The Desert Island Albums

now playing: White Wizzard - Over the Top

I've been meaning to write this post for quite some time, and I think it's something every music fan does eventually. No matter how cliché it is, it's always a fun exercise to see what music you really value enough to bring with you if you're stuck on a desert island—or, in this day and age, a horrible oppressive wasteland where music is forbidden and the horrible dictator Führer King No Fun declares all CDs contraband and you spend the rest of your days sneaking a listen to a few seconds of a song whenever the overseers in the plutonium mines change shifts. Now that I think about it, that would make an awesome concept album.

To qualify for this list, an album must fit three criteria: 1) I must be able to listen to it all the way through and not once feel compelled to hit the skip button; 2) I must have some sort of emotional or personal connection to the album—it has to mean something; 3) I must be in absolutely no danger of burning out on the album after listening to it for the fiftieth time that day. Without further ado, here are the five albums I would bring with me into a sonicbane wasteland. (Have you heard my new band, Sonicbane Wasteland?)

05) Fall Out Boy's Folie à Deux (2008)

As you may remember from my review of Folie à Deux, I had nothing but good things to say about this album. A year and change later, all those things still stand up; in fact, I recently re-listened to the album after forgetting it for a little while and it was like the first time I'd ever heard it all over again. Every track hits perfectly and graphs a fantastic contour throughout the entire album. The album, for me, marks the point where I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started following my dreams and writing music as I've always wanted to do. "The (Shipped) Gold Standard" remains my favorite song to this day for that reason. The chorus, "You can only blame your problems on the world for so long / Before it all becomes the same old song", was the kick in the ass I needed to finally do something. And aside from all that, it's just a solid, singable, danceable, rockable album.

04) Boston's Boston (1976)

Now, I live in Boston, so I might be a little biased in putting this album on my list, but you take a listen to "Something About You" and tell me it's not the greatest classic rock song you've ever heard. And I will believe you, because there are better ones out there, but there are not many. Before I listened to this album, I was certainly aware of Boston's existence, but I never really went out of my way to listen to them. I'm infinitely glad I did, because this album rekindled my interest in classic rock and helped shape my own aspirations for the kind of music I wanted to make. The album starts high and keeps rising (as any good mixtape should, if Barney Stinson tells me right), only coming down at the end in a gradual fade on "Let Me Take You Home Tonight", and even that is fast-paced and energetic. The guitar solos, the tones of all the instruments, Brad Delp's amazing voice... do I really have to go on?

03) Jack Off Jill's Clear Hearts Grey Flowers (2000)

If it's emotional response you want, it doesn't get much more intense than this album. I first found out about Jack Off Jill from a few of my online friends who were much more musically-savvy than I. This was in late 2006/early 2007, when I was going through a pretty turbulent time in my college career: Romantic issues, fights with friends, crises of existence—you know, all that fun stuff. So hearing songs like "Nazi Halo" and the title track more or less made my angsty little day. The lead singer, Jessicka, delivered these lyrics with such vindication and pure rage that it was all I could do not to shout along whenever I listened to it. Jessicka's doing quite well for herself fronting Scarling these days, but nothing she ever does will top Clear Hearts for me. It's the rawest, most brutal emotional outlet I have ever heard from any musician. It's musical catharsis, opening quietly and ending with panting, angry breaths. You just feel better after listening to this album. Emotionally exhausted, but better.

02) Poe's Haunted (2000)

This is a tough album to swallow. There's rock, there's merengue, there's funk, noise, happiness, sorrow, vindication, anger, love, love, so much love. I've been listening to it for seven years and I'm still discovering new things. On the surface, it's about the relationship between Poe and her father, Tad Danielewski, aided by audio diaries left by her father spanning back to the day she was born. "If You Were Here", the significance of which should be self-explanatory, is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard and one of the only ones that can make me cry no matter what. At the same time, the album is a companion piece to Mark Z. Danielewski's avant-garde horror novel House of Leaves. The lyrics interlock with events and characters in the novel; even the thematic elements, such as echoes, show up. Haunted is remarkably complex and highbrow while still being accessible and catchy to the uneducated listener. I didn't even know about the House of Leaves connection until my second year of listening. There's always more to find, which is how I know I'm never going to burn out on this album.

01) Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime (1988)

Here it is: The album that sparked my interest in metal and my love affair with concept albums. I call Operation: Mindcrime the greatest metal album in existence and one of the best of all time. The story remains open to interpretation 22 years after its release, and the ideals of revolution and change in times of political turmoil will hold strong forever. A friend of mine gave me this album in 2004 and not six months later, I saw Queensrÿche in concert. It was my first real metal show and one of the best shows of my life. So yes, as you might be able to tell, I'm rather a fan of the album. It sparked my own musical renaissance, the beginning of an era where I stopped listening to what the radio told me to and started looking for my own music on my own time. I only wish Queensrÿche's other albums were as good. Empire has some decent tracks, yeah, but after Mindcrime, the band really fell from grace. I wish they hadn't put out Operation: Mindcrime II, even if they did get Dio to do guest vocals. Some stories don't need an end.

Well, there you have it. These are only the ones that made the list, but it was tough narrowing it down to five. Here's a few honorable mentions that missed out for one reason or another.

	Coheed and Cambria's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003) Why not? While a great concept album, IKSSE:3 lacks the emotional significance a desert island album needs. I still end up skipping a few tracks here and there, too.		Sonata Arctica's Silence (2001) Why not? A fantastic album, like I said, but I burn out on it way too easily, which is unfortunate considering Sonata's my favorite band and all.
	Reel Big Fish's Cheer Up! (2002) Why not? The ska and rock songs are great, but "Sayonara Senorita" and "Boss DJ" never clicked with me. Still a very fun album, but possibly a bit too bold for me.		The Sounds' Dying to Say This to You (2006) Why not? Too much new wave. It's awesome, but it's overwhelming by the end. There's only so much synth I can take. Maja Ivarsson is so hot, though.
	Blue Öyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin (1981) Why not? I love me some BÖC, but the middle of this album is pretty unimpressive. I tend to skip from "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" straight to "After Dark" and shut it off after "Joan Crawford".		Lady Gaga's The Fame Mons†er (2009) Why not? Because I have shame.

Album Review: Halestorm

now playing: Coheed and Cambria - The Broken

Okay, I admit it. I can't keep an update schedule to save my life and I won't even pretend to anymore. But I still have a serious interest in writing about music, so this blog is totally not abandoned quite yet. Thanks to a new partnership with Typo Away, updates should be coming out a little more regularly, but don't get too excited. I'm still behind the wheel, after all; no promises. Now, let's get back into the swing of things with an album from a recent group that I'm enjoying quite a lot.

Halestorm, a semi-local band (from York, PA), came out with their self-titled debut in April of last year. When describing this album, I've often joked that it's eleven songs about having sex with the frontwoman, Lzzy Hale. That's not entirely fair; I'm pretty sure "Familiar Taste of Poison" is not, in fact, about shacking up with her. The other ten, though? Completely. It's this sort of ballsiness (ovarishness?) that I've found lacking in rock music as of late. With songs about exhibitionism, deflowering virgins, strictly sexual relationships, prostitution, and all manner of other euphemisms for the same basic concept, Halestorm takes the expectations of female-fronted rock music, ties them down to the bed, and makes like Kathy Bates in Misery all over them. It's refreshingly edgy without coming off as trying too hard.

But the concepts are only half the album. Halestorm isn't afraid to use the instruments and talent at their disposal to great effect. Nearly every song on the album has a bona fide guitar solo, something that has gone forgotten for far too long. Let's not forget the riffage in songs like "Dirty Work" and "It's Not You". The hard rock roots of the album bring with them a touch of atmospheric keyboard reminiscent of all the best parts of the 80s. Appropriate, as the current vocalist of Sixx A.M. co-wrote "What Were You Expecting", a track that brings the album back to its powerful core after a couple less-than-impressive ballads.

If there is any point where this album fails to impress, it's the slower tracks. "I'm Not an Angel" and "Better Sorry Than Safe" are good examples of power ballads, but it's clear the band isn't at their peak. Halestorm has definite strengths: Fast, hard-hitting rock songs. You won't find the next "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" on this album, but you shouldn't be expecting to find it. It's clear from the first lines on the album ("I'm in love with somebody / And it's not you") that Lzzy Hale isn't interested in sappy love songs. That's no excuse for calling a song "Bet U Wish U Had Me Back", though.

Halestorm can stand up against any 80s metal album with pride. If you know what you're going into, you'll be satisfied with this album. If, like me, you have no idea what to expect, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. (Personally, I thought I'd get a bit more power metal, but a tirade on album covers is for another post.) In a market stagnant with emasculated rock and roll, Halestorm resuscitates rock music, then gives it a sharp kick to the nards as punishment. Bravo, Lzzy. Bravo. A-

You can buy Halestorm from Halestorm's online store. Right now, the band's touring with Theory of a Deadman across the States and into Europe. In April, they'll be with Janus, Burn Halo, and Madam Adam. If this sounds like your kind of scene, check out the dates and buy tickets now.

Halloweekends: Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?

now playing: Picture Me Broken - Devil on My Shoulder

Saturdays in October (I'm sorry, ROCKTOBER) are going to operate a bit differently. I'll still be doing reviews, of course, but they'll be focusing on the most frightening of bands and their terrifying songs to help set the mood for Halloween. This feature is called Halloweekends, and I look forward to having a little fun with it. The inaugural Halloweekends album is also a reader recommendation (though he may not know it). It comes from my buddy Doug, who has previously introduced me to Anamanaguchi and EAR PWR, and previously criticized me for not calling Sonata Arctica's Ecliptica the best album ever.

Murder By Death's 2003 album Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them? is a fine choice to get this ball rolling. As most good things are, it is a concept album. Musically, it's a calm, sinister ride through Mexico as a plan for revenge unfolds. With titles like "That Crown Don't Make You a Prince" and "Master's in Reverse Psychology", aided by atmospheric piano and cello from Vincent Edwards and Sarah Balliet, the music on its own can be enough to send chills down the spine and hooks into the brain. However, the music itself isn't the entire reason this album has been nominated for this feature.

Why is this album terrifying? I mentioned it's a concept album about revenge. That's true enough. The Devil is the one looking for revenge after getting shot in a small Mexican town and having his blood (crude oil) stolen to be sold by greedy citizens. The Devil proceeds to curse a local elementary school with a plague of zombies, then watches his evil grow as the townspeople begin killing themselves out of fear and despair. The Devil draws nearer to the town as both sides prepare for war, and all the townspeople who made deals with him begin rotting and falling apart. Finally, the Devil reaches the town with his army and starts laying waste. After wallowing in their sadness and several of them drinking themselves to death, the citizens gather up their arms and start fighting back, even amidst all this hopelessness. And that's where the album ends.

I don't really think I need to go further than that.

Murder By Death has three other albums with some incredibly inventive song titles ("Intergalactic Menopause", "You Are the Last Dragon (You Possess the Power of the Glow)"), but I don't think it gets more frightening than Who Will Survive. You can pick up the album on iTunes or Amazon. While you're at it, check out the website for the album, where frontman Adam Turla provides the lyrics and a more detailed description of each song.

Ombrophilia will return on Monday with reviews of Lucky Boys Confusion and Ra.

Reader Recommendations: Orion Way

now playing: Queen - Somebody to Love

What do you get if you blend Fall Out Boy, Ben Folds, the Beach Boys, and a little bit of Britpop? The first track off Orion Way, the 2007 album from Orange County's Cavil at Rest. I say just the first track because it's impossible to pigeonhole these guys into one specific genre. They strike me as the west coast's version of The Sterns, but even a band as eclectic as that one doesn't quite capture the spirit of Cavil at Rest. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where to begin.

I suppose the beginning of the album would be a good place. "Who's There", the first track, I've already described as a mix of several different artists that don't really seem like they would work together but do anyway. "Let Down Your Guard / A Quick Drive" is the first song that made me think of the Sterns: A prominent, melodic bass line and the subtle use of Hammond organs both make the comparison clear. "It's Still Not As Bad" opens with an odd drum beat that leaves me wondering just what's to come next, but I think this is the only song that actually sounds like the one before it. This is not a bad thing, mind. Following that is "Sun Hands", which mixes it up even more. The introduction reminds me very slightly of southern rock, but then vocals from Ryan Hahn turn it into what might pass as one of Silversun Pickups' slower songs, and then a guitar solo kicks in that brings it straight back to rock before closing on the gentle vocals again.

"We Could Love" has sparse instrumentation until about halfway through, when the piano, drums, and guitar get a little more intense without detracting from the overall feel. After that is "The Flower of Rhodes", which is another mid-tempo track that reminds me of something I can't quite place my finger on. I want to say it's something from The Cab's Whisper War, with electric guitar and piano weaving together with vocal harmonies to create one big ball of sound, for lack of a better word. The heavier guitar in the chorus, unfortunately, detracts from the experience for me. "Tidal Killer" is a bouncy, folksy little tune that makes extensive and expert use of vocal harmonies. There are a few moments where the listener can hear Hahn's voice cracking or straining (only slightly, and never enough to ruin the recording), which adds a sense of realism that I appreciate endlessly.

The album draws to a close with "All is Well and Good", which brings back the earlier comparison to The Cab, but this time the guitar sounds spacier, almost more ambient. The drums make up for this with bass blasts that would fit perfectly in a metal song; they're used sparingly and only for effect, and it's never obtrusive. The bridge melds from studio chatter to piano and drums with accompaniment from bells before bringing it back around to the chorus. A closing clap track segues seamlessly into "House on Stilts", the final song. It wraps up the album neatly by showing that same Ben Folds influence from "Who's There" and throwing in a little bit of everything from the rest of the album in a culmination of everything Cavil at Rest stands for.

In the past, I've criticized albums for being too mercurial, for not conforming to a specific genre. Orion Way does exactly that, but for a band like this, I have no complaints. I'm not sure if they're still trying to explore their style or if this is exactly how they plan to approach music, but either way, it works. Orion Way is available on iTunes and I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it enough. A

This recommendation came to me from Kia at Typo Away.

100-Word Reviews: New Era (Pt. 1)

now playing: Heavenly - Lust for Life

When I first discovered a few tracks by Derdian in 2006, I was excited because I'd never heard Italian power metal before. I'm sad to say that the rest of their 2005 debut New Era (Pt. 1) almost makes me wish I'd kept on not hearing it. The entire thing suffers from lack of production value. The keyboard sounds like an 8-bit MIDI, and not in the cool Anamanaguchi way. The choirs lack power. "Eternal Light" is a pretty solid track, but it still sounds weak. You can check out their MySpace, but I would recommend against buying the album.

Reader Recommendations: Steers & Stripes

now playing: Brad Paisley - Online

This begins the reader recommendations I mentioned on Monday. This album comes to me from my good friend Kia over at Typo Away, who was kind enough to provide me with (I believe the term is) a metric buttload of possibilities, and all I had to do was ask. I think I'll be set for a while, but that shouldn't stop anyone from recommending more music to me. Just leave a comment and I'll add it to my queue.

Now, incredibly long-time readers (we're talking first entry here) might recall me saying that as a rule, I do not like country music. So far, this has held strong, though I must admit the occasional Brad Paisley song is pretty damn catchy. This is largely because in my experience, as the opening track of Brooks & Dunn's 2001 album Steers & Stripes backs up, there might as well only be one country song with a bunch of different lyrics to it. "Only in America" is certainly inspirational, and I appreciate that it pulls off a sense of national pride without drowning the listener in images of Americana, but the instrumentation sounds almost identical to every other country song I've heard. The same remains true of "Go West", slightly later in the album, and "When She's Gone, She's Gone", which also gives us the requisite metaphor of a woman being like something in America -- in this case, the Mississippi River.

I am pleased to say that this trend does not continue, with songs like "The Last Thing I Do" and "Good Girls Go to Heaven" bringing to mind southern rock along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd or, more recently, the Ghost Hounds. The album's first ballad, "The Long Goodbye", is no doubt heartfelt, but outside of the closing guitar solo, it still sounds generic to me. I was impressed with "My Heart is Lost to You", which would best be described as a Tex-Mex song: It uses Spanish guitar and salsa drums, but maintains a country feel and overall reminds me a little of Carlos Santana. "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You" struck me as a bit of an odd song, but not particularly in a bad way. I mean no offense to Mssrs. Brooks and Dunn by this, but the backing band sounded (to me) that it had been lifted from a late-90s Backstreet Boys song. It has a bit of a manufactured quality to it, as though it's trying to sound like a pop song when it clearly shouldn't be. I can't really argue with the numbers, though; it was the number one country single of 2001, so I guess it worked.

The second half of the album soon follows with "Unloved", another generic-sounding ballad, but this time it has a backing chorus. Immediately after is "Deny, Deny, Deny", which has help from a xylophone and more Spanish guitar to tell a bit of a talking blues life story. From a musical standpoint, the chorus sounds unfinished, not coming to a clear resolution where it would normally be expected. That's entering nitpick territory, I think. Let's continue. "Lucky Me, Lonely You" has two false starts that are probably intended to add some familiarity to the recording, but all it did was confuse me. "I Fall" is another slow and non-noteworthy ballad, which leads into "Every River", a mid-tempo love song with cliché lyrics, but as they say, clichés are such because they work. Worth mentioning are the hand drums and Hammond organ in the band, keeping it just interesting enough to hold my attention. The album closes with a more than welcome southern rock song, "See Jane Dance", with lyrics and guitar solos that would fit in perfectly on a .38 Special album.

I know there's a lot of negativity in the above paragraphs, but truth be told, I enjoyed a decent part of this album. It isn't anything I would listen to voluntarily all the way through, but I can definitely see myself adding some single tracks to my regular rotation. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of twang in this album. I'm constantly worried that country songs will be too twangy (which I realize is like saying "this salt is too salty" or "this Dragonforce solo is too wanky"), so this album definitely exceeded my expectations. Overall, I would call this album average, but I'm proud to say that this album has shattered my preconceptions of what country music can be. Between plateaus of straight-up country, there are valleys of near-lifeless ballads, but they're almost completely offset by peaks of inventive southern rock. And I will never say no to southern rock. B-

100-Word Reviews: Beyond the Obvious

now playing: Murder By Death - That Crown Don't Make You a Prince

I have a love-hate relationship with Lockport-based Jinxed's only album, Beyond the Obvious (2004, One Eleven Records). It has some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in its genre, including the only song I know of to use "iniquities" in a chorus, but the instrumentation might as well be interchangeable. Though the songs are simple, there's a twinge of Take This to Your Grave-era Fall Out Boy that keeps me coming back. The band dropped their drummer, reformed as Mariday, and are still making songs today, but I definitely prefer Jinxed's sound. Pick up Beyond the Obvious on Amazon.