Andrew Speaks/Types

I love this album.

A band that I’ve been really into lately is The Ebb And Flow. I saw someone request a download of it on a forum that I visit, and I like the title of their album, so I listened to some 30 second clips on iTunes. I liked what I heard, so when I got an iTunes card over Easter weekend, I had nothing else on my list but this, and downloaded it.

The band that I think The Ebb And Flow most remind me of is The Doors. One of their singers (I’ll get to that later) sounds a lot like Jim Morrison, and they have a lot of organ-ish sounding keyboards that live in the background of their music, and give it kind of a constant “flow”, pardon the pun. Their guitar sound has a real southern/folk vibe to it, which are both genres that I like.

They also have two singers, and they do about the same amount of work. One is a guy, and the other is a girl. Surprisingly, I like listening to the girl singer just as much as I do the other, which is strange because I usually don’t like to listen to bands with female vocalists, with a few exceptions. She sounds like she has a British accent, but I’m not sure where the band is from.

I don’t just like the songs that this band does, I like this band. I like the way their songs are constructed, I like the way their music progresses, I like all the vocals, I like all of their melodies, I really like the lyrics, and the music itself is extremely entertaining. I can’t stop praising this album enough, and it really deserves some credit. I’m pretty picky wen it comes to what I will listen to, and I’m having a hard time finding any flaws here.

Anyways, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. I have a pretty bad way of explaining things, especially music that someone hasn’t heard before. So please, do yourself a favor and find this album somewhere, listen for yourself.

I consider myself a pretty big Daft Punk fan. Not a huge Daft Punk fan, but I have all their albums and I really like them. I finished my collection this Christmas when I got Homework, their debut (and most critically-acclaimed) album. I had high hopes, and for the most part, this album lived up to them, but there’s parts that really rub me the wrong way. I’m going to give a song-by-song review of Homework in this blog, so here’s the tracklist:

1. “Daftendirekt” – 2:44
2. “WDPK 83.7 FM” - 0:28
3. “Revolution 909″ – 5:26
4. “Da Funk” – 5:28
5. “Phœnix” – 4:55
6. “Fresh” – 4:03
7. “Around The World” – 7:07
8. “Rollin’ & Scratchin’” – 7:26
9. “Teachers” – 2:52
10. “High Fidelity” – 6:00
11. “Rock’n Roll” – 7:32
12. “Oh Yeah” – 2:00
13. “Burnin’” – 6:53
14. “Indo Silver Club” – 4:32
15. “Alive” – 5:15
16. “Funk Ad” – 0:50

The album starts off with “Daftendirekt,” a play on words from the phrase “Live And Direct,” and it fits. Daftendirekt was recorded live, and it was the intro song to a Daft Punk concert, and very suiting as being the intro song here. I have no idea what he’s saying there, but it’s a good loop. Very good intro to the record.

“WDPK 83.7 FM” is nothing more than a looped sample, but it segueways Daftendirekt very nicely into “Revolution 909.” On its own, I probably wouldn’t like this. But I’m a person that always listens to albums all the way through, so this is a really good transition. I have to give Daft Punk props for giving their songs really great names. They try and put their name in normal things. All radio station call numbers have to start with W. So they just took 3 recognizable letters from “Daft Punk” and put them after a W to make their own radio station. Genius.

The next song is “Revolution 909″ and I really like this song, mostly because of the concept. The song “Revolution 9″ by The Beatles was a huge collage of sound with subliminal messages in it, and the phrase “Paul is dead” being repeated during a recording of people talking. In this song, there’s a lot of noise that comes before the music of this song, and someone yells “suicide” tying in this song to Revolution 9. I like Daft Punk’s references to things. The music of this song is kind of repetitive, but it’s not overly repetitive and has a good sound to it.

“Da Funk,” the next song, uses the title as an excuse to put their name in the titles of songs again. They could’ve said “The Funk,” but isntead they said “Da Funk,” which is what you get if you take the T and the P out of “Daft Punk.” Subtle, but cool. The music in this song is some of the best on the album.

“Phoenix” is kind of a lull. The music is good, and it’s a good song to be playing in the background while you’re working or something, but not a song that I would just put on and jam to.

The next track, “Fresh,” is a lot like Phoenix, but Fresh is very soothing. There’s a sample of the tide coming in and out during the whole thing and the song is very ambient sounding. This is something I would listen to when I want to be relaxed. Not a good standalone song, but good in the context of the album after the rush of Da Funk and Phoenix.

“Around The World” is probably the best song on the album. It’s definitely the most “songful” song on the album. This is one of the sonly songs that I heard BEFORE I got Homework, and I’ve loved it ever since. Really really good song. Very trance-like, just like Fresh before it. The thing that Homework really excels at is making a good flow throughout the album. All the songs seem to be in the “right” order. It’s very fluid.

“Rollin’ & Scratchin’” is one of the two worst songs on the album. I can listen to Homework all the way through, but when I get to Rollin’ & Scratchin’, I almost turn it off. The song is very annoying and displeasing to the ear. It’s creative on how it only uses one note for very long periods of time with no variations, and proves that you CAN make a one note song. But Queens Of The Stone Age already made an amazing one-chord song “You’ve Got A Killer Scene There, Man…” and it really kicks the crud out of this song. I really do not like this song. The end.

“Teachers,” has a very Discovery-esque vocal loop going on in the background, and that’s what makes the song worthwhile for me. The song is Daft Punk paying homage to their inspiration and it consists of naming off DJ’s that got them into the house music scene. Like I said, the background vocals make this song good. When those aren’t going on, it’s a little annoying.

The next song on the record is “High Fidelity.” This is one of the highlights of the album for me because it uses the non-lyrical vocal loop style that was expanded on in Daft Punk’s next album, Discovery. This is a very creative and catchy song.

Next: “Rock & Roll.” This song matches the annoyingness of Rollin’ & Scratchin’. The entire song almost is this strange vinyl scratch noise that sounds like two balloons being rubbed together over and over. This song hurts my ears.

“Oh Yeah” is a song that lives up to it’s name. Almost all the lyrics are “oh yeah.” This is kind of a throwaway song. I don’t think it add anything to the CD, and it’s not a good standalone song either. This is kind of an “in between” song, where you can’t tell if it’s a good song or a bad song. It’s leaning more towards the bad song side, though.

“Burnin’” is an awesome party song. The bassline in this song is really great, it makes the song good for me. Enough said.

“Indo Silver Club” is very dancy, but not really fast enough to be danced to. This song is alright. This is kind of like a dancier, not as catchy version of Burnin’.

“Alive” is the album’s real closer. It’s mostly a collage of percussion and synth. In my opinion, Daft Punk aren’t good at closing albums. They always have really good beginnings, but they always lose steam at the end. This song just proves that point even further. Discovery had a bad ending, and the next album, Human After All, had an awful ending. This one is worse than Discovery’s ending, but not as bad as Human After All.

The technical album closer is “Funk Ad,” or as some like to call it, “knuF aD.” This “song” is just about a minute of Da Funk, played backwards, and it actually doesn’t sound bad. A fun ending, even if it wasn’t really an ending, just more of a last word.

After listening to Homework a lot, I think that it’s almost as good as Daft Punk’s second album, Discovery. It’s pretty close, but Homework has too much filler, where as Discovery is good (almost) all the way through. This is really what Daft Punk is all about though. Discovery is their “weird” album, really.

Score:
3 out of 4 or 7.2 out of 10

1/18/08 5:21 P.M. Central Time

Currently, I am fantabulously stoked to go see Cloverfield in 2 hours. When I get back, I’m gonna write a review of it, because I seriously don’t know what to think of this movie other than I’m really excited. So, here goes.
[INSERT CLOVERFIELD REVIEW BELOW]

1/18/08  9:56 P.M. Central Time

I saw Cloverfield, and my impression is this. I loved it. I think Cloverfield is one of the most original and exciting and insane movies I have ever seen, and possibly one of my new favorites.

Think back to when you saw Transformers in the theatre and saw the primere of the “1_18_08″ trailer that didn’t give Cloverfield a name. When you saw that trailer, did you say “Oh my goodness I think I just wet myself” or did you say “What a gay movie! They didn’t even give me a name!”? If you answered yes to the first question, you are going to love Cloverfield just as much as you were hoping you were. It will live up to every expectation you have. If you answered yes to the second question, you’re probably too close-minded about the film already to like it.

For those of you who answered no to both of those questions and didn’t know what to think, I don’t think I can convince you one way or the other. This is a movie that I think you truly have to go to the theatre and watch it for yourself, on the big screen, surround sound, and knowing nothing about it, to decide for yourself whether or not you’re a fan. For those of you know who want to know what I think personally, here’s my spoiler-free review of the movie.

Cloverfield is the single movie that has made me turn to my pal in the theatre and say “holy crap” more times than any movie I have ever seen. Going into the theatre with a few ideas on what I think the monster could be, this movie just slapped me in the face so many times. It’s frightening, it’s exhilarating,  it’s interesting, it’s intense. The entire stretch of the movie, you will be racing around in your head trying to get a grasp on what you think is really happening and what you think will happen next.

That’s kind of the effect that the combination of going to see it in the theatre and the home-video camera filming brings to the table. When you’re in that theatre and all you see is a huge screen with sound all around you making noises that are happening literally all around you, while all the time watching through the lens of someone’s home-video camera while they stumble, hide, and run for their lives,  it’s a very vicarious feeling. You really feel like you are there, and everything that happens is happening to you.

Because of this effect, the movie has a lot of freak-out moments. For example, [light spoiler ahead] there’s a part of the movie where the camera-holder is getting rescued from New York, and gets in a military helicopter to escape. While flying away, he turns to look out the window, and sees the monster (no, I won’t tell you what it is) walking through New York, destroying things and doing things that monsters do, when a military missile flies through the air and creates a huge bowl of smoke, blocking all view of anything on screen. People in the helicopter cheer and curse with happiness while the camera shakes from clapping. Then, all of a sudden (you knew it wasn’t dead) the monster jumps out of the smoke and grazes the helicopter, sending it spinning down fast into the earth. This is really like 30 seconds of a roller coaster during this moment. You feel like you’re there. It’s amazing.

The downside of this is the fact that there are a few parts of the movie where the frantic-ness of the camera-holder can give you a headache or a stomachache, depending. With me, it wasn’t a big problem, but if you get motion sickness easily or if 3D movies hurt your eyes, you might want to be prepared. (Cloverfield is not in 3D, don’t worry. Just giving an example.)

[Spoilers are over, open your eyes] The story of the movie isn’t much to talk about, and the more interesting parts are shrouded in mystery to let you think about for yourself. Still, with all the excitement going on, you really don’t mind very much. Basically, [no spoilers here, don't worry] this guy named Rob is moving to Japan for a job offer he got, and his best friend Hudson (or Hud, as he’s called) is documenting his going away party and interviewing people about things they’d like to say to Rob before he leaves. Long story short, there’s some kind of freakish earthquake, the power goes in and out, everyone goes outside and sees things going crazy, fire falling from the sky, and things exploding.

The statue of liberty’s head gets knocked off and goes soaring into the middle of a street, and a huge monster starts rampaging over the city and giving birth to smaller creatures to completely annihilate New York for unknown reasons. Rob has to go save his best friend whom he hooked up with recently from a building on the other side of town, where she’s injured, to tell her how he feels about her before he leaves for Japan. And that’s the main premise of the movie. Simple, but the way it’s done is genius.

My only complaints about the movie are three things.

1: There were still lots of unanswered questions at the end of the movie. [spoilers below]

In pure J.J. Abrhams “LOST” style, at the end of the movie, you were satisfied, but then after you get in the car and drive away from the theatre, you think to yourself “oh wait, where did the smoke come from?” “why was the monster attacking in the first place?” and other questions

[spoilers over]

2: Watching the movie at home, on a  DVD/Blu Ray/Whateveryouhave, the movie isn’t going to be near as good.

Cloverfield was amazing and shocking in a huge theatre sized screen where you were completely isolated from the rest of the world, and completely living the story of Cloverfield. The same can be said for almost any movie, but I think that home viewing will really detract from the amazing factor of Cloverfield.

3: I loved the ending. But most of the people in the theatre with me did NOT, and I heard quite a few choice words when it ended.

You’re either going to hate the ending or love it. Enough said.

My final thoughts are this: You must go see Cloverfield in the theatre while it’s still there. It’s quite the trip, and you feel like you’re very involved because of the filming technique.

Final word
Rating: 3.8 out of 4 or 9.5 out of 10