Album Review: Lower Lands/This Was Not Our Greatest Endeavour

Lower Lands’ 4-track release, This Was Not Our Greatest Endeavour, opens with the band talking amongst themselves, setting the scene for a potentially self-aware and confessional experience. However when the opening guitar riff cuts through the seemingly naked nature of this beginning, it’s pretty clear what Lower Lands is all about. This is straight punk rock, with a smattering of pop and hardcore for good measure. Their first track, “To The Highest Bidder”, reminds me at times of “London Calling” by the Clash, with its steady guitar hammering home every quarter note, as a second guitar line squeals over top with anxious intensity. This gives way to a chorus reminiscent of Yellowcard or Coheed and Cambria, followed by more verse/chorus, and a solo that any fan of late 80′s Hardcore will enjoy. The other three tracks play out about the way you would expect. This is not a release that is going to change the world of music, but Lower Lands knows what they are trying to do, and they do it quite well.

I can’t say I’m necessarily a fan of this style of music, however their sound is tight and full, with the necessary hooks to get people tapping along. Crackling guitar tones grate over drums that thud in straight time, with a second guitar hitting rhythmic repetitions, as the singer in anguished fervor sing-yells. These are definitely musicians with a fair amount of talent, however I don’t hear anything that I would deem overly original. If someone had told me these were songs from some of the artists I had listed before, I probably would have believed them, which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing. This band fits in nicely to an established genre with a solid fan base, and since the production on these tracks was excellent, there’s no reason they shouldn’t have a loyal following.

I did appreciate that Lower Lands leans more toward a Hardcore Punk mentality than toward a more pop approach. You might have noticed that I haven’t written about the lyrics yet, and that because I found them largely forgettable. Often I was unable to understand what they were singing, which is a stylistic choice of course, but it does strip out a lot of potential value. Other times the lyrics were fairly straightforward, expressing familiar sentiments with basic language.

Overall, if your a fan of this style of music Lower Lands from Lincoln, UK will not disappoint. There were moments that I thoroughly enjoyed, and their sound does get stuck in your head, but I personally wish they would have applied their clear musical gift and hard work on a project with slightly loftier goals.

You can find Lower Lands full album here: http://lowerlands.bandcamp.com/

69/100

Album Review: Michigan Rex/Cities To Burn EP

There was a time in the early 2000′s when electronic pop had a huge revivial. After more than a decade of being somewhat marginalized artists like The Postal Service and Ladytron started to have huge commercial success. With cheery jingles, dance inducing drum tracks, and melancholy vocals, this musical moment seemed coolly smooth, while still retaining a self-aware mindfulness. Michigan Rex fits very nicely into this context.

The first track off Cities To Burn begins with a beautiful sound-scape of mellow and expansive synth parts that build nicely into a very fitting, albeit predictable, beat. When the vocals start there is a sense of subtle defiance in the face of steady melancholy. As the track progresses the synth parts are woven in and out with rather deft hands. Although the track doesn’t really build much further than its start there is a strong and pleasant pervasive sense of style.

The second track starts off sounding very much like The Postal Service with a fairly cheery electric piano jingle which transitions into more of a Rilo Kiley sound with alt-pop guitar strums and melodic vocal harmonies. It’s not the most inspiring song, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it either.

The next two tracks feature the male singer more prominently, where he sounds a little like Chris Carrabba, and although this does fit stylistically with the musical genre, it comes off as forced and weakens the emotional impact of these two tracks. While we’re considering vocals I would like to point out that although I mostly enjoyed the singing of the female lead, I never felt I was hearing her voice unaffected which could have added a more personal connection to the music.

The reprise of ‘Cities’ would be nothing more than a fine example of electronic pop, if it wasn’t for the unexpected intro which was an attack of jagged guitar samples that pulsed in and out gorgeously.

The last two tracks are very well done covers of ‘All My Days’ by Alexi Murdoch and ‘Neighbor’ by Band of Horses. In neither case does it feel like Michigan Rex makes the song their own, but they do infuse their style into the tracks seamlessly, and I can’t help but think that they are clearly very fine musicians, with an understanding of how to make multi-layered synth music sound simple and catchy.

Cities to Burn didn’t wow me lyrically, and I suppose here is an example of the issues I had with the album. Although it is very polished and well constructed, it never reaches for anything that I can identify as particularly personal or real. This is true for most electronic pop, so I suppose that’s to be expected. If you’re a fan of electronic pop, then Michigan Rex will not disappoint you.

You can find Michigan Rex’s Cities to Burn EP here: http://michiganrex.bandcamp.com/album/cities-to-burn-ep

72/100

Experience and audience

This last weekend I was in Kansas City, celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of my grandparents. It was a great time; tons of food, family, and nostalgia with two very caring and smart people at the center of it all. We can all wish to be so lucky I guess. On Saturday night all of the relatives were over at my grandparents’ house. Aunts, uncles and cousins, young and old, all chatting in the kitchen and having a great time. While this was going on I excused myself and went to the living room to play on my grandparents’ piano, which has always had a special place in my heart. It’s nothing incredibly special, mind you, just a fairly normal upright, however it has a familiar action, and a tone I adore.

I sat down and started playing some of the ideas Brian and I have been writing over the last several weeks since the release of our EP. The ideas have more of a jazz influence to them (think Pink Floyd) than what my family is used to hearing, and pretty soon they start coming out of the kitchen and into the living room to hear what I’m playing. After about half an hour of playing I stop and rejoin in the conversation, which now consists of people asking about when the new album is coming out, and if these songs are going to be on it. This is of course very flattering (I can be a compliment whore at times) and I tell them that yes, many of these songs will be on the album hopefully, and that it should be done before the summer of 2012 (fingers crossed), and that Brian and I are enjoying taking the sound in a slightly new direction. After that everyone goes back to talking about being kids, and Christmases from twenty years ago, etc.

The next day, upon reflection, I realized that Saturday night’s conversation about our music was kind of disappointing, and I couldn’t figure out why (I do realize this sounds like I’m whining, but there is a point I swear). Everyone was very complimentary (they are family of course, even if distant in some cases), and they seemed genuinely interested in the songs I was playing. I think this was partly because they were new songs that they hadn’t heard, and this is exactly why I was disappointed, because only last month we released an EP, and already people close to me are done with that and are interested in what’s next. No one mentioned the EP or ‘These Safe Homes’ which hasn’t been out for even a year.

I realize that this shouldn’t be a surprise. We all move rapidly from one stimuli to the next gobbling up everything we can. I too do this with music, film, books, articles, etc. and will barely discuss any media I’ve digested even days after unless I am directly prompted by someone. I find this to be a very fascinating trait of seemingly all people, and it really reminds me that making art for an audience is kind of sad, especially if your audience is small or non-existent. And maybe that’s truly why I was disappointed, not in my family, but in myself for thinking that people should give a shit about what I’m doing. I’ve always told myself that I make art for myself, and I hope that’s true. I should be comfortable and satisfied with my experiences for what they are, and not for how they are perceived.

With that said creating art can be very hard, especially when you are interested in creating really good art. (This is of course an always shifting journey, because you can always improve.) A few weeks ago Brian and I spent an entire evening trying to write a new song…and failed spectacularly. We spent several hours noodling on one lick after another, finally coming to the hard truth that we just weren’t going to create anything of value that night. The next night we did the same thing, spending the whole evening writing, and were able to come up with one part for one song that we enjoyed. It will probably end up being 30 seconds or less of a song, and took us essentially two nights to write. Creating is hard work. I guess that’s why people so desperately seek approval for their efforts. For when the artist views their own work they see the inspiration, the hard work, the hours and hours of investment, the scraps that were cut away, the conversations that built up, the whole experience. For the audience they see a piece of stimuli to be devoured and forgotten.

There is of course the slim chance that someone will want to dive into your art (read music) and live in the experiences that led to its creation. I’m sure very few people know of Liam Singer, but his 2005 album, “the empty heart of the chameleon”, was a very important album for me and I listened to it on repeat for months on end. I can still hum out every melody line, hear every piano note, and recite every lyric, with a full explanation of what each song means to me, and what I think it might mean to Liam. This is what an artist wants more than most will admit, and yet the artist almost never gets to see or hear of it, because the audience experiences the art on their own terms, not on the terms of the artist.

'These Safe Homes' on sale at CDBaby!

To celebrate the release of our new EP, ‘Passing Spirit,’ we are selling our debut LP at a reduced price for a limited time on CDBaby. Enjoy the music.

Passing Spirit EP just released!

We just released our new EP, ‘Passing Spirit.’ It’s available for download on CDBaby, and should be available shortly on iTunes and most other major music retailers/download services.

This 3-song EP was a chance for us to tie lingering ideas from last years’ ‘These Safe Homes’ in with new style and recording techniques. We also hoped to explore the nature of our relationships as remembrance shades our past and future. As drifting bodies floating in place, we spin in systems we built ourselves, wishing for something else we can’t grasp or even utter in our dreams.

Passing Spirit EP track list:
1- And in the Fading Light
2- Desk to Dust
3- In Your Place

'These Safe Homes' review in Fireworks Magazine

Here’s a write-up from earlier this summer by the UK music publication Fireworks Magazine:

‘These Safe Homes’ is the new CD from COMMON SWIFT who are out of Madison, Wisconsin. They have been getting good press all over Europe. The band have been together since 2008 and are completed by Al Calderon – drums, Brian Strutt – guitar, vocals, John Frater – bass, and Parker Reynolds – piano/keys, vocals. I had a chat with Brian Strutt to find out more.

The band’s music could be described as Indie with progressive and melodic influences. Songs like ‘Accidents Become Meaning’, the moody ‘Separate Sighs’ and ‘As The Crystals Fell (Life Sat Tightly’ are excellent, I liked ‘Accidents Become Meaning’, this track has a loose edge that makes me think of Rush and a mellow Dream Theater crossed with Indie edges of say Muse and Ocean Colour Scene, the guitar playing on this track is awesome, and the whole track is stunning. The vocals on ‘As The Crystals Fell (Life Sat Tightly)’ are stunning, the whole musical vibe is brilliant whilst holding a melodic edge it also nods to a vintage sixties feel,
maybe a little Cream, Iron Butterfly, Man influenced with a fantastic shredding guitar solo mid way, basically the band are a hard one to tag, and that’s what makes them original in style against many bands out there at the moment, the album is one of those albums that you won’t get by skipping through or playing once, you need to live with it for a while and then everything slides into focus on just how brilliant Common Swift actually are.

Music was always important for Brian’s parents, and they made sure it was important to their children. ‘In second grade I started learning piano and music
theory, and I was involved in every musical opportunity available from then on, starting my bands, singing in choirs, participating in high school musicals, which led to me getting my degree in music education from Cornell college. During my first week at Cornell in 2003 I met Parker Reynolds and we became close friends, working on various artistic projects together throughout college. From then on we have been making music together,’ he says.

The band wants to write music that they personally like to hear and haven’t heard before. ‘When listening to music we tend to get bored easily, so we try to write
songs we don’t find boring. We have degrees in music education, theatre, and English so we incorporate our particular strengths into each song, and attempt to take a somewhat scholarly approach to being a band. However we definitely consider ourselves to be students of indie rock, and listen to as much new music as we can. In the end we want to say something with our music, something complex, personal, and hopefully meaningful.’ Next up for the band is continuing to play shows in the Midwest United States, and working on a follow up EP. ‘We’re also really excited to start work on our next full length album, and hopefully will have a more extensive tour scheduled soon.’ Check out this excellent band out at www.commonswiftband.com

Passing Spirit EP to be released on August 15th

We’re releasing a three song EP, “Passing Spirit,” on August 15th as an on-line only release, available from iTunes and CDBaby.  The EP was recorded at our home studio in Madison, WI and consists of songs we’ve been playing live but hadn’t recorded.  After the EP is finished we’ll be turning our energies to a new untitled full-length LP project.  More news on that project to come in the next few months.

Follow Up Album Woes

Two of the very best albums I’ve listened to in the last several years were “For Emma, Forever Ago” by Bon Iver and “Fleet Foxes” by Fleet Foxes. I think most people who listen to music in any serious capacity would probably agree that these were both very fine albums, with well-crafted songs and unique sonic qualities. However the recent releases of follow up albums by Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver left me feeling that although I liked the albums I was also underwhelmed by the experience which made me consider something: It’s not often that I fully enjoy a band’s second album when it comes out. There are exceptions to this rule, but if I’m going to like a second album from an artist it usually takes me a while to get into it, and my first reaction is almost assuredly going to be negative.

I’m sure this sounds like the hipster that stands outside of a concert smoking self-rolled American Spirits spouting nonsense rants to anyone who will listen about how they were the only ones who listened to some band’s first EP, and therefore were a true authority on the band and knew with absolute certainty that the band’s more recent albums were too mainstream for them. I’ll try to avoid that cliché but I am legitimately intrigued with the phenomenon of the second album let down which I think is a real phenomenon. In my estimation these are the main reasons that account for the second album let down:

1. Personal Lifestyle Changes

If an artist goes from living in squalor with nothing else to do but write music that inspires them, isolated from people and obligations, and then starts living in a nicer place with more people wanting to spend time with them, giving interviews, having obligations and places that they have to be, obviously the art they create will not be the same as it was before. Environment does affect what you think, how you feel, and what you choose to express, in art or otherwise.

2. Recording Lifestyle Changes

If you make a hugely successful album and aren’t signed to a music label, chances are you will be signed long before you go to make that follow up album, and most likely will have access to a much better recording studio, and studio musicians. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does tend to create an environment where an artist isn’t forced into creative sound production with unorthodox techniques and instruments. Instead of sampling a toy recorder to simulate an orchestra you simply have an orchestra at your fingertips. Basically, it’s easy to become lazy and just use conventional sounds and instrumentation.

3. Pressure

I think this goes without saying, but if you’ve already made a successful album everyone expects you to do it again, or at least that’s how it probably feels for the artist. Now some people have so much confidence that this isn’t an issue, but there are those artists that just seem to crumble under the weight of their earlier success. Jeff Magnum comes to mind.

4. Time

Often an artist will have a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise, as to when the follow up album needs to be completed. Having a deadline is not something undiscovered artists really have to deal with, as they can tweak their songs until their happy. If you’re under the gun to write a great follow up album, you probably don’t have the same time to finely tune your songs.

5. Quality

Partly due to the fact that the album we call an artist’s first is usually actually not the first they made, but instead the first that a wide audience heard, and partly due to the fact that their break-through album is usually their most inspired or well-polished work, the second album/follow-up album usually is lacking in overall artistic quality. Some artists pour an entire decade of memories and experiences into their breakout album, which feels dense and personal, and then when they go to make their follow-up they have nothing of substance to say. The album will often be better produced to compensate, which sometimes actually makes things even worse.

6. Expectation

Ignoring pop and already over-produced first albums and focusing on indie bands, one thing that usually happens with a first album is that it gets ‘discovered’ by people slowly. A friend tells you about a great album, or you read a glowing review about some band you’ve never heard of. Whatever the case, when you hear something new and unique, it instantly has a leg up on something you’ve heard before, where an expectation has already been established. When a second album comes out there is an expectation about how it is going to sound, and when you listen to it if it sounds too much or not enough like the first album it can be pretty disappointing. As listeners we find it hard to separate the two works of art, even though they are unique entities, and in many cases have been developed years apart from each other. We shouldn’t expect them to be the same. Another issue is entitlement, as we often think of the first album as ours. We found it on that blog that no one reads, and introduced it to all of our friends, but now everyone’s heard of this artist, and their second album is so widely talked about that the ‘cool’ factor has been stripped out of it. Media coverage can create a larger fan base, but usually kills the fervor with which the die-hards defend and promote your work.

As I write about these ideas I’m wondering how I and any other artist should think about this phenomenon. In the end I think artists should just make whatever they want to, don’t play to what will sell, or try to live up to anyone’s expectations but your own. If the first album that got some recognition was a true work of art that came from a personal place and that you worked hard on, then whatever else you make that’s honest and well-constructed should be of value.