Taxiride

Posted: 29th October 2007

Starting Line Up: Jason Singh, Tim Wild, Tim Watson, Dan Hall

This little album is a ton of fun in a lightweight, mindlessly poppy way. It's loaded with pretty melodies, and lotsa harmonies, too. But it's so shockingly sissy, and my inner musical elitist sends up mental red flags when you realise how ready-made for radio and teenage girls it is. Worst of all, Let Me Die Young sounds so close to a boy-band power ballad it scares me. I feel like a prick for criticising it too, since it deals with death of a loved one. I'm not doubting the sincerity or passion either, but it sounds like a boy-band power ballad, damnit. That's a bad thing.

Thankfully the rest of the album isn't too bad in comparison. Musically, it's very pop-rock. Lots of chiming acoustic guitars, pleasant, lightly distorted electric guitars, some keyboards, usually drums. There's drum machines as well, but they're not intrusive, there's no corny sounding synths or keyboards, no obnoxious loops or what not. It's fairly tasteful and timeless sounding. If this album was loaded with modern day "pop" music stylings, I'd probably be giving it a lower mark, since it'd probably sound a little too "crap" for my liking. And the songs themselves... well, they're mostly about generic love and all that sort of stuff. Eh, whatever.

Convienently, most of the good material is front-loaded on the album. The first five songs on the album all rate pretty well in my books. Album opener Can You Feel is an almost totally harmonised acoustic folk-y number, which sounds pretty damn cool, and lead single Get Set is a hilariously cheesy (wuss) rocker, which does the whole Spinal Tap "gettting aircraft transmissions in guitar feedback" trick. Heh. Love the songs' twanging sitar as well, which also appears on the hooky, but slightly boy-band-y Rocketship.

There's some real gold on the album, too. 72 Hour Daze is a well-written "serious" quasi-ballad that feels a bit more "rock" than some of the other stuff, and has some nice lead guitar at the end. Hidden near the end of the album, is the great Nothing in This World, which has a slight 80s bent. It's an exceedingly well written song, and the excellently arranged stream of harmonies in the bridge is rather difficult not to hum along to. Finally, Everywhere You Go is pure pop-rock, with a great chorus, freakin' awesome harmonies, and some lovely slide guitar. Was a minor hit, too.

The rest of the album is hit and miss. Ice Cream is a limp-wristed *sniggers* "rocker", but I'll forgive it for the neat chorus and horns. Let's Spend the Night waltzes along with some nice mandolin, and is pretty good in an excruciatingly cute way. The biggest annoyance though is after the ace Nothing in This World the album peters out on a bunch of short, half-assed songs. Counting Down the Days is a brief, though nice piano ballad, but Back Again is a terribly stupid "folk" song. It's just an excuse for the guys to harmonise, and the lyrics really make me really wince. The album closer, and bonus track, Helplessly Hoping is pretty similar to Back Again, but it's moodier and nowhere near as dumb.

In closing, this is a pretty decent straight-up pop album, though I get a vague sense of unease throughout while listening. It's more of an album for teenage girls, than a manly guy like me! This album gets a 10. I can't really give it any higher, since although it's pretty good, there's a few crap songs, and it's a bit flaky in places. But when it's on, most of the non-bad songs are acceptable/enjoyable. And hey, when you're not looking, and I'm feeling poppy, I may mentally upgrade it to a low, low 11. And put it straight back to a 10 afterwards.

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Posted: 29th October 2007

Line Up: Jason Singh, Tim Wild, Tim Watson, Andy McIvor, Scott McLeod
In: Andy McIvor, Scott McLeod
Out: Dan Hall

Heh. Garage Mahal. Cute name. It's not particularly accurate since it's more well produced, radio-ready power-pop than sloppy, abrasive garage rock, but regardless, it's still considerably manlier than Imaginate. The anthemic Afterglow kicks off the album with a booming clatter of drums and distorted guitars and doesn't sound like anything on the debut, either. It's a great start and a good indicator of the album: guitars are prominent and frequently distorted, and we've got an full-time drummer now (Sean McLeod), as opposed to a session guy or a drum machine.

The next few songs are excellent too: How I Got This Way is even better, with a big chorus, some nice organ flourishes, and the crunching riff and flailing guitar solo in the outro is pretty rock to me, damnit. Then there's the definite highlight of the album by a mile, Creepin' Up Slowly, which was a hit, and deservedly so, since it's damn good song. The little acoustic guitar line, the odd turntable scratching, the laidback verses and the anthemic choruses all work really well, and it's a ton of fun. Love the outro with the multiple vocal lines, too.

Too bad, because like Imaginate, this album is unfortunately front loaded with all the good stuff (the first three songs were singles) and pretty soon it gets mighty wonky. It turns into similar sounding song after similar sounding song. Heck, Saffron, Enemy & Stronger all seem like rewrites of each other, with their somewhat rapped verses, and two of them have similar booming choruses. Saffron's actually pretty good, but does feel like it's trying too hard to be "hard". It's pretty fake when the one time they swear it's censored by a turntable scratch. Making it radio ready guys? Stronger's really lame, too.

Speaking of big booming choruses, there's bombastic, ultra-harmonised boy-band-y choruses all round! Most of the time they're pretty good, yet they seem curiously out of place. It's like they've grafted distorted guitars and riffs on to leftovers from the debut, and when you hit the chorus, it's time for the big boy-band harmonies! There's no ballads either; we're in power ballad country instead: Afraid to Fly, This Time & Skin are quasi-power ballads with huge choruses. Skin is the album's Let Me Die Young (the token piss-poor ballad): my gag reflex kicks in when they croon that "some things are meant to be". This Time isn't much better, but Afraid to Fly is nice enough. At least, most of the songs are listenable, which counts for something. There's plenty of nice melodies, lotsa harmonies, and some pleasant arrangments.

There are a few other songs worth mentioning: the excellent Forest for the Trees is a noisy, urgent rocker, which seems to be using part of Led Zep's Kashmir riff, and I don't mind the ultra-harmonised chorus either. Happiness Without You is an enjoyable, eastern tinged rocker and clearly points to the band's artsier future. And like Imaginate they hide an excellent song right near the end. The penultimate song, Wait, is a huge stadium rocker, complete with booming drums and a monstrous chord progression. And the chorus doesn't sound like it's been grafted on from a song a boy-band would sing. It works really well, and rocks nicely too.

Anyway, I've listened to this album many times, and frustratingly still have trouble remembering a lot of details about songs aside from those monster choruses. Really, a lot of it just leaves me rather unenthused, which is annoying since I honestly did expect to like this album a fair bit. I'm a sucker for power-pop, after all. So I'm giving this album a 9. It could potentially be lower, but the opening batch of songs are great, and Wait is freakin' cool, so a 9 it is. But hey, you might love this album. Let me know your thoughts!

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Posted: 29th October 2007

Line Up: Jason Singh, Tim Wild, Andy McIvor, Scott McLeod
In: None
Out: Tim Watson

Imaginate was the decent pure-pop album, Garage Mahal was the slightly dodgy power-pop album, and now we've got the mildly artsy indie rock album. At least you can't criticise these guys for making the same album every time. The opening track once again is a pretty good indicator of what to expect, and again sounds nothing like what's come before. Finally Falling has a very Floydian intro, lots of atmosphere and keys throughout, a fair bit of wailing guitar and concludes with a lengthy guitar solo. It's quite a cool song.

Style-wise, throughout the album is quite subdued, yet slightly dark and moody. It doesn't scream "radio-ready!" like the last two albums, either, so my inner music snob enjoys that as well. There's lots of keyboard, and a decent amount of lead guitar, and while Garage Mahal had no real ballads, this album has quite a few. Oh, the band does rock out a few times, but in general it's a lot quieter. Singh has now become the frontman (not that I could really pinpoint who was singing what on the previous albums anyway), and gives a good performance throughout. Bonus points are awarded for releasing the first Taxiride album that doesn't overly embarrass me. In fact, I actually quite enjoy the direction they've headed in.

Additional points are also awarded for being pretty consistent. It's not front loaded like previous albums, and doesn't crash into a musical ditch once you get past the fourth or fifth song. Amen. It's got a beginning, a middle and an end. Ok, so there's no pop-tastic highlights like Everywhere You Go or Creepin' Up Slowly, but there aren't any horrors like Back Again or Skin either. Most of the songs are distinguishable, too! BONUS!

Honestly, the only song that comes close to sucking is Hold On, which is a bit too obnoxiously power-ballady, but it's dark, and gets rather rocking. Unfortunately for former member Dan Hall, but I'm going to blame the song's lame-ness on him. My only evidence is that he co-wrote the sappy Skin. To be fair, he also wrote Counting Down the Days (nice), and co-wrote Happiness Without You (interesting). Eh, who knows what happened there. On the other hand, the album's best song is the rockin' Stone. Multiple sections and riffs, strong vocals, and some real crunch. Love the cry of "You ain't gonna bring me down again!" at the end, too. More like this, please!

Really, pretty much everything is decent. Moody lead single Oh Yeah is all piano and vocoded vocals in the verses, and an anthemic distorted chorus. What Can I Say sounds like a really good song off the previous album, but even better, with some neat harmonies, a big chorus, and a great outro. The Nation is a cruisy pop-rocker. And You Gotta Help Me does a really good job of sounding un-Taxiride, with some huge riffs, a fair bit of lead guitar, and a lot of grunt behind it.

Of the slower stuff, Tripper Red, which closes out the album is the best ballad. It's like the darker, moodier sister track to Finally Falling, with even more atmosphere, and some wailing female vocals as well. Dig the "I've made up... my... mind!" bit, too. The Fatal and the Fragile is a gorgeous waltz-er, which builds to a powerful climax. San Francisco is a melancholy, but nice power ballad. Not overly fond of the poppy, Chris Bailey (of Australian punk band The Saints) co-written Everything + Nothing, though. Eh, you can't win 'em all.

I think it's the band's best album so far: it's consistent and interesting, though not brilliant, and I like the darker vibe. It's also good to see Tim Wild play more lead guitar, too. I'm awarding this one an 11. I'm probably overrating it, but it's the first album that feels real and not like it's writing to teenage girls (Imaginate) or FM rock radio (Garage Mahal). So, what's next for the band? Progressive metal? Field Recordings? Ultra gay disco? Or maybe just sucking really badly?

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