Live - Songs from Black Mountain

By nature, I am a person who resists change. I’m really trying to work on this, and I think I’ve come a long way. Still, to hear an album like Live’s seventh effort Songs from Black Mountain makes me sad. It’s because when I was in high school, bands like Live were the tip-top. Now, ten years later, they’ve all either broken up or gone through some change, and my instinctual reaction is one of distress. Live may have matured in their growth, but part of me thinks they’ve gone a little soft.

Ed Kowalczyk and his crew can be considered the spiritual gurus of rock and roll. Groups like Creed can pretend, but Live’s spirituality goes a lot deeper than a few camera-ready Christ poses. They walk the wandering walk, instead of just talking the Jesus-like talk. The journey Ed Kowalczyk has taken in his lyrics and the place he has come to is fascinating to me, and does at least a little to help me form my connection to God and the spiritual world. But now, I fear the journey is nearing its end, as Ed seems to be getting more and more satisfied with each Live album. That’s great for Ed, but not so great for me. It’s good to be spiritually satisfied, but more often than not it makes for some pretty boring music.

But I’m being unfair to this album; despite some rather vapid spiritual revelations, it is pretty good. It’s just not of the caliber I’ve come to expect from Live. They’re one of my very favorite groups, so it’s a little disappointing to get an album from them that’s just okay. The problem is that when I wasn’t looking, they went and grew up. I could sense it a little on Birds of Pray. But that album still had enough bombast to make it appealing to my young eyes. That album worked because it combined high-energy anthem rock with deep philosophical statements. With Songs from Black Mountain, the deep ruminations are fully intact, but the rock part seems very damaged.

The song “Get Ready” is a perfect example. This has the potential to be a loud, triumphant Live-style anthem, but as it is, it seems neutered and stale. They’ve mellowed in their old age, and they’re still really good. But I miss the version of Ed Kowalczyk that drove to the hoop every night, that offered himself up as a living sacrifice to the gods of rock and roll. This newer, calmer version who’s a parent two times over is nice, but it makes me yearn for the past.

Unlike other Live albums, there are no really great songs, but instead a bunch of pretty good ones. It’s hard to tell them apart from each other, actually. “The River” is the first single, and it sets the tone for the rest of the record, with little deviation. “Love Shines” is basically a Sunday school lesson, but quite often the most meaningful statements are couched in pretty simple things. And “Sofia” is a good tribute to a woman we would all like to marry. Like I said, the album is good, even if there are no surprises. While from lots of other bands that’s pretty good, Live are held to a greater standard, and it’s sad to see them falling just barely short of it.

Prime Cuts:
Mystery
Sofia
Love Shines (A Song for My Daughters about God)

22 Rating: 7

Thom Yorke - The Eraser

Thom Yorke (much to his own chagrin, I’m sure) is a rock star. He’s been elevated to a level where millions of people admire him, and any weirdness he veers off into, his fans will embrace, if a little hesitantly. He probably doesn’t destroy hotel rooms or sleep with hundreds of groupies, but his originality and categorical distinctness are what make him so interesting. He makes music that forces people to sit up and listen or get left behind. I’m sorry, Thom, but that’s a rock star. You’re a rock star; get over it.

Separating himself from most of Radiohead for one album has done a few things for Yorke. One, he’s not as concerned with melody or consistency. Two, he’s a lot less reliant on guitars and is exploring the soundscapes seen on Kid A. The Eraser is a lot like Kid A, but more optimistic (ironic, considering Kid A contains a song called “Optimistic” that is anything but). He may be doing his own thing, to the exclusion of anything else, but his fans are going along with it. I think Radiohead fans like to be confused; that’s sort of the natural state for them. With a lot of pop acts, we like them at first, but the taste of them eventually sours over time. With Radiohead and Thom Yorke, we have the opposite. While The Eraser may seem incomprehensible and space-cadet at first, give it time. One lesson I’ve learned from my years of interaction with Radiohead’s music is that it needs time to grow on you. That’s true of Thom Yorke’s solo work, as well.

The title track begins the album, and it tells you instantly that this will be a difficult listen. A distorted piano playing a hard-to-follow rhythm continues throughout the whole thing, with a few key changes, just in case you weren’t confused enough already. But the genius of this song is that when examined closely, it’s actually in 4/4 time with a chorus. “Analyse” has a wicked cool groove to it, and is primarily beat driven. The music suggests that it is all about to unravel, and that things may actually be better once it does. In “The Clock,” Thom does that doomy/lilting thing that only he can do, marrying a sense of impending danger to a very soft and malleable melody. “Black Swan,” probably the album’s most single-worthy song, has a great sing-along chorus, or at least hum-along. The entire Eraser album seems like a logical extension of Hail to the Thief, with many of the songs seeming similar to the “I will eat you alive” and “You have not been paying attention” vibe. How strange that The Eraser can very logically follow both Kid A and Hail to the Thief, when those two albums aren’t very similar at all.

Many songs have guitar, but they just provide subtle touches instead of being the main feature of a song, like on The Bends and some of OK Computer. I actually think most of the songs were written on a drum machine; almost the entire album has a very strong beat, if a somewhat discombobulating one. Thom Yorke doesn’t deal in pop sensibilities or mainstream conventions. Amazingly, his popularity only seems to be growing, as is the respect that the music community has for him. What can I say? He’s a rock star.

Prime Cuts:
Analyse
Black Swan
And It Rained All Night
The Clock

22 Rating: 9

Dream Theater - Octavarium

Dream Theater have never been ones to rest on their laurels. The last four years have seen three studio albums from these dynamos, and they haven’t been just throw-away efforts, toss-offs with no distinction one from the other. Each has been a unique entity, a little different from the others. They’re probably the most famous of all the progressive rock acts of all time. Though that’s not saying much for their number of fans, the fans that they do have are quite a sight to behold. I can say from experience that you don’t just have a passing interest in Dream Theater. At times it’s stronger than at others, but you really have to fall into one of two camps: you either are wowed by them, or you don’t get it.

Octavarium is Dream Theater’s eighth full-length album, and they sound every bit as alive, excited, and mind-bogglingly proficient as ever. At the same time, Octavarium seems a little stale. I don’t think Dream Theater is losing their touch so much as their touch is remaining the same. Yes, they’re masters at their instruments. Yes, they do progressive metal better than just about anybody. Yes, John Petrucci has skills with the guitar that should be reserved for heavenly beings. All this we know. They don’t seem to have gone through the progression that most bands do of playing only passingly in the beginning and then getting better as they grow, eventually reaching excellence. Dream Theater seem to have skipped the “only passingly” part all together, and gone straight to excellence.

Even so, Octavarium has changes in other ways, as their previous albums do. The blackness and anger of Train of Thought is left behind, and it’s replaced by a more even-handed approach. “The Root of All Evil” picks up where Train of Thought left off, making the transition from one musical mode to the next. “The Answer Lies Within” is a little boring and simple-minded, but boring Dream Theater is way better than inspired Nickelback. Then there’s “I Walk Beside You.” This is a pretty odd song for Dream Theater. It’s quick, driving, upbeat, and even radio-friendly. GASP!!! You heard right.

Dream Theater must have thought they had to compensate for their moment of pop, so they did just that. Almost the entire second half of the record is taken up by only two songs; the 10 minute “Sacrificed Sons,” and the 24-minute epic title track. Dream Theater seems to have grown a social conscious, having one song on their last three albums explicitly about an issue facing our contemporary world. This time it’s “Sacrificed Sons,” the subject being 9/11. As far as number of tracks go, this is a very brief album, being only 8 tracks long. However, it’s 75 minutes long, which is almost all that a single CD can hold. Honestly, this is a lot like the classic albums from the 1970s, generally known as the heydays of progressive rock. The final title track, also, contains a section where Dream Theater pulls influence from every progressive source imaginable, from Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, just to name a few. And this isn’t just my own interpretation; anybody with knowledge of those groups would be able to pick up on it.

Octavarium proves that Dream Theater are not going soft in their old age. They can’t get any sharper, because they’ve already hit the ceiling on that, but they aren’t losing even a miniscule amount of their edge. However, it can’t be too long till they start to… can it?

Prime Cuts:
Octavarium
I Walk Beside You
The Root of All Evil

22 Rating: 13