Let's Review 🐸

Aye, I’m back. Been a minute, I know, but I wanted to go ahead and gut out the back half of the summer semester before I got back round to this. Regardless, here I am!

Steady as we go, an even wee-er bit of background than usual; I’ve given background on Nothing But Thieves before so they’re a bit more familiar. The new EP, however, Moral Panic II, was released 23 July 2021, much to my excitement. Nothing But Thieves released two tracks from the EP as singles prior to the EP itself: Futureproof and Miracle, Baby. There are five total songs on the tracklisting. 

All of the songs have grown on me the more I listen to the set (I know, I usually do a first-listen review, but I love this band so I had to listen when it came out, sorry!) I think my favorite from this EP is probably Your Blood, for both the lyrics and the change in vibe halfway through the song. 

“I don’t know what you expected of me / I’ve never seen you cry / Yeah, you don’t know what it is to be sorry / So I’ll carry the lie, we’re real men till we die / But I don’t think I will ever get over you.”

All in all, I give Nothing But Thieves’ Moral Panic II 3/5 uniquely-sounding frogs, with the loss of a frog due to this not being a full album, which is what I had hoped for. We each have our own biases, I suppose.

20 June 2021

Dead on, a wee bit of background as we go round again on this single:

All I Got was released by pop/rap artist Oliver Tree on 25 May 2017, and appeared on his first EP, Alien Boy, a year later in February of 2018. 

This one’s catchy, and it seems to touch on some personal subjects within the pop, lighthearted feel of it, and the otherwise simple and straightforward lyrics. 

“I don’t believe in a creator / I don’t believe in an all-powerful god / I just believe in kindness / I just believe in mindfulness”

This take on religion or the existence of a god isn’t confrontational or abrasive, and the ideas Tree presents in the stead of a creator or all-powerful being aren’t awful either. Kindness and mindfulness are both solid things to believe in and strive toward, and I think the lyric is well-phrased as well. 

Having said that, there aren’t a whole lot of other lyrics to look at, as the song is relatively simple in terms of composition and flow. I did enjoy it, and I appreciate the shake-up on theology, so I’m giving All I Got four out of five kind and mindful frogs!

17 June 2021

Steady as we go, here’s your wee bit of background on this single:

Welcome To The Family was released by American rapper/songwriter George Watsky as a single on 03 August 2018 before it appeared on his sixth album Compliant in 2019. As a heads up if you decide to take a swing at listening to it (which I recommend), it is explicit. 

This has quickly become one of my favorite Watsky songs, for the piano-based melody throughout the track, the backing vocals in the choruses, and, of course, for the lyrics and theme of the song. Welcome To The Family covers the idea of sharing your personal fears and insecurities with your significant other and letting them share theirs with you, and telling them no matter whatever problems you both face together and individually, you’ll figure it out together, because that’s what families do.

“Get cozy since we’re both lonely / Why don’t we leap and then go see / What we become when it’s done, it’s done / But I’m not looking below, so don’t ghost me”

“And I take my cue from you / On what you wanna do ‘bout a last name / (It’s not so bad to be a Watsky...)”

“Tell me what you’ve witnessed / If the price of life is Hell, / Well no one ever had to sell me / On how nice a fire smells”

“The rough nights ain’t leaving / So why the hell should we? / And I say welcome to the family / Welcome to the family, welcome to the family / You deserve love (welcome to the family)”

All in all, this song has lyrics chosen with care that create simple but moving imagery about the trails of being in a fully truthful and vulnerable relationship. Additionally, the musical aspects of the track absolutely slap. Welcome To The Family gets four out of five frogs!

13 June 2021

7) Free If We Want It -- 6.8

This one’s my girlfriend’s favorite from the album. A slower track after the punching songs before it, Free If We Want It brings the tempo down. Lead singer Conor Mason moves into a comfortable falsetto; his vocal range throughout the entire album is stunning. 

“I didn't decide / I love you despite myself / You pulled me out of who I'd been, know what I mean? / I'm not a saint / I've got no faith to lose, only to gain / At least I can dream”

8) Impossible (explicit) -- 9.2

Here we arrive at what seems to be the softer aspects of love, the second half of the ideas presented in Real Love Song. This is one of my favorite songs of all time, simply because of how beautifully every piece of the song fits together. 

“I could drown myself in someone like you / I could dive so deep I never come out / I thought it was impossible / But you make it possible”

9) There Was Sun -- 6.5

This one is nice, the drums push it more than the previous tracks.

“Some days I feel somewhere else or somewhere in between / Some days I don't feel a thing at all / Now, I'm pulling back the screen to let the future in / The light comes flooding in / The light comes flooding in”

10) Can You Afford to Be An Individual? (explicit) -- 9

Nothing But Thieves names names in this driving track. I could truly post the whole of the lyrics as outstanding; plenty of social, cultural, and interpersonal issues are addressed in this song of its time. For the purpose of example, and because it is my favorite, I’ll include the concluding verse, which is targeted at the PotUS of the time.

“So, how's it bеing a prisoner of your own illusion? / Up on a pedestal, rеveling in your own confusion / I see you hide behind your altar or your constitution / But you can't live forever in your own echo chamber / And you're so scared of the people up in your fairyland / But how can you hate something you don't even understand? / Oh, you're a walking contradiction in a MAGA-hat / It's where I wanna be, God bless the land of the free / So who are you to tell us where we do and don't belong? / And who are you to tell us who to love and who to not? / Because your mother told ya you would win when you were young / Oh it's a boy's wonderland, we know it now / But now the liberals aren't liberal, they're just as venomous / And you can't have an opinion unless you're one of us / No second chances, you're branded, your kind are dangerous / We're bringing each other down, we're tearing each other down / So have I gotta kill myself to be original? / And if I fucking hate you all, am I a criminal? / Can you afford to be an individual? / Can you afford to be an individual?”

11) Before We Drift Away -- 7.9

The closer is a slower song that builds as it goes, wrapping the album up with a ballad-type message of hanging on to what’s important and not taking things for granted. 

“And as we sing this familiar song / I thought I'm gonna miss your love when it's gone / Will it flow into the river? / Or will it go to waste? / Before we drift away / Before we drift away…”

Overall, this album is excellent, the instrument work is beautiful and the vocals will catch you by surprise with the range and quality. The lyrics are well thought-out and considered. I thoroughly enjoyed this album, I gotta give Moral Panic five out of five socially aware Big Brother frogs!

13 June 2021

As the standard lies now, here’s a wee bit of background before we tuck into the main course. Moral Panic is the third studio album released by Nothing But Thieves, a guitar-driven English rock band that began in 2012. With two singles and eleven total tracks, Moral Panic dropped on 23 October, 2020. The events of the year and the effects on society as a whole are reflected in this, their most recent album.

I’ve decided to go with the new setup, which will include reviewing the album song by song, with an out-of-10 rating of the song beside the title, the standout lyrics below the song synopsis, and the overall album review at the end. 

1. Unperson -- 7.4

Nothing But Thieves opens with an analysis of the effects of social and corporate media on the mindset of individuals, and how the dystopian virtual world can remove the feeling of singularity from being a person in general. 

“This is not what you think it is / This is not what you / This is not what you / This is not what you think it is / It’s worse / Cuz I’m another unperson / You created this mess.”

2. Is Everybody Going Crazy? -- 7.6

The commentary on the state of social bearing continues here (it’s the theme of the album, as a heads up) but the tone of this track is not as… doom as Unperson. The vibe of this one is more about isolation, and how easy it is to get overbooked with “necessary” things to do instead of getting to know other people and connect with them.

“Yeah, everybody's going crazy / Can't get through to you lately / We're so hopelessly faded / Is anyone else feeling lonely? / It just can't be me only / Losing our cool so slowly / It would feel so good to steal some time / It would feel so good to make you mine.”

3. Moral Panic -- 8

The album’s titular track delves into what it means for the media to broadcast panic and fear to the public, regardless of the truth to the emergency. 

“Moral panic is setting in / Terror fever, it's too late to begin / Your excuses are wearing thin / Moral panic, it's too late to begin”

4. Real Love Song -- 8.2

I love the composition of this one; two alternate versions were released of it as well, an orchestral and a peeled-back lo-fi. Nothing But Thieves gives us a “real love song” with this track, exploring what it can feel like to love someone so deeply it doesn’t feel good, doesn’t make any sense.

“This is a love song, real love / Dirty, rip out the whole of your soul love”

“This is a dark song, real dark / Feral, tear off your skin to the bone dark”

“This is a sad song, real sad / Aching like it’s more than I can take sad”

“Can I sing this to you? / Got a thing about you / And it won’t go away, no / It won’t go away, it won’t go away”

5. Phobia (explicit)  -- 7

The eerie sound this track opens with, paired with the lyrics about media-driven illness and lack of feeling, launches into a guitar-driven second half for the true vibe of the song. 

“It may be rage or maybe hope / I'm at the stage that I fear the most / I wanna know your phobia / Go on, press send, and we can makе friends / I crossed a line a lifе ago / I might be dead, but I just don't know / I'm shuttin' down the internet / Big shot hotel, I don't feel well”

6. This Feels Like the End -- 8.5

Here we get into the effects of a worldwide pandemic, a split United States over an upcoming election, and general social isolation. I love this one.

06 June 2021

Now we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming with a wee bit of background on this strange but interesting album! 

The King of Limbs was released as English alternative rock band Radiohead’s eighth studio album in 2011. Featuring looping vocals and percussion, the dissonance in this album is classic Radiohead sound. Let’s take a look. 

1) Bloom — 7

The looping drums in this one drive the song forward through a fog of distant vocals and distortion. Echoed lyrics create a type of atmosphere easy to associate with something blooming, a new growth in a cycle of life and death. 

2) Morning Mr Magpie — 7.3

The drums are looped again here, but the guitars are as well, in a steady pulse accompanied by the much clearer, contrasting vocals. Each instrument is doing its own thing, but they’re all doing it together, so the sound mix is abnormal but all makes sense in the bigger picture of the song. This one has always come off as a little bit eerie to me, but not in an uncomfortable way.

3) Little By Little — 5.4

The discomfort is more apparent in this one, with the mix being a little bit harder to follow as a whole. The lead guitar changes from playing harmony with the vocals to playing melody, which can be difficult to pick apart. 

4) Feral — 7

This song is weird, I’ll tell you upfront. The mix is weird, the “lyrics” are weird, the flow is weird. I like it, the snips of vocal sounds and pieces of instruments playing all make for a truly odd piece of music, but it isn’t unlikeable. 

5) Lotus Flower — 8

A catchier track, Lotus Flower gives us a distinct chorus and verses, unlike the handful of tracks preceding it. This is one of my favorites in the album, with the clearer lyrics and smoothly delivered falsetto and imagery. 

“There’s an empty space inside my heart / Where the weeds take root / So now I set you free / I set you free…”

6) Codex — 8.3

Here we move from drum and guitar-driven songs to a surreal piano ballad, complete with more simple, gentle imagery of a peaceful lake, with dragonflies and quiet. Codex ends with about 25 seconds of birdsong, which lead directly into the next track. 

“Sleight of hand / Jump off the edge / The water’s clear / And innocent.”

7) Give Up the Ghost — 9

This is my favorite King of Limbs track. Opening with the birdsong from Codex, Give Up the Ghost is another simple ballad-style song. With only backing vocals and an acoustic guitar in the beginning, the rest of the band gradually fades into the background of the music. 

“Gather all the lost and their souls / In your arms / (Don’t hurt me) / Gather up the pitiful / In your arms / (Don’t hurt me)”

8) Separator — 6

Sitting at 5:19 minutes, Separator is the longest track in the album, and this is partly due to the looped, distorted last third of the song. Throughout the whole song, the lyrics are echoed, but at the end, they almost all blur together. 

“If you think this is over/ Then you’re wrong.”

No kidding. 

I truly do enjoy this album, and I have for a long time, but truthfully, it had to grow on me a bit at first. It’s certainly packed with strange configurations of music and sound, and sometimes that can be overwhelming. Having said that, The King of Limbs gets four out of five trippy looped frogs!

06 June 2021

Normally, I’d include a wee bit of background here at the beginning of the review, but this post is dedicated to the background of the album. My last post included the surface, music-centric review of the album itself, and this post will get into the lore and concept-pairing of Scaled And Icy (2021) and Trench (2018). I don’t know everything there is to know about this concept, so full disclosure: this is not everything. I know it isn’t, but seeing as the purpose of this blog is to review music rather than dissect lore, I’ll try to include as much as I can without this becoming a documentary. 

I suppose you’re due a wee bit of background on the concept introduced in Trench before we get down to the main event. Trench was released in March 2018, and the antagonist (a personification of lead singer Tyler Joseph’s fears and doubts) from the album before Trench, 2015′s Blurryface, is given a name: Nicolas Bourbaki. Nico, as he is referred to in Trench (Nico and the Niners), is the leader of nine “bishops,” who rule over a fictional city known as Dema and practice a dark religion called “vialism.” No one is permitted to leave the city, and the bishops exercise complete control over the citizens. The theme of Dema is a dark and depressing place with little hope of a brighter future or survival (Chlorine, Morph, Jumpsuit). The protagonist of the album escapes Dema (Leave the City), and joins a band of anti-bishop rebels known as the Banditos, whose purpose is to liberate the citizens of Dema (Bandito). 

This brings us to last month’s Scaled And Icy. Our protagonist is back in Dema and is under the control of the bishops. An extremely popular theory (all but confirmed) is that nearly the entirety of Scaled And Icy is Dema propaganda acted out by a puppet-type Tyler Joseph (and suspected to be imaginary Josh Dun, the second half of the band) and orchestrated by the nine bishops. The album’s first track, Good Day, is a hopeful song on the surface, but through the lens of a piece of pro-Dema propaganda, the lyrics are concerning. Throughout the album, lyrics reinforce the idea that everything is okay, nothing is wrong, and there’s no reason for concern, suspicion, or action. (”Keep your bliss, there’s nothing wrong with this!” from Mulberry Street is an excellent example.)

Near the end of the album, however, we have a change of pace as the album’s hostage protagonist reaches out to the citizens of Dema with Never Take It. The bishops strike back in No Chances, but the Banditos aren’t going to give in that easily. Finally, Redecorate at the end of the album leaves the fate of the protagonist relatively unknown. There is speculation that this pro-Dema propaganda album is just the precursor to the “real” album, the release date or existence of which has not been confirmed. Whatever comes next is expected to be the final installment in a trilogy about the resistance and fall of Dema and its bishops. 

There was a livestream event the day Scaled And Icy was released that’s said to have contributed to the lore, but I have not seen it, so I’m not going to try to cover it in this particular post. Maybe someday in the future I’ll revisit this concept pairing with more information or a further review, but for now, the iceberg aspect of this album-pair gets five out of five Bandito frogs! I think the concept is rad, and it’s very well executed; listening to the album after learning about the lore changes the entire vibe. 

30 May 2021

Steady as we go, here’s a wee bit of background before we tackle the main course:

Scaled And Icy was released just last week on 21 May 2021. It is Twenty One Pilots’ sixth studio album (including their second album, Regional At Best, which was discontinued when the band signed with a record label). Trench, the album released in 2018 prior to Scaled And Icy is its sister album in the concept narrative they both follow. As I stated in the update, I won’t be covering the lore behind Scaled And Icy in this particular post; this post will cover only the surface-level review of the music without the concept attached. The post containing lore and thoughts on the concept pair will be in a post sometime this next week.

While my previous two album reviews occurred at the Field, I did this review at my grandparents’ kitchen table, since I’m spending the weekend here in Alabama with them; I listened to the album on the drive down here and took my notes. I’m gonna format this one a wee bit differently than I’ve set up the previous two so I can get the most out of my notes, so let’s get into it!

1. Good Day -- 7.6

I like the chord progression in this album opener; the major key paired with the descending chords is really smooth and has a nice vibe. The theme of this one to me is of someone trying to convince people close to them (and themselves) that everything is okay after some kind of loss or tragedy. 

“I know it’s hard to believe me / It’s a good day.”

2. Choker -- 8

This one was released as the album’s second single before the album itself dropped, and it’s my brother’s favorite from the setlist. The forced hope and optimism of the first song are reflected in this one through the continued major key and progression; the lyrics are much less happy, even if the earlier happiness felt ingenuine. 

“I know it’s over / I was born a choker / Nobody’s coming for me…”

The spoken word at the end of the song brings this back around to a near-encouraging message though, changing the theme from “nobody can help” to “don’t get held back by the past.”

“Lay forever, but the day goes on / The sun moves behind you / You get taller, bolder, stronger / And the rearview only blinds you.”

3. Shy Away -- 8.2

Shy Away was the first single released, and it’s my girlfriend’s favorite from the album. Where Choker warned us not to be held back by the past or what’s behind, Shy Away pushes us toward the future, telling us not to shy away from the possibilities. 

“Don’t you shy away / Manifest a ceiling when you shy away”

4. The Outside -- 6.1

The underlying theme of this one, to me, is falling asleep at the wheel -- but further, running out of time to do all the things you want in life. The second half of the song has a sample from a party overlaid with the music. 

“Up and down, they’re nodding / Heads are moving up and down / You’ve got it.”

5. Saturday -- 6

The third and final single to be released before the album itself, I like how it sounds. I don’t have a whole lot else to say about this one, I just like the vibe of it.

“You’re good, these are my dancing shoes / We paint the town / You’re good, though I might dance with you /  Might get loud on Friday / But on Saturday, Saturday, Saturday / We paint the town.”

6. Never Take It -- 6.7

This one gets into the effect of the media in spinning facts to weaponize people against each other.

“They’re trying hard to weaponize / You and I / We’ll never take it!”

7. Mulberry Street -- 6.8

This is one of my favorites from this album, and the theme I get from it is to continue forward once you’re in motion with your progress, even when things seem to be going slowly. 

“Keep your bliss, there’s nothing wrong with this.”

8. Formidable -- 5.3

While it isn’t one of my favorites, I do like the way this one flows. I think it might be about family or a significant other. 

“And I know you just left / But can I take you everywhere we’ve ever been? / I wanna see it all / No surprises…”

9. Bounce Man -- 7.8

And here we come to another of my favorites from this album. The upbeat feel of the song is an interesting choice considering the lyrics seem to be about a family friend ending up on the news, stopping by for some cash and to say goodbye, and then “bouncing” out of the country to avoid arrest. 

“You should bounce, bounce, bounce, man / Come to the house, man / I’ll let my old lady know / You’ll be in and out, out, out, man / Float you a couple bands / Then you’ll head to Mexico / Yeah, I told you all along / Running away don’t make you wrong / Before you bounce, bounce, bounce, man / Come to the house, man / We’ll sing one more song / So long.”

10. No Chances -- 8.3

The vibe changes here. It appears the hunt is on for our Bounce Man, but the family isn’t letting him go down that easily.

“We’ve got people on the way / We want you home in one piece, now / We get bodies every day / We want you home in one piece now.”

This is my favorite song on the album. 

11. Redecorate -- 7.6

The album closer seems to finish out the story from the previous two songs; Bounce Man finds himself alone, and doesn’t want to be taken without settling his affairs and coming to terms with his choices first. 

Overall, I appreciate this album a lot, although it’s different from their previous albums. The upbeat first half followed by the narrative in the last few is a good balance, and the lyrics are all intentionally thought-out and developed. Taking into account that this review does not include the deeper levels of lore that went into it, I’m giving Scaled And Icy four out of five friendly fugitive frogs! 

29 May 2021

I’ve listened to Scaled And Icy, the most recent Twenty One Pilots album, and I still plan to review it, but I wanted to post an update on how I intend to go about reviewing this particular album.

Twenty Pilots released an album called Trench in 2018, and Scaled And Icy is directly connected to that album as a concept duo. To do SAI justice in review, I’m going to do two separate posts about it: one as a surface-level music review, and the other as, to the best of my ability, a deeper lore cover of SAI and Trench as a concept-album duo (this may be broken into two posts as well, I’m not sure yet). I’ll post the surface level review tomorrow; you can expect the lore summary in the coming week. I want to do right by this band and their music in this review, and I’ll have to take a little more time for it to do that.

I’m still welcome to album recommendations, and there’s still time to listen to Scaled And Icy before I post the review so you can let me know what you think of it as well in the comments, if you’d like!

22 May 2021

A wee bit of background before we get to the main event:

Silent Planet is an American post-rock metalcore band from California headed by retired psychologist/therapist Garrett Russell, and Everything Was Sound is their second studio album. Released in 2016, this concept album did nothing short of blow my mind; the total runtime is 41 minutes, but it took me a couple hours to write out everything I picked up from each song. 

Everything Was Sound has thirteen tracks, standard, so that is the album I listened to for this review! For the purpose of sticking with the album’s story concept, I’ll be adding my standout lyric quotes with the description of the song, rather than sticking them at the end. 

- I want to post a warning before I get into this album: this one covers topics some may view as disturbing. There are mentions of death, suicide, war, several mental disorders including depression and eating disorders), politics, and generally dark themes. This is where you should stop reading if any of these will bother you. -

The concept for this album revolves around the idea of the “panopticon,” which describes a circular prison surrounding a central guard tower. There are bright lights shining down from the tower so that the prisoners cannot see into the tower, where they are told there are guards watching them constantly. The prisoners are isolated from the guards and each other, being unable to see into the tower or other cells due to the walls and the lights. This setup removes the autonomy of the prisoners, and the paranoia that the guards are constantly watching (whether there are truly guards in the tower or not) removes the will to try to escape or act out. 

This concept is introduced in the first track of the album, Inherit the Earth. This first song begins by referencing the events of the previous album’s last track (Depths II from album The Night God Slept, in which the viewer has a vivid vision in the forest before falling asleep) as having happened only a few hours before, and now the viewer is waking up in the woods to find it is starting to rain. The viewer (us) stumbles through the rain and the forest under they find a structure: the panopticon. They enter the prison to escape the weather, and so we are pulled into the story of the album -- a metaphor for the human condition. 

“We inherit the earth, we inherit the war / I inhabit the wound, I dwell in the harm / Oh how far we fall: We’re casualties of time / Oh how far we fall: Forgive existence.”

The second track, Psychescape, (and each subsequent song, except the last one) introduces us to the contents of one of the cells: Schizophrenia. The theme of this song is paranoia and delusion, and the tower’s lights and watching guards are revealed to us; there are two distinct, conflicting voices. 

“I waited on the tracks of reason / But my train of thought never came / It never came.”

“Scrawled across the walls the suffering saint cries out: / ‘Is it madness to retreat from the myopic gaze that holds us captive?’”

Dying In Circles, the third track and second cell, holds the prisoner Organized Religion. Heavily rooted in Biblical principles, I was surprised to find this track used those principles to highlight and call out the hypocrisy of the modern church; the gatekeeping, neglect of those in need, the isolation of outsiders. Silent Planet calls on systematic religion (particularly modern Christianity) to return to its original purpose: to care for others, rather than turn them away or determine their worth as an organization. They are charged with trading their religious superiority for the awe and compassion for humanity they once had; to return to being a religion about the life of God, rather than being solely about his death. I really do love the idea of the “Image of God” being represented by a homeless person sleeping on church steps. 

“Beside the shadow of a frozen chapel / Under the marriage of cross and crown / Outside the privilege of the ‘chosen ones’ / The Image of God is sleeping on the ground.”

“We are the eulogy at the funeral of God.”

“Trade your certainty for awe.”

The fourth track took me for a spin, personally, as I’ve encountered the prisoner described here myself. Understanding Love as Loss opens with a few brief lyrics outlining the suicides of writers Sylvia Plath (“Searching for solace in a toxic temple--” death by toxic inhalation), Earnest Hemingway (“Fragments of lead climbing through your head--” death by shotgun to the skull), Virginia Woolf (“Stones load your coat as you wade through the winter current / Dancing with the dead on the riverbed--” death by drowning), and David Foster Wallace (“Wanton hanging of the wise pale king.” death by hanging). 

The line immediately following the deaths of these writers stuck out to me, as a fellow writer who has struggled with depression: “And I see myself.”

The title of the song explains that love is sacrifice; you lose a piece of yourself when you love someone else. Lose that piece, Silent Planet urges in this song; lose that piece to another person instead of losing yourself to your suffering. 

Lead vocalist Garrett Russell: “[Sometimes with depression,] the world feels like there’s no color. Even if you can’t see the color, be bold enough to ask someone to describe the colors of the world to you.”

This song was my favorite this far into the album, for its bare, unflinching honesty on the subject. The footnotes for this song in the album booklet include the number for the National Suicide Hotline. I respect that. 

The fifth track, Tout Comprendre, draws its title from the first half of a French quote, and translates loosely to “To Understand All.” This song is an interlude, meaning it does not contain any lyrics, and it is the first of two interludes on the set. 

Immediately following Tout Comprendre comes Panic Room, a track that tells the story of a veteran who has come home, but is mentally haunted by the war. The lyrics take us to bloody battlefields in desert sands, and lay out the plague of terror-memories. Panic Room’s prisoner is PTSD, and it delves into the American treatment of returned veterans and their struggles with armed-conflict trauma. 

“Praise me for my valor, lay me in a crimson tower / Justify my endless terror as my ‘finest hour’ / Treat me as a token to deceive the child / Whom we fatten for this scapegoat slaughter / I learned to fight, I learned to kill, I learned to steal / I learned that none of this is real, none of this is real / None of this is real, NONE OF THIS IS REAL”

Just after this verse, there is a brief, almost total silence, before the song resumes. There are several breaks like this in the music; periods of calm between the intense music. 

We move on to the fifth cell and seventh track, REDIVIDER. This song threw me off at first; I thought the words were being reused and rearranged before I realized the song is a palindrome. About halfway through, the lyrics flip to mirror the first half of the song. 

“Death ran away then life flooded in world / This I am: Imbalance, beautifully so / Hands connected, perhaps… / Then dead reflections saw you / I did, didn’t I? / I didn’t, did I? / You saw reflections dead then / Perhaps, connected hands… / So beautifully imbalance: Am I this world? / In flooded life then away ran Death.” 

The fifth prisoner is Bipolar Disorder. 

Nervosa is the name of the eighth track; this one disturbed me the most out of all of them. My first impression of this song was, if you’ll excuse my Irish here, “Holy sh*t.” None of the imagery prior to this song was nearly as vivid and disturbing as it was here. The clean vocals (singing instead of metal-screaming) are very well done, capturing the desperation of the situation in a very raw way, which is fitting for the theme of the song -- this cell’s prisoner is the deadliest of psychiatric disorders, bulimia nervosa. The entirety of the lyrics are well-written (although, again, vividly disturbing), so I chose the most poignant of them.

“I am not my own reflection / I am not myself, I am not myself / I am haunted by a non-existent lover / The spectre, the ghost, the self-starving host / I am haunted by a non-existent lover / I was gifted with the vision but cursed to be the witness.”

This song, too, contains links to help services for eating disorders in the footnotes of the album booklet. 

We come now to the second interlude, C’est Tout Pardonner, titled after the second half of the French quote, the entirety of which translates to “To understand all is to forgive all.” The prisoner held in the two of these is ignorance. 

Just as C’est is the second, contrasting half of Tout, which was followed by war-themed Panic Room, so Orphan, the second, contrasting half of Panic Room, follows C’est. 

Orphan relays the perspective of orphans of war, the prisoners of this track. Particularly focusing on crimes against peaceful civilians (especially in the Middle East), Orphan also describes the reunion of two brothers on opposite sides of war. 

“I’m finding the violence -- it looks like me.”

“Terrified little son, encumbered by your sword / You can hide your fear, but won’t shed the weight of your humanity -- Humanity / You can face me toward the mountains / Where I meet our mother’s gaze / Too blinded by this hatred / To recognize your brother’s face.”

The eleventh track, No Place to Breathe, was both ahead of its time and should not have had to be written in the first place. The prisoner in this eighth cell is fascism, specifically within enforcers of the law. It dives into how easy it is to turn a blind eye to issues like systematic racism, police brutality, and inherent injustice, if these things do not affect us personally. There are three murder victims, (Eric Garner [2014], Hernan Jaramillo [2013], and Kelly Thomas [2011]) all killed by police, whose last recorded words are attributed in the song: “I can’t breathe.” 

Does that sound familiar from more recent news? This album was released in 2016, to give some perspective on how things have changed. 

“We shout at fascists, hands fixed on asphyxiating those in need / Place your hands to the pulse of this city / Keep your ear to the ground / Hear him gasp, / ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.’”

The ninth and final cell is explored in the twelfth track, First Father (which is the partner of a song called First Mother from their previous album). The final prisoner is the grief over losing a loved one. Switching between a rushing, loud tempo and a low-toned quiet of guitars and vocals, the song captures the process of moving forward through personal loss. 

“‘You pulled me through time,’ through the edgeless night / I’ll learn to love as you learned to die / I’ll begin to feel again and finish the chapter you couldn’t write / Candles in the dark, defiant to the night / Defiant to the shadow / You pull me through time, through the edgeless night / I learned to love as you learned to die.”

With the thirteenth and final song, we’ve literally come full circle and are finally at the prison’s central tower, where we discover we are the guard watching the prisoners. Titled after a line from the first track’s lyrics (”We inherit the earth[...] We inhabit the wound”), Inhabit the Wound tears down the guard tower, freeing the prisoners from the confines of their situation or disorder. Each of the nine prisoners reaches into themselves and retrieves a seed, which is planted in the place of the tower. The album closes with this image:

“The earth, with a final gasp, shook free from our inventions. Grace and nature reconciled as I heard ‘it is finished.’ The final seal was broken, the concussion blew me back -- I teetered on the edge of re-creation and the wrath. The nine lovers stumbled out of their shells of brokenness, they reached inside their wounds to find the seeds borne from their suffering. Coalesce upon me to plant the tree of life inside the heart of the machine. Reach inside -- heal the wound -- make us whole.”

I found this album to be an absolute masterpiece, and metal isn’t usually a preferred genre of mine. I’ve got to give this one five out of five symbolic and vivid frogs. Well done, Silent Planet, both in composition and in raising awareness about different types of struggle.

Next week I’ll be reviewing an album that was recommended to me, and that was released today: Twenty One Pilots’ Scaled and Icy.

17 May 2021

A wee bit of background before we get down to the review:

Dr. Dog is an American indie/psychedelic rock band that started up nearly two decades ago, and have since released multiple albums that have reached top 50 in the charts. B-Room is their seventh studio album and was their first album to be recorded in their new studio at the time. 

B-Room originally only has 12 tracks, but the deluxe version has 15. I’ll be reviewing the 15-track listing. 

There’s a park near where I work that I like to go to after my shifts, if I’m off before dark, and I had enough time today to listen to the album there. I don’t know too terribly much about this band, and I didn’t know more than one of their songs before I started the album, so this one was new to me! 

The tone of the album is generally upbeat, and the overall lo-fi, almost gritty quality of the sound gives the songs a distinctly indie vibe. There’s a lot of imagery, metaphorical and literal, used in the lyrics, and a variety of instruments throughout the album. Some of the songs tell stories or paint pictures, such as Rock & Roll’s coming-of-age nostalgia, or Phenomenon’s vivid metaphors. There are two main vocalists, and numerous background vocals, which blend wonderfully for alternating harmonies. 

I enjoyed the whole album, but my favorite tracks were The Truth, Phenomenon (I’m a fan of the banjo), Long Way Down (the use of echoing vocals furthered the idea of being a long way down), Love (composed a wee bit like a 70s prom theme describing ideas of the representation of love and its potential meanings), Nellie (I adore the layering of composition), Mt. Slippery (a Capella with lovely harmonies), Can’t Remember (driven by the piano and bass), and Humble Passenger (written in a ballad-like style, this one tells the story of a strange dream). 

The lyrics that stood out to me, personally, the most in this album come from Long Way Down, Nellie, and Humble Passenger, respectively.

“For them, I will be brave.”

“Got an old notebook, and it’s filled with bits and baubles

I want to tighten it up, yeah, and put it in her room

Between a hyacinth, and a book of Aesop’s Fables

I wanna go there soon...”

“Your fear is gonna cost a lot, but your courage comes for free.”

Overall, I really did enjoy listening to this album, I’d give it four out of five indie psychedelic frogs. I’m open to recommendations for future reviews! Next time, I’ll be reviewing an album by a band called Silent Planet. 

16 May 2021

This is my first time using Tumblr, so I’m still trying to learn the ropes!

I’m a third year English major, musician, and writer.

My intention for this blog is to review music albums of different genres to the best of my ability; music is my favorite part of living. I have not decided definitively what all of the albums will be yet, but I intend to either review two a week, or split one into two reviews, if necessary. I already have a few in mind, so I should have this up and running this upcoming week. 

If you have an album recommendation or suggestion, I’d love to give it a listen!