Hello, GTers! Welcome to KillerGremlin's music review column. Inspiration to write a review (and hopefuly subsequent ones) is largely from the conception of this music board. I also love music, and I love sharing music with other people. I always dreamt of being a radio DJ...until I learned their pay is shit and it is an almost impossible job to make good money in. Maybe one day. Anyway...
I went through mild deliberation while craking one off earlier for selecting a first album to review. I wanted to chose something light, poppy and fun; something that has a large appeal and will hopefully not be offputting to first time readers/listeners. I also wanted to chose something that is not popular; something that you will not hear on the radio. I decided to avoid metal, rap, country...genres that people are picky about. I went with the lightest type of rock; pop. Is pop its own genre? Who cares. The point is, the album I selected is pop...and it has guitars.
My selection for this review is Starlight Mint's
Built on Squares.
The album came out in 2003 and is the band's sophmore work (2nd album).
From Wikipedia:
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Starlight Mints are an indie pop band from Norman, Oklahoma. The band was formed in the '90s and has varied in size between four and seven members. The current lineup consists of Allen Vest (vocals, guitar), Andy Nunez (drums), Marian Love Nunez (keyboard), Ryan Lindsey (keyboards/guitar) and Javier Gonzales (bass). Three previous members (James Honderich, Mary Beth Leigh, Kure Croker) contributed to their sound on violin, cello, voice. After releasing The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of in 2000 through the label See Thru Broadcasting, and Built on Squares in 2003 through Pias America.
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Like many albums, I stumbled upon
Built on Squares at my local library during my High School years. I was attracted by the album's cover art, so I took it home. I spun the disc for the first time in my Sony Discman, and was immediately entranced by the opening song's string section. I proceeded to "cop" the rest of the band's albums. It's good shit. The band released their latest album, Drowaton, in 2006, and I recommend that to you all.
I have uploaded the album onto Rapidshare for you guys to download:
I'm not a Rapidshare member, so it is capped at 10 downloads. Let me know if I need to re-upload it (if we actually go through 10 downloads)...
http://rapidshare.com/files/21083664...B_o_S.rar.html
I ripped the album myself, using EAC. It's encoded with LAME at 320kbps. I ripped this one a lonnnnnnnnnnggg time ago (like when I was in 9th or 10th grade), so I'm not 100% sure on the quality.
Here is the track listing:
1. Black Cat
2. Brass Digger
3. Goldstar
4. Pages
5. Buena Vista
6. Irene
7. Rink Dinky
8. Zillion Eyes
9. Jack in the Squares
10. San Diego
11. Jimmy Cricket
Onwards with the review....
I want to keep my reviews fair, balanced, and open-minded. This is not always easy to do when reviewing an album by a band like Metallica, because they have so much history, variation in sound, and media exposure. I also want to avoid mindless criticism. Having said that, I am cynical, and I like to poke fun at everything....so my reviews are going to be mindless, biased, and full of criticism. Suck it.
Built on Squares (
BoS, from here on out) is one of my favorite "indie pop" albums. Clocking in at just under 35 minutes, with songs averaging 3 minutes in length, this album is easy to digest in one or two sittings. The sound on this album is sugar-coated pop, and I mean that quite literally. Songs feature string and horn sections, piano accompaniments, and cheery choruses. If I had to paint a picture of what
BoS looks like, I would say Sesame Street at night with a big full moon in the sky, and a silhouette of a city on the horizon.
Your own interpretation will vary, but I find this album accompanies city life very nicely.
The album opens up with
Black Cat. Listeners are greeted with a see-sawing cello melody over a drum beat, a violin is then layered on top of the cello, a guitar strums twice, a xylophone is played, the bass comes in...and we are not even 30 seconds into the song. The Starlight Mints make little effort trying to hide their eclectic pop ensemble.
Black Cat is a song full of subtle variations in the melody; subtle cymbal crashes, twangs of guitar, choral echoes after every verse. This is a fluffy pop song on a sugar coated pop album.
The Starlight Mints know how to mix an album. The songs are not loud, instruments are balanced...I wish more bands would follow this example.
The album's second song,
Brass Digger is another fun little pop song. It has a moving guitar melody, and a chorus that features the horn section.
Goldstar, the third song, opens up with the heaviest guitar we have heard yet. This is one of my favorite songs on the album, the drawn out string part reminds me of something The Beatles would have done in the Yellow Submarine days. Seriously, how often does a band successfully bridge the gap between 60's pop and modern pop? The background instruments in Goldstar remind me of some of the Bond music from the Connery-era films. In essence, this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The song also features more see-saw strings at the end as well as a nice thumping bass line.
The album mellows out a bit with
Pages, the fourth song. This song features a simple drum and 4-note melody in the background with the instruments layered on top. This song also has the twangy guitars in the chorus. Again, I really want to credit the production on this album. The guitars are absolutely decadent, and the whole ensemble sounds cohesive with no instrument dominating the mix.
Buena Vista is like some Looney Tunes pop song run wild....it opens up with a twangy, spacey guitar and a vocal sample, "I criss crossed the ocean...I saw the Atlantic." The guitar and see-saw cello join in. The chorus features a poppy and dominant bass part.
One of my favorite songs on the album,
Irene, opens up with a drum beat over the sound of a bowling ball striking pins at a bowling alley. If we have not conjured up images of night in some twilight city yet...then I hope this song does the trick. This song features all sorts of fun instruments, including what I think is a synthesizer, horns, a thumping bass line, and clapping. There is also a pleasant female singer thrown into the mix. One of my favorite moments on the album, and it only last for about 4 seconds, is the simple scale played on the piano at 1:58 into the song. It is little things like this that really elevate The Starlight Mints into a league of their own. They have a real knack for melody and subtle integration of sound.
Rinky Dinky is my favorite song on the album...and I think it is probably one of my favorite pop songs in general. The string melody is iconic, the guitar part is perfect, the drum is very much present but sits well in the mix...but what I really like about this song is the vocals. I also love the western saloon piano in the chorus. How the hell did they get away with putting western saloon piano into the chorus of a pop song?
Our next song,
Zillion Eyes, features a prominent bass line. This song, again, reminds me of some of the Beatles more subdued and drugged out works (Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine). There is a trippy harmony on this song, and this whole song sounds like previous songs drowning in an ocean...on LSD...
The album picks up again with
Jack in the Squares. This song opens up with the sound of toys? I'm not sure...then the guitar joins in. And then the coooool vocals drop. This song's beat reminds me of hip hop....the structure puts an emphasis on the beat. The song is short. The chorus features crunchy guitars and an awesome drum part.
After
Jack in the Squares fades out, we move onto the album's second-to-last song,
San Diego. This song sounds a lot different than the rest of the album...it has a crunchy, rock 'n' roll guitar sound. It even features some rock 'n' roll sounding guitar chords. The chorus is undeniably Starlight Mints...with strumming guitar parts and high pitched female backup vocals. At 1:56 the song jumps into a 60's sounding guitar part...and the song wraps up with a repeat of the chorus.
The final song,
Jimmy Cricket, is pleasantly awesome. It features that twangy, spacey guitar again....the strings sound like a spaced out see-saw. This song has some 60's Pink Panther sounding effects going on. This is also the album's longest song, at 3:58. At 2:08 into the song we get a little instrumental solo; a scratchy, twangy guitar part followed by a fun little string melody. This song has one of the album's better bass parts.
The most disappointing thing regarding this album is the way it ends....the album picks up tons of steam, climaxes at Rinky Dinky, and never really builds up that energy again.
Jimmy Cricket is a wonderful song, but as an album closer, it leaves a bit to be desired.
I normally don't go song-by-song in my reviews but I figured with such a short album it would be okay. I really appreciate the Starlight Mint's sound. They sound like a toolbox full of instruments dumped out on a workbench...only in a logical and wonderful manner. Now, this wouldn't be a review if there wasn't some criticism, so here goes.
This album came out in 2003. While it definitely has a knack for sound and eccentric pop sensibilities, it is not the most original album on the block. HOWEVER, this album came out when pop was still fresh and energetic. Sure, Starlight Mints aren't Weezer, or the Shins, or the Flaming Lips...but whatever. Weezer has 2 good albums, the Shins best album was Oh Inverted World, and The Flaming who?
The second complaint you can hold against this album is that it is not very deep in terms of lyrics. Fortunately, repeat listenings DO reward the listener on this album, because there is so much melody and mix of instrumentation.
What we have here is a wonderful, melodic, and fun indie pop album. This album is far from essential, but so are most indie pop albums. This album is slightly more quirky and melodic than the bands first album, and slightly less varied and rocky compared to the bands third album.
Do I recommend this album? Yes. It's worth the download, at the very least.
Review Number 1: Starlight Mints
Hybrid Mode
