Asleep In The Bread Aisle

6.2/10

Best Track: Sour Patch Kids

Worst Track: Blunt Cruising

Asher Roth is white. Not Eminem white, but Eugene Levy-as Jim’s-dad white. Yeah, THAT white. He samples Weezer and Ben Kweller, his main hip-hop influence is Mos Def, and he raps about College and Mario Kart, until now, uncharted territory in mainstream hip hop. However, as “Asleep on The Bread Aisle” displays, this is not necessarily a good or bad thing, just his thing, and, as his freshman debut, that’s a good enough premise for me. Not good, or bad, but good enough.

Asher Roth alternates silly moments with serious moments in “Asleep”, never losing his tempo or flow throughout the entire album. Despite being a fan of Roth’s entertaining, although ultimately empty, wit and his slow and clear cadence, which I’ll get back to later, the content of his rhymes, save for very few exceptions (His Dream), often lack depth and value, even if it’s mere shallow entertainment. “Bad Day” is by far the most ridiculous track on the album as he narrates a typical Asher-Roth bad day, which includes things such as sitting next to a fat person on the plane, him wanting to shit but not being able to, turbulence, forgetting his Ipod, Meeting an annoying girl from his high school, and room service not being a Latina maid willing to fuck him. If you don’t see it as simply fucking ridiculous then, in the least, you’ll understand that Asher Roth’s bad day is utterly boring.

Thankfully, “Bad Day”, like a plethora of other tracks on “Asleep”, is saved by the great production values of newcomer Oren Yoel, who, as you can see by the name, is also as white as Asher, but thankfully, infinitely more talented. “His Dream”, as I mentioned before, has amazing production values, with a dreamy piano hook and backing vocals, adding to the mood of the song. The album’s highlight, both lyrically and musically, “Sour Patch Kids” makes a musical allusion to Run DMC’s rock box with a heavily distorted guitar, but it doesn’t so much as steal from it, as it updates it, making you revert back to 1984 without losing the context as Roth sings “Take me away from here”. The distorted guitar over the creative bass beat adds to Roth’s incessant rhymes, and the chorus is the most infectious modern pop can get. Besides His Dream, Bad Day, and Sour Patch Kids, Oren Yoel’s stroke of genius is present in 6 other “Asleep” songs, and he is the one that, ultimately, saves Asher’s freshman album from mediocrity.

Okay, that might’ve been harsh. There are also the guest performers. Cee-lo, Miguel and Jazze-Pha, some of the collaborating crooners for this album, play decisive, not to mention respectively groovy, emotional and funky, parts in enhancing Roth’s tracks. On the other hand, the rappers that Asher Roth invited to guest spit on Asleep, Busta Rhymes and Slick Rick, manage to deliver worse material than Asher himself. Busta Rhymes in particular sounds obsolete and just plain old, reaffirming how low Busta has sunk.

Asher Roth is the classic example of a budding artist trying to find his identity, as his rhymes are very inconsistent and he struggles constantly with his identity. Matter a fact, he struggles so with it much he dedicated an entire track to his struggle: “As I Em”, where he complains ad nauseam about being compared to Eminem, but without disrespecting him. The thing is, who in fact, is comparing Asher Roth to Eminem? Despite their cadence and flow *sometimes* being similar, their topics when rapping are almost polar opposites, and I haven’t seen any press comment on Roth’s likeness to Eminem. It would be infantile to say they are similar because they are white. We are not in 1991 anymore; there are a plethora of white rappers out there, besides Eminem, doing their game and achieving success, not only on the underground, but on the mainstream as well. Paul Wall, Bubba Sparxx, Aesop Rock, Mike Skinner…the list is never-ending.

Roth is a diamond in the rough, or at least, a work in progress. His rapping dynamics are superb, despite sometimes leaning on cliché, and so are his beats, something rare to find on a freshman debut. What makes this CD mediocre, however, is it's lyrical content. Not to say that his overall topic choice is boring, he just does it wrong, with overused phrasing and awkward, even weak, metaphors. What Roth needs is a contextual makeover, a rhyming dictionary, and a new world view, after all, as Kanye West proved it, college can only last for so long. What’s next, Mr. Roth?

No Line On The Horizon

6.4/10

Best Track: Get On Your Boots

Worst Track: White As Snow (Could only find a sped up version, which is actually more fun then the original)

I’ve never been a big fan of U2. Not that I have anything against Bono and Co. but I’ve just never been able to count any of their albums among my favorites. It is true that they have a collection of songs that are incredible on any and all standards (ex. Pride (In The Name Of Love), Sunday Bloody Sunday), but I’ve always felt that they were a band that had seen their best days in the 80’s, and that were now of small importance as far as creativity and ingenuity in music goes. The type of band that see’s their albums reach #1 more for what they achieved in the past then for their efforts in the present. Their last album, 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, only served to further confirm my dogma about the Irish band. However, after listening to U2’s twelfth studio album, No Line on the Horizon, I can’t help almost feeling that I might be wrong. Almost.

If you’re one of those people who have a pretty much formed opinion about U2 at this point, this is certainly not the record that is going to change your opinion about them, and I even recommend not giving it that much attention. Hell, lord knows there’s a lot of stuff to listen to out there. However, if you are one of those “on the fence” people, this album might be just the small push you need to find yourself firmly standing on either side.

No line on the Horizon, like every U2 album since 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire, pays its production credits to renowned producer Brian Eno. (Eno is often credited as one of the inventors of ambient music, as well as having worked with influential artists like The Talking Heads and David Bowie). When listening through No Line, I was surprised at how this feels like their first album in at least ten years in which Eno’s production shows clearly and significantly. The best examples of this can be heard on the tracks “Fez – Being Born Again” and “Breathe”. The former is easily the boldest track in the album, sporting a highly layered and textured minute long intro where Eno employs distant voices, samples from other songs in the album, and small changes in time signature to transport the listener to Fez, Morocco, where part of the album was recorded. The latter, in the other hand, is a far more conventional track, which sees Eno employing some of the same tricks he used on another album he recently produced; Coldplay’s Viva La Vida (more specifically on the song Yes).

While No Line On The Horizon’s first single “Get On Your Boots”, does not quite pack the punch of their last album’s “Vertigo”, the fierceness of The Edge’s snarling guitar riff played throughout makes it a worthy addition to the U2 canon. The muffled drums and vocals in this tracks bridge, followed by the ensuing revitalized aforementioned riff, make for one of the albums definite highlights. “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” is another song that is sure to become a U2 live staple in the next few years, despite its awful title. This is one of those songs that feel like it was made to be played in a packed arena, and it would probably work a lot better in that setting then it does in this album. Also, this is easily the most traditionally U2 song in the album, containing all the characteristics that come to mind when thinking of the band, from the spacey shimmering guitar notes to the catchy, sing-a-long chorus.

Unfortunately, there are times when neither U2’s song writing or Eno’s production are particularly outstanding, and in those rough patches we find the albums low points. One such pitfall, “Magnificent” is found after the album’s stomping, opening title track. Although Eno’s production in this track is worthy of note, it does not manage to make listening to this track an altogether pleasant experience. The follow up track, “Moment of Surrender” is dragged down by its own unnecessary length, making it a wearisome listen at well over 7 minutes long. The album only hits rock bottom, however, with the horrible “White As Snow”. With lyrics like “Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not” Bono aims for introspective, but hits plain boring instead.

Whether you love them or hate them, you’ve got to hand it to U2: few bands stick it out together for as long as these guys have, and even fewer of those manage to put out a record as good as this one after being around for 30 years (their first release, “Boy”, dates back to 1980). If you think about it, it's no wonder younger bands like The Killers have gone on record stating they want to be the “next U2”. Unfortunately for The Killers though, No Line On The Horizon makes it pretty clear that Bono and co. aren’t ready to let other bands fill in their boots just yet.

Manners

9.0/10

Best Track: Sleepyhead

Worst Track: Seaweed Song

Holy FUCK what a great CD.

With that said, I am very happy to be able to have an outlet to the world so I can show how much I appreciated this sparkling jewel of an LP amongst the hazy and often tedious sea of electro pop trash.

From start to finish, “Manners” is one vibrant and energetic thrill. From its overflowing and overlapping synthesizers to its recurrent children’s choir providing the backing vocals, the album is a joy ride that ends as abruptly as it begins. Starting with the grand, carnivalesque “Make Light," Passion Pit’s synth-induced high only ends with the final falsetto-ed chorus of “Seaweed Song."

However, beyond being a great album with almost impeccable flow, the album is almost entirely comprised of great individual tracks that can hold their own in any mix-tape or, as it is in the case of most of the album, any dance floor.

“Sleepyhead” and “The Reeling” are two particular gems off of this album, hard as it was to pick them out. “Sleepyhead” sounds as vibrant and shiny as in its original appearance amidst the also great, yet definitely inferior, “Chunk of Change," Passion Pit’s first EP. In particular, it’s also a great introductory song as it has all the elements and staples that comprise most of Pit’s works: handclaps, overlapping synths, a thumping beat, and incessant, nonsensical lyrics sung in falsetto by Passion Pit’s charismatic leadsinger, Michael Angelakos.

The band’s single, “The Reeling," on the other hand, is an indie dance club anthem just waiting to happen. Its stuttering synths in the introduction give lead to one of the jumpiest tracks on the album, and that’s saying a lot based on the saccharine-filled nature of the tracks on “Manners." It has a great buildup to the chorus that, once again, has the stuttering synths of the introduction but is now backed up by Angelakos’ falsettos, that add musical depth and that bubble-gum catchiness that will get you singing the chorus for the rest of the day.

Despite my decision to set those two tracks apart, the rest of the album does not lag behind, in any shape or form. “Moth’s Wings” is an ambitious tune, with grand, open, piano chords, while “Swimming in the Flood”, the album’s slowest track, is a solid and masterfully produced power ballad, just to name two more.

Passion Pit’s first record is fresh, masterfully produced, danceable and, so far, one of the year’s greatest surprises. If you can handle the high doses of falsettos and synthesizers, “Manners” will not only be constantly spinning in your bedroom but also inside your turntables. 

Also a big shoutout to Jessica Stewart for helping me MAJORLY out with this post, the last post, and for noticing the similarities between Angelakos and this guy.

21st Century Breakdown

3.5/10

Best Track: “21 Guns”

Worst Track: “Christian’s Inferno” (sorry for the quality!)

It’s funny to think that the kids who didn’t care are now the world staple of politically driven, “big-message” arena rock. While listening to “21st Century Breakdown” I couldn’t help but to think about how that young man with crazy green hair sang about how masturbation lost its fun, tightened his pants, smacked on his eyeliner, completely lost himself wanting to be just like Bono, and then fell short. 18 tracks short, to be specific, as this album proves.

“21st Century Breakdown” is a another rock-opera but feels more like a pastiche, a collage, perhaps even an homage to Green Day’s friends, colleagues, and influences. The few places where the album is slightly entertaining are on the tracks that are different just slightly enough from another song so they would not be called plagiarism, as in the Hives-induced “Horseshoes and Handgrenades.” The same can be said about the blatant harmonic John Lennon rip-off “Last Night on Earth," initially written 35 years before as “Isolation” by Lennon himself. Not only on those tracks however, do we hear Green Day’s musical “allusions": “Know Your Enemy” mimics Clash’s vibrant “Oi oi oi!” punk tunes, and, shit, Billy Joe even gets his Brian May on with the epic, glorious solo at the end of the title track, “21st Century Breakdown", the same track that had already borrowed from Pete Townsend’s “bird-man” guitar playing in its introduction. However, if am listening to a Green Day album, where the fuck are Green Day?

But they are there, and when they are there, they are painfully trite and boring. Billy Joe’s lyrics are creatively lacking when introspective (Did you stand too close to the fire?/Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone) and childish when going political (I can hear the sound of a beating heart/that bleeds beyond a system that's falling apart). Musically speaking, almost every track on “Breakdown” follows the same formula: start off slowly, Billy Joe starts singing, enter drums and massive power chord harmonies. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with power chords, but there’s something wrong with the way Green Day employs them. The melodies are as repetitive and boring as the lyrics, which follow the loosely constructed tale of Christian and Gloria, the runaway couple that this rock opera is allegedly about. Even what I presumed to be Green Day’s forte, Tre Cool’s amazing drumming ability, is overshadowed by the necessity of Joe’s songs to appeal to the masses that are going to show up at the tour, the masses that he so often criticizes on “21st Century Breakdown” and on the former, definitely better album “American Idiot”.

I guess I just miss how it used to be when I first listened to Green Day. They recorded crazy, punked out songs where you could feel that everybody was doing what they wanted to be doing, just for the fuck of it. You could almost hear the energy of the Green Day boys playing in the studio: Mike Dirnt’s bass thumping, Billy Joe’s throat swelling up with his unfiltered energy, Tre Cool’s drumsticks beating away until they chipped, as is the case on “Basket Case." They were the embodiment of Generation X, and, unlike all of of the other acts happening at the time, they embraced it and loved it. “21 Guns," arguably the best track on “Breakdown,” has all the elements of a nice, listenable ballad and is even enjoyable, but it’s cliché. What made Green Day unique has disappeared.  Perhaps it was lost when Billy Joe went looking for other things to do besides what he did best: having fun, going crazy, and, perhaps most importantly, masturbating

6.8 - Introduction

This is my fourth blog, and people would think that I would have given up writing blogs by now. Especially since my blogs have had lifespans as small as 3(!) posts. But gladly, this will (hopefully) not be the case with this blog!

Idealized from musical discussions with my friend Lucas Feith, and with my great love for reading reviews and wanting to voice my opinions I, jointly with Lucas, decided to start this blog as a way to try my hand at musical reviews and to voice my opinions.

The title makes reference to a story published in the satirical newspaper The Onion, in which Pitchfork media founder and editor Ryan Schreiber gave the score of 6.8/10 to music as a whole. 

We will grade on 1-10 scale, and going into decimals when we see fit.

Good reading!