music art film review - REDEFINE magazine » the postal service http://www.redefinemag.com conscious growth thru arts journalism Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:19:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/scattered-trees-sympathy-album-review/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/scattered-trees-sympathy-album-review/#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:46:53 +0000 Vivian Hua http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=3294

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review

alb_scatteredtrees-sympathy

Listening to Scattered Trees' latest album, Sympathy, has been a curious experience for me. The same disc, under different settings and different circumstances, has been at times nerve-wracking and at times wonderful.

Just now, I have awoken with the third track from Sympathy echoing in my head, the words, "Everyday, you love, then you leave me/ We'll be the only ones/ We'll be the only ones to remember..." playing on repeat. These nostalgic words comprise nearly the lyrical totality of "Love And Leave," but the simplicity works, its pop mechanics doing their part to captivate, its captivation enough to bound me out of bed to write about it.

Listen to "Four Days Straight" - DOWNLOAD MP3 In theory, the entire Sympathy album works on a "love and leave" level. It is wonderful when I allow myself to take its pop songwriting purity for what it is; it is nerve-wracking when I turn music critic and analyze every implicit action. This album feels wonderful, but in a way that might make one feel guilty -- like '90s alternative rock feels wonderful, but makes one feel guilty. Take some electronic-minded influences and vibes from bands like The Postal Service, and you have a fair summation of Scattered Trees.

That description may sound absolutely horrible on paper, but again, this is the dilemma.

Do we not still enjoy Third Eye Blind and The Postal Service immensely when they emerge ironically from their stale depths? The answer is a resigned, "Godammit, yes, we do!" though we may try to shield our enjoyment beneath an exaggerated facade of acceptance. We've been told to be ashamed of these things, by the media and by "maturity," and so we are... but the songwriting catchiness of these creations is undeniable, even years after the fact, and far beyond irony.

Such, then, is the case with Scattered Trees. I could nitpick about how the chorus of "Four Days Straight" has gang vocals that are poppy to the point of cheesiness, or how the verse from "A Conversation About Death On New Years Eve" may in fact bear similarity to parts of Give Up, but what does it even matter, anyway? Far be it from me to critically trod down an album that has the impetus to lodge itself into my brain with such ferocity.

Sympathy sounds like a self-aware, finely-crafted disc that inherently showcases the band’s collective years of influence. Whether those influences are acceptable or deplorable is up to you, but in my mind, good pop music is often about much more than technical analysis; it's about the way it makes you feel.

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review

Related posts:
  1. It Sound – Hard Pop For Blue Trees Album Review
  2. Tallest Trees – The Ostrich Or The Lark Album Review
  3. Jared Mees And The Grown Children – Only Good Thoughts Can Stay Album Review
]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review

alb_scatteredtrees-sympathy

Listening to Scattered Trees' latest album, Sympathy, has been a curious experience for me. The same disc, under different settings and different circumstances, has been at times nerve-wracking and at times wonderful.

Just now, I have awoken with the third track from Sympathy echoing in my head, the words, "Everyday, you love, then you leave me/ We'll be the only ones/ We'll be the only ones to remember..." playing on repeat. These nostalgic words comprise nearly the lyrical totality of "Love And Leave," but the simplicity works, its pop mechanics doing their part to captivate, its captivation enough to bound me out of bed to write about it.

Listen to "Four Days Straight" - DOWNLOAD MP3 In theory, the entire Sympathy album works on a "love and leave" level. It is wonderful when I allow myself to take its pop songwriting purity for what it is; it is nerve-wracking when I turn music critic and analyze every implicit action. This album feels wonderful, but in a way that might make one feel guilty -- like '90s alternative rock feels wonderful, but makes one feel guilty. Take some electronic-minded influences and vibes from bands like The Postal Service, and you have a fair summation of Scattered Trees.

That description may sound absolutely horrible on paper, but again, this is the dilemma.

Do we not still enjoy Third Eye Blind and The Postal Service immensely when they emerge ironically from their stale depths? The answer is a resigned, "Godammit, yes, we do!" though we may try to shield our enjoyment beneath an exaggerated facade of acceptance. We've been told to be ashamed of these things, by the media and by "maturity," and so we are... but the songwriting catchiness of these creations is undeniable, even years after the fact, and far beyond irony.

Such, then, is the case with Scattered Trees. I could nitpick about how the chorus of "Four Days Straight" has gang vocals that are poppy to the point of cheesiness, or how the verse from "A Conversation About Death On New Years Eve" may in fact bear similarity to parts of Give Up, but what does it even matter, anyway? Far be it from me to critically trod down an album that has the impetus to lodge itself into my brain with such ferocity.

Sympathy sounds like a self-aware, finely-crafted disc that inherently showcases the band’s collective years of influence. Whether those influences are acceptable or deplorable is up to you, but in my mind, good pop music is often about much more than technical analysis; it's about the way it makes you feel.

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review

Related posts:

  1. It Sound – Hard Pop For Blue Trees Album Review
  2. Tallest Trees – The Ostrich Or The Lark Album Review
  3. Jared Mees And The Grown Children – Only Good Thoughts Can Stay Album Review
]]> http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/scattered-trees-sympathy-album-review/feed/ 0 Owl City – Ocean Eyes Album Review http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/owl-city-ocean-eyes-album-review/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/owl-city-ocean-eyes-album-review/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:12:24 +0000 Vivian Hua http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=21322

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Owl City – Ocean Eyes Album Review

2009_Owl-City_Ocean-Eyes

Over six years after the Postal Service's debut, the music produced by Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello is still influencing new jacks like Adam Young, who takes the stage name Owl City.

Owl City's been there, done that album, Ocean Eyes, rips several pages off from Gibbard's illustrious career as one of indie rock's most revered songwriters. Yet, instead of challenging listeners, Owl City's quasi-posi lyricism rests on his ambition to be the Christian version of the Postal Service, which comes off as cheesy and imitative.

The stale-sounding "Hello Seattle" contains the following words (best read with a deadpan delivery): "Hello Seattle, I am an old lighthouse, throwing beams of bright light."

Well, what else is a lighthouse supposed to do, dummy?
The vocoder and Auto-Tune effects used on Young's voice make him sound like a weird hybrid between Forrest Kline from hellogoodbye, T-Pain, and Roger Troutman... but, y'know... not as good.

There's also the repetition between tracks like "Cave In" and "The Tip of the Iceberg," which both utilize the same drum loop, as if an intelligent listener wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two in the 20 minutes that elapses between them.

All in all, I found Ocean Eyes to be a bland rip-off of the latter-era works of Ben Gibbard, minus the honesty or literary references. While Death Cab and Postal Service are good bands to take influence from, the fact that Ocean Eyes is a by-the-numbers imitation is downright chilling -- not to mention, insulting.

But, there's very little that could be said to deter people from buying this rubbish. It's just lowest common denominator enough to appeal to the person with the blandest of tastes and who still listens to the Garden State soundtrack five years after the fact. Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Owl City – Ocean Eyes Album Review

Related posts:
  1. Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review
  2. Bright Eyes – The People’s Key Album Review
  3. Ocean State (2010) Film Review
]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Owl City – Ocean Eyes Album Review

2009_Owl-City_Ocean-Eyes

Over six years after the Postal Service's debut, the music produced by Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello is still influencing new jacks like Adam Young, who takes the stage name Owl City.

Owl City's been there, done that album, Ocean Eyes, rips several pages off from Gibbard's illustrious career as one of indie rock's most revered songwriters. Yet, instead of challenging listeners, Owl City's quasi-posi lyricism rests on his ambition to be the Christian version of the Postal Service, which comes off as cheesy and imitative.

The stale-sounding "Hello Seattle" contains the following words (best read with a deadpan delivery): "Hello Seattle, I am an old lighthouse, throwing beams of bright light."

Well, what else is a lighthouse supposed to do, dummy?
The vocoder and Auto-Tune effects used on Young's voice make him sound like a weird hybrid between Forrest Kline from hellogoodbye, T-Pain, and Roger Troutman... but, y'know... not as good.

There's also the repetition between tracks like "Cave In" and "The Tip of the Iceberg," which both utilize the same drum loop, as if an intelligent listener wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two in the 20 minutes that elapses between them.

All in all, I found Ocean Eyes to be a bland rip-off of the latter-era works of Ben Gibbard, minus the honesty or literary references. While Death Cab and Postal Service are good bands to take influence from, the fact that Ocean Eyes is a by-the-numbers imitation is downright chilling -- not to mention, insulting.

But, there's very little that could be said to deter people from buying this rubbish. It's just lowest common denominator enough to appeal to the person with the blandest of tastes and who still listens to the Garden State soundtrack five years after the fact. Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Owl City – Ocean Eyes Album Review

Related posts:

  1. Scattered Trees – Sympathy Album Review
  2. Bright Eyes – The People’s Key Album Review
  3. Ocean State (2010) Film Review
]]> http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/owl-city-ocean-eyes-album-review/feed/ 90 Plushgun – Pins and Panzers Album Review http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/plushgun-pins-and-panzers-album-review/ http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/plushgun-pins-and-panzers-album-review/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:03:02 +0000 Ryan Pangilinan http://www.redefinemag.com/?p=21493

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Plushgun – Pins and Panzers Album Review

2009_Plushgun

Thanks to bands like the Postal Service, synth-pop has steadily been creeping back into peoples' CD players (do people still use those?), and Plushgun is another band among the many that are taking cues from the likes of New Order and putting a contemporary twist on them.

Plushgun's new full-length, Pins and Panzers, is more akin to Hellogoodbye than any of the other bands rocking this kind of pop music. There's very little that's particularly captivating about Plushgun. Even their "fuck you suburbia" anthem, "How We Roll," is a bit on the trite side, despite its clever lyrics.

Safe and Sound would have probably been a more appropriate title for this record. It's not bad, but it's not really groundbreaking either. It's a tepid album that has some pretty decent moments. Perhaps my biggest gripe about Plushgun is that they're clearly a band with talent and potential. Whenever there's a band that exhibits such possibility and falls short, it can be frustrating, particularly when you consider the unexplored prospects due to a lack of imagination.

Still, there's nothing that says that Plushgun won't succeed further down the road so long as they think outside of the box. Hey, it worked for Brand New and Thrice, so Plushgun could be a great pop band with a push in the right direction. Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Plushgun – Pins and Panzers Album Review

Related posts:
  1. The Birthday Massacre – Pins And Needles Album Review
  2. Teenage Fanclub – Shadows Album Review
  3. Point Juncture, WA – Heart To Elk Album Review
]]> music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Plushgun – Pins and Panzers Album Review

2009_Plushgun

Thanks to bands like the Postal Service, synth-pop has steadily been creeping back into peoples' CD players (do people still use those?), and Plushgun is another band among the many that are taking cues from the likes of New Order and putting a contemporary twist on them.

Plushgun's new full-length, Pins and Panzers, is more akin to Hellogoodbye than any of the other bands rocking this kind of pop music. There's very little that's particularly captivating about Plushgun. Even their "fuck you suburbia" anthem, "How We Roll," is a bit on the trite side, despite its clever lyrics.

Safe and Sound would have probably been a more appropriate title for this record. It's not bad, but it's not really groundbreaking either. It's a tepid album that has some pretty decent moments. Perhaps my biggest gripe about Plushgun is that they're clearly a band with talent and potential. Whenever there's a band that exhibits such possibility and falls short, it can be frustrating, particularly when you consider the unexplored prospects due to a lack of imagination.

Still, there's nothing that says that Plushgun won't succeed further down the road so long as they think outside of the box. Hey, it worked for Brand New and Thrice, so Plushgun could be a great pop band with a push in the right direction. Ω

music art film review - REDEFINE magazine

Plushgun – Pins and Panzers Album Review

Related posts:

  1. The Birthday Massacre – Pins And Needles Album Review
  2. Teenage Fanclub – Shadows Album Review
  3. Point Juncture, WA – Heart To Elk Album Review
]]> http://www.redefinemag.com/2009/plushgun-pins-and-panzers-album-review/feed/ 0