Genesis - Genesis

Release: October 3, 1983
Genre: Let's call it "art pop" and be done with it.
Label: Charisma Records (UK), Atlantic Records (US)
Length: 45:59

Nick's Rating: 3.5/5

I'm gonna do something different this time and basically take the mick out of the majority of this album instead of giving it a proper review. That score up there does say 3.5, yes, but I'm spending a review taking the piss out of this album. TV Tropes would refer to this with "Four Point Scale" -- I, however, am just doing what I do best, and nowhere did I say I was wiping myself with the whole album.

Okay. Quick question: are you a fan of pop Genesis or prog genesis? BUZZ! Time's up! You're still gonna hate "Second Home by the Sea!" This "song," if you can even call it that, being the tail end of "Home by the Sea" is basically just a long instrumental, although with piss-poor arrangement and a generally anemic sound, which is not thanks at all to the instruments the band is using at this time (whatever gave you that idea?). It's not even like a matter of not knowing where to go; they just didn't blend the prog and pop sides together right. Or rather, they did, but they left it to sit for a few days and they separated back into separate layers. And then they BOTH got moldy, and they just said "screw it" and went ahead. The end result is not the worst song in the Genesis canon (and if you honestly believe that, uh... God help you if you buy a copy of We Can't Dance, is all I'm saying), but a six-minute drag-a-thon that, were it the only Genesis song I'd ever heard, I think I might snap and kill Tony Banks with a shovel. Mike and Phil can stay alive, and why would I bother with the two guys who weren't even in the scene anymore.

Pleasant surprise, though: "Home by the Sea" was released as a single in some territories! Hopefully not with that dreadful second part on, though.

The only two other truly bad songs on the album are the last two ones on the album. I mean, a lot of people talk about "Illegal Alien," which technically is a bad song with its doofy faux Mexican accent, unfortunate implications, and the-less-said-about-it-the-better type video, but I find it strangely cute, probably because it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Har, stupidity from Genesis? I'll take it over pseudointellectualism from Tool, at least.

So, before I get completely sidetracked, "Silver Rainbow" and "It's Gonna Get Better" do literally nothing for me. I've mentioned my love of George Starostin, and he praised the vocals on "Silver Rainbow" all those years ago when he reviewed the album, and I don't blame him -- but one thing doesn't a good song make. A friend of mine even noted that "Second Home" has a hook. True. "It's Gonna Get Better," then, has pretty much literally got nothing going for it. It's not even lyrically interesting or snarky. Fine, I can accept a truly optimistic song, yes, but I've heard so many of them after twenty one goddamn years of listening to the radio that another one will just leave me cold and be ignored.

Oh, and then there's "Taking It All Too Hard." Which is so unremarkable that I completely forgot about it. It's a sleepy, go-nowhere type of tune with, uh... I don't want to say no redeeming qualities. The electric piano is cute. But I wouldn't call it a really good song by any means whatsoever; it's just there. It's single material. Also known as filler. Those sound like they should be mutually exclusive, right? Nope. Not in this genre. It's kind of undortunate, too.

"That's All" just doesn't do much for me either, but it's quick moving and harmless, really. It's pure simplicity, but I don't find it much fun to listen to, probably because I still like prog Genesis more than pop genesis. But it is nice to hear the natural drums actually come out rather quickly. I think there's still a drum machine in some parts with those, but that's okay. Like I said, this one's a matter of taste; you might like it, but I don't. I mean, I do, but I don't like listening to it.

What I do like listening to, though, now that we're done with all the negativity, are the other three songs. "Mama" is one that probably everyone knows, from its distorted, jagged, I'd even say pseudo-industrial, drum machine opening down to Phil's evil as hell laugh. To some people, it represents the worst of Genesis' pop dreck. To me? I'd point you to "Taking It All Too Hard" for that. "Mama" is actually a cool song, even if not the best of Genesis' work (no matter what chart positions will tell you). The song has something that most of the rest of this album lacks -- an actual mood other than "cold drum-machine-based pop" (which is more a genre than an actual mood, but who cares?). It's dark, sinister, and almost throws you straight into the malevolent cityscape that Phil sings about, particularly as the song draws on and the explosively booming natural drums come out. Dear lord. I thought I'd hate this song way back when I started listening to this album. But, no. This truly is "art" in popular music. You thought that "art pop" thing was just a joke 'cause I couldn't let go of Genesis as a prog band? You fool!

I think the other two songs, though, are actually my favorites here, probably because they ease off the drum machine and are a little more "rock" than "pop." "Home by the Sea" is probably my longtime favorite from this album. I couldn't really say what it is about it -- I think it's really just the fact that it's as simple as it is, to the point that it belies the band's true identity as art rock, no matter how poppy they try to become (until We Can't Dance, anywway, which actually is the band's worst album, not Calling All Stations). Avoid, of course, "Second Home by the Sea," which has all the artistic content of a case of hammer toes and all the listenability of getting shot in the ear.

"Just a Job to Do" is cool, too. A bit generic, really, but it has energy to spare, which is something I can't say about most of the other languid crap on this album, and it's kind of funny in its own way -- because the lyrics speak of a P.I. chasing down a target, and could you ever think of Phil Collins being that bad-ass? A man whose mind is a dark place separated into smaller, darker places, yes, but actually bad-ass? That would require some serious convincing, and I think that "Just a Job to Do" comes about as close as it possibly could. Which is to say, it's still not very good. Phil shouting "BANG BANG BANG! and down you go!" is kind of funny, instead. Thankfully, the song is still pretty good, if, as I said, generic -- but that's a problem with all the other pop songs on the album, too. This isn't an album about doing anything new.

That's probably why it's enjoyable. Not that Genesis were truly bad when they were experimental, but it was kind of hit and miss sometimes.

I probably am doing this because I hate myself.

Lyriel - Leverage

Release: February 24, 2012
Genre: Some kind of metal with female vocals. I don't know what genres are anymore anyway, why are you asking?
Label: AFM Records
Length:

Nick's Rating: 3.5/5

I'm really not at a point where I'm anticipating albums much anymore, at least, not for the year. There's a new Diablo Swing Orchestra forthcoming, and new Rush, but otherwise, most of my favorite bands are either defunct or have released an album in the past two years and take long enough crafting their works that it's unfair to expect an album this year. In fact, in some respects I almost wouldn't be surprised if Clockwork Angels, currently set for a May 29th release, got another delay. (Okay, not really; they're far enough along with the album that another delay would require tapes be destroyed in the middle of the night.) So far, also, there's only been one album this year that I've really given a good listen to, that being Glass Kites' debut (which I might review eventually).

That said, I was outright shocked to hear about Leverage, considering Paranoid Circus was as recent as 2010. It wasn't an unpleasant surprise, but thanks to America being a little too ready to keep me from getting hold of a decent album, I had a bad feeling I'd have to wait for a hard copy. I won't comment on that, suffice to say that I, sadly, was saddled with a downloaded copy at release day. Yeah, I can't get ONE damn copy of this album weeks later, but most of the now limited options I have out where I live for actually picking up hard copies of albums sure did have a ton of copies of Megadeth's TH1RT3EN, the biggest disappointment of the year, at release day.

In short, this isn't actually a review of Leverage, but rather a lamentation about how FUCKING BACKASSWARDS the brick-and-mortar element of the music industry is in America. Is it because Dave Mustaine is a squeaky clean, Santorum-backing Christian who does this just to troll the metal community, while Jessica Thierjung is a strange blend of Siouxie Sioux and Tarja Turunen whom, people would assume (probably for all the wrong reasons), thinks present-day American politicking is a festering Gordian knot of raw psychosis? (Not that I would likely have a chance of picking this up in a German record store, anyway.)

Okay, I need to cut that out. I'll start to hate looking at this crap. Anyway. To some the Siouxie Sioux comparison might seem odd, but in what is perhaps the exact opposite of a surprise, I think I can reason this out. Think for a few moments about just how wide of an area the Banshees covered musically, even though they were mostly confined to that "goth" sound or group of sounds. Compare "Kiss Them For Me," a pop song, to "Melt!" -- which... is in a genre all its own, really (well, it's kind of post-punk, so). In some respects, this is the comparison between this album's title track and the last album's. Leverage's title track is an arena-ready creation that could probably have been written and performed by any number of talented bands (albeit still keeping a bit of the artist's signature on it). "Paranoid Circus," instead, was comparatively unique, something that only a band in the same genre could make, and probably not most bands in the same genre. (Also, I feel that Thierjung could probably cultivate a similar "obsessed with the era of black and white film" look to Siouxie -- perhaps taking inspiration more from Polaire? Oh, I'm overthinking this.)

Though it does look like she's getting to style her looks after Florence Welch.

The lone problem I have with the song "Leverage," really, is that it's almost devoid of personality. More so than the aforementioned Banshees tune that I drew the reference to (which is, in terms of style, nothing like this song, before anyone says anything). It's one of those songs that a band like this would make to sell records (not that it'd help). At this point, you need an identity in this industry, and Lyriel has a perfectly good one. Why throw that away just to, supposedly, get listeners? (For all I berate this song on the matter though, it probably did help; Barnes and Noble allows me to order it off their online store, when they haven't got any of the other albums and stock only maybe one or two Threshold albums -- Threshold being, if last.fm is anything to go by, a far more popular group, albeit also nearly unknown in America).

At least they seem to gather up personality again on some of their other songs, like "Parting" and "White Lily." The album, overall, is a little more energetic and loud than I remember Paranoid Circus being, but I remember only a little of that album, which is probably a massive travesty. I couldn't really say because I don't remember. I also am not sure how this measures up as "folk metal," since I guess I don't really know what that's supposed to mean, but I will say that it's really not the Nightwish rip-off that people on Youtube keep talking about. Which I think I mentioned last review, but it needs to be said again.

Geez. I've spent a lot of time complaining in this review. Really, though, the album is far more solid than I act. The only thing here that I could live without is "The Road Not Taken," adapted from a famous Robert Frost poem, but a large reason for my distaste for it is from having the poem crammed down my throat. I went to Northside College Prep, a reasonably famous Chicago public high school known for being smart. They basically wore Frost's "The Road Not Taken" on their sleeves, possibly even by its incorrect title "The Road Less Traveled," wearing it as some badge of honor that you, student, took the road less traveled. And they paraded their high end standardized test scores around the school like that were some kind of actual accomplishment! It was a little distressing, to be polite. I guess it's a little silly, my reasoning, but I don't want to hear the words ever again. I probably could recite them from memory, but I'd have to do it while sucking a jezail and flailing for the trigger.

Ugh. I tried to stop, okay? Also, "Wenn die Engel Fallen" makes me glad for the program function of CD players and the capability to make playlists. It's not that it's not pretty, as it really is meant to be -- it's just that it's not very interesting unless you're in the mood for pretty things, and by that point, the album has basically ground away your desire for that. I'm using "pretty" in a rather generic sense, here, since even the noisier bits of this album could be considered pretty if you're predisposed to it.

I think that's one of the major downfalls of this album; it does try to be too things at once. In the end, it suffers immensely for that. Much like Lyriel's previous album, the result feels less than the sum of its parts. But some of its parts are good. Or at least fun. I kinda hope that "Leverage" brings this band a bit of actual airplay. This is one of those groups that I'd love to see go places, honestly.