Tasty, Tasty Murder
Posted on | December 19, 2007 at 9:05 pm | 3 Comments
I’m still catching up on some 2007 eMusic releases. I just got done listening to the second album by the Shout Out Louds, Our Ill Wills. I own a copy of their first album, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, which is an entertaining bit of SwedePop, but which failed to totally engage me. My first impression upon listening to the new one is “Wow, now these guys suddenly sound like Head On The Door-era Cure.” Then I read the Amazon review, which says the exact same thing. A large part of that is because the opening track, “Tonight I Have To Leave It” has a lot of superficial similarities to “In Between Days”, mostly in arrangement and structure, but also vocalist Adam Olenius does his best spot-on Robert Smith imitation on that track. So, at first I’m thinking, “This sounds a LOT like The Cure, but it’s the poppier side of The Cure.” But as the album went on, the songs get gloomier and gloomier. Okay, we’re not quite getting into Faith / Pornography / Disintegration territory here, but it’s not exactly “Friday I’m In Love” either. A lot of that has to do with the dark lyrics about loss and accidents and serial killers and secrets and such.
As I listened more intently, I also detected as much of an Echo And The Bunnymen (or is it Arcade Fire?) influence as a Cure one, especially in the music. The arrangements are pretty inventive and the use of acoustic guitars and female background (and sometimes lead) vocals show these guys are attempting to diversify in more ways than one. But I also hear hints of The Magic Numbers as well. And some Smiths/Morrissey too. One of the tracks is titled “Meat Is Murder”, but it’s not the Smiths song. A few of the songs go on much longer than I like, but at least they build nicely. Other standout tracks besides the first one include “You Are Dreaming”, “Normandie” (whose guitar line reminds me of the synth riff from The Cure’s “Close To Me”) , “Time Left For Love” and “Blue Headlights” (kinda slow, but with a great melody).
So after only one listen, I’m going to recommend this one. I’ll be listening to it a lot. Yeah, the Cure-isms can get a little irksome, but at least they’re not The Essence.
Sorry for talking about music, but that’s what was on my mind today. I’ll try to get back to stories about shopping at Safeway soon.
BTW, I keep forgetting to bring this up, but commentor Bill The Galactic Hero pointed me to this blog after my post about the out-of-control quotation marks on the Kaiser Pharmacy sign. Entertaining stuff for us grammatical sticklers.
Jogged Today: Nope.
Today’s Weight: 164 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Two roll luncheon special at Mt Fuji Sushi.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Big ass SUVs and monster pickups, especially when they cut in front of me during rush hour on the freeway.
Latre.
Comments
3 Responses to “Tasty, Tasty Murder”
December 19th, 2007 @ 11:02 pm
My wife has always maintaned that “Cure” is pronounced to rhyme with “skewer”. I know nothing about music but I’m pretty sure that word should have only one syllable. So I reckon I should ask someone recognized by the both of us as an expert…
December 20th, 2007 @ 6:26 am
It’s actually pronounced “Throatwobbler Mangrove”.
December 20th, 2007 @ 6:27 am
You shaddap!
Robert Smith loves me (and lipstick) and HE pronounces it properly… like me. “The Kew-wah” They utterly, ROCK!
Love Cats xxxx
(and Robert looks a little like Dylan Moran…)