Anathema, Red Box and Linkin Park

So the re-branding to Dingram@Blogspot didn't work, due to the fact that my contributors didn't send me anything other than abuse, so stuff them. In this blog post I will be reviewing three albums which I believe will be numbers 1, 2 and 3 (though the order is as yet unknown) when the “Best of 2010” is announced. Two of these albums are from bands which I haven't listened to before, even though I have heard of them in passing. The first album is by a Liverpudlian band called Anathema, this distinctly proggy band have been on my radar for a few years due to them being on the same record label as Porcupine Tree (k-scope). The second album is a resurgence by a vaguely successful 80's band (they had 2 top ten singles) who have decided to reform a mere 20 years after their previous album. Though I have not heard any of their previous stuff I had heard of them due to the fact that my father had been trying for years to purchase on of their albums/EP's off of ebay for less than £100. It was my father who recommended that I give the album a listen as it is very similar to the stuff which I am listening to at the moment. The third and final album is by the Mega-Rock superstars who are Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns.

Anathema – We're Here Because We're Here (2010)
iTMS - No Spotify Link

I was slightly reluctant to listen to this album because I already have far too much music on my iPod, and I expected the Anathema album to be some sort of generic psudo-prog. How wrong I was, this album was an early contender for “Album of the Year”, it is immediately obvious that this album has had Steven Wilson all over it (he mixed the album). The album starts out strongly with Thin Air, this track starts off slow, and then build and builds, the lyrics of this track are quite emphatic as well, the main chorus line of “And it feels like we're already flying/But the air is too thin and we're dying” really brings the sense of emotion to the fore. The album has no dull moments, and even the Pink Floyd-esque Presence - which is just an instrumental track with someone talking over it, about struggling with mortality – conveys such a sense of emotion and calmness that it is very hard to criticise. After Presence Anathema really hit their stride with the über proggy A Simple Mistake it has been argued that this is the best track on the album (by none other than my father) I disagree with this (With track 3 Dreaming Light being my favourite at the moment) however I do agree that it is a spectacular, and epic, song. This album concludes with another instrumental/spoken word track, this time a female voice talking about the power which love has. The track begins with the old war chant “We're here because, We're here because; We're here because we're here.” which is a really inspired idea, and works really well in the context of the album.

Writing – 9
Flow Of The Album – 9
Originality – 8
Overall Sound – 8

A

Red Box – Plenty
iTMS - No Spotify Link

This was another album which I was reluctant to listen to as I had not heard them before, though of course because of my father I knew of them. Red Box were a band who were quite successful with their first album (released in 1986) which spawned two top-ten tracks in Lean on Me and For America. Unfortunately they were quite original so the record company didn't promote their second album at all, and they fizzled out of existence...until now! (Shock, Horror and Awe!)

Plenty is one of those albums where you hear the first minute of the first track and you think “I love this”, the opening track Stay is quiet, yet powerful. The second track is much more lively, yet still with that same power. I could say the same for the rest of the album. There is not a duff track on this album, some do take some listening to before they click, but the whole album is a Pop Masterpiece. The stand out tracks on the album are Hurricane (Track 2), Don't Let Go (Track 8), Sacred Wall (Track 11), Let It Rain (Track 12) and The Sign (Track 5). The reason I have ended with The Sign is because it is the stand out track on the album for one reason alone, it has the same great writing and music, but the thing which makes this track so good is the chorus line which consists of normal vocals combined with a sort of tribal chanting. It may sound like it wouldn't work, but surprisingly it does.

Writing – 9
Flow Of The Album – 8
Originality – 9
Overall Sound – 7

A

Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns
iTMS - Spotify

The third and final album to be reviewed, and yet again I was very reluctant to listen to this album. Though unlike the previous two the reason is not due to the fact that the band were unknown to me, on the contrary Linkin Park were one of the first bands which I listened to and enjoyed (along with Rammstein and Blur). The problem I have with Linkin Park is that Hybrid Theory (The band's first album) was so good, Meteora (Second Album) was great, though not to the same standard of Hybrid Theory and Minutes To Midnight (Third Album) was average in places and just plain bad in others. So with this in mind I delayed on purchasing A Thousand Suns because I assumed that it would continue the trend, then loads of people started ranting that it wasn't any good, that they too believed that since Hybrid Theory the band had decayed. I eventually bought the album when I was Christmas shopping, it was on special offer, and I had this blog post in mind the first time I listened to it. I had a whole post developed about bands which have peaked too early (Keane, Thirteen Senses, Guillemots, Enter Shikari and to a certain extent The Killers were on the list). So I listened, and I judged, and all I can say is...

DAMN YOU LINKIN PARK!! You have ruined a perfectly good blog post, with a sound theme! This album is excellent, I can understand why people don't like it, the band has overcome the burden of being at the forefront of American rock music, and have gotten on and done something new and different – yet still Linkin Park – and they should be (and quite rightly are) proud of it. If you take the individual tracks from the album and lay them side by side with those from Hybrid Theory I think the tracks from Hybrid Theory would just about win it, but listen to the two as albums, as they should be heard, and with A Thousand Suns you have something pure, whole and utterly outstanding. The things which served Linkin Park so well on their first two albums – the back and forth between Chester and Mike; the Electro-Synth-Pop from Joe Hahn and the innovative merging of several genres – have returned, along with what was good about Minutes To Midnight - the thought provoking lyrics; epic guitar solos; emotional togetherness – have combined, along with something new which I just can't place, to create this album which should change the face of rock for years to come. When They Come For Me (Track 5) has that same back and forth between the two frontmen which was missing from Minutes To Midnight, and includes a line, from Mike Shinoda, obviously aimed at those people who did just want more of the same which is Cos' even a blueprint is a gift and a curse // Cos' once you got the theory of how the thing works // Everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first which entertained me quite a bit when I realised it was there. This is Linkin Park back to their best, and I truly believe that this album is better than Hybrid Theory. The reason that some people dislike this album is clear, it's new, it's creative and most obvious is that it has a distinctly Proggy edge to it, so much so that I believe that they have, once again, created a new genre, taking their Nu Metal moniker, combining it with progressive thinking, longer tracks and a better flowing album (which more bands seem to be doing now) to create Progressive Nu Metal. Well done guys! You have done the impossible!

Writing – 9
Flow Of The Album – 9
Originality – 10
Overall Sound – 10

S

Well that's it for this post, though I'm sure there will be a few more in the future, I am going to try hard to get out a few posts a month, though don't count on it...

Laters
GB

Song of the Week is:-
Linkin Park - Robot Boy
iTMS - Spotify