Snow Patrol: A Hundred Million Suns [Geffen, 2008]
Good, but is it great? I've never really known just how to describe these guys' seemingly boring, generic pop-rock sound--kind of like Coldplay, but more upbeat, and faster, and with a slightly larger dose of rock, and also they're Irish and Scottish, not British, so that's different. But there seems to be another difference that is perhaps even more any important than any of these: Snow Patrol's music, both within and between songs, seems to have a lot more variability- in terms of volume, tempo, and pretty much everything else- than Coldplay's does. It's also much more guitar-centric, and less piano-centric, which makes this album's music typical sounding pop rock, at least for the most part. This willingness to explore unusual and atypical song structures and such gives this album a distinct edge over most other pop rock albums, partly because it helps it avoid the classic trap of becoming boring. Their ability to rock out effectively (like on "Please Just Take These Photos From My Hands") and to avoid reusing the same melodies on different songs, however tempting that may be, are
also major pluses. This album manages to be positive and emotional, often romantic, without appearing
cliche or insincere, which is not as easy as you might think. Not only that, it's engaging, its songs are
carefully crafted, with big, enjoyable, noisy choruses, and lyrics that seem relatable and interesting,
without being too hard to understand. And yet, it seems a bit formulaic, like it's not better than simply being enjoyable to listen to,
like something's missing--what might that thing be? Not passion or
enthusiasm, that's for sure; instead, it seems like the problem is deficiency in the catchy, well-written
melodies department. Intriguingly, a BBC review of this album described it as "...so close to being brilliant, it ends up being more grating than if it had been awful." This seems to be a little off to me: I would say this album is better described as a little below "so close to being brilliant", and that it's still pretty good despite this. A bit boring because the songs start seeming kinda similar if you listen to them enough times, but still worth a listen. Best track: "Take Back the City", which, not coincidentally, is also the catchiest. B PLUS
Muse
The 2nd Law [Warner Bros., 2012]
Having long thought this band was overrated and (some of) their song titles ridiculously pretentious, I recently decided that they were nevertheless good enough to still give another chance. I figured that though I generally liked their music, perhaps if I listened to more of it in detail, I would really love it. Perhaps I would change my mind about thinking these guys had always been about style way more than substance. I remember when "Madness" came out as a single and you couldn't stop hearing it on the radio--would I have warmed to it in the 6 years or so since then? This album seems to suffer from an unfortunate drawback that I also detected when I reviewed 30 Seconds to Mars' A Beautiful Lie on this blog: specifically, it is a half-assed concept album apparently written by someone who wanted to make his band the next Pink Floyd, but didn't want to put the effort into either writing well-organized, engaging songs with enjoyable melodies or into constructing anything resembling a coherent plot. (Admittedly the latter problem isn't necessarily a major issue with concept albums, though.) Maundering, goopy, poorly structured concepts on a concept album aren't necessarily an issue as mentioned earlier, but when the music is also maundering, goopy, and poorly structured, and the songwriter(s) apparently can't decide if they want to go for a chill, laid-back album, electronic/orchestral rock, or an epic concept album about...uh...something about tyranny and oppression, I guess, one cannot help but leave at least slightly disappointed. The spoken-word bits on the last two tracks further bolster one's sense that the makers of this album weren't really sure what they were doing--they apparently tried to create an ominous vibe but all the stuff about entropy and low-income housing (?) just comes off as boring. The piano and classical arrangements are pretty good and worth listening to if you're into that stuff; there's certainly nothing overtly bad about this album. The handful of somewhat/very good tracks here (like "Supremacy" and "Panic Station") are those that show a real commitment to a theme and match the music to that theme, and sprinkle in some catchy melodies to boot, rather than stay in a sluggish rut. But like A Beautiful Lie, this album seems to be far too full of slow, sterile, and boring songs bereft of many engaging features (especially melodies), and with far more moments where the band was often apparently just trying to kill time than where one is engaged in any kind of concept. C PLUS
