Welcome back to Thrak Attack! What's your adventure? This week had an explosion of new music! 1 brand new album from the Backstreet Boys, 1 covers album from Weezer, a single with a B-side from Florence and the Machine, and a single from the Dirty Heads. It's been a lot of music to listen to but we're here on Monday blogging about what I thought! If you want to see a video review check out our YouTube channel on Wednesdays, and a podcast version this episode on Friday on Anchor. If you enjoy the blog please make sure to like and share with your friends! Now before we get to the mountain of music I climbed this weekend, let's go through the mountain of news we got this week!
NEWS!
-A new Star Wars comic features Batuu the fictional planet that Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is based on.
-The first Skyliner gondola has arrived at the EPCOT station in Walt Disney World. I'm pretty excited about this transportation method.
-Hulu drops it's price to $5.99 a month to compete with Netflix. Maybe if they drop their ads they can compete with Netflix too.
-Black Panther receives 6 Oscar nominations one of which is Best Picture. I enjoyed that movie but box office sales does not make it a great movie.
-Nintendo released a video stating that all development on Metroid Prime 4 has been scrapped. They are returning to Retro studios and are starting from scratch. Good for Nintendo having integrity with making their games great!
-Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews confirm that Princess Diaries 3 will be happening.
-Third Eye Blind and Jimmy Eat World are going on tour. I will be probably be going in July!
-James Wan will direct the Aquaman sequel. Hopefully he will continue the solid story he presented us in that film.
REVIEWS!
"DNA" by Backstreet Boys
If you told me in 1999 that we would be getting a new Backstreet Boys album in 2019 I would probably laugh at you, but here we are at the beginning of 2019 and I'm listening to a brand new Backstreet Boys album. It's actually their 9th studio album which is extremely impressive and that they are still kicking it! This album is filled with so much poppy goodness that sometimes it's bad. But there are some hidden gems in this album that really stick out. I'll do the compliment sandwich, but the bread is going to be very thin.
"Breathe" and "Passionate" are the only two songs on the album that are truly worth anything. The real singles are "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", "No Place", and "Chances" but I didn't really enjoy those. "No Place" is a cheesy and obligatory pop song about all the places in the world but it's not with you. "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is a cheesy obligatory breakup song; and "Chances" has an odd bridge that doesn't work and is an obligatory love at first sight pop song. this album felt like they had to check off all the boxes of a pop album and just wrote songs accordingly.
Back to the two songs that actually are good "Passionate" which is a fun and lustful song that has a catchy chorus and an amazing groove. If they just released the song without the vocals it would probably be better off. The vocals are not the highlight here which is sad considering the Backstreet Boys are a vocal group. The other gem on the album "Breathe" truly showcases their chemistry as a vocal group. The entire song is sung acapella and has no instruments. It's all beautiful harmonies, solid lyrics, and hand snaps when appropriate.
Other than those two songs, the rest of the album is just a generic pop album with generic pop songs. I never felt like I was fully invested in listening to the album but also never disliked what I was listening to. That's the interesting part pop music; even if it's not good, it's still enjoyable to listen to. Is this going on my ultimate shelf? Nope. Maybe a single of "Breathe" and "Passionate" but I don't see that happening.
"Moderation" by Florence + the Machine
This is by far the best song we got this week in the world of music. It's fast, fun, has a great rhythmic motive, and the song goes somewhere. It's never a stagnant song. It's clearly a different tone and style from "High as Hope" which is a great change of pace. That was my album of the year of 2018 but I don't need more music from Florence that's like that. She understands the flow of how her music should be on a small scale in individual songs, album structure, and even in the release of her music. The B-side "Haunted House" is more like a "High as Hope" song where the lyrics are the feature but it's just as enjoyable as "Moderation" it's a short and cute tune with some beautiful melodies and cool harmonies. It's cute, simple, and hauntingly beautiful. I may be biased because I love Florence + the Machine and always have since 2009 but this is the best piece of music we've gotten this year. So will this go on my ultimate shelf? Hopefully I can find a 7 inch because I would love for it to be on my ultimate shelf.
"Weezer (Teal Album)"- Weezer
It's really hard to review a covers album. All of the songs are obviously good because the band wanted to cover them but there's rarely a good flow because it's a bunch of random songs from a bunch of random bands. So it's difficult. The songs are all amazing but the choice of songs from Weezer is downright odd. From Toto's "Africa" to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" to Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" there is no tonal center throughout the whole album.
What makes a good cover is taking a song that is well loved and making it your own. Keeping the integrity of the song but making it sound like one of your songs. I will use two songs that I feel are the best covers. "Come Together" by Aerosmith and "Hurt" by Johnny Cash. I know a lot of people that don't even know that "Hurt" was a cover but originally it was a Nine Inch Nails song but Cash made it his own.
With that being said, this album is fun to see what songs Weezer chose to cover and hearing them play those songs, but the songs sound too much like the original to be considered a good cover. It also seems odd to me that they would release a full covers album a month before their new 2019 studio album.
So is this album going on my ultimate shelf. No. I was unimpressed, we will see what happens when "Weezer (the Black Album)" comes out in March.
"Listen to Me" by Dirty Heads
I thought the Dirty Heads were back after their last set of music with "Swim Team" being a surprise hit of 2017 and then "Visions" being one highlights of 2018 but they have regressed to their boring middle phase of their career. "Any Port in a Storm" is one of my favorite albums, "Cabin by the Sea" was a solid sophmore outing, "Sound of Change" had a few gems, and "Dirty Heads" literally had 2 good songs. "Listen to Me" sounds like something that didn't make the cut on "Dirty Heads" and figured they needed to release something new. It's a boring song with a badly produced sound. We were back to the standard with "Swim Team" don't go backwards. This song will not be on my ultimate shelf. Sorry Dirty Heads.
Well the mountain of music has been climbed and we're looking to the next week's post. Next week will have some travel destinations and a review of Kingdom Hearts 3. Please check out the S1 Ep.4 on YouTube video on Wednesday and the podcast on Anchor on Friday. Thank you for reading, keep going on adventures!
All the Best, Ross
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