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selection7
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« on: July 04, 2010, 11:23:49 PM » |
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Thought I'd write an SoP review since I never did originally, yes, all this time later. I like writing things out sometimes as a way of organizing my thoughts. So anyway, I'll just write about what seems unique or important about each track, or just what I liked. If its length bores you, hey, at least it's a post. And feel free to disagree, it's just my opinion. I already know Enuf doesn't agree with me based on the other most recent post in this sub-forum, haha. 01 When Did This Storm Begin Intro is magnificent. To spend that much time on the musical equivalent of setting the scene without being boring isn't easy. I like the octave blip noises part that Jeremy plays. Sisely's quasi-rapping works great, and I'm impressed since white people rapping like white people often comes off so wrong. I think it's her being well-suited to electro-clash that makes the difference. I like that Chad gets to show off his far from pedestrian voice at the end, but it seems like the last 25% of the song still needed something else, so it feels a little unfinished to me, to be critical. 02 Money for That The album's down the center rocker. It's a good one. That little flam-like thing Mikey consistently does on the snare is different and a nice touch. Sisely at the end is a nice addition, but I sort of wonder if Chad couldn't have kept his improvs there too; I liked that from the Dangerous Insects version. Also missing (or buried) is the octave or single note harmonizing on the guitars that I think I hear in that older version. I guess that would've made it even more Foo Fighters-like, but who cares? Anyway, I definitely think I get what they were going for here by putting Money right after Storm, 'cause I would've bit on that too if I'd been putting together a tracklist, but all this time later it's pretty clear to me that after Storm, you're just not in the mood for Money for That, and Money for That suffers for it. 03 I Owe You a Love Song One of my favs. From a songwriting standpoint, there are no weak sections, which is a pet peeve of mine. My second favorite Sisely vocal contribution after Ricochet. Whoever came up with that jangly synth in the choruses is a genius. In the chorus, Chad's guitar picking patterns and chords seem very plain, and yet I'm drawn to them especially towards the end of every few measures before the lyric repeats. I like the bass riff interjected just before the second chorus and the bass part in general. I would normally cynically expect the middle8 to be a letdown since the previous parts work so well, and yet it just ups the ante, awesome. The outro, which has the audacity to have a double key change (in the sense of fear of coming off corny  ), is basically repeated choruses, and the chorus is great, but as an outro it's missing something compared to Rainy Monday's outro and I think that's what keeps it from being the best straight-up pop rock song STG have done (which is Rainy Monday IMO). 04 Ghost Town A single for good reason. Catchy. Sisely's verse stuff works pretty well. The drums there are cool. Her middle8 is even better (I like the synth fill there), and her breakdown works well enough. The octave sliding synth in the chorus is great. Nice abrupt ending. It seems to me SoP could've used a couple more songs like this one in terms of balance. 05 It Became a Lie On You I love this intro as much or more than Storm's. It feels like there are some added in beats in a couple of spots that shift things (though obviously a very different song, think Hey Ya by Outkast), but I didn't want to break it down because that might ruin the effect. I like the way the synth sort of resolves at the end of each few measures in the verse before the melody repeats. The chorus is nice, but still weak, and "nice" is below the standard Shiny Toy Guns set for themselves IMO. Lifting out of that low-key chorus into the song's sort of emo second movement is good though. I like the outro, but it feels not quite there. A little boring. It seems like it would've been a perfect spot for something interesting from Mikey. Anyway, there's a lot of great stuff on this track but I think it didn't reach its potential. |
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« Last Edit: July 05, 2010, 01:12:26 AM by selection7 »
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selection7
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« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2010, 11:48:02 PM » |
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06 Ricochet! It's my favorite song off SoP I think, and has a great title. Everything they were going for here works just as I imagine they intended. Intro bass sawtooth over Sisely's chanting is inspired. The chorus guitar riff is awesome, though some of its syncopated frills (??I can't think of a better word here) unfortunately get lost in the mix. Here's a good example of the difference between the repitition of IBALOY's outro and Ricochet!'s outro. While I complained about the former's repetitive outro as boring, Ricochet's repetitive outro is too short. In the spirit of their trance background, they should have let this one repeat out at least a little more. Even though I love Carah Faye's Le Disko vocals, I don't think she's as well suited for this type of song as Sisely. When the Shinys teased this song pre-album release, many people complained, which I thought at the time, and still do, was crazy. 07 Season of Love An example of the Shiny's stretching themselves successfully. Upon first listens, it was immediately one of my favs on the album, though I slowly came to like quite at least a couple of the other songs better than it over time. It took awhile to accept the repetitive, one-word chorus, which now I wouldn't change at all  . The spartan drums are perfect. I like the interplay between Chad's melodies and the strings synth in the chorus. Chad (in falsetto) and Sisely singing in unison is a nice thing about this song too (or maybe that's not her? but I prefer to assume it is). Putting it after the adrenaline-fueld Ricochet achieves exactly what STG was going for, I think, and in and of itself, I like the decision. Unfortunately, Ricochet all by its lonesome between this one and the eccentric, slow tempo'd IBALOY leaves you wanting more rock in a "That's all!?" unhappy way, not in the good kind of way. The transition from IBALOY to Richochet is one of the better ones I think though; I'm always ready to hear Ricochet after hearing IBALOY wind down, so SoL is the one I'd have moved. 08 Poison I'm going to admit that I'm maybe not the best person to ask about this one. It's not my bag. I break out in hives when my sister plays that RENT soundtrack when I'm riding with her in her car. But I will say Poison's theatrical nature makes it better live. That great breakdown and the section that follows it are definitely my favorite parts, and I like when Sisely joins in. And like the Shinys, I'm a sucker for vocoders. I seriously applaud their having the balls to put a 3 minute organ solo on SoP. It's great too. But still, I would've found a way to shorten it by a minute. This album can't support it as is. 09 Blown Away Great verses and transistion from the organ solo. Not sure I'm down with the vocals being so dry in the chorus and the guitars sound a little weak, like direct into the mixing board in a way. The drum break and section that follows it are great. But in the end the chorus is just a little weak and unfinished, both in its demo-like sound and maybe from a songwriting perspective too (it's hard to say for sure without seeing how production could have changed it). It gets brownie points for rocking though. 10 Turned to Real Life N/A for me I guess. I took it off the album since the Carah Faye version was already a mainstay on my main version of WAP and I much prefer Carah's timber and delivery for this song, as well as the far background vocals that were removed. I did merge the new intro with the older version's intro though to create a hybrid, so I appreciate it for that. It makes my WAP a little better. But both of these are better than the Ursula Vari version, if you've heard it. Her voice and weird accent on this song are annoying to me. I love this song on my WAP, BTW. 11 Frozen Oceans This one's definitely a good song. So it's strange that after all this time I still don't know why it doesn't excite me. After Poison, it's my least favorite on the album. Yet when I first heard it, I felt like from the type of song it was that it was going to be a great and appropriate album closer. I think I like Sisely here, so maybe she's not the problem. I think they could've left the "I can't wait" for the outro only and found some alternative throughout the breakdown just before it. Or maybe all it needs is some sort of different production on her vocals there, I don't know. But as it is, I'm tired of hearing it by the time the climactic outro comes crashing in ("OK, we get it! you can't wait  "). That slow burn, repeating synth riff is the only thing in this song that I really like a lot, which is funny since that was probably an afterthought. |
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« Last Edit: July 05, 2010, 01:28:22 AM by selection7 »
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selection7
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« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2010, 01:02:12 AM » |
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In summary, SoP is a great album. I like it about half as much as WAP, which sounds like an insult, but it's not since it's all relative. WAP had more top-tier songs I'd say, and more songs period on my personalized version. I feel for STG trying to create a track order with these songs, but unfortunately, the track order isn't a strength. Ideally, side-by-side songs should complement each other and make the album more than the sum of its parts. This album is often disparate in a bad way. Garbage's "Beautiful Garbage" comes to mind as a similar example. SoP needed more uptempo songs, IMO, and one of their more rocking tracks (Money) gets a bit lost in the track order, which doesn't help things. On a more positive note, straying from WAP so much was a high degree of difficulty and I'm impressed with their ability to come up with great songs that remind me nothing of previous songs. Having Sisely probably has a lot to do with this. With respect to Sisely vs. Carah, I think I prefer Carah in general and on just about any WAP-era song, yet all the Sisely songs come off great and I don't see Carah doing it any better. So it probably does have a lot to do just with what I'm used to.
Now for some real rambling... Jeremy doesn't seem to like being referred to as a throwback to '80s style new wave and synth pop, but I think part of what seemed profound to me upon discovering STG's WAP (I live about 50 minutes from OKC here in Oklahoma and YATO was getting airplay) was their use of synths that harkens back more to the core of electro, at least, than what I'd been exposed to. At least anything similar I'd heard before hadn't moved me the way WAP did, so I guess a way to put it was that I didn't even know I liked this type of music until STG. I think what makes SoP's electro not deliver in that vein is that it's more alternative and eccentric, which reminds me of the stuff I'd already been plenty exposed to (mainly through Nine Inch Nails), though it seems contradictory to complain since Richochet is my favorite song on the album, but I think that's just coincidence, and the rest of the album is not like Richochet anyway. How could I put it, let's see...I suppose the lo-fi electroclash, the soaring pure pad synths, and the driving yet poppy synth riffs, without the overly busy techno beats of Garbage or the weird mechanical noises and oddly gothic synths of NIN were some of the things I loved about STG because it was different to me to be pulled off so well. Anyway, enough...It's officially out of my system.
The order of my favorite songs is probably...
N/A TtRL
10 Poison
09 Frozen Oceans
08 Blown Away
07 It Became a Lie on You
06 Money for That
05 & 04 (tie)
Season of Love
When Did This Storm Begin
03 Ghost Town
02 I Owe You a Love Song
01 Ricochet!
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« Last Edit: July 10, 2010, 11:56:25 PM by selection7 »
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LT. Typhoon
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« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2010, 06:55:47 PM » |
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Wow, reading this...
Its like you wrapped every thought and opinion that was pretty much on this forum - and slammed it into one piece.
Welcome to the Fam
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Enuf3
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« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2010, 08:23:40 PM » |
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Not really. I disagree with a few of those.
And since I'm like, Lord of the Forum... it just doesn't work. Be gone!
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LT. Typhoon
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« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2010, 09:56:57 PM » |
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this is off topic and in no way an attempt to offend or "conspiricize". but since its your topic this'll work lol -- ------- I noticed that you are from Tulsa... So i'm naturally paranoid or whatever that you could know STG on some small personal level. LOL. You might not be, which is fine. Just think that But you're cool |
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Enuf3
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« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2010, 09:59:44 PM » |
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this is off topic and in no way an attempt to offend or "conspiricize". but since its your topic this'll work lol -- ------- I noticed that you are from Tulsa... So i'm naturally paranoid or whatever that you could know STG on some small personal level. LOL. You might not be, which is fine. Just think that But you're cool All them Tulsa folk know Shines, es stupid! |
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abthomas
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« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2010, 11:57:14 PM » |
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I was going to write this big post about stuff, but it was long and I got bored, so I didn't.
Season of Poison is pretty awesome, Tulsa's not so bad, but Shiny's rock forever.
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LT. Typhoon
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« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2010, 02:33:16 PM » |
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*scratches head* Oh yeah |
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Felinist
Mikey Martin's #1 Fan
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Posts: 219
Yes, I love him. Can't help it. Don't want to.
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« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2010, 12:07:33 PM » |
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I was impressed with your breakdown of the songs, and your musical knowledge. I don't necessarily agree with all your conclusions, but I can respect them. I was a bit amused by your comments about a throwback to the electro sound of the past. I agree that Jeremy seems to avoid that reference, but I don't know why he seems put off by that. I LIKE the fact that they can combine elements of some of the electro greats and still bring a modern sound and new rock element to their music. I think sometimes Jeremy gets so caught up in the idea that he is in the process of creating something "new" (at least in the sense that it is original), and just doesn't notice or acknowledge how much he is still able to incorporate past trends into new music. It's all good either way, because as long as he keeps creating, I'll keep listening.
- The Felinist
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selection7
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« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2010, 11:27:09 PM » |
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True, Felinist. I actually don't think when I tried to get specific I really explained myself very well, but when I said "I didn't even know I liked that kind of music until STG", that was a good, succinct way to put it. I don't know them and in fact I've never so much as spoken to any of them...even though I've seen them live many times (being local has it's benefits). I'm not much of a BS conversationalist with strangers and it'd probably come off like some kind of weird interview  . I know what you're talking about though LashTypoon because even for me, for example, there's this guy that comes into a pc lab I frequent who looks so much like Chad and I'm thinking "I wonder if it's his cousin or something?" . I'm in Stillwater right now actually...and I missed a free Shiny's show recently outside at OKC Thunder alley because I wasn't on their Twitter. Now I am set up, got the confirming text message from Twitter and went to my Twitter options online to tell it to send me texts when STG tweets...it still never sends me a text when they tweet! What am I missing here as a twitter newb? As an addendum, I'm noticing (and I only noticed this now...it wasn't done on purpose) that I never mentioned lyrics in my whole review (in Frozen Oceans, I'm talking about repetition, not the words themselves). If the lyrics are something really special, then great, it's icing on the cake and in those cases it can make a huge difference, otherwise I'm not a lyrics guy. So my philosophy when reading music reviews is if the critic focuses more on the lyrics than the music, ignore their "opinion", they're incompetent. Funny story, after SoP came out I had probably heard the first track a half dozen times when my sister mentioned its domestic/child abuse subject matter and I was shocked. "Really, it is?! Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense.", lol. Then she asked me the other day about the lyrics in Free Fall Melody...said usually she can decipher anyones lyrics at least a bit but Free Fall Melody is almost unintelligible. And I thought, huh? they're not that tough, only to start trying to sing it to myself and indeed I'm really just making up gibberish, haha. It never occurred to me because I'm not thinking about the words anyway. I came to these forums and saw you all don't really know either. EDIT: I think maybe changing the mobile option so that the "Device Updates set to On" checkbox was checked solved my problem. I don't know why that would help but I get tweets now. |
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« Last Edit: July 15, 2010, 05:29:12 PM by selection7 »
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LT. Typhoon
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« Reply #11 on: July 11, 2010, 06:16:53 PM » |
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Then she asked me the other day about the lyrics in Free Fall Melody...said usually she can decipher anyones lyrics at least a bit but Free Fall Melody is almost unintelligible. And I thought, huh? they're not that tough, only to start trying to sing it to myself and indeed I'm really just making up gibberish, haha. It never occurred to me because I'm not thinking about the words anyway. I came to these forums and saw you all don't really know either.
change that to "good idea" Lol. We put in great intelligible ideas that make the song have sense. Dont hate - Collaborate. |
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Enuf3
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« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2010, 06:24:17 PM » |
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Funny story, after SoP came out I had probably heard the first track a half dozen times when my sister mentioned its domestic/child abuse subject matter and I was shocked. "Really, it is?! Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense.", lol. Then she asked me the other day about the lyrics in Free Fall Melody...said usually she can decipher anyones lyrics at least a bit but Free Fall Melody is almost unintelligible. And I thought, huh? they're not that tough, only to start trying to sing it to myself and indeed I'm really just making up gibberish, haha. It never occurred to me because I'm not thinking about the words anyway. I came to these forums and saw you all don't really know either.
Well when I picture Free Fall Melody.. I imagine a bunch of random words and sentences falling through the sky... forming lyrics that make very little sense. |
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abthomas
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« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2010, 07:51:12 PM » |
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There are no official lyrics to Free Fall Melody because it really was just a made up song on the spot thing. Chad made up the lyrics as he sang them, which means half of them are probably just sounds rather than words.
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selection7
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« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2010, 10:52:37 AM » |
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There are no official lyrics to Free Fall Melody because it really was just a made up song on the spot thing. Chad made up the lyrics as he sang them, which means half of them are probably just sounds rather than words.
wow, really? So where'd you hear that? |
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abthomas
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« Reply #15 on: July 12, 2010, 12:09:27 PM » |
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I emailed Jeremy over a year ago about it because it was driving me crazy. He told me that Free Fall Melody is what it is. There are no lyrics; none written down or anything.
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LT. Typhoon
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« Reply #16 on: July 12, 2010, 05:05:10 PM » |
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wow, really? So where'd you hear that?
Lurk the forum. We had a huge thread about this very topic. I'll add it in if i find it. :::::::::::::::::::::::: -10 minutes later- EPIC F**kin' WIN! I found it. lol http://shinytoyguns.net/forum/index.php/topic,141.0.htmlnow gaze at my Modlyness.  But really, if you want, we can take this FFM chat to its thread.  either way.... |
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« Last Edit: July 12, 2010, 05:13:56 PM by LashTyphoon »
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esbeecee
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« Reply #17 on: July 13, 2010, 04:21:03 AM » |
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there's a similarity in one little section of Freefall and the transition in Ghost Town (where sisely is singing "calling, calling to say goodbye). i love noticing little things like that. anyone else hear it?
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Enuf3
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« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2010, 05:21:57 AM » |
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there's a similarity in one little section of Freefall and the transition in Ghost Town (where sisely is singing "calling, calling to say goodbye). i love noticing little things like that. anyone else hear it?
Indeed I do. |
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xxxgarett
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« Reply #19 on: September 06, 2010, 08:38:51 AM » |
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season of poison really is a greattt cd.
i just think we are pilots was a lot epic-ier.
ahahaha.
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