits and pieces:
Misterwives – Connect the Dots
Two years removed from their stellar debut album Our Own House, the New York based five piece Indie-Pop outfit Misterwives are back with sophomore effort Connect the Dots. How does it stack up? Well pretty darn well, if I may say so.
First track and lead single “Machine” kicks off the whole album and serves as a tone setter for the rest of the album of sorts, that tone being loud, bombastic with extremely catchy choruses. It also sets the message of the album. A message of embracing one’s own dreams and individuality which is heard in each of the LP’s eleven tracks. From a production standpoint, everything sounds great. You can hear the intricacy of each instrument and interesting things are done throughout. My negative may sound like a contradiction to my positives, but the albums shortcoming comes in the form of the overall formula of the composition. While there is diversity in the music, everything starts to run together halfway through the album. What I mean by that is musically almost all the songs build to the same vibe (anthemic choruses + peppy indie drum sections = Misterwives song) though if I recall, I don’t quite remember Our Own House being quite this formulaic in that regard, which makes it a stronger album in my opinion.
Despite that little niggle, Connect the Dots is still a fantastic album that’s quite different than what’s currently floating out in pop music today.
Blink 182 – California (Deluxe Edition)
So this review is more about the deluxe portion of the album, as California proper dropped last year, in which I thought was a fun record despite the lack of Tom Delonge. Here we have eleven additional tracks to the main that takes a slightly darker tone musically and sonically than in the original album. What the songs in the first release, has been improved in the Deluxe release, if only slightly. Overall the lyrics have improved and Matt Skiba, while providing great riffs, rehashed quite a few for the new songs (which may make since if these songs were recorded in the same session)
Production and mixing honestly is a mixed bag. Over processed vocals and excessive use of pitch correction and auto-tune is still ever present in this edition of California. Also as a huge fan of Travis Barker’s work, I feel like his percussion were muted and understated. Let’s not get on the issue of letting Blink get away with way to many “Woahs” on this album. I felt maybe they could’ve been pushed a little harder. Despite all that, even if it’s not by much, the Deluxe edition of California is still a great, fun summer record and I’m still as excited about new Blink 182 than I ever have. Just get a different producer next time.
