LIVEROCKS REVIEW, the one that matters... Options

[LiveRoCkS77]

Appetite...

The songs speaks for itself. The vocals are fantastic and the vibe is definately zeppelin. A good song in my opinion that just doesn't explode like it has the potential to. Still a very good effort though

7/10

Honest Man...

Getting better, much better. This song is just about the perfect rocker from top to bottom. The solo by CT at the end fits the song perfectly and Km's vocals are again as utterly fantastic as they can get.

8/10

Guilty Fever...

Love the main riff to this song. Got that zeppelin vibe to it again for sure. The vocals on this track are way to high for my liking but still not horrible. I think a low point on this album forom a vocal standpoint.

7/10

The few......

Love the opening riff layered underneath the bass. Liking the vocals on this tune again most definately. But overall, there seems some abruptness in this song that disrupts the songs flow. Still a very good effort and not filler by any means.

8/10

The Rest of You....

Not really digging the vibe of this tune for some reason. The chorus of this song reminds of something I can't put my hands on, although I'm sure I don't like whatever it is. Definately one of few low points of this album for me.

6/10

Crying Time....

Definately loving the vibe of this song. The vocals are more in the range where they belong, especially in fitting this song. The song is very well written and well executed....I think it will bring out a lot of emotion in the people who can relate to it. I definately dig this song although I'm not too sure why.

8.5/10

Silly Thing...

Another low point for me. Listen to the open to this song and you pretty much expect hear Ed start singing. Thi song sounds like it could've been off LIVE's next record had they continued on with ED. There's nothing that I can pin point as being redeeming about this song, nothing

4.5/10

Closer....

Holy fucking jesus, here we goooooooo! The opening vocal is fucking haunting, well executed. EXPLOSION, enter the talent of Chad Gracey and the entire band on full fucking display. Pat's bassline in this song is fucking utterly sick. Hard to hear through the guitar crashing over top but find it in the verses and listen that variation and thud. The vocals are fuckin' perfect and make you wanna crowd surf. Adrenaline to the max, "CLOSER TO ME!!! CLOSER TO ME!" Holy shit the goosbumps when he starts screaming that shit. The guitar and rum work at the end is all over the place and mind blowing. Fantastic effort.

10/10

What's wrong.....

Hugely underrated this song is. Definately got some sort of Beatles feel to it straight off, but morphs into a more bluesy type of ballad. The vocals in this song again adjust perfectly. "Are we so broken and bruised we can't feel the love...." flowing into a slightly faster flowing chorus where Kevins voice goes up a few octaves and screams "what's wrong?" Followed by an EVEN harder version of the chorus where he almost sounds like he's crying. This song is utterly fantastic and perfectly executed. A gem on this album for sure.

9.5/10

Tredecim.....

Darkness finally. Keving sounds like that guy from Placebo here. You can definately feel the Tool influence here. From that big opening guitar riff that falls to the lowness of Kevin's "ohhhh", followed by the layered vocals is just fucking perfect. "Relentless and rife, splendor, ENCORE!!!!" followed by that layered chorus again. Close your eyes and listen to this song and it carries you, it reverbs right down inside of you..."your beaches are littered with deat and debris....I said I could change." Followed by that little solo, dropping back into that low brooding riff. WOW, perfectly executed.

10/10

Nothing But Love....

Is the groove at the beginning of this song the fucking shit or what? This song, although verry good in itself is just missing something in my opinion. Gracey's drumming and Pat's bass are on full display here...great vocals, good execution. I dunno, I just find it a bit boring for some reason. The little solo near the end has a Pink Floyd feel to it most definately. Maybe this song needs to grow on me some more. Pat's bass licks are wicked and the song itself seems technically perfect.

9/10

Sing....

I'm sooooooo in love with this song. This song hits me harder than anything I've EVER heard in my entire life. Although in a different way, I can resonate with the being tired of shit theme, at least that's what I get from it. Although from the lyrics, there seems to be something at the end of the rainbow that makes him happy....singing his song I guess! HEH. I made a thread about this song and it's beauty. The references to the lyrics I made are just so stunning to me. Makes me feel like bleeding and crying inside at the same time. The emotion and buildup in the guitars after these lyrical points of reference fit perfectly with the emotion of this song. The most beautiful song I've heard in a god awful long time. "I wanna feel life, wanna feel life, wanna feel life, wanna sing my song, waited soooooooo long" followed by more beautiful Slash like(November Rain) guitar solo. Utterly beautiful. Hand down the most striking song on this album.

10/10

All I hear.....

Again, reminds of something that might have fit BOP right off. But it does reddem with some decent structure and bass work. Not a bad song, just very abrupt at points in my opinion. Not really my cup of tea.

7/10


Overall:

What a debut effort. The structure and the vocals on this album are extremely well put together and executed. I am a rocker at heart, but for some reason, the songs that hit me hardest on this album are What's wrong and most definately Sing. Closer, Honest Man and Tredecim are all heavy hitters that make this album a powerhouse by themselves. Add in songs like Nothing but love and The Few and you've got an album with momentum. Add in the ballads that are almost perfect on this album and you've got almost no room for filler. I love it and think it was very well done. I'm proud to tell people that i love this music.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

I agree with you entirely about TROY and Silly Thing.

I don't dig Sing as much as you do, and I seem to like the Few and All I Hear a good bit more. But still, glad someone else here doesn't really dig Silly Thing.

[OutToDry]

Good review LIVEROCKS

[+Ed+]

Nice one, Luke!

[TheBeacon]

I agree with you entirely about TROY and Silly Thing.

I don't dig Sing as much as you do, and I seem to like the Few and All I Hear a good bit more. But still, glad someone else here doesn't really dig Silly Thing.

First off, I like all the songs! There is not one that I skip over as of yet. My least liked song is Guilty Fever and that is just because Kevin's voice is a bit high for my liking on this track but its still not bad. I however, really dig Silly Thing and Sing. Reminds me of a 311 vibe a bit. My fav ballad right now Crying Time but What's Wrong is growing on me alot! I still keep hearing the opening notes of Photograph at the beginning! Maybe its just me? My fav rocker is a tie between Honest Man and Appetite. Damn I cant wait to hear Appetite in concert!

[LiveRoCkS77]

I think the marks I gave the songs were reasonable. A lot of people are calling them all 10 out of 10 and that's just not realistic. Some songs on there I found great rockers but the structure was lacking so I took marks away.

Sing, I gave more marks because in my opinion, it is the best structured song on the record. I love those songs that build in the chorus and are followed by good instrumentals. In my book, sing is the most complete song on the record.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

I think the marks I gave the songs were reasonable. A lot of people are calling them all 10 out of 10 and that's just not realistic. Some songs on there I found great rockers but the structure was lacking so I took marks away.

Sing, I gave more marks because in my opinion, it is the best structured song on the record. I love those songs that build in the chorus and are followed by good instrumentals. In my book, sing is the most complete song on the record.

Honest Man or Crying Time for best structured song. Easily.

[LiveRoCkS77]

Honest Man or Crying Time for best structured song. Easily.

Honest Man has some tricky shit going on with the chorus- bridge and back to chorus thing near the end but that about it. I think Sing is far more complex than either of those songs in it's structure. The additions and intracacies in progression to each chorus are very clever. The bridge hits at a time you don't expect, directly followed by a smart solo and back to chorus? Where do you ever hear that in the structure of a song. Just when you think the song ends after that, it busts back into another awkward but still well placed solo.

Sorry, gotta disagree and say that Sing is easily the most complex and difficult structure on this record, and the most wickedly executed as well.

[LiveRoCkS77]

Honest Man or Crying Time for best structured song. Easily.

I'd be very interested to hear why you think Crying Time is structured in any kind of complex manner. I don't hear or see it at all.

[LiveRoCkS77]

Also dude, the changes in the melody, both vocally and sonically changes in each section of sing. Not sure what I'm looking for but in the second chorus of sing, his pitch completely changes. The solos are placed not where you'd expect them at two different ponts. The bridge to solo and back to bridge addition is just striking in it's own element on sing.

The structure of that song completely blows my mind. Sorry man but I just gotta disagree here. But I do respect your knowledge immensely and would honestly love to hear your input here.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

While I am a huge fan of progressive rock, I am also a huge fan of tight rock songs. That is why I appreciate the structure of Honest Man and the subtle changes the song takes as it goes forward.

I really like Crying Time because it has two new chord progressions for the bridge (the "oh" section and the solo) that don't appear anywhere else in the song. I honestly don't really like it nearly as much as the Honest Man structure, but I appreciate its uniqueness in the context of the other ballads on the album which follow a more standard formula.

Maybe I am just spoiled, but the structure of Sing vocally and guitar solo wise is something I have heard many times before especially on Candlebox albums. It just doesn't strike me as being unique. Yeah there is a big dynamic change heading into the bridge section, but then the song rolls right back into the same chord progression from that point until the end. Different stuff happens over it but it is still the chorus of the song on repeat. I enjoy that part of the song a lot, but it isn't really what I would call complex.

It also disappoints me when a song fades out while it is still rocking out. I really like the way they end Sing live and thought it would be great on the album.

Just my 2 cents, I admit to being a little meh on the subject because the song just doesn't appeal to me outside of the groove during the verses. I like it more than I like Silly Thing and TROY though.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

Also dude, the changes in the melody, both vocally and sonically changes in each section of sing.

Have you listened to KM's other works? This is what I've always appreciated about his vocals. Even on Candlebox' biggest hit Far Behind he completely changes the melody during the last chorus.

[LiveRoCkS77]

While I am a huge fan of progressive rock, I am also a huge fan of tight rock songs. That is why I appreciate the structure of Honest Man and the subtle changes the song takes as it goes forward.

I really like Crying Time because it has two new chord progressions for the bridge (the "oh" section and the solo) that don't appear anywhere else in the song. I honestly don't really like it nearly as much as the Honest Man structure, but I appreciate its uniqueness in the context of the other ballads on the album which follow a more standard formula.

Maybe I am just spoiled, but the structure of Sing vocally and guitar solo wise is something I have heard many times before especially on Candlebox albums. It just doesn't strike me as being unique. Yeah there is a big dynamic change heading into the bridge section, but then the song rolls right back into the same chord progression from that point until the end. Different stuff happens over it but it is still the chorus of the song on repeat. I enjoy that part of the song a lot, but it isn't really what I would call complex.

It also disappoints me when a song fades out while it is still rocking out. I really like the way they end Sing live and thought it would be great on the album.

Just my 2 cents, I admit to being a little meh on the subject because the song just doesn't appeal to me outside of the groove during the verses. I like it more than I like Silly Thing and TROY though.

I can appreciate that, but I think you're putting too much emphasis on chord progression. I can understand that it is an intrical part of a songs structure overall, but on it's own merit it's a small part of it.

I find the changes in the vocal harmonies and melodies to be more prominent myself, as well as the placement of the bridge and what accompanies it. You know, the common chorus to bridge to solo, back to verse kind of thing. I don't see that happening here. The progressions vocally in this song are fantastic and I really like that in a song. Not only that, but the bridge in this song is so unexpected and powerful and what follows it isn't exactly standard song structure to say the least.

I'll also completely disagree that it is not the same chorus on repeat. The additions on the 3rd and 4th round of chorus make it completely the opposite of that actually and that's what attracted me to the song so much. I hate the repetetive chorus thing and that definately does not happen on this song.

Also, this song being 5:40 long, the longest on the album, tells me there was enough musically. The song was complete. If you listen once again, you'll see that the song rocks out pretty heavily on 2 different occasions, maybe even three, so doing it again would be redundant in my opinion and would make the song MORE poorly structured as a result.

I agree with you on the chord progression thing, but couldn't disagree more on everything else. Again, if you're just looking at chord progression then fine, maybe you have a point with Crying Time and Honest Man being more complex. But again, chord progression is one of appromimately 8-12 things that can contribute to a songs structure just as much. To just look at one aspect and call it "easily" more complex is pretty narrow minded in my opinion.

It's like saying that a chick has a great ass so she's perfect. When in fact, if her tits hit her kness and her legs are cellulite riddled. If she has face that could scare Freddy Kruger...or her arms are longer than that of a gorilla.....or if her skin is nasty.....All those things form a complete picture, am I correct?

[thefunkyredcaboose]

Yeah, but my entire point is that I have heard Martin changed the melody mid-song a ton of times, and heard an extra backing guitar solo in one of his (or Candlebox') songs a ton of times. Often, that happens over the same repeated chord progression to close out a song.

I am glad you are enjoying it, it just isn't nearly as much of a revelation to me because I've followed his vocal work and Candlebox' guitar work for a number of years. Simple as that.

Besides, complexity is very, very relative. I think it begins at the base of the song and clearly you don't. Simple as that. How is that for narrow-minded?

[LiveRoCkS77]

I dunno, I think it's pretty clear why I think it's narrow minded. A songs structure isn't subjective in a debate sense. It's pretty clear cut as to what the factors are, and you're really only considering one as being prominent.

Never said this was anything "new" neither. Don't really care if Martin has done it a million times. Doesn't change the complexity of the music one single bit. If a magician does a dangerous trick 100 times over and over, does it make it any less complex or dangerous? No, it doesn't.

Fact is, that over time, pretty much everything in music has been done a million times. I'm just saying that in the big picture, with all aspects considered, Sing is more complex than either of the tunes you mentioned. That's my opinion. To say that Honest Man and Crying Time are easily more complex is utterly asinine in my opinion. Sorry to be so harsh, because I know you're not a bad guy, but I really couldn't disagree with you more if I tried.