I can’t get over how breathtakingly genuine Brandi Carlile comes across song in and song out. Her vocal and lyrical prowess is a driving force physically pushing her wall of sound against the listeners body to the bending point. Carlile sets the tone of Give Up The Ghostwith the sincere and hopeful power of “Looking Out”. Letting go of her griping hold, Carlile meditatively pulls at the heart strings a bit with sweet sincerity with the remembrance of her childhood friend on “That Year”. Like each album before, Carlile’s precise and passionete yet modest lyrics slowly burn their way into your heart- ingraining their way deeper and further with each listen.
The biggest surprise perhaps is the jangly tune, “Caroline” that sounds as though it could come out of a Vaudeville show. Elton John beats on the piano like a ragtime veteran only coming in vocally for a harmony here and there in the chorus allowing Carlile to bounce along solo for the majority of the song. “Caroline” comes off as a ramshackle stretch of a performance just thrown in to place Elton John’s name on the press kit. It’s a valid attempt at a little old-timey sound most likely influenced by producer Rick Rubin’s obsession with clean-cut pianos as evidenced on The Avett Brothers latest release (check out Hardesty’s review from a few weeks ago).
Brandi Carlile’s knack for subtlety is evidenced in the touching melodic hooks placed within each song as in “Touching The Ground” that has a way of finding its way back into the daily hum. It’s the sort of song that makes you smirk a bit as you think of your special lil’ gal on your winding drive home. Her voice suspends with each perfectly aligned acoustic strum balancing until she drops her high pitched love sing-song into the chorous meeting the touches of piano. The heart-warming lyrics flow up and down in unison to perfectly tie up this beautiful tune.
“Why do my troubles turn true
Whenever I rest my eyes on you
Why must my heartache be found
Wherever your feet are touching the ground”
Give Up The Ghost is another set of songs that showcases what makes Brandi Carlile’s music so easy to love—her distinct skill to bring in such genuine passion, love, and sincerity without a hint of melodrama.
Key Tracks:
Looking Out
That Year
Dying Day
Rating: 88%
Check out her video for the single, “Dreams”:
By: Michael Mallette
_______________________________________________________________________________________
During my three flights this weekend, I had the pleasure of being able to listen to the Flaming Lips newest release, Embryonic. And what a journey it was. Personally, this may be the craziest Lips album I have heard and the trippiest by far. Tracks such as Aquarius Sabotage, an instrumental, and See the Leaves pack a heavy and unpredictable punch all while continuing to showcase the depth of the band’s experiments and minds.
Other tracks, such as I Can Be a Frog and If, are just plain weird. They are not bad songs by any means, just weird. I Can Be a Frog is literally unexplainable. Everyone who reads this review needs to stop what he or she is doing and listen to it. That is the only way one can comprehend the wildness of this album and specifically this song. If is different in the sense it is full of random coughs and throat clears from Cohen and drenched in lo-fi carnival type keys. This is not the only song on the album that uses random noises from Cohen, as in Powerless we hear an unsettling Cohen laugh drenched in delay that flutters at random points in the song.
The closing song on the album, Impulse, starts off with long slow synth pads but surprises the listener with a futuristic type of talk-box vocals. Hands down, it may be the most peculiar type of effect I have heard on a studio recording. Combine these types of effects all over the album and some of the most random ideas, The Flaming Lips put together a really solid album. While it dumbfounds me at every turn with the newest idea, it is oddly extremely listenable. It has all types of different songs including jams, instrumentals, intensely arranged mid tempos, coupled with plain out trippy songs that induce a pseudo-high mindset via listening. The only downfall to this album is the potential for it’s spontaneity to become trite after a multiple listens. While this is possible, the sheer number of layers, sounds, and ideas on this album make me think that Cohen and Co. have made a long-living testament to creativity and drugs everywhere.
Key Tracks:
I Can Be A Frog
See The Leaves
Rating: 83%
By: Michael Hardesty
_______________________________________________________________________
****Next week we both spew our overly opinionated thoughts on either the new Swell Season, Julian Casablancas or Temper Trap…yeah, we can’t make up our minds.
