Pop 'stache

[rating 2.0]

Gary, Ind., is famous—or infamous, depending on your interpretation—for being the home to Jackson family, once being one of the nation’s most dangerous cities, and its looming steel mills. It is this environment that served as the backdrop for Freddie Gibbs, a rapper whose dealings with the music industry have been just as tumultuous as his hometown’s economy.

Gibbs famously signed a deal with Interscope Records before being dropped without the album he created seeing a release. Since then, Gibbs has become a master of mixtapes and EPs as he preps for the release of his debut full-length on Young Jeezy’s CTE records. Full-length looming, Gibbs is still working hard as ever to build hype for himself, as evinced by the release of Cold Day in Hell mixtape.

Cold Day in Hell is Gibbs doing what Gibbs does, and that is crafting vintage gansgta rap.

Gibbs’ deep, smooth delivery booms on each track, making his intense presence felt at the start of each verse. Sadly, the subject matter that Gibbs tackles on Cold Day in Hell can’t help but feel trite, even if the he’s coming from an area where “Anything 2 Survive” (featuring Freeway, Sly Polaroid and Adrian) may actually ring true.

“Rob Me a Nigga” (featuring Alley Boy) sees Gibbs retread tired gangsta imagery and overuses a fairly strong hook by relentlessly repeating it for much of the track’s introduction. On tracks such as “Gotta Let Ya Nuts Hang” (featuring Scrilla) and “Neighborhood Hoez” (featuring 2 Chainz) Gibbs’ wordplay is worthy of an eye-roll, given how misogynistic and dated it all feels.

This isn’t as much a fault of Gibbs as it is the genre he’s trying to fit into. Over the course of his previous releases, Gibbs has proven that he is a competent MC, but there is little on Cold Day in Hell that makes it seem as if there has been any forward progression in his music or image. There’s nothing wrong with trying to reinvent the successes of South Central Los Angeles, but without even a slightly updated outlook, there’s nothing Gibbs can say that will make it seem truly urgent instead of just posturing.

At 17-tracks, and nearly an hour in length, Cold Day in Hell is a massive undertaking. Gibbs has brought together a diverse group of producers, and often they overshadow Gibbs because of his lack of originality. The two tracks produced by Beatnick and K-Salaam—“Anything 2 Survive” and “Heaven Can Wait”—are enjoyable facsimiles of early-1990s G-funk that avoid many of pitfalls thornback producers often fall into.

Gibbs is certainly talented, but there’s little on Cold Day in Hell that proves this. Perhaps his forthcoming full-length will shift that dynamic, but until then, Gibbs will still be a strong rapper without the inventiveness to bring him above his circumstances.

Freddie Gibbs – Cold Day in Hell tracklist:

1. “Barely M.A.D.E. It”
2. “Rob Me a Nigga” (featuring Alley Boy)
3. “187 Proof”
4. “Anything 2 Survive” (featuring Freeway and Sly Polaroid)
5. “2′s & Fews” (featuring Young Jeezy)
6. “Gotta Let Ya Nuts Hang” (featuring Will Scrilla)
7. “Let ‘Em Burn”
8. “B.A.N.ned”
9. “My Homeboy’s Girlfriend”
10. “PSA 2 (Pussy So Amazin)”
11. “Natural High” (Even Higher Learning)
12. “Str8 Slammin” (featuring Juicy J)
13. “Menace II Society” (featuring Dom Kennedy)
14. “Neighborhood Hoez” (featuring 2 Chainz)
15. “Heaven Can Wait”
16. “My Dawgz”

Imagine waking up in an alley. The lighting is dim; streetlights are barely visible through a sheet of fog. The air is freezing cold, and your head is pounding like the bass inside of a Scandinavian nightclub. The Orb may not be solely responsible for this kind of auditory experience, but its music is at the root of a million just like it.

DJ Alex Paterson (alternately known as Dr. Alex Paterson, although there appears to be no evidence of such a degree) got his start feeding the auditory needs of the London club scene in the late 1980s. He and The Orb’s ever-rotating list of co-members pushed the boundaries of club music, using unconventional instrumentation and techniques to draw the crowd into an alternate reality where loops echoed for miles in the foggy abyss of drug-addled minds. And in the 20-something years since then, not much has changed.

The Orb’s hypnotically transcendent music is as groovy as ever, and C Batter C proves just that.

The record opens on an 18-minute psychedelic journey titled “Battersea Bunches Original Soundtrack.” It was produced to do as the title suggests, acting as a soundtrack for a video installation at London’s Battersea Power Station. And oh, what that installation must have looked like: the idea that anything could visually match the drug-addled soundscape of tuba loops, church bells and train whistles is mind-blowing, to say the least. It’s almost impossible to imagine the amount of acid necessary to truly appreciate the immensity of what is going on. Unless, that is, your name is Wayne Coyne. (Sorry, Wayne.)

“Meandering through the Emerald Turf” is third on the record and undeniably one of the most disturbing cuts C Batter C has to offer. Samples of seabirds and ocean waves are violently interlaced with dense beats as the song builds into a harrowing progression of anxious railway cars and vacuous darkness. Alfred Hitchcock would be proud.

The final track on the album, “Batter C Bunny’s Munching Orbular Marrow Mix,” (No, we don’t know what the hell “munching orbular marrow” is, either) is so off-the-wall that it works, masterfully building off a ghoulishly militaristic loop before erupting into a volcano of echoes. The effect is a dizzying respite. It’s comforting, at least by Orb standards.

Such is the world of C Batter C: a rollercoaster of liberating highs and paralyzing lows. The listener is merely there; this is The Orb’s show. This album is not meant to cater to the masses, but this is the point. The Orb makes music for a niche audience. This audience, a small, albeit highly devoted group of house music fans, will not be disappointed.

Kate Bush is an indie-folk diva. Her solemn, melancholy tunes are laden with soft rhythms and cold themes. After a six-year hiatus, the avant-garde guru released two albums in 2011, the first being Director’s Cut. Aptly-titled, 50 Words for Snow is hushed and slowly progressive, and although there are only a mere seven tracks, the album spans an hour.

Since 1978, the English singer-songwriter has maintained a niche genre for herself. She has worked with legends such as Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton and collaborates with Sir Elton John in “Snowed in at Wheeler Street.” Bush has continuously implemented an eclectic flair and artistic fluidity during the past 30 years, granting her the authority to produce an album so solemn, peaceful and profound, its slow-moving grace is as beautiful as it is vast.

50 Words for Snow floats through tender glistening piano. The dark vocals are chilling. The lyrics are interpretable as the listener would like. Imagine a snowy log cabin, deserted in peaceful nature. It’s lonely yet romantic, exhilarating yet calming.

This is 50 Words for Snow: the perfect complement to a hot cup of cocoa, a warm fire and a cozy blanket.

The beginning tracks float with spaciousness, almost seeming translucent. Nothing is vibrant. There are no frills. Whether her story is metaphoric or not, “Snowflake” opens with evocative vocals: “I was born in a cloud. Now I am falling. I want you to catch me.”

Picking up the pace in “Wild Man,” Bush tells a story about the Abominable Snowman. Andy Fairweather Low accompanies her among rhythms that are synthetically enhanced with intrigue to create a character reminiscent of Fever Ray. Low howls in the chorus, but in a subtle manner suited to the subdued tone of the album.

“Snowed in at Wheeler Street” returns the tone back to melancholy. John deepens the vocal range in a style unlike his own. Bush and John create a melodramatic love story with unraveling beats woven into a poignant design of emotional vocals by both musicians. Whether it is the presence of John or the relatable topic, this is easily the standout track of the album.

Bush utilizes a wide vocal range  from operatic in “Lake Tahoe,” with the aid of singers Stefan Roberts and Michael Woods, to her own whispering in “Misty.” Her accompaniment spans from nearly nothing to multiple instrumentation. 50 Words for Snow is a slow and steady shower. It’s chilly, not harsh; beautiful, but welcomed only on occasion. Kate Bush resurfacing has and will continue to please fans of the pop star that once overthrew Madonna for the No. 1 song in the UK in 1985 (“Hound’s of Love” to trump “Like a Virgin”).

Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow tracklist:

1. “Snowflake”
2. “Lake Tahoe”
3. “Misty”
4. “Wild Man”
5. “Snowed in at Wheeler Street”
6. “50 Words for Snow”
7. “Among Angels”

As Kanye West closed out the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, dressed in red and surrounded by a sea of black-clothed fans, a flash of white stormed across the stage with a microphone in hand, dishing out a few memorable bars. On that night, Pusha T, with his guest verse on “Runaway,” announced himself to the world as a solo artist. The standout voice from Pharrell’s favorite group, Clipse, Pusha has spent the past few years jumping on verses with his fellow G.O.O.D. Music brethren and working on giving us the first taste of his solo stuff. Earlier this year, he teased the hip-hop world with the Fear of God mixtape that featured some in-the-works tracks and freestyles, including one over Soulja Boy’s “Speakers Going Hammer” that showed the youngster what an actual lyricist could do with that beat. This, of course, was just a hint as to what was to come with the Fear of God II: Let Us Pray.

On the past items included in the Clipse catalog, such as Lord Willin’ and Hell Hath No Fury, Pusha and his cohort Malice teamed up to regale listeners with beautifully poignant tales from the drug game. No one since Biggie has made pushing weight as poetic as Pusha has over the years. The calculated rhymes and expert flow have enlightened many on a subject that is all too real. He doesn’t sway from this formula on Fear of God II; he just does it better than even he has. Old friends, the Neptunes, lend a helping hand on a couple of tracks along with a producers such as Bangladesh, of “What’s Your Fantasy?” and “A Milli” fame, The Bizness, Rico Beatzs and Asher Roth associate Nottz.

The EP opens with a familiar ad-libber, the infamous Diddy, lending a hand on “Changing of the Guards” where Pusha makes it clear he’s putting himself at the forefront of the game. The boss and co-Throne holder lends a few bars on “Amen” along with the man whose album “might” come out before Detox, Jeezy. The trio makes sure the listeners know they’re trying to get paid … God, too. Even Oscar-winner Juicy J makes an appearance with Meek Mill (surprisingly, without the aid of any “MMMMMMMMMaybach Musics”) on Memphis-feeling “Body Work.” “Raid” has Pharrell’s stamp all over it; unfortunately, 50 Cent’s there, too.

But the standout guest appearance belongs to the dopest track on the EP, the Tyler, the Creator-aided “Trouble on my Mind.” The Neptunes’ hypnotic beat is ripped to shreds as Tyler and Pusha trade verbal jabs, with Tyler poking fun as the production team, “…tighter than Chad Hugo’s pupils,” and himself, “I’m a fucking walking paradox, and a really shit rapper in my favorite pair of socks,” while Pusha acknowledges the seemingly odd pairing: “Who else could put the hipsters with felons and thugs and paint a perfect picture of what selling it does?”

Pusha grabs the spotlight for the tracklists other two highlights, “My God” and “Alone in Vegas,” both holdovers from the first Fear of God release. They let him do what he does best: attack and kill a track while painting perfect pictures of a thug-turned-artist.

Pusha T – Fear of God II: Let Us Pray tracklist:

1. “Changing of the Guards” (featuring Diddy)
2. “Amen” (featuring Kanye West and Young Jeezy)
3. “Trouble on My Mind” (featuring Tyler, the Creator)
4. “What Dreams Are Made Of”
5. “Body Work” (featuring Juicy J, Meek Mill and French Montana)
6. “Everything That Glitters” (featuring French Montana)
7. “So Obvious”
8. “Feeling Myself” (featuring Kevin Cossom)
9. “Raid” (featuring 50 Cent and Pharrell)
10. “My God”
11. “I Still Wanna” (featuring Rick Ross and Ab-Liva)
12. “Alone in Vegas”

Even before he was Active Child, Pat Grossi was knockin’ on Heaven’s door. Choir boy by day and aspiring musician by night, Grossi spent years bringing the sacred harmonies he learned in church to the secular stage. With a sound that could accompany a journey to the pearly gates, people began to take notice. 2010 was a landmark year for Grossi, who, as Active Child, released an EP and toured with the likes of White Lies, School of Seven Bells and James Blake.

You Are All I See picks up right where Grossi left off with last year’s Curtis Lane EP, an endearing blend of synth-pop and church harmonies. (Think Toro y Moi meets Enya.) Beautifully articulated, the vocals boast spectacular power and range; so much so that every track on the record could be performed a capella and remain equally captivating. The instrumentation, which looks toward the music of the 1980s as a reference point, borrows as much from New Order as it does from R&B. The result is gorgeous.

Cuts such as “Shield and Sword” and “Way Too Fast” bathe in waves of digitized R&B, while tracks such as “Lady Luck” and “The Boy Is Mine” expand Grossi’s already-sensitive emotional range, touching upon themes of unrequited love, embracing isolation and spirituality. There, he turns the studio into a sanctuary and the song into a hushed prayer. The effect is chilling; enough to convert the most hardened of nonbelievers.

Although powerful, Grossi’s Heaven is not a place of dancing. It is a place of somber reflection. The laptop-powered R&B hooks of Curtis Lane have given way to denser, darker sounds. Compelling? Yes. Inspiring? Yes. Booty-shaking? Unlikely. (Although, tracks such as “Hanging On” are vaguely funky.) At times, it becomes difficult to find a logical beat that ties the song together. However, this seems to be the point– You Are All I See is more mood than music; more prayer than performance.

Equally heartwrenching and disorienting, You Are All I See is the sound of Grossi expelling his demons in a cathedral. Each element on the album is a display of striking contrast— from the warm harp-playing (move over, Joanna Newsom) clashing against icy drum machine clicks, to the profoundly religious delivery of secular musings. But most importantly, these contradictions sound terrific, which begs the listener to question: why aren’t more choir boys in bands?

Active Child – You Are All I See tracklist:

1. “You Are All I See”
2. “Hanging On”
3. “Playing House”
4. “See Thru Eyes”
5. “High Priestess”
6. “Ivy”
7. “Way Too Fast”
8. “Ancient Eye”
9. “Shield and Sword”
10. “Johnny Belinda”

Backward and forward and now, somewhere in between. Bombay Bicycle Club’s first album, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose was an upbeat work of sonic punk; its second was a glacial folk record. Now, at last, the band has settled into a sound incorporating both. Lest this speak too much to their credit, know that it’s still incredibly difficult to know who the Londoners are on A Different Kind of Fix.

The band members themselves have admitted they’re still finding a color scheme, still inhabiting a niche. This effort is chutes and ladders above Flaws but still a stepping stone on the group’s way to self-discovery. A Different Kind of Fix is enjoyable, dreamy and lucid, with the nonsensical playfulness of Talking Heads, scraping balladry of Deerhunter, and even manages at times to sound like classic British Isles pop a la (pardon the expression) U2. Jack Steadman and Co. have never been shy of owning up to their influences.

But before drinking to the rejuvenation of a wayward outfit into a formidable indie force or basking in the sunshiny vibe of its latest—take a closer look. For one, the lyricism is entirely forgettable. It works as that typical sort of sleeve-hearted indie: blurry, repetitive, with melody made for words rather than vice versa. The band could stand to learn a lesson in the pregnant pause—wordplay and accompaniment. That’s OK, though. Not only is this lyrical palaver the mode of the day, if it did call attention to itself, the result would only be disappointing. It’s hard to imagine A Different Kind of Fix being a sing-along.

There are, as might be expected, syncopated and textured rhythms (The “Daylight”esque “Shuffle”), spacey vocals and an earnest romantic sentiment. “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep” kicks off with ultra-clangy, clean electric riffing with the words, “Is it late enough/Can I wake you up?” incanted over and over in various arrangements. Their folk scales sound like a blend of traditional British and Americana, filled with a grating melancholia. It doesn’t often drag, though.

At times, they let slip the dogs of punk, the twangy thwomp of the chorus in “Bad Timing,” and what ensues is loud, ungated goodness that seems more genuine than the bulk of the record. Bombay Bicycle Club is still a young band and what seems naïve to those more seasoned may actually be a childlike directness, a youthful do-or-die attitude. And what’s not to love about that from its youthful do-or-die audience?

With A Different Kind of Fix the gaunt Londoners have survived the sophomore slump and at least bought themselves some time before judgment.

It is indeed an uncustomary fix. From the iconic Gil-Sans cover font to the vintage shine of their production—dig through the topsoil and there are some gems by any standard—some instances, some songs. For instance, there’s that absolutely haunting ballad for voice and piano, “Still,” whimpering as a benediction. The potential for BBC is huge, success as we’ve seen carved out by the likes of Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling and other poppy, folksy, rocky bands (these are the only adjectives to blanket that list) from the United Kingdom. The weather vane is on their side, originality be damned.

Bombay Bicycle Club – A Different Kind of Fix tracklist:

1. “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep”
2. “Bad Timing”
3. “Your Eyes”
4. “Lights Out, Words Gone”
5. “Take the Right One”
6. “Shuffle”
7. “Beggars”
8. “Leave It”
9. “Fracture”
10. “What You Want”
11. “Favourite  Day”
12. “Still”

With the group’s latest release It Culls You (self-released) being only its second full-length and first addition to its anthology since 2009, you wouldn’t expect The Envy Corps to have such a turbulent biography—especially with an Iowan upbringing. Confrontation is out-of-character for a bunch of Midwesterners. But since 2004, three members have dropped out of the group and since been replaced (one replacement being guitarist Brandon Darner, former frontman of To My Surprise, Slipknot founder Shawn Crahan’s side project), they have opened for The Killers during a U.S. tour, and, while in London, Darner suffered a stroke onstage. All of this while still achieving modest fame throughout the world.

The band describes its new album as fundamentally different than previous releases in that it leaves behind the pop-music immediacy that drove many of the band’s past songs and instead allows the tracks time to develop more organically, which is most evident in “Fools (How I Survived You and Even Laughed)” and “Give It (All) Up.” In fact, the pang of high-pitched synthesizer and irregular beat in “Give It (All) Up” challenges the listener to even endure through it until a temporary reprieve in the form of a climactic guitar riff drowns out all other sounds, washing away the tension.

Yet even without the changes, The Envy Corps has still coated this album in the sounds of the last two decades: dabbing its sonic paintbrush into the genres of the 1990s and 2000s, covering its painter’s palette to color its musical canvas. In the end, the picture resembles a Nu-wave-y adaptation of early-’90s anthemic UK shoegaze. Or, in other words, it resembles the dozens of paintings that have come before it. Distinction is lost on Envy Corps. It’s new and yet, it’s all been heard before. Augmenting this problem is that, since Dwell (2008), it seems Luke Pettipoole has shamelessly—boastfully even—lifted his vocals, both their cadence and sound, from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

All of this makes for a forgettable album.

The album lacks uniqueness.

Every track on It Culls You could have easily been lost among the clutter on the radio in the mid-’90s to early ’00s. The album isn’t bad; it’s just easily ignorable. The group is clearly competent, so its inability to distinguish itself is all the more frustrating. The members seem to be limiting themselves.

They’ve mastered every sound they’ve tried to emulate. Now it’s time they head into the darkness for themselves to see what they can flesh out.

The Envy Corps – It Culls You tracklist:

1. “Make It Stop”
2. “Ms. Hospital Corners”
3. “Give It (All) Up”
4. “Command+Q”
5. “Palace on Stilts”
6. “In the Summer”
7. “Dipsomania”
8. “Everyone’s Trying to Find You”
9. “Med. Song”
10. “Exchequer”
11. “Fools (How I Survived You And Even Laughed)”
12. “Fools, Pt. II (Bow)”

The Psychic Paramount has returned to envelope its listeners in an instrumental psychedelic maelstrom, a buffeting, pummeling, guitar-driven miasma of math rock and rushing, breathless riffing. Much like its 2005 debut, Gamelan Into the Mink Supernatural (Bewilderment and Illumination Records), II, the band’s No Quarter debut, is a journey of jazzy improvisation, punk-rock intensity and swinging, swirling and swallowing rhythms and repetitions.

With a moniker that walks a fine line between superciliousness and self-parody, The Psychic Paramount is delivering much more than a bill of damaged post-rock goods on II. Here, the NYC trio construct seven cathedrals of colorful cataclysm, the perfect soundtrack to a green day that is at turns harrowing and hazy, or a mescaline-fueled journey into a 21^st century “Twilight Zone.”

Virgins uninitiated to the sound of The Psychic Paramount need look no further than the previous and upcoming performances to ponder passing similarities and like-mindedness to Battles (who are curating All Tomorrow’s Parties’ “Nightmare Before Christmas festival” in the UK; TPP play on Dec. 10), Trans Am, Chicago’s Disappears and Plastic Crimewave Sound, Maserati, Pontiak and Arbouretum, but they need not have heard any of those artists to be moved and entranced by the bracing, electric passion of the sonically inspiring triumvirate.

Aside from the aforementioned, other musical antecedents include the intensity of … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the creative fury of fellow instrumentalists Russian Circles, the hell-strom of Hella, and the mind-blowing musicscapes of Holy Fuck. The Psychic Paramount diverges from fellow instrumental also-rans Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in that the TPP tends to dwell less on the notes and more on the concussions; in other words, less of the quiet, simmering sizzle of the fuse burning and more of the fireworks factory burning down.

Even a minute into the first track, “Intro/SP,” one wonders if (and when) their own fingers will start bleeding in sympathy. II is a mess of metallic math music that wallows in its messiness but never falls into a morass. It’s quirky without being silly, and the driving drums serve to propel the music out of the quicksand quagmire crafted by the constant, cutting riffage. Having said that, it’s not an “easy” listen, and people looking for power-pop purveyors would probably be better advised to pick up the new Sloan release from Yep Roc.

Melody and “hooks” are definitely not a high priority for The Psychic Paramount—the members want their population to operate as one world under a drug-induced groove. The cymbal-laden, backbeat driven “Isolated” could well function as a sequel to the sonic craftsmanship of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Given that no vocals are present, it’s easy to imagine this would provide a perfect mash-up opportunity, and as it fades out, it borders on encroaching into post-rock territory.

Drew St. Ivany’s guitar is never afraid to hold a note and see where it goes next, and on the concluding cut, “N5 Coda,” his guitar gives way for drummer Jeff Conaway to insert some delicate spaciousness into the conclusion, providing some much-needed breathing room. Befitting its title, the track is the only selection that clocks in at less than five minutes, and it bookends the record, drawing the frantic festivities to a lovely ending.

II may not be the most wonderful instrumental record ever; after seven tracks, it does start to sound a bit samey, but it’s hard to argue with the majesty of rock this powerful power trio produces.

The Psychic Paramount – II tracklist:

1. “Intro/SP”
2. “DDB”
3. “RW”
4. “N5”
5. “N6”
6. “Isolated”
7. “N5 Coda”

Beaten by Them is a five-piece instrumental band that has members from as far San Francisco, New York and Australia. Its newest EP, People Start Listening, is a slightly contradictory piece of music as it is both aggressive and ambient, supporting the argument that you don’t have to turn your amps all the way to 11 to rock out. Sometimes all you need is some organization and composition.

Beaten By Them’s signature sound is a true collage of sonic textures, mixing both instrumental characteristics of post-rock from the likes of Explosions in the Sky and a taste of Godspeed! You Black Emperor with the eclectic feel of Beck.

The diverse soundscapes created with just instruments sound like they could be nonmusical samples that make you wonder what you’re actually listening to. The result is a 20-minute piece of music that works as a perfect taste test for the band as it is probably its most accessible release as well as the closest thing to pop that the band has come to.

Keyboardist Max McCormick starts of the EP with “Damp Sky 3,” a tune with soft, soothing keys that lull the listener. There is an absence of percussion until about three-fourths through the song, when drummer Jeff Ardziejewski brings the song to full force with an almost tribal, yet utterly simple, drum fill that continues until the song fades away into the electronic keyboard dissonance it brought us in with.

Beaten by Them as a band works best together when the members bounce off each other and take the songs through unexpected twists and turns. The members know when to hold off and wait until it is necessary for them to add to the song. Cellist Boima Tucker’s appearances on stage remind you of a character in a movie that you don’t get to see very much of, but that distance is what fuels the magic of their mystery and helps pull all the members together.

This teamwork is most apparent on the closing track of the EP, “It Can Take You Higher,” where the band gets loud. The guitars on the track sound slightly country western-influenced, which leads the track to explode in a Pink Floyd manner, mesmerizing the listener the whole time.

This EP is short and sweet, especially considering the standards of the instrumental and post-rock genre. However, People Start Listening is a collection of tip-of-the-iceberg songs. They meld together in a way that is fresh. The song-to-song transitions don’t flow from one to another or fade from one to the next, but there is a definite end to each track if you were to listen to each song separately.

However, when you put the EP on as a whole, these silences and pauses don’t jump out as a scene change; they are apparent but not painfully obvious or boring, and they give the listener time to reflect. This gives People Start Listening extreme replay value. Even on repeat, this EP is a journey to listen to and serves as a perfect intro for new fans who will be waiting, and as the title suggests, listening for the next album.

Beaten By Them – People Start Listening tracklist:

1. “Damp Sky 3”
2. “Rigours of Madness”
3. “Damp Sky 4”
4. “It Can Take You Higher”

My Brightest Diamond is an accurate stage name for Detroit-based experimental-pop singer Shara Worden because her classically trained voice shines through the whole record. Her third LP, All Things Will Unwind, combines an array of different genres and styles, including opera, classical and even musical evangelism, which is deeply rooted in her family history. Her previous two albums were written and recorded in New York, but this one stemmed from her hometown of Detroit, where she reached back to her American Indian roots and expressed herself through a collection of 11 self-reflecting songs. Each song is intellectually and aesthetically pleasing, painting images of ambitious and challenging topics: the crumbling national economy, the global financial crisis, social protests, and Worden’s own life evolving as she becomes a mother.

The album is quite pleasant on the ear with arrangements of violins, flutes, drums and horns, which flaunt Worden’s compositional theory training and intrigue the listener without missing a beat.

Her voice never disappoints; filled with graceful notes high and low, there’s never a strain or crackle in sight. yMusic, a contemporary ensemble featured on the album, adds melodious instrumental and vocal background.

“We Added It Up” is the first song on the album, and it is full of cartoony-richness. A game of cat and mouse develops as she sings about two people falling in love despite their differences. “There was you, there was me/We never could agree/If I was up/You were down/You were there/I was here/A grand puppeteer stuck it all/together.” As the end nears, she sings, “Love binds the world forever and ever,” and one can only wonder whether that statement is positive or negative. But as she sings, “Confusion makes the world go round,” uncertainty is exactly the feeling she’s trying to evoke.

“Be Brave” opens with a light drumming, resembling a nervous internal beat which she confirms whilst singing “Sh-Sh-Sh-Shara this is going to hurt/Be brave dear one/Be changed or be undone.” Throughout the song, she gives the impression that she is talking to herself and trying to convince herself to be brave. As the song progresses, her singing picks up in strength and confidence, almost completely tuning out the light drumming. Her bravery shines as her voice melts together with the background music to create a playful yet thrilling song.

“I Have Never Loved Someone” is about her experience as a new mother. It begins with sounds of her rocking a cradle as she sings to her newborn son in a soothing voice. “I have never loved someone the way I love you/I have never seen a smile like yours/And if you grow up to be king, or clown, or pauper/I will say you are my favorite one in town.” The optimism doesn’t stay for too long as Worden puts her own twist on the song. “And when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard/I will send you all my love upon the breeze.” We are reminded that nothing in the world ever stays young and beautiful for too long, yet she still makes it sound calm and mesmerizing.

“High Low Middle” is one of the more uptempo and catchy songs on the album. It would also be perfect to swing dance to as it is accompanied with elements of the saxophone. The song is based on Detroit’s unemployment crisis and states that the upper class does not appreciate what they have and the poor will always fight for more. “When you’re privileged, you don’t even know you’re privileged/When you’re not, you know/When you’re happy, you don’t even know you’re happy/When you’re not, you know.”

The album ends with a comforting lyric: “You’re OK,” and that’s exactly the feeling this album brings forth. The world is full of good and bad. The bad is hell, but once a balance is found, like Worden does in her album, everything will be OK. The record doesn’t have many boundaries, no genre or lyrical constraints. She recalls her experiences in life. Just like anything can happen in life, anything can happen on this record, which is what makes it so stunning.

My Brightest Diamond – All Things Will Unwind tracklist:

1. “We Added It Up”
2. “Reaching Through to the Other Side”
3. “In the Beginning”
4. “Escape Routes”
5. “Be Brave”
6. “She Does Not Brave the War”
7. “Ding Dang”
8. “There’s a Rat”
9. “High Low Middle”
10. “Everything Is in Line”
11. “I Have Never Loved Someone”

Snow Patrol’s Britpop style lies somewhere between Keane and Coldplay. It’s worked well for them so far. They’ve been together for 17 years, and while it might be a stretch to call the band an empire, its latest, Fallen Empires, takes sort of a fall.

The album doesn’t do itself any favors when it starts with the two most misplaced, unnatural songs right off the bat. “I’ll Never Let Go” and “Called Out in the Dark” both fuse Britpop with dance in a way that is more uncomfortable than innovative; the additional waves of synth distract from, rather than enhance, the group’s style. Particularly awkward is “Called Out in the Dark,” where the message is supposed to be motivational or gut-wrenching, but it ends up just feeling overblown. Gary Lightbody’s overpowering vocals can work if used correctly, but here his attempt at being “heavy” or “deep” just doesn’t fit in with the pumping synths. The song takes itself a little too seriously for what is essentially just a dance track.

Luckily, after those first few missteps, the album gradually becomes more organic, replacing the heavy bass synths and the constant wall of sound from the earlier songs with acoustic guitars and some contemplative, sparsely decorated moments. This style pays off for the band much better as it fits the serious tone the members are trying to reach with their lyrics.

Still, while the songs start to feel much more natural, the emotion and drama of the album continue to be just a little too phoned-in or forced. Cheesy, “epic” choirs frequently interrupt songs that were better off when they were understated and deeply personal instead of grandiose.

Also problematic are the vocals, which are always given precedence over everything else—a shame because often, the instrumentation can be really powerful and dynamic. A great example of vocal overshadowing is in “The Weight of Love,” where the guitars are actually playing a fast, catchy riff, but they are pushed so far into the back that it’s difficult to appreciate them. If Snow Patrol could figure out how to better play up its strengths, it would become a force to be reckoned with. But on this album, members just end up fumbling around.

That isn’t to say everything on the album is a waste, as there are a few worthwhile songs. “This Isn’t Everything You Are” succeeds where others have failed—it still revels in drama like the other songs, but with a slower pace, darker vocals and lack of dance synths, the song resonates with listeners a little more. It’s still undeniably cheesy, but it also manages to capture some earnest emotion that other songs are missing out on.

Snow Patrol is a capable band that can produce quality music, but something just doesn’t click on Fallen Empires. The band needs to learn when to dial it back a notch. As it is now, the music is always just slightly too dramatic, too overblown and too confused for the band to be a serious contender.

Snow Patrol – Fallen Empires tracklist:

1. “I’ll Never Let Go”
2. “Called Out in the Dark”
3. “The Weight of Love”
4. “This Isn’t Everything You Are”
5. “The Garden Rules”
6. “Fallen Empires”
7. “Berlin”
8. “Lifening”
9. “New York”
10. “In the End”
11. “Those Distant Bells”
12. “The Symphony”
13. “The President”
14. “Broken Bells Form a Star (Prelude)”

Unless the sound of a robot’s voice turns you on, you won’t be immediately sucked into Gym Class Heroes’ new music.

Don’t fret, though. There are some big names ahead to save the day. The frighteningly catchy “Stereo Hearts” features pop hottie Adam Levine in the sugar-coated, radio-friendly hit. Without the falsetto tenderness in Levine’s voice, the song would fall flat among the pop dust that’s fallen from the crappy work made in the span of the past year.

GCH pulls the same move much later with “The Fighter,” but this time with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder as their selling point. For some reason, this one doesn’t work as well. It’s just as upbeat, but there’s less of a luster to it. It may well be the common knowledge that Levine could beat Tedder in a fight just by glaring at him.

“Life Goes On” chimes as a flowy tune accented by Danish songstress Oh Land’s uniquely soft European pipes. It gives a free philosophy on life and charms listeners with its “you only get one chance” vibe. Of course it’s clichéd, but it really does sound good. Travie McCoy’s verses are neat, too.

The final namedropping piece about The Papercut Chronicles II uses Neon Hitch just as it does with “Life Goes On.” Instead of an optimistic philosophy, replace it with words about the perils of being away from a loved one and the song is complete. Perhaps there is a pattern to every use of parentheses in this album.

Both play off the successes of songs such as “Airplanes” by B.o.B with Hayley Williams and Fort Minor’s “Where’d You Go?” People really tend to buy into the placement of femininity in some of the most difficult rap lyrics on the music scene. Watch at least one of these songs get big just based on this factor.

Gym Class Heroes are hard to place as musicians. They rap and contribute greatly to hip-hop, but they seem to avoid the essential pop label anytime they aren’t featuring a solo pop star in one of their songs. Not to mention that “Solo Discotheque (Whiskey Business)”does rock out pretty hard in its hook and electric guitar solo during the bridge of the song. There is definitely a prominent rock edge to every song. The strange combination oddly makes sense for them.

There is a bit of a harsh, grey veil over the concept as a whole. The lyrical work at hand travels along a dark path for a good part of the album, talking about the difficulties of touring as a group and not getting along with a significant other. Somewhere along the road, Gym Class Heroes went through a rough patch. It’s a good thing for both them and listeners, though, because it fueled some passionate beats.

It becomes uncomfortably noticeable that Gym Class Heroes have some of their best moments whenever they’re in collaboration. It’s great that they make wonderful music with other artists, but is it serving as a copout for a lack of good work on their own?

Plus, the work they produce with guests is always catchy and upbeat, and their work as a band is notably rigid. It’s quite possible that the band will never be heard on the radio simply by themselves. Although it’s not a tragedy, it’s a shame because the group does pretty well for itself on its own. Without riding on the coattails of others, who knows where they’d be in their careers. For now, they’re getting away with it.

Gym Class Heroes – The Papercut Chronicles II tracklist:

1. “Za Intro”
2. “Matyrial Girl$”
3. “Life Goes On”
4. “Stereo Hearts”
5. “Solo Discotheque (Whiskey Business)”
6. “Holy Horseshit, Batman!!”
7. “Ass Back Home”
8. “Nil-Nil-Draw”
9. “Lazarus, Ze Gitan”
10. “The Fighter”
11. “Kid Nothing and the Never-Ending Naked Nightmare”