Thirty years ago to the day Pink Floyd released their double album, The Wall. This was an album that was not simply a collection of songs, but something more than that – a ‘rock opera’. Pink Floyd’s massive, overblown theatre of sound was backed by a similarly sized story. It is mostly autobiographical, telling the story of Roger Waters’ struggles in life and his self-imposed isolation. The story was supported with hallucinatory live performances and a full length film. This was the concept album.

By the time The Wall was released, in the final weeks of 1979, such an idea was nothing new. The 1970s as a whole was, more than any other, the decade of the concept album. This was of course due to it also being the decade of progressive rock, with all its psychadelia, musicality, and unconventional song structures. (Fortunately) punk gave a firm boot to all this, so the concept album has been largely absent from the eighties onwards. Critics, and there were plenty, said enough was enough. A decade’s worth of organ solos is enough really.

Genesis and Yes were other prog rock bands who loved an album with story and a bit of pomp. The bass player from the latter released some concept albums on his own. One was based on the Jules Vernes novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth, another was his ‘interpretations of the musical characteristics of the six wives of Henry VIII. Quite easy to see where the backlash, or just sheer boredom, of the whole idea came from.

The concept albums of the seventies were not all just wanky prog-rock though. There were some classic concept albums that have stood the test of time to say the least.

Ziggy Stardust from 1972 is more than just that one iconic guitar riff. It’s the tale of an alien rock star warning humanity of its impending doom, with an absurdly catchy melody of hope. You can definitely lump it in with the proggers-its full title is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and it had its own docu-concert film.

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Two years later came Kraftwerk’s ode to the motorway, der Autobahn. Sleek proto-techno rhythms from the German humanoids drive the listener on a journey. The twenty minute title track even has authentic engine revs and beep-beeps. Look at the cover-it’s the future.

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Histoire de Melody Nelson is a concept album with a difference. The famously controversial Serge Gainsbourg penned this album based on the idea of him crashing his car into the Lolita-esque Melody Nelson, before the inevitable seduction and romance followed. Mais oui. Just seven tracks and lasting less than half an hour, it is a short concept album, but one nonetheless. My personal favourite, although it’s telling that this is because of the songs, and not the concept.

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Some muse that the Equestrian Wall of Death is part of a wider Robotic Games.

CM

D2,

Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersberg, Russia

Not to be confused with the clothes shop chain, this uninspiring record shop along the bustling Nevsky Prospect street,  is a pirate-ship of stores, albeit with a treasure trove within.

Offering knock-off DVDs and video-games in one room, and CDs (most of which are pirated copies)  in another, the shop on the whole has little of interest to anyone with more than a passing interest in music.  We had entered the shop, browsed the racks with disdain and were turning to leave as I spied the store’s single redeming feature.

A bargain bin offering legit CDs at 30 roubles (59p) grabbed my attention, with it’s pile of Fabric mixes sitting near the top of the pile.  I sort through the lot and find Fabric 25 Mixed By Carl Craig (a classic techno/ house mix with tracks from Kerri Chandler, Scott Grooves and, err, The Pasta Boys), along with Fabric 26 mixed by Global Communication (aka Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard).

Beneath a dirge of R&B compilations, I find another mix entitled ‘Elektrik 02′, a double disc outing from King Unique and Nubreed,  filled with goodies from Modeselektor, Claude Von Stroke, Steve Bug, Booka Shade, Felix Da Housecat, Thomas Schumacher, Milton Jackson… I could go on.  The shop, despite its lack of character, ambience, or selection, is on is way to becoming legendary.

Above: Nevsky Prospect

The last CD I discover, at the very bottom of the bin, is Moby’s 2008 album, Last Night – a homage to the disco and house tracks of the early ’90s, when the bald headed leftie was still making his name.  The album got lukewarm reviews on its release in 2008, but I think it was under-rated and, as a concept album, work wells.

As I take my armful of CDs to the counter and hand them to the grimacing clerk at the till (who is fashioning the kind of vacant expression made famous by American teenagers), I remind myself that sometimes the best purchases are in the worst shops.  And with that depressing manta, I lay down the cash and give the attentdant a genuine, unreturned, smile.

Purchase:

Elektrik 02 – Mixed By King Unique & Nubreed – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 25 – Mixed By Carl Craig – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 26 – Mixed By Global Communication – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Moby – Last Night – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

Armand Van Helden – Ghetto Blaster – £1 [Tracklisting]

Club Azuli 1 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.48 [Tracklisting]

Club Azuli Part 2 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.79 [Tracklisting]

Chemical Brothers, The: Brothers Gonna Work It Out – £2.77 [Tracklisting]

Defected In The House – Mixed By Copyright – £0.79 [Tracklisting]

DJ Hardy Heller – Mix In Motion – £1  [Tracklisting]

DJ Shadow – The New Collection – £2.38

Elektrik 02 – Mixed By King Unique & Nubreed – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 25 – Mixed By Carl Craig – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Fabric 26 – Mixed By Global Communication – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Le Le – Breakfast 12″ – £8.24 [Tracklisting]

Moby – Last Night – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £21.77

dalla rubrica “Musica, musica, musica!” de “Il Taglio”

The Beatles

Quando uscì il disco “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, era il 1967 e i Beatles erano già da anni famosi in ogni lontano angolo del mondo. Una carriera grandiosa e John Lennon fu come un proiettile dichiarando: “Adesso siamo più popolari di Gesù Cristo”. Lo stesso anno vide l’esercito USA scatenare una feroce offensiva in Vietnam e i Pink Floyd realizzare il primo singolo “Arnold Layne”. Il contorno mediatico ha sempre avvolto i “baronetti” di Liverpool, ma in sostanza questo disco rappresenta una fondamentale sterzata nella storia della musica, una sorta di “distruzione-ricostruzione” come nelle più perfette rivoluzioni. Tutto ciò che era stato fatto prima fu messo in discussione e rinnovato. E’ la grande apertura alla psichedelica, il primo concept album della storia con canzoni che spiegano una via per “migliorare la vita” e “diminuire la solitudine” attraverso gesti di liberazione interiore, visioni e amore. Con questo lavoro i Beatles sono riusciti a fare della musica pop qualcosa di “serio e importante”, innalzandola allo stesso livello di qualsiasi altro tipo di espressione artistica, come la scultura, la pittura o la poesia. Per la cronaca: l’album vinse un Grammy Award nel 1968 come miglior album dell’anno oltre ad essere classificato dalla rivista “Rolling Stone” come miglior album di tutti i tempi.

Tracklist

1 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

2 With a Little Help from My Friends

3 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

4 Getting Better

5 Fixing a Hole

6 She’s Leaving Home

7 Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!

8 Within You Without You

9 When I’m Sixty-four

10 Lovely Rita

11 Good Morning Good Morning

12 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

13 A Day in the Life

OK, September has gone, summer has gone. Live on 35mm enters its third year and Brooklyn, again, offers me the occasion to talk about another emerging great band.

A strange night this one at the Lexington. The Antlers close a mini London tour of four gigs in three days opening a friday night with an early show.

I read wonders about Hospice, The Antlers debut album, for months. I must say, the first time I came across them was much before Pitchfork and the rest of the indie-how-cool-I-am bunch that followed. It was reading a friend review on the Italian indie-rock.it webzine.
It may sound surprising to you, but yes there are some residual signs of free expression in Italy.

Peter Silberman had started writing the album during two years he lived secluded in a New York city flat. He was there to mourn the loss of a loving one for cancer. I have definitely a personal sympathy with the author of the album which obviously contributes to get me quickly into the mood, but if you are strong enough to face sad stories, keep reading these lines and immerse into the depth of the lyrics.

Hospice is another concept album gravitating about a loss. It adds to Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago and the recent Noah and the Whale’s The First Days of Spring.
Despite a parallel that brought the music press to write a lot of comparisons to Bon Iver I am here to stress the differences more than the analogies.

Not only the situation is not comparable, whoever Bon Iver has lost, Emma, his band or the faith in the world, his (wonderful, let’s be clear) album is not about death, not hospital death by cancer and this is not a small detail.

Musically, a key difference is the geographical position.
To conceal oneself in a cabin during three months of the Wisconsin winter is not as locking the door of a New York city apartment.
No signs of human presence permeates Bon Iver album, he put his thoughts in nine songs written on the white canvas of Wisconsin snow. Hospice breathes the sound of a city still leaving beyond the walls of Peter Silberman’s room.

Hopefully I arrive at the Lexington relatively early, no one advised me that the Antlers where opening the night. I discovered it on the stage times sheet on the door: Antlers 8:30 PM. Almost missed!!
There are two more bands following that I have never heard of. I wonder why such oddity, the venue packs up at eight it is evident everyone is here for these Brooklyn guys (and everyone knows about the early set but me).

I enter the Lexington upstair room with a beer and the boring idea to start twittering while waiting. Instead I realize the Antlers are sound checking which was a much better way to fill the time. Three young and easygoing guys crafting some of their songs in front of a guy at the soundboard, in fact more interested to eat his sandwich than play with the mixer buttons, nevermind.
It was nice to see the smiling folks, drama is a matter of the past, the atmosphere is happy and dedicated.

Half an hour later the concert starts.
Peter Silberman stands on the left, a bit on the back, behind his guitar. His body language reveals some shyness.
Michael Lerner sits behind a drum kit borrowed from 12 Dirty Bullets one of the bands that will follow.
Darby Cicci on the right, shoeless. His keyboards are pushed to the white tape signalling the end of the stage. Half a inch more and they would collapse over the audience.

Live the concert doesn’t follow the album progression.
The opening is for Bear, a simple song highlighted by the melody on the keyboards, slightly helped by a delicate intervention of the drums in the chorus. Minimal.

It evolves straight into Thirteen as in the album. The keyboards become darker and the gig becomes interesting. The lyrics hide one of the dramatic cry of help, it could be sang by PJ Harvey’s falsetto.

“…
Dig me out…
Oh, dig me out…
Couldn’t you have kept all this from happening?
…”
[Thirteen - The Antlers]

First important point.
If Peter Silberman is the founder and the mind behind the concept, Darby Cicci tonight is a key element to create the sound that holds the entire building. Without his keyboards there would be a void.
Silberman as a counterpart has a brilliant voice which doesn’t come out so intense from the record. The way he interprets the songs has the credibility of the one who first lived a difficult reality and then has slowly sublimated it into beautiful songs.

Sylvia follows. It is dedicated to the subject of the album and it is my favourite track.
The guitar has its revenge, the song highlighted by another set of distraught lyrics takes advantage of some noise to describe the anxiety of the disease and the frustration of the ones who cannot do much more than seeing it spreading, powerless.

“Please, curtains in. Start us off…
You swing first. Sorry.
I don’t know what I said,
but you’re crying now again,
and that only makes it worse.

Sylvia, I only talk when you are sleeping.
That’s when I tell you everything,
And I imagine that somehow you’re going to hear me.”
[Sylvia - The Antlers]

Atrophy is a ten minutes anaesthesia where the piano adds notes around verses where the narrator’s desperation reaches the climax.

“Someone, oh anyone. Tell me how to stop this.
She’s screaming, expiring, and I’m her only witness.
I’m freezing, infected, and rigid in that room inside her.
No one’s gonna come as long as I lay still in bed beside her.”
[Atrophy - The Antlers]

Whoever experienced death, is going to be symphatetic with Shiva, the next song. I never heard a song going so straight to the point. You may not bear reading this, but if you do you can’t deny the poetics wrapped into telling a drama.

“Suddenly every machine stopped at once,
and the monitors beeped the last time.
Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds,
and all of them empty but mine.

You checked yourself out when you put me to bed,
and tore that old band off your wrist.
But you came back to see me for a minute or less,
and left me your ring in my fist.
My hair started growing, my face became yours,
my femur was breaking in half.
The sensation was scissors and too much to scream,
so instead, I just started to laugh.”
[Shiva - The Antlers]

To close the short set, the Antlers played their most famous song, Two. The chronology of the events is inverted.

Two tells about another hard moment that you can symphatize only if you have been so unfortunate to live it. The moment when the doctor comes and tells you that there are no more chances.
That moment the entire world crumbles to your feet. That moment for the first time you understand even tears are worthless.

“In the middle of the night I was sleeping sitting up,
when a doctor came to tell me, “Enough is enough.”
He brought me out into the hall (I could have sworn it was haunted),
and told me something that I didn’t know that I wanted to hear:
That there was nothing that I could do to save you,
the choir’s gonna sing, and this thing is gonna kill you.
Something in my throat made my next words shake,
and something in the wires made the lightbulbs break.
There was glass inside my feet and raining down from the ceiling,
it opened up the scars that had just finished healing.
It tore apart the canyon running down your femur,
(I thougth that it was beautiful, it made me a believer.)
And as it opened I could hear you howling from your room,
but I hid out in the hall until the hurricane blew.
When I reappered and tried to give you something for the pain,
you came to hating me again and just sang your refreain:

There’s two people living in one small room,
from your two half-families tearing at you,
two ways to tell the story (no one worries),
two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry,
two people talking inside your brain,
two people believing that I’m the one to blame,
two different voices coming out of your mouth,
while I’m too cold to care and too sick to shout.”
[Two - The Antlers]

A packed Lexington howl for an encore that will not come. “Death is not the end” used to sing Dylan first and Nick Cave then, no it is not that, two more bands are due to play. Few stay, the venue empties.

Good news is that French Kiss signed the Antlers and is going to give Hospice a proper distribution so I will be waiting for their next tour. You should be too.

Meet the Antlers on [myspace] and listen to Hospice on [spotify] if you are in one of those lucky countries who can access it.

Photo tip

It was refurbished recently and is quickly becoming one of the coolest London venues. In the last months I have been at The Lexington quite often. In addition to the Antlers, the photos of Arbouretum and Twilight Sad were shot there.

Sited in Islington, a short walk from Angel tube station (and a bit longer from Kings Cross) it is a gastropub with an upstair room to host concerts.

The Room is bigger than the standard pub backroom, it is the perfect size to feel cosy without feeling lonely.
About 150 people capacity, I’d say, on two areas separated by a step. Bar and some sofas are on the back. than a bigger room with the small stage. There is no pit but usually enough room to move around even when it is packed.

Photographywise apart from being difficult to move along the front in the absence of pit the main problem is the lightining. So far anytime I went it was very dark. Consider working on very high Iso and bring with you that fast prime lens.

On the nice side there hasn’t been (so far) a strict photography policy. I always shot there with an agreed photopass but there were many people from the crowd shooting freely.
There is also a nice space, with three steps on the right that allows you to shoot side of the stage at the same level of the band. Be sure to ask in advance if you are allowed to step there even if you have a press pass.

Considering their policy of hosting bands than you would expect playing in larger places, The Lexington is a perfect venue to get in touch with the difficult art of shooting live music covering someone that is bigger than your mates reharsing in the pub down the road.

If you are there only for the music, all I can tell is that I saw there three amazing shows out of three I attended.

Sick of everything “Davwuh” – even the name bugs me now, so here I’m carrying on where I left off from Lost Highway 65 – using my real name, David Washington.

I’m looking to work on my magnum opus, which will be a concept prog/art rock album with classical and jazz influences.  The story is epic, I have it planned out, the ‘header’ image is a segment of the album cover.. so make what you will from that

If you’re gonna look forward to this, don’t expect it for another year or so.. I’m not gonna pump this one out.  Aye, all my albums have taken me usually 1 month max, sometimes a week – and I’ve even finished half-arsed pop/rock/reggae albums in 1 day before too.

But I will be making other stuff.. at the moment, I’m making instrumental stuff using arabic, gypsie and spanish/italian scales just for fun.. today I did my own version of the ‘Love Theme’ from The Godfather – as every great musician should have his own version of that piece of music in his repetoire.. its just a nice solo piano piece.. I’m picking up playing the piano pretty well too, its basically whats driving me at the moment

Dopo aver conquistato mezzo mondo con il loro rock ruvido e gli spettacoli al fulmicotone ed essere diventati un fenomeno di massa negli Stati Uniti,i Kiss affrontano gli anni ‘80 con molte incertezze.Criticati in patria per la svolta pop dei loro ultimi lavori ed accolti a braccia aperte in Europa ed Australia grazie a questi ultimi(le statitische dicono che nell’isola dei canguri un abitante su otto possiede un loro disco)alle prese con forti crisi interne che hanno portato alla cacciata di Peter Criss,batterista storico,gli eroi mascherati decidono di mettere mani ad un grande progetto.

Gene Simmons e Paul Stanley danno vita ad un concept album che prenderà il nome di “Music from “The Elder”".La loro idea é di comporre una colonna sonora ideale di un film che ancora non c’é ma che verrà prodotto dopo il disco.C’é da dire che in quei tempi fare un concept album in ambito hard rock non era come ai nostri giorni cosa diffusa.Si considerava il concept una sorta di opera adatta soprattutto all’ambiente progressive.

Si richiama così alla produzione Bob Ezrin che in passato aveva consacrato i nostri a re mondiali del rock grazie ad un album come “Destroyer”.Il gruppo rinnova il suo look,vengono cambiati i costumi di scena e tutti si tagliano i capelli.E per la prima volta nella storia della band,una loro foto non apparirà sulla copertina del disco.L’entusiasmo é grande in tutti tranne che in Ace Frehley.Ace,oltre a bere come un dannato,odia Ezrin da tempo immemore.Le sue parti verranno registrate nello studio della sua casa e inviate allo studio dove gli altri tre si danno da fare.Il risultato sarà che Bob senza comunicare nulla taglierà il 90% delle parti di Ace.E questo sarà uno dei motivi per cui i Kiss perderanno l’anno successivo lo Spaceman.

Dopo traversie,fatiche e tantissimo entusiasmo sui mercati é disponibile il nuovo prodotto.Sarà il flop commerciale più grande della storia dei Kiss.Venderà così poco che dopo quasi otto anni ininterrotti di tournée quell’anno non si organizzerà nulla.Ed ovviamente il film non verrà mai realizzato.

Eppure adesso risulta uno dei migliori lavori dei newyorkesi,precursore delle tematiche epic e fantasy che da lì a pochi anni consacreranno al grande pubblico band come Manowar e Blind Guardian.

Attraverso le undici canzoni viene narrata la storia di un ragazzo scelto da un consiglio soprannaturale ed intangibile,gl Elder appunto,che deve salvare la sua terra da una forza oscura.Il ragazzo però non si sente pronto per la missione ed alla fine del disco si renderà conto della sua forza.

“The oath” apre il full length e  sembra tracciare le linee per i gruppi che verranno in futuro e affronteranno questo tipo di genere musicale;”Just a boy” é una fantastica ballad acustica impreziosita dalle linee vocali di Paul Stanley(da brivido il ritornello);”Dark light” mette in mostra quanto Ace sa fare nonostante tutto in quel periodo e conferma quanto Ezrin non fosse più il fantastico produttore di anni prima(cosa sottolineata a più riprese dalla band)avendo tagliato tantissimi contributi del chitarrista per l’album;”Under the rose”,che vede in scena gli Elder parlanti,é sospesa nel tempo grazie alle sue chitarre acustiche ed all’atmosfera sognante;”Odyssey” è di una magnificenza assoluta con l’orchestra che trova i giusti equilibri con il rock della band.

Completano la tracklist “Only you”,”Mr. Blackwell”,”Escape from the island”(pezzo solo musicale così come l’intermezzo “Fanfare”),ed i singoli “I” e “A world without heroes”.

Per fortuna dopo anni di anonimato il disco é stato ristampato in cd ed é abbastanza facilmente reperibile.Inserito nel lettore vi condurrà in un viaggio fantastico.

After probably 2 weeks of woes and triumphs, I’m back with another installment of your favorite blog, The Geekaround!

So I openned my web browser and saw the most interesting headline… Rock concept albums.

A concept album is an album released by an artist or band that follows a certain story song per song. Popular progressive metal/rock bands (Rush, Dream theater, Queensryche, The Who) have followed such an album format, later being used by punk/alternative/indi artists like The Smashing Pumpkins and Green Day. Knowing all this from being a progressive/indi musician myself, I expected a lot more from an article on the front page of msn.com.

So in the list, there are 25 albums fromthe following artists:

The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Magnetic Fields, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Willie Nelson, King Kong, Green Day, Public Enemy, Louvin Brothers, The Streets, The Pretty Things, The Decemberists, Lou Reed, Rush, Queensryche, Meat Loaf, Smashing Pumpkins, Styx, Genesis, Bob Dylan

Looking at the lists, there sure are a bunch that weren’t exactly groundbreaking… What made me think about its obscurity was the fact that all around us, there are way more influential concept albums that topple Green Day off the whole list. I mean, sure, I’m being a tad too picky, biased, and authoritative, but I’d put in Dream Theater and In Flames, Coheed & Cambria and probably more of Rush. It’s a lot more worth it to read about their albums than those of Green Day’s or The Streets’. The blurred lines between concept and progression in music takes away the royalties certain fans and musicians give brilliant minds who tell stories through song progression.

For the curious, listen to Green Day’s American Idiot album and compare it to Dream Theater’s Systematic Chaos album, see who paints a better picture. Sure, different genres, but both concept albums. For a closer match, substitute Dream Theater with Coheed & Cambria’s In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 album.

That’s all for now, see you soon!

Alan Parsons gained early recognition as an in-house engineer with EMI Studios; his crowning achievements behind the mixing board were the Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, two highly regarded rock concept albums. With his colleague, pianist and lyricist Eric Woolfson, Parsons struck out on his own in the mid-70s, forming The Alan Parsons Project as a vehicle to record, using a string of session musicians and singers, the concept albums the two dreamed up while engineering other artists’ projects at EMI. The result was a series of superbly crafted, progressive pop-rock thematic collections from 1975 to 1984. In the middle was Eve, recorded and mixed at Abbey Road and released on August 27, 1979. I Robot is generally considered the APP’s best album, but Eve is a close second. The album presents a sonic and lyric discussion of woman’s power over man, punctuated by two minor hits, “Damned If I Do” and the instrumental “Lucifer.”  Eve is available on Amazon and , and an APP playlist is planned for Dr. Rock’s Playlist Vault.

Słuchając czegoś nowego koncentruję się zwykle tylko na muzyce. Zainteresowanie danym albumem [bo rzadziej słucham pojedynczych utworów, zdecydowanie preferuję całości] zaczyna się najczęściej od jakiegoś jednego momentu, motywu czy brzmienia, który zapada mi w pamięć i każe wrócić do krążka, posłuchać go jeszcze raz, sprawdzić kontekst tego odkrytego drobiazgu i wsłuchać się, czy nie znajdę przypadkiem innych. Po kilku przesłuchaniach wiem już zazwyczaj co mi się podoba, czego jeszcze nie rozumiem i potrzebuję na to więcej czasu i uwagi, a co mnie denerwuje. Bywa też oczywiście tak, że utwór, który początkowo zdaje się być tylko wypełniaczem i pomyłką, odkrywa swój sens dopiero po wielu odsłuchach i wtedy zdobywa moją sympatię.
Do tekstów docieram później, a i to nie zawsze. Po prostu czasami dana płyta nie jest dla mnie na tyle ważna, by słuchając prześledzić całą treść i zadać sobie trud zrozumienia potencjalnie zawartego tam przesłania czy opowiedzianej historii. Czasami także boję się, że wnikliwe poznanie zamysłu autora zmieni moje rozumienie i to, co czuję słuchając muzyki, która podoba mi się sama w sobie. A takie dopisywanie sobie historii, kiedy ze słuchu pozna się tylko strzępki wyśpiewywanych wersów także może być przecież ciekawe.

Ze Still szwedzkiej grupy Wolverine wyglądało to trochę inaczej. Przesłuchałem album raz czy dwa i nie znalazłem żadnego „punktu zaczepienia”. Muzyka mi się podobała, ale jakoś nie było niczego, co sprawiłoby, bym chciał do niej wracać. Odłożyłem więc krążek i przez kilka miesięcy czekał na lepsze czasy. Po odnalezieniu go z niemałym zdziwieniem zapytałem sam siebie dlaczego ja tego nie słucham, przecież to było naprawdę niezłe. Utwierdziłem się w tym przekonaniu już po jednym przesłuchaniu, ale w sumie polubiłem ją po jeszcze dwóch czy trzech. Dopiero, kiedy już dobrze poznałem tę muzykę, odkryłem ile w niej piękna, z jak wielu elementów się składa i jak bardzo to wszystko mnie porusza.

Still to na pierwszy rzut ucha po prostu kolejna prog-metalowa płyta, choć nie pozbawiona wyciszeń i akustycznych fragmentów. I można mieć wrażenie, że nic w tym odkrywczego, że to już było i już się to słyszało. Ale jeśliby szukać konkretów, wzorów, zapożyczeń, wyraźnych inspiracji… robi się trudniej, bo najwyraźniej takich konkretów nie ma wcale.
Muzyka, jeśli poświęcić jej trochę uwagi i poznać ją choć w niewielkim stopniu – porywa. Muzykom Wolverine nie można odmówić talentu do pisania melodii wpadających w ucho, a także komponowania brzmień, które to ucho traktują naprzemiennie delikatnymi pieszczotami i elektryzującymi wstrząsami. Still jest dopiero trzecim albumem tej grupy, jednak zarówno brzmienie, jak i technikę mają już dopracowane; to budzi szacunek. Choć czemu się tu dziwić – to Skandynawowie, przecież oni metal wysysają z mlekiem matki.
Wokalista, Stefan Zell operuje nieco matowym głosem, który świetnie sprawdza się w spokojnych momentach, choć w tych bardziej podniosłych czy ostrych także wystarcza, by zrobić na słuchaczu dobre wrażenie; zarówno radość jak i smutek potrafi on oddać wyśmienicie. Jedynym mankamentem może wydawać się pierwsze wejście Zella w otwierającym płytę „A House Of Plague”, gdzie odnoszę wrażenie, że głos wokalisty chwieje się i nie wchodzi czysto na zaplanowane dźwięki, jednak to mija wraz z dołączeniem drugiego głosu.

Za teksty zabrałem się dopiero gdy dobrze znałem już krążek, z czystej ciekawości. Zostałem mile zaskoczony. Okazało się, że Still to pod względem tematyki album konceptualny i spójny. Nie zagłębiając się już w szczegóły, teksty opisują historię konkretnej osoby, kobiety. Mówią o samotności, zatraceniu siebie, zdominowaniu przez drugiego człowieka, buncie przed tą dominacją… Zakończenie nie napawa optymizmem, choć może w tym przypadku tak musi być?
Podoba mi się sposób opowiedzenia historii – przekazuje ją człowiek, który wie niewiele, wszystko opiera się o to, co usłyszał przypadkiem zza ściany, na jego domysłach i przemyśleniach, przy okazji których poznajemy także jego. Teksty przepełnione są smutkiem, większym, niż ten, który można odnaleźć w muzyce. Ta czasami gra rolę tła wydarzeń, niczym niewzruszony świat obojętny na ludzką rozpacz, choć w większości współgra z treścią i potęguje uczucia wypływające spomiędzy wersów. Mistrzostwem jest w tej kwestii solo w finałowym utworze – piękne, lecz stanowiące odzwierciedlenie nieuniknionej tragedii.

Można by się było długo rozwodzić nad walorami poszczególnych utworów, bo chyba każdy ma coś do zaoferowania, ale myślę, że większą przyjemność sprawią te zalety, jeśli odkryje się je samodzielnie. Płyta wymaga cierpliwości i czasu, bo choć z pozoru nietrudna, jest dość złożona, by jej piękno móc zacząć doceniać dopiero po kilku przesłuchaniach. Teksty dotykają wielu aspektów bliskich zwykłemu człowiekowi i nie brakuje w nich prawd, choć nie przedstawionych w formie banalnych sloganów, a dobrze spisanych przemyśleń i przeżyć.

Grupa jest w trakcie nagrywania nowego albumu, którego można pewnie oczekiwać na przełomie 2009 i 2010 roku. Wnioskując po tym, co muzycy pokazali dotąd, zarówno na Still, jak i na dwóch poprzednich wydawnictwach, spodziewam się kolejnego świetnego krążka. Zanim jednak dzień premiery nadejdzie, wszystkim polecam porządne zapoznanie się ze Still – szkoda by było przeoczyć tak dobrą płytę.

The Antlers are a band from Brooklyn, New York with a pretty interesting story. Originally the solo project of singer/guitarist Peter Silberman during a period of isolation, the band grew into a three-piece when Silberman recruited Michael Lerner on drums and Darby Cicci on keyboards and other instruments. The band recorded two EPs together and earlier this year, they released their first full-length album independently. A few days ago it received a re-mastered release through French Kiss Records.

The album is called Hospice and it carries a story as heavy as the sky before a storm. It’s about a man who loses his wife to cancer and has to witnesses her death first-hand. I first listened to it when it was released by the band back in March and it quite honestly blew me away. Silberman’s voice hits you with such emotional force that you can’t help but feel for the main character of the story. Hospice truly is an epic musical masterpiece that carries you through it’s dark hallways and arches. Surrender yourself to this album and let it pull you by your heartstrings through an absolutely touching story.

The Antlers – Bear

Download, listen, and enjoy.

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“Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I have ever met.”  ~ Narrator (Ed Norton Jr.) in Fight Club

Elvis and other early rock-and-roll singers of the ’50s offered their music in bite-sized portions via the record single.  These offerings had one song on each side, with the primary hit on the top of the record, A-side, and a ‘lesser’ known song on the bottom, B-side.  In the 1960s, the release of singles evolved into a full record release, where artists would put six or more songs on a record.  The Rolling Stones are a good example of a band that started out releasing music in singles format, and ended up producing albums. Ten to twelve songs became the standard record heft, which is still common today. However, since the rise in popularity of all things i from A—iPod, iPhone, iTunes—there has been more of an emphasis on the rock-and-roll single again.

Digital and internet marketing has probed, as a composition and consumer product, what music is. Inherent in this discussion is the conflict:  art versus commodity. Rock music, like many other artistic endeavors, is both—at least for musicians who desire to make a living from their music. Musicians must have an internal conflict of offering their music piece meal, that is song by song, versus in album format. As convenient, inexpensive and potentially beneficial to hook new listeners, I lobby against marketing the single.

To me, a song’s meaning and power is twofold:  as a composition on an individual unit scale, and as part of a composition of other songs on a record album. To excise a song from its full context destroys a significant part of its value, and renders it a completely commercial construction. My belief is if a song was meant to be understood and enjoyed as a stand-alone composition, it would be offered as such; there would be no album, no name or cover art. But songs relate to something—their creator, current society, its influences—and they record and tell stories.

Clearly the holistic relationship of the parts-to-whole matters or groups would not give an album, or more specifically, would not give it a name that shares a specific track’s name. A singer that has a song and album share a title must feel differently, maybe that the title track has a very strong identity that shapes or dominates the record. Either way, they are aware the music exists in reference to itelf as a singlular song, and in relation to the other songs contributing to a whole, as part of an album.

The malleable format of music recording has played with the boundaries of the container of music.  From A and B-sides, we grew to album sides whether on vinyl, eight-track or cassette. The format for distribution required a physical break in the music, and a flipping over of the medium to listen to the other half.  CDs changed that: all songs played continously from beginning to end, unless there were two discs.  Maybe sometime we will be able to burn 500 minutes on a CD and two discs will become one.  No matter. The musician / artist crafts their message with the medium taken into account.

Single song sales disrupt the art of the album, even if you can purchase the album as a whole. To primarily market music as single song pieces is a fundamental shift from selling an album. Buying an album is a commitment, a statement that you are trying something out and want to listen to an musical artist’s message.  Whereas, buying a single song means nothing; it is shallow, disposable, a trivial taste test. The phrase I’ll try anything for a dollar comes to mind.

When someone scans an iPod and sees “Karma Kameleon” it can easily be explained away, rather than if you found Culture Club’s entire Colour By Numbers album loaded. There is judgement involved.  One song means nothing; ten, however, do. When you buy an album, you buy in to the artist.

Or maybe the bite size sample of one song redefines what it means to be a fan of a band. Maybe owning the equivalent of one album means you are a fan, whereas in the past, you wanted everything ever released to prove your allegiance.

Single song purchases allow some music to be more accessible. It was tough to part with your cash for an entire album of an ’80s one-hit-wonder; but for a buck, you could cherry-pick the one nugget worth anything (“Take On Me”) and have that gem forever without the baggage of possessing the entire album (a-ha’s Hunting High and Low).

This is all moot, however, because songs matter in their context and should not be allowed to be cut-and-pasted so easily. There is a sanctity for the music album that is ignored with the iTunes music purchase model. You may be able to buy an entire album, but it is set up around single servings.

The problems are three. First, the integrity of the album as a composition is destroyed, which is the context in which the musician intended you to listen to the music. Songs are meant to fit into an album, a collection of related songs, and they are to be listened to together. To buy one song is to listen to the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: you may get the pop nugget everyone knows, but you don’t get the artist or the idea behind the composition, or his music. And this is a lot of lost meaning and artistry.

Second, song popularity becomes a chicken-or-egg scenario. Do people listen to the music and buy based on popularity, or does the music offering format determine what is purchased? Music albums were released and the more popular songs were requested on radio stations. Then individual songs were released before the album was available, driving up interest in the album. Heavy play meant more sales of the album.

If the album format is done away with commercially, and only three songs are offered for purchase (from what would have been a ten song album), how are those determined? The commercial format then becomes Darwinistic, affecting which songs become popular. In the past this did not matter because all interest drove album sales, but now it is every song for itself. The rest of the album may not even hit the internet for sales because no one gets to hear the other seven songs to judge their quality.

Third, determining which songs are good or more specifically which will be popular is very, very difficult. If it were easy to judge talent, every record label would have all hits and no misses. The bands themselves are notorious for not knowing what will hit big. U2’s song “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”, a catchy pop hit used in the Batman Forever soundtrack was a supposed throw-away from the Zooropa album sessions. This is one of dozens of examples. Some bands even loath when certain songs they hate hit it big. REM dislikes performing “The One I Love”, quite possibly their most popular song.

As a corollary to this: buying song-by-song precludes the possibility of discovering a song on an album the general public has not discovered or does not find popular. Many friends of mine enjoy finding songs that are better than the ones released or receiving heavy play on the radio or internet [see previous paragraph]. You get a chance to discover it, digest it without public hooplah, and own it. I think most albums I own have better songs than the ones that became popular. Using REM as a case study again, “Country Feedback” is a great song on Out of Time, and one of the group’s favorites. They love playing it live, but most people would only know and request ”Losing My Religion”, “The Radio Song” or “Shiny Happy People”.

Artistically, the argument is huge. What would any of the great concept albums be—The Who’s Tommy, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Radiohead’s Ok Computer—without the context of the other songs to tell the story? The non-popular songs on any album are not useless filler; they are not the water chestnuts in your Chicken and Snow Peas over sticky rice.

Where does this take us? My main thesis is that, until artists come out publicly and release music as single songs, i.e. do away with music in album format, songs should be sold by the bunch naturally. The format of music releases may already be in flux, just as Radiohead offered an album on the internet under the premise the fans will assign it value and pay accordingly. Some songs are already only available for purchase as singles.

It will be interesting to see if things come full circle and we go back to single-focused music releases. One thing is certain: old schools of organization and marketing and new schools of thought are colliding, which will produce something probably none of us have seen. Stay tuned…pun intended, of course.

When it comes to breakup albums you can’t really go past Stabbing Westward’s album Darkest Days. This concept album has all the critical ingredients needed for a breakup album. The first four tracks go through a messy and sabotaged relationship ending. The next five tracks seem to cover the essentials; Lust, Longing, Hope and all those standard post-relationship feelings. This then leads to the next couple of tracks covers that depression and feeling of hitting rock bottom, this is followed by the last four tracks going over the recovery and gaining back that self respect that was lost. Musically this album seems to be the most risky album of the bands but also considered their best work to date.

The concept album is back! However, does The Hazards of Love live up to David Bowie’s- Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Pink Floyd’s- The Dark Side of The Moon or does it have more in common with Styx’s failure Kilroy Was Here? An album built around the idea that robots have taken over the world and made rock and roll illegal. Thankfully there are no robots stopping the world from making sweet rock n’ roll in The Hazards of Love, just a taiga, a woman called Margret, an evil forest queen and a villainous rake. Lead singer Colin Meloy takes on the roles of the narrator, the taiga and the rake for this album with Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) playing Margret and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) as the forest queen. The story centres on the love story between the taiga and Margret, with the jealous forest queen and rake as outside characters. Both of the guest vocals are excellent especially Worden as the forest queen, her smoky vocals bringing life to the evil forest queen. The sound throughout the album is no great change from the Decemberists previous outing The Crane Wife or in fact…….any of their other albums, the twee lyrics of Meloy being prominent throughout. The band does experiment a bit during the Queen’s Rebuke and even wanders into prog rock territory, a new musical direction that Meloy has denied several times. Standout tracks on the album are Hazards of Love 1/3/4, The Queen’s Rebuke and the Rakes Song. At times the album does seem a bit repetitive and with Meloy taking on so many roles, and not changing his vocal style for any of the characters, it can be a bit confusing at times as to which character he is portraying. Apart from that this album is a real standout, with other bands sounding a bit formulated recently it is nice to see someone taking a risk and trying something different.

5/5

If you liked this you may also like: Frightened Rabbit, Sufjan Stevens, DeVotchKa, Okkervil River and Beirut.

In early May Patrick announced a Korn concept LP in the works, five symbols representing the unraveling of civilization. By memory, I believe they were corporations, libertarians, high gas prices, low gas prices, and Sri Lanka. I’m fuzzy on the details.

In a stunning turn of events, Korn has announced a second concept record, seven tracks, each corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins. In a tMiM exclusive, we have the track list:

1. “Korn on the Cob (Sloth)”
2. “Cream Korn (Wrath)”
3. “Korn Starch (Vanity)”
4. “High Fructose Korn Syrup (Gluttony)”
5. “Korn Dog (Lust)”
6. “Korn Stalk (Envy)”
7. “Korn Bread (Greed)”

I know. Let me guess? Korny?

On first glance, most people would pass Mae off as a completely ordinary, unspectacular power pop/indie pop group, just another in a huge wash of generic wannabes looking to cash in on the growing indie movement. Based solely off of Mae’s 2003 debut, Destination: Beautiful, most people might be right. It was a completely pleasant but never particularly spectacular lo-fi release, and it never gained much of an audience. In many ways, Mae’s sophomore effort, The Everglow, simply expands upon the formula found in their debut. It does nothing groundbreaking. Nothing really helps it stand out. It stays completely within the confines of its genre. So why do I love this album so much? This album is great because it oozes with charm like no other album I’ve ever heard and is carried along by a strong, personal narrative.

The Everglow follows the story of a couple and their struggle to make their love work. On the surface, it is a fairly standard story, but never have I experienced an album that carries you along with its story so well. Behind the impossibly effective hooks and beautiful piano melodies there is a powerful yet sweet story filled with hope and love, struggles and doubt. The lyrics convey this story in a well-written, storybook manner. They’re rather sugary sweet on the surface, and they are unapologetically sappy at times, but they’re constructed in a brutally effective manner that brings the story a personal, relatable edge.

The songs themselves are very good, possessing a tight musicianship that their peers can only dream of. The piano-driven ballad “We’re So Far Away” that opens the album is one of the most beautiful, optimistic songs ever written, and an incredible introduction to the album. It segues into “Someone Else’s Arms”, which is just a fantastic song on every level. It moves along with an unmistakably powerful energy and swagger, and the driving electric guitars really help you get lost in the song, a feeling that doesn’t go away for the rest of the album. “Suspension” and “This Is the Countdown” continue the string of incredible songs, leading to what may be the greatest album opening in existence. A needed breather is taken during the middle – “Painless” is the worst song on the album, but that isn’t a knock on the song at all. “The Ocean” is one of the most sugary-sweet songs ever written – it’s a bit too slow for my tastes, but sometimes it hits me just right and it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever. Just when you think that the album is going to lose momentum, however, it recovers with “Breakdown”, which returns a needed energy to the album. “Mistakes We Knew We Were Making” is a heartbreaking and affecting song (whose title I only recently learned was lifted directly from a song on Straylight Run’s debut self-titled album a year earlier, but whatever, it’s better than that song anyway). “Cover Me” and “The Everglow” are great songs, but after this it finally does lose some momentum. Although the songs are still good, they seem to blend together somewhat until the closer “The Sun and the Moon”. Most Mae fans seem to love “The Sun and the Moon”, but it’s much too slow, drawn-out, and repetitive to do much for me, which is a shame, since a good closer would have done wonders for the album. The Everglow is book-ended by a female spoken-word “Prologue” and “Epilogue”, and while I usually find these to be pointless, they work very well in the context of the album, cementing its storybook atmosphere. The “Prologue” even prompts you to open up the lyrics booklet and follow along with the story.

As previously mentioned, the story is pretty well-conveyed, despite the clichéd and overdone subject manner. Some of the songs fail to deliver lyrically, such as “Suspension”, “Painless”, and “Anything”, but when the lyrics are good, they deliver the concept amazingly. “Someone Else’s Arms” to me is the beginning of the story. Not only is this conveyed in the lyrics, but you can just feel it in the music. It feels like the resounding introduction to true love. Yet the lyrics express doubt and frustration – perhaps it’s the first down period after the initial euphoria of the relationship. You toss and turn/I lie awake/Who knows what I’ve been drinking?/Another cheap, meaningless kiss (to give). Many of the middle songs deal with the struggles, complications, and great moments of the relationships. “The Ocean” highlights a specific great moment. “Mistakes We Knew We Were Making” is perhaps the most personally affecting song on the album, which deals with abortion in a manner you probably wouldn’t expect. We held hands to face the uncomfortable cold and lonely room/Magazines and empty distractions barely got us through. “The Sun and the Moon” is a somber end to the album. To me, “We’re So Far Away” is them looking back on their relationship and reliving their greatest moments. Did you know how you would move us?/Did you know?/When the light first came upon us and we saw The Everglow/And the moment’s magic swept us away. The lyrics in the album are sometimes powerful and always touching, no matter how clichéd they may get at times, and I constantly find myself lost in the story.

The instrumentation in this album helps with the dreamy feel that this album aims for. The muffled production allows the instruments to blend together and suck you into the album’s soft, relaxing sound. The best part of The Everglow, in my mind, is the skillful use of the piano. Throughout much of the album, it takes on a role as one of the primary instruments, equally important to the feel of the album as the others. The role of the piano is an interesting and enriching element – it truly makes the album. Shining moments include “We’re So Far Away”, “Painless”, the bridge in “Cover Me”, and “The Sun and the Moon”. The dreamy reverb of the guitar also helps enrich the atmosphere, and powerful electric guitar chords even sometimes drive the album. Surprisingly, the drumming is also quite proficient. If you don’t believe me after the first listen, then just pay close attention to “Cover Me”, the buildups in “This is the Countdown” and “Breakdown”, or the intricate yet subtle drum-work in “Someone Else’s Arms”. The muddled production also makes it difficult to tell that other instruments enter the mix sometimes, such as the acoustic guitar in “Breakdown” or the subtle strings in “The Sun and the Moon”, as well as flourishes of keyboard. To top it all off, Dave Elkins has one of the most beautiful, soothing voices I’ve ever heard, a perfect tool to capture the hearts of swooning indie girls everywhere, and hell, I can’t resist it either.

In conclusion, The Everglow is a hidden indie pop/rock gem that hasn’t even yet been discovered by the likes of Pitchfork. It is most definitely one of the best albums of 2005. It is some of the most optimistic, energetic, and captivating music I’ve ever heard, and may just be the most charming album ever written. It does have its flaws – the lyrics to some of the songs are clichéd, and I can understand how the music could get samey sounding towards the end. However, it feels the perfect length to me – you just know that if it would have gone on any longer, it would have been too long, but they seem to have made the best of the time that they had. The most remarkable achievement of the album, however, is its narrative. You feel as if the story could be your own, and any number of people could relate to the lyrics. It’s music that you could get lost in…countless are the times I have found myself so absorbed in the music that the rest of the world is brought to life with a clarity that no other music allows. Although this is not the best music that I have ever heard, nor is it even that original, it is simply the best example of a brand of sugary sweet, very personal swooning indie rock. All of the elements and subtleties of the album come together to make what would otherwise be a very typical, run-of-the-mill indie release into a masterpiece. No matter what musical phase I may be going through at the time, I always find myself coming back to this album, whether it be when I need to raise my spirits, to celebrate a new opportunity, or simply to lull myself to sleep. The Everglow is the perfect example of a band having a vision of exactly what they wanted to create, and pulling it off to near-perfection.

Score: 4.5/5
Written by Jason

Get on our wavelength

Hey guys,

Updates from Blind Image.

Blind Image is currently working on their new album which will be released in couple of months from now. This album will be a concept album and the story is  based on the LHC experiment that happens in Geneva.

The story is a mix of facts about the experiment and our idea and perception about this entire process, which will be the fiction part of the story. A perfect balance of  fact and fiction has given this concept a good shape.

The music is 100 times heavier than our first album “Psychobabble”.  The music has taken  influences from extreme metal bands like, meshuggah, Sikth, gojira, . Etc .  At the same time, the melodic sense is maintained  in songs with David varying his vocal lines from growling to singing with harmonies etc. A  perfect blend .

Drums and guitar parts are done. Now muneeb is nailing his bass lines and david is doing his vocal lines as i write this now.

We have to mention that , Lakshman- who is the engineer for this album is doing an amazing job with the entire recording and production process by deriving the best from all of us . His famous  Quote -  ” oh yeah that was good dude, but you can do a little better. just give me 4 more good takes that’s all “

———– You guys should watch david’s reaction – Priceless!——————-

The album will be called as MORE THAN HUMAN . More updates coming up soon.

cheers.

Hello,

Well that time has come again, where we lock ourselves away from the world for a couple of days in the recording studio. Where day and night seem to merge into one in a Sailor Jerry’s rum haze.

We’re all looking forward to recording the new tracks at Urchin Studios, and we’ve got quite a few to choose from. The recordings we’ve done before were really just demos, but this time we’re going to take our time and really create something to be proud of, not in a ’Dark Side of the Moon‘ epic concept album way, more in a tasteful, refined way (We hope, although we have been known to get carried away with a Moog synthesizer…dark times).

We’ll be recording:

Clown and Out Blues, From Russia With Love, Sister On The Stairs, Jumbo Jet.

By the end we should have songs that we will be able to release in the next couple of months. Exciting stuff!

take care

Gaoler’s Daughter x

As of late, I have been getting swamped with work, and I therefore have not been getting the chance (or the time) to properly read and appreciate text in the classic sense. Thankfully, my boyfriend (who has moved to another office – work hard, and thank you baby! ) decided to leave me with his old headphones so that I could finally have audio at work. It doesn’t matter that stuff like this is implied to be against company policy. At the end of the day, it keeps people from going batshit insane at work, something that they surely don’t want on the operations floor. In any case, what this means is that I can listen to music while I’m working – I didn’t realize how much I missed doing that until I started up again. Now, I can still “read” even when I technically don’t have the time.

Today, my sound of choice is the music of Ludo, a St. Louis band that my sister got me hooked on (there are, in fact, a lot of musical artists that my sister gets me hooked on; more on that later). While it is generally agreed upon by some people I know that the catchiest album that they had released thus far is “You’re Awful, I Love You” primarily because of its first single “Love Me Dead” (used on a promo advert for one of my favorite shows, “House, MD“), what initially made me fall in love with the band is their second album, “Broken Bride“.

“Broken Bride” is, essentially, a concept album that tells the tale of a man (known only as The Traveler) who was so obsessed with the loss of his wife in the year 1989 that he decided to spend fifteen years of his life building a time machine that would allow him to go back in time to stop her from dying in a car crash. The whole plot of the concept album could be found here.

I had always liked the idea of a concept album, and by introducing the band to me in this manner my sister has doomed me to something of a near-obsession with the band. It didn’t help that, at the end of the day, this album is a love story WITH DINOSAURS AND ZOMBIES. The romantic and the weirdo in me were both delighted at this fact. Then, there were the music and lyrics.

One of the first things that struck me about Ludo is the fact that the images painted by their lyrics are so vivid that you just can’t help but be drawn into the narrative of the song. Unsurprising, considering songwriter Andrew Volpe was supposed to have had a background on the stage, which lends itself very well to the creation of a concept album. Still, it was quite a pleasant surprise for me because not only am I a fan of theater, I’m also very particular about lyrics. I’m happy to say that Ludo is just the right combination of “emotive and “clever” when it comes to their words. Couple this with the fact that their music often meshes well with the lyrics, and you find the perfect recipe for a rock opera.

What really left a permanent mark on me, however, was the final song on the album, “Morning in May”. While the songs of the album for the most part had a desperate and, dare I say, a slightly sinister quality to them, the last song was very quiet and almost reverent in nature, in contrast with all the chaos that the main character (The Traveler) had gone through and felt. What had seemed to be a frightening obsession of the main character turns out to be an honest and pure love that was twisted by tragedy. The fact that the album ended this way still makes me cry every time I remember it.

Evidently, this album is so good that I would rather buy it than download it (sadly, I’m unable to buy it as of now). Still, if I want to listen to it, I simply go here.

For now, I sing along with the last track.

Your socks on the wood floor
The moment I’d hoped for
I’m terrified to think you might be real

I curl up behind you
Fit my body to yours like a shell
I smell your hair, oh love, I can’t believe you.
I squeeze you
To make sure you’re really here
And I’m overwhelmed.

I’ve been waiting for so long
To touch you and sleep in your eyes
And now, as my heart’s beating so hard,
I hold on
And keep you at home in my arms.

They tried to console me
But you’re all the consolation I ever needed.
Years of smelling the clothes you left behind,
The photographs that seemed so far away.
I don’t need them now – you turn to me alive, awake, and blinking. “Baby,
Back so soon?” you ask, but I smile, ’cause I never left at all

I’ve been waiting for so long
To touch you and sleep in your eyes
And now, as my heart’s beating so hard,
I hold on
And keep you at home in my arms.

You check the clock, it’s time to go.
You grab your keys and you’re out the door
I step outside and you’re waving goodbye.
It’s all happening again like before.
As you’re starting the car and I’m tearing inside,
I knock on your window. You stop just in time.
Around to the other side,
I say,
“Baby,
I thought I’d come along for the ride.”

I’ve been waiting for so long
(Time slows, and I take your hand)
To touch you and sleep in your eyes.
(I hold you as we lose control)
Together, our hearts beating so hard.
Hold on.
Baby, we’re almost home…

l'histoire de Melody Nelson

L’histoire de Melody Nelson (The story of Melody Nelson) was released in 1971 by French song writer Serge Gainsbourg. It is highly aclaimed and considered to be the most successful and influential concept albums. The plot involves a middle-aged Serge Gainsbourg causing a collision with his Rolls Royce Silver Ghost into teenaged Melody Nelson’s bicycle. The evemts that occur afterwards, are seduction, romance and tragedy.

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L’histoire de Melody Nelson

Serge Gainsbourg