by nuno75 » 27th Jul 08, 11:23
Fuck it... I was awake anyway.
01 - Serious
Starts off strong, chuggy punk riff and vocals from the very beginning. Verses are sung in a monotone chanty kind of way that makes me think of The Sex Pistols. Then the chorus comes in, and the tempo cuts in half out of nowhere, clean guitars and super-melodic vocal melody. Sounds like a dishsoap commercial or something. Awesome. "You're too serious, you're gonna make me delerious"... I wonder who he's talking about. Anyway, it's not heavy, but it's not quite punk rock either. The bridge is a new riff repeated a bunch of times... a little metalish. Then back into the chorus a couple of times, only played more rockin'.
02 - Funny
This one starts off with vocals right away too, only this time accompanied by softer guitar. Very melodic. Almost pretty. Drums come in, just tap tap on the snare, building up. Here comes his trademark "whooooaaaaahhhhh" with harmonies. Some kind of weird synth thing added in for effect. Very cool. This one hasn't really picked up and hit hard yet, but it's all very strong, melody-wise. The synth thing almost makes it sound like the theme song to some 70's cop show or something. There's not really a defined chorus here... but it's still just so strong. This is the shit that gets stuck in your head.
03 - Exploding/Reloading
Starts off very, very peppy with a super-catchy, kind of silly, little guitar riff that is accopanied again by a very "plinky" sounding synth. The melody of the riff gives it a middle-eastern flavor, which is he's also known for. "I like, I like Jesus Christ, mixed with suicide, yeah". All backed up by a riding, stomping beat. Then the beat flips around backwards and multiplies itself by two for the chorus. Bridge is the intro riff key changing a couple of time... then a chorus, then he rolls out with one last time around the verse, screamed at the top of his lungs.
04 - Stoner Hate
Some more back and forth between the guitars and the weird swaying synth from the 70's... then into the riff. More metal-ish. Then the verse, hyper-frantic... close to System than anything else I've heard so far. 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, it's just a word to me-a, like a-mamamia" Very cool. Not complex, but very weird and very high-energy.
05 - Insane
Slow-ish chugging rhythm on the guitars, mid-tempo. Mellow vocals, strong but pretty melody. This is a pretty mellow one, but it's written incredibly well. Nothing weird here, no gimicks... just damn fine songwriting.
06 - World Long Gone
We pick up the energy again here, but not all the way back to the levels of track 4. Just good hard rocking with more great melody over a crunchy start-stop guitar rhythm mirrored closely by the drums. Then the chorus mellows out and we get weird dreamy synths. Then the guitar comes in gradually and the chorus builds up to walk back into the intro riff, which is a walking, climbing scale on the low the strings. The bridge takes that riff and expands on it, walking out of the original scale until it peaks and drops back into the chorus and then a repeat of the bridge and out.
07 - Kill Each Other/Live Forever
The power is gradually picking back up. Repeating riff a couple of times and then into the verse... everything kind of crashes onto a chord and lets it go while the lyrics start, and then crashes back into the riff between lines. Then the chorus, again, mellows out. No synth here though, not even clean guitars. Gradually picks up, though, and walks back into the verse. As usual, really great infectious melody throughout. The bridge is the intro riff, only this time puncuated with "If we're gonna kill each, how we gonna live forever? If we're gonna live forever, how we gonna kill each other?" Then, out of the bridge, a breakdown of the chorus with nothing but synth, yes synth again, and vocals. Then crashing back into the chorus full blast a couple of times and done.
08 - Babylon
Semi-clean guitar to open, with the System-esque duet-style vocals. Goes on for a long time like this. Then the drums come in, but the song stays way mellow anyway. Yeah... this is a very mellow one, dark and melodic, no wait... never mind. Here's the rock. Cool chinky arpeggiated guitar stuff, and a nice steady beat over a still-fairly-mellow song. Then into an instrumental section with lots of hi-hat play and some more harmonized "whoaaaah"s. Now crash back into the chorus, with a big-but-slow beat. Very epic outro.
09 - Chemicals
Starts with a steady kick and either a bass-guitar on some effects or a synth. Either way, it starts out sounding like a disco or dance-song, only a little too fast. Then the vocals come in on top of it. Pretty vulgar stuff. More synth comes in, then everything but the kick and bass drops out again while he says, rather conversationally, "Come eat some chemicals with me, come eat some chemicals". Then the whole song kicks in. Nice stomping beat throughout. I think the big synths are there with the guitars because everything sounds very "big". Second verse comes in and there's a very "Texas" sounding warbling guitar strumming along with the rest of the music. The chorus is very steady and energetic... something in the progression makes it feel like a horror movie score, somehow.
10 - Enemy
This one starts out with a fancy little wah-pedal lead guitar thing and the rest of the intruments kind of just hitting a couple of times in the middle until everything kicks in. Stompy beat here too... starts off, between the beat and the wah-guitar, sounding exactly like a disco song... but then the guitars switch over and it sounds like Bonanza or something. Holy shit I love this band. The vocals come in, of course super-melodic sing-songy stuff. Very steady and driving, but not particularly fast. Then, where I would expect chorus... the song pretty much just changes from "we are the enemy of the earth", to "we're all on drugs"... whole different progression and melody and everything.. then it seems like the end of the song until the disco thing starts again and then back to Bonanza and into another verse, and again without ever reaching a real chorus, it ends. Brilliant. Fucking brilliant.
11 - Universe
This one starts with a lone guitar, strummed very fast, introducing a distinctive chord progression... then a very galloping beat joins in along with the rest of the instruments. It's all pretty big and epic sounding, but when the lyrics come in, everything switches to a mellower version of the same riff. I'm sure there's a way to describe the type of melody he's using here, but I can't think of what it is right now. It's monotone while kind of yo-yo-ing up and down, if that makes any sense. So far, not particularly melodic, until the chorus... which is mellower with a steady kick keeping time. Then right back into the intro riff. This is good, but so far the least good song on the album, at least for me. The bridge is just a variation on the intro riff, only with lots of guitars layered on doing fancy stuff really fast. Then the chorus a couple more times, gradually picking up energy... then the intro riff and one last super-mellow version of the verse again and out.
12 - 3005
Semi-clean guitar, arpeggiated... with a slide guitar doing a mellow lead on top... and then another guitar just hitting single notes on the other side. Melody comes in... pretty good. It's not as mellow as the music it's on top of. Then the chorus comes in with the rest of the instruments, but it's still pretty mellow. This one isn't quite a slow song... mid-tempo. The bridge is a nice classic guitar solo over the regular verse chord progression. Then back into the chorus again and rolls out with one last repeat of the verse.
13 - Cute Machines
Starts off with one guitar strumming along. The vocals start with the other instruments hitting occasionally. Then a frantic backwards beat while everything comes in with a "go go go go go go go go go go" being chanted. This one's pretty energetic, with a less steady beat than he's been using in the other stuff. This one is very non-formulaic, so it's hard to tell what is a verse and what is a chorus... which is what I like.
14 - Whoring Streets
Clean guitar to start... mellow and dark. Duet-vocals for the verse. Drums come in but keep it pretty mellow. This song really reminds me of SOAD's "Lost in Hollywood". For me, that's a good thing. He's got a way of repeating the verses as if they were choruses, and I've found that there's a trick to being able to get away with that. I haven't learned that trick yet. No real chorus here... just the same verse with the music going different places around it. Good song.
15 - They Say
I heard this one a while back, and was a little disappointed. Now, in the context of the rest of the album, it makes more sense to me and sounds much better to me. This is about as basic as a rock song gets. Monotone verse over a descending chord progression. The melody comes in during the chorus, but even then it's not really anything special. Mostly this song is just a brainless rocker, which isn't a bad thing. It just doesn't do much that we haven't from a thousand other bands before.
All in all, this has been an excellent album for me. A little mellower overall than I would have preferred, but not as mellow as it could have been, not by a long shot. Some real energy in the fast songs and some real heart in the slower ones, imaginative and fun, catchy, and at the very least heavy enough to keep you awake. It's an instant classic for me and I will no doubt be listening to this music, among others, for the rest of my life.
9 out of 10
) I mean, "As I say fuck the world are you ready to rock, piss on your face while you suck on my cock"!? Blood ell 
