Hello people, how's everything? Hope everything is alright with everyone. :)
The internship countdown: After 5 weeks of internship and 9 more weeks left, all I can say is that, my internship involves lots of crying. Yup, the act of sheddin' tears. If I can combine all those whom I saw cryin' for the past month, I think I can say I saw one person crying per working day. Wait, before you think any further, nope, they didn't cry because of me. And no, they didn't cry because of what I did to them, wait, maybe it's something I did. Well, wanna guess what's the deal with peoples' tendency to cry in front of me? ;-)
Back to some music stuff, I still can't get enough of
SNSD's
Oh!,
Lady Antebellum's
Need You Now and
Pin Me Down's
Time Crisis. Click
here for my previous rant about all three songs and few more~ :D Great stuff, I think. Haha.
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I've been listening to
Miike Snow's debut album for the past few weeks. I don't really get their kind of pop at 1st, but after previewing few of their tracks at youtube, I finally decided to give the album a spin. B4 I start, you should know that I am not an album kinda guy,
so it's hard for me digest a whole 10 track album, the last album that I really love are
Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster (whether you agree or disagree with me, this is a POP Masterpiece).
Anyway, back to Miike Snow, the 1st track, "Animal" is the song that kick starts my interest in them (yup, its trio which consists of lead singer, Andrew Wyatt and the duo of
Bloodshy & Avant of Brit's Toxic fame, you thought it was a dude huh? Same here.) I gotta admit that they really got me humming to the chorus after few spin, but I did find the lyrics are way too
kooky for my taste, at 1st. Seriously, a song about being an animal? LOL. I don't think they take themselves that
seriously, that's when I think that is how I should approach "it" :) It's supposed to be a
fun album, the verdict, it is. (Well, I might be wrong :)
I really enjoyed myself listening to it, even though the 1st representative track "Animal" is a catchy pop piece to my ear. It's their
quiet moments that totally sealed the deal for me, especially the next two tracks, "Burial" and "Silvia". That is when I fell in lurve with the lead singer's voice. I personally think Andrew's voice is very sexy, very smooth (psst, I usually lurve deep voices such as
Paolo Nutini or
Darius Danesh)
I don't quite know how to describe their sound. But according to their wikipedia page, they are labeled as Indie Pop and Electropop. OK, stuff that I usually like. Won't be too bad.
I love their heavy usage of piano, horn, drums and the equally important synthesizer in the album. It blends well together to produce something so melodically beautiful. It blends well with the soft soothing vocal of the lead singer to take it to another level.
There is something that I don't get though, some of their lyrics are quite creepy,
"It's over, Don't forget to cry at your own burial"??? and weird
"A horse is not a home"?? *scratches head* I have no problem with that though, sometimes it's all about the beautiful complimenting melody. I think I just need more time to digest it (lyrics-wise) I might not get it til the end but who cares?
Another thing that I lurve about this album is the fact that most of the beats are so danceable and pop-ish, the lyrics took a 180 degree turn from the
sunshine-happy-lovin' approach to a more melancholic stance. Not everything from the Pop genre gotta be all
sunshine-shining-out-of-people-ass. No kiddin' :) Cue, "Song For No One" (my personal faves of the album)
I personally find "Cult Logic" is a more digestible version of
MGMT's
Electric Feel with all those jungle theme bits. Yes, I love
Electric Feel. While "In Search Of" kinda reminds me of Kylie and Little Boots. And I mean that as a compliment. I wonder what magix will happen if Kylie lends her vocal to that track~
"Plastic Jungle" and "A Horse Is Not A Home" are the
low point of the album, I don't really dig it as much as the other song, they sound very out of place with too many things going on at one time
. A bit too OTT for my taste but it's all good.
Final verdict, this is definitely not your typical
fun pop album. It's not exactly what I thought it would be since it's from the guys who won a Grammy for Toxic (brilliant pop song btw) but something that is so different that it surprises you with lots of pure, clean, and polished pop gems. This is a good way to start the year. A great way.
Best bits of the album: "Burial", "Silvia", "Song For No One", "Animal", "Cult Logic" and "In Search Of".
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Listening to:
Miike Snow - Song for No Onevia FoxyTunes
