Word: songfulness
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...vaguely discordant harmony. Islands’ predecessors, The Unicorns, released only one LP in their short lifespan: 2003’s critically-acclaimed work of uniquely sweet synth-pop, “Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?” The songs were expansive and luminous masterpieces, eschewing traditional chorus-verse patterns; instead they meshed phrases and instrumentals into confidently organic art. This technique was best exemplified on that album’s most popular track, “Jellybones,” a sparse electronic backbone slowly layered with drumbeats and high, breathy...
...Most songs off of Mika’s new album, “The Boy Who Knew Too Much,” could have been plucked directly from a musical; in fact, both of his albums, with their kitschy, infectious melodies and impressive vocals, could be described as show tunes for people who don’t listen to show tunes. The overdramatic, theatrical quality of Mika’s music renders it as appropriate for a Broadway stage as for a packed dance club or rowdy road trip sing-along. Characteristic of Mika’s style, this degree...
...Please” and “Losin’ Yo’ Head,” MoF tries their hand at classic rock. “Say Please” features a simple beat and several haphazard attempts at hair-pin transitions and rhythmic shifts that leave the song spun-out and wrecked behind them. The song is also hindered by its even-handed verse distribution; the transitions between singers make the song feel incoherent and contrived. The more-focused “Losin’ Yo’ Head”—with James taking lead...
...monster. Just as Igor was dispatched to gather brains, arms, and legs from graves, so too does writer Stephen Sondheim pull together parts of other works to form a completely new whole. Opening tonight in the Loeb Experimental Theater, this revue of Sondheim’s work aptly combines songs from disparate musicals to form a “Reader’s Digest” of his oeuvre. For the director and cast, it’s simultaneously a simple, bountiful musical buffet and a complicated structural feat. The show, Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s first production...
...Beginning with 1996’s “No Code,” and most noticeably with 2000’s “Binaural” and 2003’s “Riot Act,” Pearl Jam produced minor, experimental records, collections of songs in different genres rather than coherent albums. Worst of all, these albums visibly lacked ambition, an inexcusable failing in a band that had once sought to change the world. Increasingly, Pearl Jam were out of sync with the wider marketplace and with the zeitgeist of contemporary rock. As grunge died...