Review: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - What It Takes to Move Forward

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars Records

Released: September 29, 2009

Empire! Empire!'s previous release, last year's Year of the Rabbit 7", had some interesting musical moments that were drowned in a sea of emo drama. Their latest, What It Takes to Move Forward, still has its fair share of the dramatic and sometimes it still supersedes the adventurous nature of the music. However, unlike last year's EP, this set of songs is just leaps and bounds stronger and, where the EP took some subtle musical chances, this time those chances are bold, bold enough, in fact, to make a now tired genre exciting again. While a few songs do fall into the same humdrum of Empire! Empire!'s earlier work, polyrhythms and swelling layers dominate most of these new songs. While the point of it all hasn't changed, it is now communicated much more effectively. It seems odd that, at this late stage of the emo game, someone has just made what may be one of the genre's best records, but Empire! Empire! has done just that.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Everyone Everywhere - A Lot of Weird People Standing Around

Label: Evil Weevil Records

Released: April 7, 2009

I'd almost forgotten what emo was like before it became a dirty word, but Everyone Everywhere is a clear reminder. Sure, the mohawk crowd is still going to find this to be too sappy, but it never devolves into the self-conscious and saccharine whine-fest that consumes the genre today. The vocals, sensitive, but never over-dramatic, ride the catchy fuzz and jangle of the guitar and a driving beat. It's been a long time since I've heard a song with the catchy punch of "Cool Pool Keg Toss Pete" that didn't seem like it was just aiming at the arenas. With just enough mix between loose and precise, each track on A Lot of Weird People Standing Around keeps the EP from getting too settled and easy which goes along way to show how emo was once kinda cool.

Grab this one quickly, because it's a nice package and it's limited to 200 (100 clear/100 blue).

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

Website

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Shirock - Everything Burns

Label: self-released

Released: February 3, 2009

Everything Burns kicks off as a fairly typical post-emo mainstream rock album. There are bits of alt rock and emo tidied up in a nice, easily digestible package and yet...there's something else, something deeper going on with this record. Underneath what seems at first to be a solid, but uneventful set of songs, there's an exuberance that is a true rarity. This band has a message and in their earnestness, they will save the world (or do their best at least). Once the message hits, the songs seem larger, truer, better. And by half way through, something else becomes apparent: They love U2. Their best songs filter mid-80s U2 through the subsequent alt rock and emo explosions and come up with something unique, yet familiar. Like their mentors, they have, at least on their best tracks, marry memorable, moving rock n roll with a message of hope. In case this message might be lost on some, the spoken word part of title track's intro spells it out. They are going to "love people." It's that love that permeates the album and changes it from a solid release to a magnificent experience.

Check out their site for tour details. This band isn't just singing about living life the right way; they're actually doing it. They've partnered with local charities at each stop and all proceeds help the communities in which they're playing. Mark one for the good guys!

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

DVD: Vans Warped Tour '07

Label: Image Entertainment

Released: December 2, 2008

For years, the Warped Tour has managed to find a healthy balance between DIY punk ethics and corporate involvement. Granted, the corporate presence has increased quite a bit over the last decade, but Kevin Lyman and company still put on a great show while keeping tickets and merchandise cheap and leaving at least some of the barriers down between bands and fans.

This DVD from the 2007 tour also finds a happy medium between punk and professional. The sound quality and editing is anything but amateur. On the other hand, the camera angles have more of a by-the-seat-of-the-pants quality, with many shots from the crowd perspective and of the crowd itself. With everything from the old school punk of Bad Religion and Pennywise to the emo/screamo of Chiodos to the funk and reggae of Fishbone, the DVD contains performances that capture both the energy and eclecticism of the Warped Tour. The one big fault here is the absence of one of the coolest things about the Warped Tour, the smaller, little known bands. The interview portion is mildly insightful at best, but may be worth sifting through for a few words from some favorites.

For the most part, this is as good a representation of the Warped Tour as you can get without going. However, just a song from each band (and no summer sun) isn't enough to get the real feel. The Vans Warped Tour '07 DVD isn't for anyone who wouldn't typically attend the tour (obviously), but it's a decent artifact if the Warped Tour is up your alley.

Rating: 6/10

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Cinematic Sunrise - A Coloring Storybook and Long Playing Record

Label: Equal Vision

Released: May 13, 2008

The presense of Chiodos' Craig Owens and Bradley Bell will likely lead listeners to expect that band's bold and expansive offshoot from hardcore, but nothing could be further from Cinematic Sunrise. This project replaces punch with pop and challenges with safety. While that might not make every Chiodos fan happy, it at least gives this side-project a purpose and life of its own.

Cinematic Sunrise leans heavily on 80s pop style and production values and mixes it up with more recent emo crunchiness without creating a harder sound. Whether they're drawing on 80s piano-pop or folk-pop along the lines of the Church, it all taps into that long tradition of teenage drama songs.

These songs are all well-played, but lite and that begs the question: Is the material believable? The hooks make me want to believe, yet they're just so slick that there's that nagging feeling that there isn't much under the surface. Perhaps the answer comes on the EP's final track, "You Told Me You Loved Me." It rings about as true as "Sister Christian" and makes me think more of those K-Tel collections from the 80s that compiled "rock's sensitive side."

While the songs are well-crafted and the packaging (see below) shows a great sense of childlike fun, in the end they are, like the band's name implies, ultimately just an image even when they seem beautiful.



All that being said, I did catch their set on the Warped Tour and the music has some teeth live. Don't get me wrong, it's still nothing like Chiodos, but some of the slickness is tempered by hints of edginess and a lot of good-natured fun.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - Year of the Rabbit

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars

Released: January 2008

Sometimes there is a very fine line between great and terrible. Great bands stay just on the good side and awful bands may only take a single step over. Queen's bombast pushed right up to the line and they're one of rock's truly great bands. Meat Loaf (or really Jim Steinman) took one more step and he's reviled and written off as mere kitsch. Likewise the Smiths had their toes right up to the edge of mopiness while too many of their lesser followers took that extra step into a maudlin mess.

Emo too has such a line where one side is honest and pure and just a few paces away is a sappy melodrama. Michigan's not-so-concisely-but-very-emo-y named Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) sadly didn't quite know where to stop. Their latest release (and first with a full band), Year of the Rabbit, is two tracks of emo as it was done in the days when it first separated itself from its hardcore roots...but just a step across that line.

Both songs take their raw (over-)emotions on a low-key indie rock ride. "Year of the Rabbit" has a nice mellow progression and bit of sad jangle. "IDK, My BFF Jill" is decidedly uppity next to the title track, but never gets much punch behind it. The reason for the not-so-punchy music is because the punch is supposedly in the heart-felt lyrics, but while Keith Latinen and company may feel what they're singing, it still falls into the common trap. In the days before the genre lost it's edge, I don't know that a band like Rites of Spring would ever sing, "I tied my heart in a knot for you." (I really think Ben Gibbard is about the only guy on the planet that has figured out how to get away with things like that, but he'd find an even cornier way to say it and make it charming and meaningful). What was originally a willingness to open up about emotions in a scene that was increasingly dominated by mindless machismo has become an open door to melodrama that I find increasingly difficult to connect with.

Does this kill the record? No, but it does limit its appeal. Empire! Empire! does manage to be vaguely off-kilter and that gives their songs texture and a few surprises, but for me at least, that isn't quite enough to save it. When I can repress my desire to yell, "Get a hold of yourself! Stop whining!" I can hear the good things Empire! Empire! has done on this record. Sadly, I just can't keep that feeling in check. Perhaps a little bit of that same emotion would serve this record well. For those who can suspend disbelief in the way that I do when I watch a disaster movie, these songs are well-written and somewhat clever. Unfortunately, I can't do that and the overwrought emotionalism of Year of the Rabbit fails to suck me in.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

Purevolume

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Ivoryline - There Came a Lion

Label: Tooth & Nail Records

Released: February 5, 2008

There Came a Lion is an entirely listenable album, but it is almost completely indiscernible from hundreds of other emo records. Sure, it's well played and the songs are nearly perfect fits for the formula, but Ivoryline is really just a modern Foreigner, flawlessly executing the script and doing nothing to make it their own.

Ivoryline's skills are top-notch. The rhythms are crisp and sharp beneath churning guitar and melodic leads. The harmonizing between parts is pristine. Unfortunately, the price for technical perfection in this case is creativity and heart. "We Both Know" is just a stones throw from AOR. While it has elements of the Descendants' mix of technical and pop punk, its heart is not that of the Descendants, but that of commercial rock. Likewise, "Hearts and Minds" has more in common with late 80s power ballads than it does with Rites of Spring. It tries to show emotion, but it's paper thin and that's really the problem with most of the album. The music is trying to convey passion. The vocals are trying to sound emotional. Instead, both come off like techniques from a book rather than an attachment to real feelings. "The Last Words" is, at least, a refreshing ending. It's use of strings may be entirely clichéd at this point, but it brings an organic sense that the album lacks everywhere else.

Ivoryline can't be fully blamed for their faults though. Emo is a genre that has for some time been drifting further away from the trait which gave the genre its name and moving into the realm of cold, hard execution. In the current state of emo affairs, Ivoryline fits right in. They excel even. The trouble is that they excel at something that has become a shell of its former self. Ivoryline has played it entirely safe, putting style over substance. They list five sponsors on their Myspace page, but only one is music-related. The others are clothing companies. Does this convict Ivoryline of crimes against rock on its own? Of course not. The ties between music and fashion are long established. It is another piece of evidence that appearance is what this band is about though. Don't scratch the surface too hard, because it's just skin deep...and it's a shame, because it could be so much more.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 3/10
Overall: 5/10

Myspace

Purevolume

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Ride Your Bike - Bad News from the Bar

Label: Deep Elm Records

Released: December 10, 2007

Ride Your Own Bike's debut, Bad News from the Bar, gets off on the right foot with "We All Have Our Own Shoes," whose strings slowly give way, but never completely, to a more traditional rock arrangement. After that, the creativity is pretty hit or miss though. For every clever or catchy moment, there's also some standard issue indie rock like "Sticks and Stones." Of course, some of the more original moments also struggle to work such as the horns on "Knack for Faith" (which are somewhat reminiscent of mid-70s McCartney). Likewise, some of the straightforward moments work simply on a good hook. At times their creativity shines, but just as often, it fizzles and their playing never really soars enough to compensate.

"Bad News from the Bar" is a concept album, but to its credit, it doesn't have to be taken as such. The narrative is there, but the songs, even the weakest among them, can all stand on their own, so nothing gets consumed by the concept. That extra dimension helps, but still doesn't push Bad News from the Bar over the top.

I first listened to this album while talking a walk in the snow and, to its credit, it made a real connection with me. It's the kind of record that has its time and place. The trouble is it doesn't snow that much here.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Various Artists - Take Action! Volume 7

Label: Hopeless Records/Sub City

Released: March 4, 2008

The seventh installment of the Take Action compilation series is, as usual, a mixed bag of bands, but a pretty good one nonetheless. It dabbles in everything from from hardcore and metal (Every Time I Die) to noise rock (Drop Dead, Gorgeous) to progcore (Chiodos) to straightforward punk (The Matches), but most of the album fits somewhere into the overlapping genres of pop punk, power pop and emo. Some is remarkably well-written like Silverstein and some is quirky and creative like Cute is What We Aim For, but most are just solid examples of what those genres have to offer. The album is long on sappy and short on edge, but whichever end of the spectrum you like, there's still enough to make this worth the price.

The DVD has 20 videos that cover similar ground. Truly good videos are even harder to come by than good songs, but once again, there is enough here for every punk/emo/screamo fan. The Plain White T's "Making a Memory" is one of those feel-good clips, but even though it's geared toward people half my age, it somehow resonated with me. I've had enough of 80s imagery, but Every Time I Die's spoofing of some that decade's cheesiest films is pretty funny. A Life Once Lost has a metal freakout in the "Firewater Joyride" reminiscent of the Butthole Surfers' "Who Was in My Room Last Night." While the DVD is less essential than the CD, it's still some nice bonus material.

A portion of the proceeds from the artists and the label (5% of the suggested retail price) goes to Do Something. Hopeless Records has long been involved in making the world a better place, so it's hard to question them, but what about the bands? Every track on here has been previously released. Why do they need to make anything? The Take Action comp is good exposure for these bands. While compiling and releasing the CD has some cost associated with the release that Hopeless needs to recoup, I don't see what the bands have invested. Maybe I'm off-base here, but it seems to me that this might not be as much of a charity release as it's portrayed to be. I'd like to get other opinions on this though. What do you think?

Ratings: 6/10

Website

Review: Desoto Jones - Aurora

Label: Deep Elm Records

Released: February 18, 2008

At this point, emo is pretty played out, so even the genre's best bands struggle to be interesting. Desoto Jones is certainly among emo's best, but the real question is, do they transcend its confines. Oddly enough, emo has become a genre more concerned with technical skill than emotional release and Aurora is generally a good example of that. The band is tight and both rhythms and riffs are complex without being overbearing. At times, the guitar even soars. Where most emo bands look to the maudlin moodiness of the Smiths, Desoto Jones ties into 80s pop music (was that shades of A-Ha I heard in "Don't Fail Me?"). They use intricate layers that create real movement in the songs. Along with solid songwriting, these traits make Desoto Jones rise to the top of the emo game, but they still fail to break its confines until "Courtesy Call," the album's second to last track, where they go back and draw a bit of Pink Floyd's crisp psychedelia into their sound. If only they could do this throughout the album, it would be bigger than emo (much in the way My Chemical Romance were on their last album). As it stands, Aurora is just a very good album in a genre that's not very good anymore.

Rating: 6/10

Website

Myspace

Purevolume

Review: A Wilhelm Scream - Career Suicide

Label:

Released: October 9, 2007

A Wilhelm Scream doesn't exactly break down all the walls on Career Suicide, but they do manage to put forth a solid album that isn't the same old fare over and over again. The album is largely a metally hardcore affair, but its layered sound (particularly the guitar parts) gives it far greater dimension than their average peer in the genre. This layered approach and their melodic moments do give them a bit of an emo feel at times, but they usually attack the songs with rhythms too blistering to be sappy. In the less metal moments, they tend a bit toward the agility, though not the fun, of late Descendants material (which is no surprise as the album was co-produced by Descendants drummer Bill Stevenson). Already a cut above the average hardcore/emocore band out there, A Wilhelm Scream get another step on the competition with lyrics that are a bit more clever than most that deal with the common theme of disillusionment. They may not be on the verge of greatness here, but you could do a whole lot worse than to pick up a copy of Career Suicide. Actually, in hardcore, you couldn't do much better.

Rating: 7/10

Website

Myspace

Review: Fell Far Behind - Reaching the Red Line

Label: self-released

Released: September 18, 2007

There are bands that do most things right, but the few things they lack make all the difference between being good and lousy. Fell Far Behind is just such a band. They have many of the pieces in place: They're tight, they understand hooks, they're polished and the production on Reaching the Red Line is very good for a self-released album. However, they forgot to add emotion and they forgot to have original ideas. They play emo by the book and their only innovation (if you can call it that) is to bring the big guitar riffs of the 80s forward to the 00s. Like the melodic hard rock bands that influenced their approach, they too want to draw some of the energy from the edgier music of their time, water it down and pretty it up. While some songs do kick off with a burst of excitement, that feeling is short lived. They all quickly degenerate into dull repetition, sounding not just like every other song on the album, but every generic emo song on the planet. Mixing it up with a few ballads doesn't help them any more than it did their lackluster 80s forebears.

Fell Far Behind may well make it to the big time, but it will be for all the wrong reasons. They are easy and palatable, but never challenging, never even approaching the "red line" the title suggests. In a certain sense, they are good, but good at the things that can be learned, not the intangibles. Their music is carefully constructed, but only in an effort to mimic the vision of others. It's as if their heads are in the right place, but not their hearts.

Rating: 3/10

Website

Myspace

Review: Chiodos - Bone Palace Ballet

Label: Equal Vision Records

Released: September 4, 2007

After finding a fair amount of success with 2005's All's Well That Ends Well, Chiodos were in a position to coast safely into their next album. Instead, they chose to further break out of the emo-screamo scene that spawned them and follow their arena-sized prog-rock dreams.

Bone Palace Ballet has some leanings into the realm of the Mars Volta, primarily with Craig Owens' vocals, but they aren't quite so esoteric, staying rooted in things the common rock fan can get a handle on. Like My Chemical Romance, they have tried to push the boundaries of their own genre to something much bigger, drawing not only on the influences of hardcore and metal, but also the operatic nature of Queen and the jazz-rock of early Chicago, and they do it well. The songs seem longer than they are, not because they're tedious, but because they move outside of the standard rock song structure and an awful lot gets packed into each one. While they have expanded their sound and minimized their reliance on growling vocals, they have also become heavier, adding another layer of intensity. There are times when they lapse into the typical, but those moments are the exception as Bone Palace Ballet spends more time pushing the limits than adhering to them.

As the field of prog-influenced metal/hardcore/emo/screamo gets more and more crowded, Chiodos looks to be one that will stand above the masses and dictate rather than follow. Bone Palace Ballet is a significant step forward from the group's already challenging body of work.

Rating: 8/10

Website

Myspace

Review: Inked in Blood - Sometimes We Are Beautiful

Label: Facedown Records

Released: October 2, 2007

If I had to make up a name for Inked in Blood's music, it would be "pop-punk-core." They play a brand of hardcore that is a strange marriage of the Descendants and Gorilla Biscuits and they have varying success with it.

On one hand, Sometimes We Are Beautiful is typical of hardcore over the last decade or so. The growling vocals and choppy, chunky music with churning rhythms and metallic riffs is nothing new. However, Inked in Blood do a better job than most of their peers of incorporating melody. The trade-off however is a lack of punch. Some of that can be blamed on mediocre production which takes some of the crispness out of their sound, but a lot of it falls in their lap. They haven't quite brought the two sounds together. They clearly nail the melodic side as evidenced on the indie rock delicacy of "Instrumental" and the sappy emo of "This Moment" and they have moments of unbridled hardcore as well, but the two never seem to quite meet. Of course, even the near misses aren't without merit and the album overall is listenable. Better yet, it's very nature is hopeful and that positivity is contagious. Lyrically, it's open and honest without being dramatic, which further buoys its optimism.

Sometimes We Are Beautiful might not be the answer to the future of hardcore, but it could be standing at the first steps on that road. It clearly lays groundwork for growth which makes Inked in Blood a band to watch.

Rating: 6/10

Myspace

Free Foreign Born mp3

"Into Your Dream"

Check out the review of On the Wing Now.

Review: Foreign Born - On the Wing Now

Label: Dim Mak Records

Released: August 21, 2007

A lot of bands these days have been rehashing the 80s, but very few of them bring anything particularly new to the table. For me, it's really dull to have your own teenage years spit back to you as if it's new, so it's refreshing to hear a band do something interesting with it. Foreign Born are pretty steeped in the 80s, but they are most definitely not regurgitating it back. Instead, they take that era of post-punk, new-wave and pop, dig back to its influences and come up with their own sound.

Foreign Born's guitarist, Lewis Pesacov, has a degree in Composition and considering how carefully their songs are constructed from influences ranging from the Beatles to Mott the Hoople to early INXS, it's really not a surprise. Unlike many trained musicians though, Foreign Born don't find themselves constrained by that training. Instead, they've created an album that ebbs and flows in layers, from thin to thick and back again. They don't rely on overt hooks, but instead on an implied catchiness that makes the songs memorable as a whole rather than just a riff here and there.

After releasing two EPs, On the Wing Now is Foreign Born's first full-length. Not only is it full of material that could share a stage easily with indie, emo, punk or post-rock, but it also makes an open-ended promise for the future.

Rating: 8/10

Website

Myspace

Review: Verona Grove - The Story Thought Over

Label: PRC/Universal

Released: August 21, 2007

In 1999, A New Found Glory released Nothing Gold Can Stay, a sappy pop punk album that made me feel the pain of being 17 again. Sure, some of the lyrics were over-dramatic and the vocals were whiny, but the album connected with me even though it was written for kids ten or so years my junior. The point is, A New Found Glory could get away with writing overly sensitive, immature love songs, because they were really good at it, the emo market wasn't completely flooded and they tapped into something universal. By the time they released their major label debut three years later, they were as stale as the genre.

What does this have to with Verona Grove you might ask? Everything. If pop punk drama queens were done in 2002, what makes Verona Grove think the genre is going anywhere in 2007? The Story Thought Over might as well be the latest A New Found Glory album. They don't just have similar musical DNA, they're a clone, made up of the same Crybaby Sally vocals, the same catchy hooks and crunchy (but not too crunchy) sound. True, there are couple places where they try other things, none of them original. They do a few piano ballads and "I Haven't Got Much (But I'm Getting Somewhere)" actually steals a bit from the generic hard rock of the late 80s as if that needed to be revisited. I had enough of new wave the first time and the revival certainly gives me more than my fill. I definitely didn't need Verona Grove to give it a shot on "Goodbye Surrender." They try their hand at a power ballad with "Revolution" and have the audacity to sing, "holding out for a revolution." Maybe they should count the number of revolutions started by power ballads. Yeah, that would be zero. So, the few times they stray from aping their principle influence, they choose to play at things long played out.

Verona Grove apparently wrote much of the album while they were transplanted from Oshkosh, WI to LA, given an apartment and expected to churn out a big seller. On "Smalltown Celebrity," they sing, "Teenage rockstar, / Only 30 years old. / Where the hell did high school go? / Welcome to the rock show." From another band, I might actually like those lyrics, but not from this band and not under these circumstances. Their mentors made me 17 again when I was 28, because they tapped into something universal. Verona Grove has had an extraordinary year that found them going from the small town to the big city. Instead of tapping into some universal discomfort, they've told a story to which no one can relate but them and they've told it in a medium that is long past its prime. If you like pop punk and emo, skip The Story Thought Over and pull Nothing Gold Can Stay back off the shelf.

Rating: 3/10

Website

Myspace

Review: My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

Label: Reprise

Released: October 31, 2006

Often when a band takes steps to broaden their appeal outside of their core audience, they flounder. This is particularly true if the band strongly rooted in personal appeal and emotional energy. They can fall into the traps of over-production and self-importance and the result is usually an uncomfortable, lackluster effort. After the success of My Chemical Romance's 2004 major label debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, they were in just such a position. They not only faced the challenge of following up that album's success, but also of leveraging the new opportunities that success brought rather than getting bogged down in them.

Ironically, the album opens with "The End." That irony, the sound of the respirator and the whine of Gerald Way's voice leaves little question that this an emo album, yet the Queen-like theatrics right out of the gate show that it's so much bigger than just emo. From there, the band follows that lead. Sometimes the result is relatively straightforward, only tweaked slightly for a larger audience. "This is How I Disappear" is essentially an emo song with a bigger sound and a bit of a metal edge. Their sound is blown up for a bigger stage with the arena rock, guitar driven hooks of "The Sharpest Lives." Huge, manic riffs take "Famous Last Words" to the next level. And these are the songs that play it safe.

"House of Wolves" and "Teenagers" are rockers with the swagger of garage rock. The former's punk rock energy rolls out in thumping drums and ringing guitars. The latter is a lighthearted blues rock number with a bit of swing. Both of these songs are fairly standard rock songs, yet sound completely like My Chemical Romance at the same time.

Like any big rock album, The Black Parade has its share of ballads. "I Don't Love You" is a slow anti-ballad that crosses emo's sad drone with hard rock's soft side. "Cancer" has many of the qualities of a power ballad with a dash of Supertramp, but the lyrics tie it tightly to the band’s maudlin roots. Even "Disenchanted," one of the album's weaker tracks, takes the old My Chemical Romance and reinvents them with big guitars and string accents. While they aren't my favorite tracks, they serve to give the album the texture that a great rock should have.

The whole album sees My Chemical Romance stepping out of their former, smaller selves, but there are a few tracks that illustrate that more than others. "Mama" goes back and forth between quiet parts that hint at old world folk and loud crunch they've taken from punk. Throw in the affected vocals reminiscent of Roger Water’s work on the Wall and the result is a song well beyond the reaches of any other band from the emo explosion. As if that isn't enough, My Chemical Romance creates a rock masterpiece in "Welcome to the Black Parade." It’s gentle and passionate, melancholy and angry at the same time. It has emo roots, but the guitar work would make Brian May wonder if it was his own. It is, quite simply, an anthem, a song whose bombast resonates rather than alienates.

The album finishes with "Blood," a hidden track mixing vaudeville goofiness and emo darkness. It's not quite the same, but to some extent it plays the role of "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road, a light note to end on just in case someone takes the whole work too seriously.

My Chemical Romance has managed to make an album for both the masses and their core fans and it will satisfy both camps. Rather than dummying their sound down to sell more records, they've stretched out beyond the Smiths, beyond punk rock, beyond the confines of emo. At its best (and it is at its best throughout most of its 50+ minutes), it hints at Queen in both sound and ambition. At its worst, it’s the album that makes emo matter in the great big world of rock n roll.

Rating: 9/10

Note: For another take on this album, check out Chuck's review over at Pratt Songs.

Review: The Legion of Doom - Incorporated

Label: Pakuni Records/Illegal Art

Released: March 6, 2007

Back in the heyday of Napster, I downloaded a Metallica/Britney Spears mash-up entitled, "So Fucking Crazy." I wouldn't go so far as to call it good in its own right so much as it was just fun. Recently, I decided to give a whole album of mash-ups a shot after hearing Legion of Doom's "Crazy as She Goes" (Gnarls Barkley versus the Raconteurs).

Legion of Doom is punk/emo producer Chad Blinman and Face to Face singer/songwriter Trever Keith, so the pedigree is fairly good. On their Incorporated album, they take on mixing a lot of emo/screamo/metalcore tracks with varying results. For instance, the opening track, "I Know What You Buried Last Summer," works very well, but it's primary strength comes from the original Taking Back Sunday melody, not the remix. Other tracks don't fare so well. "Dangerous Business Since 1979" takes on Underoath and Mewithoutyou, but only manages to weaken both songs in its failure to actually "mash" anything together. Just about half of the album is listenable only if you like the originals. The other half is a little bit painful, because there are glimpses of good songs that get lost in the confusion.

What I realized after listening is that, much like my first experience with the Metallica/Britney Spears mix, these tracks seldom end up being anything more than vaguely interesting and maybe a little bit fun. It's not serious music, just a little fun and games in the studio. If you're into collecting novelties, Incorporated isn't a bad purchase. Otherwise, I'd probably steer clear.

Rating: 3/10