Weezer: Raditude

A buddy of mine summed it up right when he said “Weezer have the formula down – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, instrumental verse with a guitar solo playing the melody, then 2 chorus’ and it’s all over in less than 3 minutes.” They’ve proved time and time again to be the masters of power pop and to this day, nobody does the sub-genre better. It’s all there again on “Raditude” – the near-perfect pop melodies, punk rock guitars, and lyrics that go back and worth between witty and lazy, and song concepts that make you laugh out loud (e.g. “The Girl Got Hot”). They’re still just as cool as they seemed on the Windows 95 CD, which had the music video for “Buddy Holly” on it (remember how awesome a CD-ROM was?). Weezer rocks.

Tangent #1:
“Love is the Answer” stinks. Why is the formula for a song about peace, love, and enlightenment always adding a sitar and some dude/dudette from India singing in Hindi?!

Tangent #2:
“Raditude” is one of the greatest words ever. My wife and I are using the word with the kids – example, “Lose the attitude – how about a bit more RADITUDE?” I look forward to using the word well into their teens. I expect this will lead to some type of emotional scarring. True story – Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute in “The Office”) suggested the title to Weezer.

Tangent #3:
I wonder how many times they had to throw the dog across the room before they got the album cover shot…

Standout Tracks:
1 (“(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To”)
2 (“I’m Your Daddy”)
3 (“The Girl Got Hot”)
6 (“Tripping Down the Freeway”)

Skip:
7 (“Love is the Answer”)
9 (“In the Mall”)
All bonus tracks (#11 up) except “The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World”

Kid Ears Alerts:
Most of the songs are cool but there’s a couple of hat-tips to hook-ups, so check it out first before rocking it for the shorties (wow – that was a lot of dated slang).

Bottom Line:
Music that’s awesome while driving. For under $10, download the whole album. Amazon Download Link.

Paul Baloche: Glorious

I have HUGE respect for Paul Baloche and especially love 2 things about his ministry: he’s the most affable and warm host (when leading worship) I’ve ever seen and his album’s aren’t over-produced. It sounds like a 5 or 6-piece worship band leading worship in their church.

“A Greater Song” was easily his best album and his previous effort (“Our God Saves”) gave us the standout tracks “Our God Saves” and “Hallelujah to my King”. That’s the first thing I noticed about this album – there isn’t even one track that jumps out to you as one of those songs. It’s a testimony to PB’s consistency that I’ve come to expect that from every album! The song son this CD aren’t poor – the songs are solid – but that’s the operative word here, “solid”.

I have a real lyrical question about the first track, “Glorious”. It contains the line “My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord”. Were the song about nature, it would make sense singing that line – but it’s not a nature song. So I’m left feeling that it’s borderline Biblically inaccurate to sing the line “My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord”, as it’s patently false! I’m not comfortable singing those words without any type of context (e.g. after talking about the starts, the mountains, etc.). Any thoughts?

My favorite track would be “Just to be With You”. It has that sweet, worshipful quality to it that’s corporate and personal at the same time.

The back half of the album is noticeably weaker than the first half. PB’s version of “Today is the Day” doesn’t compare to Lincoln Brewster’s version and “A New Hallelujah” is simply not that good, despite being hyped up by Worship Leader Magazine and other outlets (like “Healing Rain” a couple years ago).

Standout Tracks:
2 (“You Have Saved Us”)
3 (“Just to be With You”)
4 (“Wonderful God”)

Skip:
7 (“Today Is The Day”)
8 (“Shaken”)
9 (“We Will Hold On”)
10 (“Almighty”)
11 (“A New Hallelujah”)

Bottom Line:
Download the first 6 tracks for less than $6. Amazon Download Link.

Blake Lewis: Heartbreak On Vinyl

Most people remember Blake Lewis for his “American Idol” run, which included this performance (I don’t care that he messed with Bon Jovi, this was wicked)…

After the show, he didn’t get the same love that some of the other contestants did (the best songwriter, etc. working on his project) but he’s finally released his first post-AI project. It’s what I would call a bonafide guilty pleasure. All of the tracks mix dance music with electronica and pop melodies, resulting in a fun and entertaining album. If he had the same promo machine behind him that other artists have, I’m pretty sure BL would be huge as his songs are made to blow up on the charts. Plus the dude can dance. Listening to this album reminded me that I can’t (although it’ shard to look awesome while dancing sitting down in a desk chair)…

Standout Tracks:
1 (“Heartbreak On Vinyl”)
2 (“Binary Love”)

Skip:
5 (“Rhythm of My Heart”)
9 (“SuperScratchaVocalisticTurnatablelicious”)
10 (“Our Rapture of Love”)
11 (“The Point”)

Kid Ears Alerts:
No bad language but practically the entire album is about hooking up on the dance floor in a manner that would seem to lead to… um… reproduction.

Bottom Line:
For $7.99 I’d pick up the album download and embarrass myself by listening/dancing to this album in my car. Amazon Download Link.

Phil Wickham: Heaven and Earth

This guy is almost too good for the CCM genre. His self-titled debut album blew my mind and the follow-up album, “Cannons”, saw him reveal a love for electronic bands like Muse while pushing into even bigger sonic territory. I’m always eager to hear what he does next. “Heaven and Earth” is conceptually bold because I can’t remember many artists talking about Heaven without being really cheesy but PW manages to capture the hope of the believer longing for an eternity with Christ. It’s the way we’re supposed to feel about our destiny – a longing to the point of aching and a profound sense of hope in the darkest of times. Worship Leader Magazine completely missed this in their shortsighted review of “H&E”, accusing PW of “I’ll Fly Away” syndrome. That’s why I say he might be too good and too lyrically profound for CCM…

The album’s first track, “Eden”, is good but transforms into greatness when you hear PW talk about how the song was written from the perspective of Adam, near the end of his life on earth, longing for the days of Eden. This makes the song intensely moving and is a great example of Christian artistry. There are some filler tracks and the first single, “Safe”, sounds like something you’d write when you’re trying to get on Christian radio (ironically, it’s title is creatively appropriate!).

We’re already doing 2 songs off this album at our church, “In Your City” and “Your Arrival”. There are almost zero theologically correct songs about the Rapture or Heaven and they are a HUGE part of our core doctrines, so I jumped at the chance to sing these songs. “In Your City” is so massive as a song; it immediately resonated with both our worship team and our congregation.

PW’s lyrics aren’t just passionate, they’re courageously passionate and delivered with an earnestness that should be the hallmark of songs about our Savior and Creator.

Interesting side notes:

The album cover was apparently shot inside Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Awesome.

PW offered a genius purchase option that I took advantage of – I got an immediate download of the album and the entire album played acoustically, a MONTH AND A HALF before it’s commercial release; a t-shirt (surprisingly not a v-neck); the hard copy CD with autographed cover mailed to me on the release day; all for $25. Brilliant for everybody.

Standout Tracks:
1 (“Eden”)
3 (“Heaven and Earth”)
8 (“In Your City”)
9 (“Your Arrival”)
11 (“Cielo”).

Skip:
2 (“Coming Alive″)
4 (“The Time is Now)

Bottom Line:
Worthy of a whole album purchase! Amazon Download Link

OneRepublic: Waking Up

I loved about half of OneRepublic’s first album (“Apologize” was played to death but “Mercy”, “Stop and Stare”, and “Say (All I Need)” are still killer), so I was interested to hear what they’d pull out on their soph disc. It’s better than the first. They ditched a lot of the U2-esque delayed guitars and focused mostly on the hip-hop beats and melodic pop chorus’  with almost-rapped verses (and yes – some orchestral strings are still there). You can’t help but nod your head to most of the CD.

Standout Tracks:
2 (“All the Right Moves”)
3 (“Secrets”)
9 (“Waking Up”)
10 (“Marchin’ On”)
11 (“Lullaby”).

Skip:
5 (“Missing Persons 1 & 2″)

Kid Ears Alerts:
6 (“Good Life”) > b-word & s-word.

Bottom Line:
Buy the whole album! Amazon Download Link

The Killers: Live at the Royal Albert Hall (CD/DVD)

I still remember the first time I put the Killers debut CD (“Hot Fuss”) in my car and heard “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”. Everything about them (especially the 80′s synths) screamed “original” and the album just got better and better with every track. I hated “Sam’s Town” at first and then fell completely in love with it a year later. I think “Day and Age” has some great tracks but is definitely the weakest of their albums, overall.

I caught them in concert a couple of months ago in Miami and would rate it as one of the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen about 8,000 people dancing at the same time! Brandon Flowers is one of the best front men in music and everything about the show made you smile. So naturally, I wondered if this live DVD and CD would capture that unbelievable energy on film… it does – and then some. You will have to look past the fact that the drummer’s “I’m-totally-into-my-music” face is exactly the same as his “I’m-constipated” face.

The Royal Albert Hall might be the most incredible live venue on earth. The crowd is scatters across about 5 levels and almost 360 degrees around the band. The cinematography is incredible and the British audience is absolutely crazy. the play all the songs you want to hear (e.g. “Smile Like You Mean It”) and throw in a ton of little twists to the songs’ arrangements (and they’re all good). They finish the show with “When You Were Young” and the lead guitar player lives out every man’s rock fantasy – playing a screaming solo while standing on top of a piano (a-la Slash in the “November Rain” music video) while a giant sparkler rains down across the back of the stage (see the video below). It looks even better than it sounds…

Standout Tracks:
“Human”
“Spaceman”
“Mr. Brightside”
“All These Things That I’ve Done”
“When You Were Young”

Skip:
“The World We Live In”
“I Can’t Stay”
“Losing Touch”
“Sweet Talk”
“This River Is Wild”

Kid Ears Alerts:
In general, The Killers have a lot of dark lyrical content (e.g. “Mr. Brightside” & “When You Were Young”) that can get overlooked because the music is so fun. Use discretion around your kids.

Bottom Line:
Buy this right now, grab every musician you know, and sit down to watch one of the best live music DVDs ever created! Amazon Purchase Link

John Mayer: Battle Studies

I’ve seen JM the last 3 times he came through West Palm Beach and unfortunately, it’s been kind of a downward spiral. He was solid when I saw him with Sheryl Crow, high the next time, and high on something stronger the next time (‘made his playing noticeably sloppy). I consider him to be one of the most talented writers and musicians on the planet but he’s also clearly one of those artists that (subconsciously) intentionally manufactures intense emotional experiences for the sake of artistic inspiration – be it with travel, drugs, relationships, hook-ups, etc. He’s the embodiment of the classic U2 lyric from “The Fly” that says “Every artist is a cannibal. Every poet is a thief. All kill their inspiration and then sing about the grief.”

On an unrelated note – that album cover is amazingly pretentious (“OK, here’s the cover art concept – it’s just me… looking awesome.”)

That dichotomy is on full display in “Battle Studies”. “Who Says” is essentially an apologetic for hedonism and moral relativism while other tracks find him lyrically pondering why he can’t seem to find true love (e.g. “War of my Life”). Lyrically, the contradiction comes across as more immature than profound.

The music, on the other hand, is fantastic. Steve Jordan’s minimalist drumming is back (LOVE that guy!) and the melodies are brilliant. But while “Continuum” was a genuine guitar record, “Battle Studies” isn’t… most of the solos come off as uninspired.

Ultimately it’s a great CD because there’s nobody else really carrying the modern blues/pop genre.

Standout Tracks:
1 (“Heartbreak Warfare”)
2 (“All We Ever Do is Say Goodbye”)
3 (“Half of my Heart”)
9 (“Edge of Desire”) .

Skip:
4 (“Who Says″)
10 (“Do You Know Me”).

Kid Ears Alerts:
1 (“Heartbreak Warfare”) > s-word
4 (“Who Says″) > getting high & hooking up
9 (“Edge of Desire”) > hooking-up
11 (“Friends, Lovers, or Nothing”) > the title is the chorus hook.

Bottom Line:
Buy the whole album for the killer music. iTunes Download Link.