Christian Rock OBSESSION

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  This week is just full of awesomeness, if you ask me.  Turkey day tomorrow, a ton of sweet deals the next day, and officially being able to listen to Christmas music without upsetting people for “starting too early.”  And to top it off, here’s an update.

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Speaking of Christmas music, Deas Vail will be releasing a four-song Christmas EP titled For Shepherds & Kings on November 29 (next Tuesday).  The EP includes the songs “Do You Hear What I Hear,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Coventry Carol,” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  I’m no expert, but I’m thinking they’ll do an awesome job with this.  Also, don’t forget to check out dates for their Christmas tour, which you can find here.  

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Onto a totally different note, Demon Hunter has announced the release of a deluxe edition of The World Is A Thorn, due out on the same day as Deas Vail’s EP.  It will have one cover song and four acoustic tracks, in addition to the rest of the record.  Hopefully those songs are on iTunes so we all don’t have to buy the album over again, yeah?

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For all of you Owl City fans out there, pre-orders for Live From LA begin November 29th as well.  You can pre-order it on iTunes and have it for when it releases digitally the week after, on December 6th.  If you want to wait for a hard copy, set your eyes on February 7th.  It’ll also be on Blu-Ray, if anyone’s interested!  You can watch the trailer by clicking here.

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Last (but definitely not least), Five Iron Frenzy has made a pretty big announcement.  They’re back together!!!  And to make things even better, their new album is more than 200% funded, according to Kickstarter.  That is unbelievable.  For more info, click here.

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That’s all for now!  Enjoy your turkey!

Swimming With Dolphins- “Sleep To Dream”

Featuring Leonardo DiCaprio!  Not really… but Tofte looks like him, doesn’t he?

Little introduction is needed for Adam Young’s wildly successful synthpop act, Owl City.  With some of the most atypically creative music the pop scene has experienced in quite some time—along with the most imaginative and positive spirit one could ask for—it was pretty hard to ignore.  On top of this, his major label debut, Ocean Eyes, went platinum in almost no time at all, and its lead single “Fireflies” unexpectedly took the radio by storm that same year.  Now, a full two years later, Owl City makes his much-anticipated sophomore return with All Things Bright And Beautiful. 

To start, let me just say that I had very high expectations for this album.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything Owl City has done in the past, including all of his independent releases.  Until now, there wasn’t anything that I didn’t completely love about Owl City.  Granted, I appreciate Young trying different things and attempting to do something new, but in many cases it just didn’t work for me. This record is just so diverse that there’s sure to be at least a few songs that people aren’t going to love, and unfortunately comes with a few disappointments.

It starts with “The Real World,” a dreamy track that sounds like classic Owl City at its best, an obvious standout track.  It fits in great with all of his older work, while at the same time keeping things fresh and different… which would be fantastic had the rest of the album been similar.  From there, however, we begin to see a few bigger differences. The following song, “Deer In The Headlights,” still uses quite a few synths, but with more of an emphasis on the “pop” sound.  Young said prior to the album’s release that it would have quite a bit more guitar, and it shows a lot throughout the album.  It’s not so drastic that it feels like a departure from the synthpop sound we all love, but it’s different enough that it waters it down some, sadly.  So there’s one negative difference.

The third track, “Angels,” shows even more of a difference, both musically and lyrically.  The start has Young yelling “Wake me if you’re out there!” which he also does several other times over the course of four minutes.  It’s not the Adam Young we’re used to, and might take a while to adjust yourself to.  Even though it does sound somewhat awkward at first, it seems that Young’s vocals have matured a bit since last time, which is good.  “Kamikaze,” on the other hand, also has similar “yelling” vocals, and happens to be the most unusual track on the album.  I think most will find it to be a little overly weird… I’ll be skipping it often, that’s for sure.

Lyrically, Young shows a lot more of his faith and spirituality than on any previous albums, both on “Angels” and a number of other songs.  On this particular track, it’s clear in the lines, “I keep my knees black and blue ‘cause they often hit the hardwood floor/ And I believe so I’m not praying to the ceiling anymore,” that he’s not afraid to sing about his faith.  Because of this, many of the lyrics are unfortunately not quite as imaginative or profoundly metaphorical as most of his past work, but it’s hard to criticize when it’s evident how shamelessly passionate he is for God.  Still… another change.

“Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust” reveals even more of a sound change, this time with a touch of hip-hop to it in the verses.  He doesn’t all-out rap, but for those familiar with tobyMac, he sounds kind of like that—sort of a combination of singing and rapping with a hip-hop beat to it.  “Kamikaze” also shows similar hip-hop influences, although less in the vocals and more in the music.  And then, of course, there’s “Alligator Sky.”  This song even features a hip-hop artist named Shawn Crystopher doing guest vocals.  I mean, I understand changing your sound as an artist, but mingling in different genres?  That is a dangerous thing.  Personally, I’m not a fan of the hip-hop genre, so this is a bit of a turn-off for me, especially with it being emphasized on three out of the twelve tracks on the album.

Another thing I found disappointing was how similar a few songs sound to “Cave In” from his last album.  “Yacht Club” is one of the best on the album, but it suffers musically because of this.  I’ve heard that Young had nearly ninety different mixes before reaching the final mix for “Cave In,” and it feels almost as if he’s recycling some of those in his new songs.  I may be wrong about this, but if so… that seems cheap.  It’s obvious that this is the case with the iTunes bonus track “How I Became The Sea,” which, again, is a fantastic track.  But when listening to the end of “Cave In” immediately following the end of this song, they sound nearly identical.  It’s a shame, really.

All of this isn’t to say that the album isn’t without a few gems.  “The Real World” and “Deer In The Headlights” are obvious favorites, as well as “Honey And The Bee,” “Galaxies,” “The Yacht Club,” and “Plant Life,” which features guest vocals from none other than Matt Thiessen of Relient K.  Some fans might recognize the track, “January 28, 1986,” from seeing Owl City live.  It features a snippet of a speech Ronald Reagan gave after the Challenger space shuttle disaster, which Young used to play before leading into “Meteor Shower” at his concerts. On ATBAB, this track leads perfectly into “Galaxies,” which has some of the best music this album has to offer.

So even though change can be a good thing for an artist, I don’t think always a good thing for an artist who’s reached near-perfection in the past.  Even though I applaud Young for not remaining stagnant with his music, I wish he could’ve achieved this in some other way.  All Things Bright And Beautiful is a diverse album that may be a little hard for some fans to swallow, and with only a few standouts here and there, I think I’ll be skipping around some.  Owl City has a long career ahead of him, and I just know he’ll be back with something to blow us away again.

[  3.0 / 5.0  ]

It’s finally that time of year.  Welcome to the magical land of summer, where free time abounds and I can finally blog regularly.  My apologies for not remembering you for the past few weeks, but with finals and all I think it was necessary.  That aside…

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Owl City’s newest album releases today, which you can pick up anywhere and everywhere.  Also, iTunes is offering a free download of the track, “Deer In The Headlights,” which is definitely worth your time.  Let me just say… this album is not Ocean Eyes.  It’s going to take some getting used to, at least for me.  Be on the lookout for a review soon.  And this time I mean it.

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August Burns Red has been taking the internet by storm with their newest songs, one of which can be streamed over at Alt Press.  It’s called “Poor Millionaire,” and it is crazy.  The new album will be releasing next week on June 21.  It’s going to be awesome, trust me.

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RED has released a new music video for their song “Feed The Machine”… and it’s something of an epic.  It’s around seven minutes, and has something of a Terminator vibe to it.  I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, so hurry up and see it for yourself.  I guarantee it’ll be better than that “Ordinary World” video.  Really.

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Lastly, The Devil Wears Prada premiered the first single off their newest album on Alt Press the other day.  It’s called “Born To Lose.”  The name alone sends shivers down your spine, yeah?  Go give it a listen, and remind yourself to get excited for that September 13 release.  It’ll come sooner than we think.

Click through to read Austin Tofte’s latest post about his new album Water Colours.  I’ll be posting a review soon, I promise.  It’s good, good stuff!

Thousand Foot Krutch will be releasing a live CD/DVD on June 7th called Live At The Masquerade.  You can look at your options for pre-ordering it by clicking here.  As usual, there are some sweet deals you might want to check out.  And for those curious about what songs the band performed for this release, the track listing is as follows:

1) Welcome To the Masquerade 2) Bring Me To Life 3) Move 4) Absolute 5) The Flame In All Of Us 6) E For Extinction 7) Scream 8) What Do We Know 9) Falls Apart 10) Rawkfist 11) Fire It Up 12) Already Home 13) Puppet

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Underoath released their video for “Paper Lung” a few weeks back, which is definitely worth checking out.  I know it’s been out for a while now, but it’s been a while since I’ve done an update, so better late than never, right?  Anyway, it’s very well done and worth your time completely.  Check it out here.

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 If you’re interested in reading a little bit about August Burns Red’s new album (due out June 21), JB Brubaker explained a bit about the theme in this article.  The track listing looks a little like this:

1) Empire 2) Internal Cannon 3) Divisions 4) Cutting The Ties 5) Pangaea 6) Carpe Diem 7) 740 Nights 8) Salt & Light 9) Poor Millionaire 10) 1/16/2011 11) Boys of Fall 12) Leveler

Deluxe Edition Tracks: 1) Internal Cannon [acoustic] 2) Pangaea [performed by Bells] 3) Boys of Fall [performed by Zachary Veilleux] 4) Empire [midi]

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Last Friday, Owl City released the music video for “Alligator Sky.”  I know almost half of it is a hip-hop track and all, but it’s Owl City.  As much as I don’t like that genre, it’s still a fantastic music video.  Watch the rockets come to life here.

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Remember, Swimming With Dolphins will be releasing their T&N debut this Tuesday.  I’ll be posting a review as soon as I get a chance to fully digest it.  Until then, you can check out the new layout for the blog (for those of you viewing this on your Tumblr dash).  Thanks for reading, and remember… brush your teeth.  Haha!

Swimming With Dolphins- “Sleep To Dream”

This is the first single off of Water Colours.  You might want to listen to it.

Sky Sailing- An Airplane Carried Me To Bed

Well before Adam Young’s popular synthpop act Owl City skyrocketed, there was Sky Sailing.  Recorded alone in his parent’s basement during the late hours of night, something truly great arose.  In place of the catchy synths and overall optimistic mood was a simple acoustic guitar and a more serious, darker outlook.  While this project only had one album recorded independently before surrendering to Owl City, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed is set to release through Universal Republic and Sky Harbor Records and get the widespread recognition it deserves.  

While Young was a bit younger then, Sky Sailing sounds every bit as good as his current hit project.  It’s good to hear a different style of music put to Young’s genius lyrics and continuously entertaining atmosphere that encompasses his singing.  Things are a bit more calm and relaxed with this project, but not in a bad way.  There are a few instances where it’s possible to find yourself tapping your feet, but there are also instances that speak of emotional heartbreaks that might come as a bit of a surprise of fans familiar with Owl City’s music.  Songs like “Brielle” and “I Live Alone” seem to emanate a mood of sadness and seem much more personal.  ”Explorers” is another one that seems a little darker, with a symphony that helps the song to feel more emotional.  ”Blue and Red” is a song seems even more so.  But on the other hand, though, we have songs like “Captains Of The Sky,” “A Little Opera Goes A Long Way,” and “Tennis Elbow” that are fun through and through.  

As always, lyrics are near flawless, although some do feel a little younger.  There’s barely a moment that the imagery created by Young isn’t thoroughly enjoyable.  The music is very impressive as well.  If you thought he had a knack with his synthesizers, you need to hear his acoustic work.  ”Take Me Somewhere Nice” and “A Little Opera…” are great examples of the fun tunes Young incorporates.  ”Tennis Elbow” is another youthful highlight, possibly one of the best on the album.  And even though “Sailboats” has a little bit of a darker tone, it resembles “Vanilla Twilight” in a lot of ways, and is just one more highlight on this awesome record.

If your a fan of Owl City, you’ll probably like this despite the sadder tone.  I would say that Owl City is probably the better of the two, but this is perfectly enjoyable as well.  Anything Young puts out is sure to be good, and this is no exception.

I was considering posting three separate links to each of these sites that have recently surfaced, but then I decided to just turn it into an update.  But keep in mind, each of these is a really big deal.  So to start off…

Rolling Stone Music has recently posted a video titled “On The Road With Owl City.”  It’s a pretty good look at Adam Young’s life on the road, and pretty entertaining as well… despite the fact that the article below it refers to Relient K as a “Canadian instrumental band… who Young has collaborated with in the past.” Just to clear things up for those of you who don’t know, Relient K is a punk rock band from Ohio.  (!?!?!?)

The Devil Wears Prada has just announced that they will be releasing a new EP August 24th.  It is called Zombie EP, and you can link up to pre-order it here.  Also on that site is a link to their Myspace.  Follow it to listen to their new song “Outnumbered.”  Just a warning: it’s HEAVY.

One other EP pre-order you’re going to want to look into is the new one from The Wedding!!!  It’s been a while since we’ve heard any new music from them, but they finally have some on the way!  It’ll be out September 1st, and you can look at the pre-order options by clicking here.  If I were you I would go with a package somewhere between numbers 8 through 18.

That’s all for now, be back soon for more Indie Week stuff!

-FISHER

SUMMER!!!!  There are some big things brewing, so now that I finally have the chance to fill you in on all the exciting news, I can finally do just that.  So to start…

Children 18:3 is releasing a new album a week from today!  This is exciting!  If you haven’t yet read my review, I would encourage you to do so when it is most convenient.  Also, if you would like to go a step further and actually listen to the album a week ahead, Jesus Freak Hideout is hosting an exclusive listening party.  It’s lots of fun, and if you liked their first album, I’m fairly certain you’ll like this one.

Also on the list of new releases that are being streamed ahead of time is the new Haste The Day album, Attack of the Wolf King.  I’m working on a review as we speak, so be prepared for that.  Check out the full album stream on their Myspace page.  It’s really good!

Next, as you probably already know, House of Heroes is releasing a new album on August 3.  But next week, when you’re buying your copies of Rain’s ‘A Comin’ and Attack of the Wolf King, make sure you download the free mp3 of “Independence Day For A Petty Thief,” a brand new track off their new album, Suburba, being offered through freehoh.com!  The track will not be offered before June 29, so you’ll have to check back then.  You’ll also need a Twitter account to unlock the download, so make sure you have that all set up.  Okay?

Tooth & Nail (probably the most amazing Christian rock label out there) has signed with a little band called Swimming With Dolphins.  I know what you’re thinking… Swimming With Dolphins?  Why on earth would they name their band that?  Well, if you haven’t noticed the aquatic theme that seems to run with a lot of what Adam Young of Owl City does, you wouldn’t see any connection.  Not to say that Swimming With Dolphins is another of Adam Young’s side projects, but frontman Austin Tofte actually used to be in Owl City.  So you can expect that a lot of his music is going to reflect the electronic/synthpop style of Owl City.  This is a big deal, considering Owl City’s AWESOMENESS.  He’ll be recording his debut late this summer.  You can check out a few of his songs by clicking here.

Speaking of Owl City, Adam Young’s blog is definitely something you should check out.  His most recent post mentions his work on the new album, which Matt Thiessen of Relient K is once again involved with.  Plus, it’s a really entertaining blog.  Much like this one… right?

That’s about it for now.  To close, here’s a picture of Family Force 5’s new stage set-up that they’ll be using at all their summer shows.  This probably isn’t a big deal for those of you who won’t be seeing them, but for me… this is gonna be epic.  I’ll be seeing them at Purple Door again this year… speaking of which, it’s about time you order your tickets, don’t you think?