Breaking Benjamin... Decent. It's metalish, not too heavy, so I'm def liking it. I only started listening to it. So maybe by the time I wrap this up I'll have an opinion.
Things are still a little tense between the Heart and I. We resolved the total mess I made Friday night, but we're still talking through things. Ducky, is, well, Ducky. She's upset because I talked to one of my coworkers today about something.
My heart weighs down with lead
Do you think I'd just lay down and die
With all this pain inside my head
Who will take this away from me?
My soul hovers just over the edge
bareley between Sanity and Dementia
Take my toes away from the ledge
Give me something to believe
'Cause I just can't breath
I just can't believe in reality
Smash a thousand mirrors and upend the world
I can't win this foot race with the devil
And I can't keep up with any savior
Lead me to a dull, bleak Purgatory
Well, I like the last verse there. Maybe one day I'll be competent enough to chord something.
This album is decent, remember, Phobia? The lyrics aren't shit, thank God, and there is some musical ability evident in the band's talent. I suggest it for anyone to get a well-rounded music base. Till next time.
-Cassius
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
The Cake Series: Fashion Nugget 1997
So I figured I'd start out with the review an album by the alternative artist Cake. I listened to each song and developed a bit of an opinion. Really, only a bit. I've always liked Cake, and they know how to actually develop monotony, but also how to develop a melodic masterpiece.
Fashion Nugget (1997)
Fashion Nugget is one of Cake's maiden albums, coming out right after a succesful Motorcade of Generosity. I would say though Fashion Nugget did not do as well. Regardless, it does prove to be a good album as Cake keeps their lyrical style very distinct, just as distinct as their own musical style.
A good first song, 'Frank Sinatra' 's lyrics have their own tone of consonance attributed with an occasional trumpet solo beautifully executed in the style of Sinatra himself. It's no hit single, mind you, but you won't mind hearing it a few times over again. With 'Going The Distance' to follow, McCrea proves himself to definitely have talent as a writer. He skips the fancy words and phrases that today's artists use to think themselves unique. Nope, McCrea develops a rhythm that helps develop the song as one of the albums best songs.
You'll probably be enjoying yourself until the fourth track, 'Open Book', which opens itself up with a ruddy electric guitar/drum duo. I promise, it does get better when McCrea starts to take over, and the trumpet drowns out the rest. But it could have been way better. Even some of the lyrics are lacking quality.
They do follow it with a barely rated 3/5 'Daria', which redeems itself with it's catchy (or just its get-stuck-in-you-head effect) chorus. But, 'Daria' is followed by an even worse 'Race Car Ya-Ya's', which I hate just as much Nascar. The lyrics are dumb, the guitar riffs are decent, but I don't want to hear testicles once, let alone twice. Plus, I don't give a shit about the land of racecar ya-ya's. This song, if I could allow myself to leave it with a zero rating, would have it.
As though they knew you would hate it, Cake brings you back in by throwing in their rendition of the "classic" 'I Will Survive', which is way better than the original version, you know, the one with all the wailing. For that, I gave it a 4/5, only because it didn't have that Cake feel, but they did take a classic and made it better. I love it.
Next is a series of four songs with follow with good listenability. I really enjoyed 'Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps', just as it had great overall song qualities with that great distinct Cake style. It continues on to the albums namesake: 'Nugget'. 'Nugget' has pretty decent guitar riffs, but doesn't really have anything particular. Most people won't be able to get into this song so late into the album. For having the same name as the album, Cake did manage to compose a pretty good song. The lyrics do get decently explicit, but that's OK. It's definitely an acquired taste.
The album wraps up OK. 'She'll Come Back To Me' has a bit of that folky, country feel to it. Not the greatest, definitely does not belong on a Cake album. Leave it for the practices guys. 'Italian Leather Sofa' actually has that feel of an Italian Leather Sofa - more sophisticated, a bit smooth, and the lyrics describe it perfectly. 'Sad Songs and Waltzes' Cake uses to function as their ending song, to wrap it all up. It's decent, has a good melodic line, a bit of an irony if you can catch it; it will leave you with on a good note though.
Fashion Nugget worked as an album. It doesn't tell a story, but rather a number of them, a lot of them about two different people. It has many decent songs, they didn't fail too bad in the lower parts, and so I give them the rating of...
Rating: 3.5
Fashion Nugget (1997)
Fashion Nugget is one of Cake's maiden albums, coming out right after a succesful Motorcade of Generosity. I would say though Fashion Nugget did not do as well. Regardless, it does prove to be a good album as Cake keeps their lyrical style very distinct, just as distinct as their own musical style.
A good first song, 'Frank Sinatra' 's lyrics have their own tone of consonance attributed with an occasional trumpet solo beautifully executed in the style of Sinatra himself. It's no hit single, mind you, but you won't mind hearing it a few times over again. With 'Going The Distance' to follow, McCrea proves himself to definitely have talent as a writer. He skips the fancy words and phrases that today's artists use to think themselves unique. Nope, McCrea develops a rhythm that helps develop the song as one of the albums best songs.
You'll probably be enjoying yourself until the fourth track, 'Open Book', which opens itself up with a ruddy electric guitar/drum duo. I promise, it does get better when McCrea starts to take over, and the trumpet drowns out the rest. But it could have been way better. Even some of the lyrics are lacking quality.
They do follow it with a barely rated 3/5 'Daria', which redeems itself with it's catchy (or just its get-stuck-in-you-head effect) chorus. But, 'Daria' is followed by an even worse 'Race Car Ya-Ya's', which I hate just as much Nascar. The lyrics are dumb, the guitar riffs are decent, but I don't want to hear testicles once, let alone twice. Plus, I don't give a shit about the land of racecar ya-ya's. This song, if I could allow myself to leave it with a zero rating, would have it.
As though they knew you would hate it, Cake brings you back in by throwing in their rendition of the "classic" 'I Will Survive', which is way better than the original version, you know, the one with all the wailing. For that, I gave it a 4/5, only because it didn't have that Cake feel, but they did take a classic and made it better. I love it.
Next is a series of four songs with follow with good listenability. I really enjoyed 'Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps', just as it had great overall song qualities with that great distinct Cake style. It continues on to the albums namesake: 'Nugget'. 'Nugget' has pretty decent guitar riffs, but doesn't really have anything particular. Most people won't be able to get into this song so late into the album. For having the same name as the album, Cake did manage to compose a pretty good song. The lyrics do get decently explicit, but that's OK. It's definitely an acquired taste.
The album wraps up OK. 'She'll Come Back To Me' has a bit of that folky, country feel to it. Not the greatest, definitely does not belong on a Cake album. Leave it for the practices guys. 'Italian Leather Sofa' actually has that feel of an Italian Leather Sofa - more sophisticated, a bit smooth, and the lyrics describe it perfectly. 'Sad Songs and Waltzes' Cake uses to function as their ending song, to wrap it all up. It's decent, has a good melodic line, a bit of an irony if you can catch it; it will leave you with on a good note though.
Fashion Nugget worked as an album. It doesn't tell a story, but rather a number of them, a lot of them about two different people. It has many decent songs, they didn't fail too bad in the lower parts, and so I give them the rating of...
Rating: 3.5
My Senior Year
It's been a while since I ventured into the blogosphere, and as Mari says, I basically make a new blog every day. This is my fifth, and I'll give you a quick history about them.
The New Rules
My first blog. More like whines of a bitchy middle schooler. I go back sometimes and read the depressing words. Depressing probably only to me, annoying to everyone else.
Revolutionizing The World
Marks my Jesus phase. Discussed some moral topics. The biggest one yet.
Crazy
When I was convinced I didn't have much going for me, and just used this as a place to get it all out. I actually have a stream of consciousness I have from there I want throw on here. Because it'll give you an example of what I can get like.
"I'm in Creative Writing right now, legit.
I'm lost in the midst of my own mess. It's shit, emanating the gross smells of lies and deciets.
Raunch, like the sick mind. And yet, beautiful, the gift of the forgiven. Small, the gift of an apology.
Large, the memory of trespass..
I see it all, yet, in a form of retrospect. My mind refuses to acknowledge the happening of the times in the present day.
But I don't see it. As I walk, the halls are empty. Each face is the same as the last, I can no longer differentiate the difference. By fault of my own, I have no standards left. What could be right is most likely wrong, and if something wrong is right, then I'll never know. My conscious has been thrown into the ocean, lost forever in the tides that sweep.
If I can not tell whether an action or an object, is good or bad, right or wrong, even black or white, existence has lost all meaning. Without differentiation, the rules of natural selection had ought to grab hold and eliminate. But through tortous hours I live, wondering if I can see the color of hope again.
When the time comes, to face the music, I'll have to. I refuse to go the music and talk about meaningless things, of rakes and tennis balls. No, when the music comes, I'll give it the melody of another.
In Creative Writing I sit, coming up with analogies, clever to those who know me, hoping to find meaning in the stream of consciousness that flows, as if water, onto the material screen. Soulful thoughts turned to simple, timed messages of bursts of electricity. From black to white. If we cannot see black, we put it on white, and hope that it will be plain as day.
Forgive my writing. It's philosophical without the meaning. It's emo without the emotion. It's pathetic without the fool. Tonight, and the night after, and the night after, and the night after, sleep will come hard, and consciousness even harder."
Here's To The Night
Was supposed to be my Junior year blog. I posted like, 8 times. Fail
And that leaves this one. I'm hoping to throw on some album and movie reviews. I also think I'm going to take a leaf out of Lemon's book and use nicknames. It's more fun. It's discreet. That requires me to come up with a name for myself. I'll just use Cassius. When I first read Julius Caesar, I think I developed an understanding and empathy for him different than most people. Plus, I think the pronunciation. Not the Irish Cashus, but the Roman Casssssh ee uus. Give me a break.
-Cassius
The New Rules
My first blog. More like whines of a bitchy middle schooler. I go back sometimes and read the depressing words. Depressing probably only to me, annoying to everyone else.
Revolutionizing The World
Marks my Jesus phase. Discussed some moral topics. The biggest one yet.
Crazy
When I was convinced I didn't have much going for me, and just used this as a place to get it all out. I actually have a stream of consciousness I have from there I want throw on here. Because it'll give you an example of what I can get like.
"I'm in Creative Writing right now, legit.
I'm lost in the midst of my own mess. It's shit, emanating the gross smells of lies and deciets.
Raunch, like the sick mind. And yet, beautiful, the gift of the forgiven. Small, the gift of an apology.
Large, the memory of trespass..
I see it all, yet, in a form of retrospect. My mind refuses to acknowledge the happening of the times in the present day.
But I don't see it. As I walk, the halls are empty. Each face is the same as the last, I can no longer differentiate the difference. By fault of my own, I have no standards left. What could be right is most likely wrong, and if something wrong is right, then I'll never know. My conscious has been thrown into the ocean, lost forever in the tides that sweep.
If I can not tell whether an action or an object, is good or bad, right or wrong, even black or white, existence has lost all meaning. Without differentiation, the rules of natural selection had ought to grab hold and eliminate. But through tortous hours I live, wondering if I can see the color of hope again.
When the time comes, to face the music, I'll have to. I refuse to go the music and talk about meaningless things, of rakes and tennis balls. No, when the music comes, I'll give it the melody of another.
In Creative Writing I sit, coming up with analogies, clever to those who know me, hoping to find meaning in the stream of consciousness that flows, as if water, onto the material screen. Soulful thoughts turned to simple, timed messages of bursts of electricity. From black to white. If we cannot see black, we put it on white, and hope that it will be plain as day.
Forgive my writing. It's philosophical without the meaning. It's emo without the emotion. It's pathetic without the fool. Tonight, and the night after, and the night after, and the night after, sleep will come hard, and consciousness even harder."
Here's To The Night
Was supposed to be my Junior year blog. I posted like, 8 times. Fail
And that leaves this one. I'm hoping to throw on some album and movie reviews. I also think I'm going to take a leaf out of Lemon's book and use nicknames. It's more fun. It's discreet. That requires me to come up with a name for myself. I'll just use Cassius. When I first read Julius Caesar, I think I developed an understanding and empathy for him different than most people. Plus, I think the pronunciation. Not the Irish Cashus, but the Roman Casssssh ee uus. Give me a break.
-Cassius
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