Kill me now.

Lyriel - Paranoid Circus

Release: 2010
April 1, 2011 (re-release)
Genre: Female-fronted folk/symphonic metal
Label: AFM Records (re-release)
Length:

Nick's Rating: 3.5/5

For those of you following my "project," consider the Cage the Elephant review a Monday post and this a Tuesday post.

So, for my second review this week... I chose this. Quite the departure from Cage the Elephant, huh? (And why not? They say variety is the spice of life.) Compared to that album's hard-edged alternative rock, Lyriel's Paranoid Circus is a series of metal songs that I... suppose are folk metal? That's what I'm told, anyway, but I don't know what that means. I guess it would be a struggle to turn "Electric Light Orchestra and a carnival's metal-ish third wheel" into a real genre name. But there you are. Lyriel, to me, share more in common with carny-rock acts like Vermillion Lies, Rasputina, or, God forbid, Emilie Autumn than they do with... Sol Invictus, or something. (Not like The Dresden Dolls, though, who are too Hot Topic-ready to really be carnies, if you get what I'm saying.)

Though, at the same time, what's in a genre or even an artist comparison? Someone posted a comment on the title track's video calling them out (I assume it was a call-out) for being like Nightwish. I don't see it. I guess if your band is metal and you have a lead singer with no Y chromosome and even think about string instruments that aren't guitar or bass, you're like Nightwish. (If you think about bass, though, you're a pussy for not mixing it out and making your music ear-ravaging.) Of course, this is stated with derision. Which is utter bullshit. I'm a bit cold toward Nightwish, too, okay? Let's not pretend they're my favorite band. But this comparison is like saying that the Rolling Stones are similar to Vanden Plas because both feature guitars, drums, bass, and a male lead singer. To be sure, Lyriel have a few things in common with Nightwish, but they are not close enough on the genre level to make this a legitimate comparison.

Speaking of the title track of the video and female-fronted "opera metal" (which is a plenty bullshit saying in the same way that saying that Liz Phair's music is meaningful or saying that Liz Phair's music is meaningless is a bullshit saying), I'm honestly surprised that the lesbian fanservice is rather... new to the genre's videos. How was this not thought of before? Was it so the bands could remain goth-friendly by depicting the world as, by and large, claustrophobic and loveless? Which is really what the video does. The sexuality is only minor and uncomfortable, not so much superbly erotic. Slightly sexual, yes, but only enough to briefly distract you from how discomfiting the thought of being captured by two strangers who live in your mirror (which is a severe paranoia-inducer) is. So, uh, it's pretty possible to have something like that, which seems like a natural fit for the genre, and still preserve the goth-friendliness of the music.

Which it has in spades, by the way, but in more of a way of borrowing from The Cure than neo-goth things. There are occasionally thunderous drums and electronically-treated sounds throughout; really, to me, the title track is the most natural song on the album... and definitely my favorite, and not even just for the video. To be fair, this isn't much of a dose of capsaicin compared to most things in the genre, and I guess that it's even pretty low on the Scoville compared to their other material, from what I've read? But I've never heard any of it to verify myself, so I guess skip that for now. There are no great revelations to be found in the music, sure, but this isn't Diablo Swing Orchestra or whoever. As ever, originality is at a premium, in a way. Better that they be unoriginal and unknown, I say.

But really, that is what stops me really caring about this record: the lack of any really original ideas. There isn't much to say about this record that you can't say about another one, and little that it says that another record doesn't say better. There is just not enough to comment on here; nothing stands out anywhere near enough save the title track to save it from being just slightly above average. There is, however, one thing that weighs it down: the beginning track. The first track of the album is an intro, featuring a spoken word welcoming the listener to the Paranoid Circus. Unfortunately, there is little to no need to have this stupid thing in there. So, why is it there? It's not like this is a concept album as far as I can tell, so it's just some kind of dippy joke that's not funny at all. They could have at least tried some kind of Emerson, Lake & Palmer thing. "Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends" could actually be less a goofy intro and more a legitimate threat in the hands of this outfit. I guess bonus points to the the man who narrates for also inserting a Hesse quote in the middle of the album.

But beyond that, so what? The songs are all decent, but not interesting enough to make the album anywhere near great. It's an interesting listen, yes. Many albums are. Could I recommend it? Sure. I'm just not sure I'd be any good at that. It's really kind of a strange album to look at... probably because enough people seem interested in tarring it with epithets like "Nightwish knockoff" because it has female vocals. Yeah, okay, I am sort of saying "the world is not quite ready for this." Well, at least not the metal world, which is still full enough of arrogant elitist scumbags that this will get flak for being something it's not.

How many times can I say "This sounded like a good idea at first..." anyway?

Cage the Elephant - s/t

Release: June 23, 2008 (U.S.)
May 19, 2009 (U.K.)
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label: RED - An Artist Development Company (U.S.)
Relentless Records (U.K.)
Length: 37:53

Nick's Rating: 4/5

Sunday was the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. I didn't know about this until just the day of (for reasons that should come as no surprise whatsoever). As such, I'll spend the entire week reviewing one album from the 21st Century a day. I decided to start with this one and will probably work my way down in quality as the week goes, which is a pretty accurate reflection of my usual moods; happy at the beginning of the week, full of rage by the end and ready to garrote myself with my own intestines in protest of oh who needs anything to fucking protest when you're that mad at the world that you'd actually come up with something that goddamned wrong. I considered ending the week with a review of Prince's 1999, a significant high water mark in popular music, which turned twenty-eight this year and remains as awesome as it always was... and would take the length of the week for a full-length review of the bloody thing to gel. Ooh-we sha-sha coo-coo yeah!

A quick note before we get anywhere: Americans are fucking insane. If you need more proof, head to the Mall of America and witness the existence of a Bettie Page-related store. That's all. The contents are significantly more "safe" and not really that much related to her, if I recall correctly, but her face and name is associated with the store. There you go. Over time, I've become convinced that some people (especially Americans) will spend money on anything. It's about the only accounting for Lady Gaga's extreme popularity. I have nothing against her as a person (and certainly not the kind of bile I reserve for politicians); she has some great ideas and can write some good songs, but she is by and large mediocre-at-best as far as the Trade goes, chained by the need to create popular music... something designed specifically to be sold. It's a narrow, narrow place that just feeds into American insanity.

Why am I going off on this tangent, when this is about Cage the Elephant's self-titled album? Well, the Bowling Green, Kentucky-based alt-rock band had become significantly popular in America, so I was significantly skeptical about the contents of this disc, but I was pleased to see that the American insanity occasionally produces positive results. Cage the Elephant's self-titled album is like the BioShock of alternative rock; a redemption for a hit-and-miss genre that has endured some serious mediocrity before and after its release. It's not elegant, of course -- savage music for the American neo-savage.

That starts right away from "In One Ear," which was my first exposure to CTE, via the song's first video, showing off lead singer Matthew Shultz acting in a particularly insane way as he sings the song's... truly boisterous lyrics. He lashes back at critics who would talk shit at him about his drug use (which I don't know about), his being "another Generation X-er [that] somehow slipped up through the cracks," et cetera. "I'm only playin' music 'cause you know I fuckin' love it," he sings, and he's definitely got the right idea, then. He suggests that a critic might say rock-and-roll is dead, but the music makes clear that this is a load of shit. The words aren't even needed, and sadly, they don't so much endear me to the band, but it's still a very nice song.

The intensity doesn't let up much throughout the album. Unfortunately, it's just not much fun to talk about the rest of it, but the songs "James Brown" and "Soil to the Sun" are both great, as is, really, the rest of the album. The intensity is reduced on two other popular songs, "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" and "Back Against the Wall." The former seems to be the most popular song on this album, and why not? It's an entertaining song and not too harsh for the sanitized alternative rock radio airwaves. It's kind of lightweight, in my opinion, with a bit of a Southern sound to it, I guess. The lyrics are more entertaining to me, though, than those on most other songs on the album, while Shultz questions the lifestyles of prostitutes, robbers, and... what I suppose are meant to be televangelists? as they work to make a living. It's presented in a reasonably amusing way, which is just what CTE do: sing entertaining songs in the alternative rock genre. So, a definite success.

"Back Against the Wall," though? Yeah, that's good, too. It's a restrained hard-rock number, a bit different from "No Rest," but also a lot less fun. Give them points, though, for this song; it's absolutely not bad and has every right to be well-known. Good on you all. Boys, I respect what you're doing as I respect Emilie Autumn's attempts to be Rammstein-meets-Tori Amos -- which is to say, I respect it a great deal even when the results are bad (are they bad anywhere on this CD, though?).

The other songs, though, range merely from pretty good to average. The two that really stand out for me are "Tiny Little Robots" -- a strange but very energetic (and noisy!) song. "Lotus," meanwhile, has a very spiritual quality to it, as would be expected of something with that title. It's not at all a bad song, but the one thing that really bugs me about it after a while, is when the music stops when the singer sings the word "Stop." It's cute the first time, but entirely too played out by the second time, and he does it more times. Is that trip really necessary?

But hey! Even with every knuckleheaded detour and every boisterous critic-baiting exercise, and even the forgettable things, Cage the Elephant's first album is a stone-cold success which deserved to sell every single disc it has sold and ever will. Unfortunately, though, a whole genre can't be (re)built on the back of one band; more bands need to take after them to help the ailing genre. Hopefully this album will inspire a few more good bands to pick up their influences and muddle the mixture with some R.E.M./Nirvana/whatever sensibilities and start rescuing this genre from standing on the backs of the bruised and get ti on solid ground. It's a venerable genre that's produced its own fair share of brilliant moments.