Buy, Download and Forget

I have an itch to write about a few things, and so here is my attempt to make them work together.

I present to you three CDs that have come out recently (or are slotted for release soon), and my judgment on them.

HORSE the Band may look apathetic, but their latest album is by far their best work.

Buy It:

What: Desperate Living
Who: HORSE the Band
When: October 6th.
Why:
HTB have gotten so crazy good over their career, it blows me away. I think hardcore HORSE fans out there are far too willing to argue that R. Borlax (Pluto 03) is their best album and that it's all downhill from there. First off, you're an elitist asshole. Second off, the songwriting on Borlax was creative, but it wasn't songwriting. It was just songs.

We caught a glimmer of HORSE's writing potential on A Natural Death (Koch 07), in tracks such as "I Think We are Both Suffering from the Same Crushing Metaphysical Crisis" which featured blazing guitar riffs, ethereal (not just cutesy) key parts and some actually interesting vocal patterns (not just funny lyrics). Song composition has increased ten fold on Desperate Living. The music as a whole is interesting, not just humorous.

And it's still brutal as ever. Their heavier riffs and breakdowns are reminiscent of Silent-Circus-era Between the Buried and Me, only with more synth. If the breakdown at the end of "Golden Mummy Golden Bird" doesn't have you destroying your own personal property, nothing will.

I think HORSE are finally taking themselves seriously, and it's paying off.

Yeah, Paramore is radio-as-hell, but it doesn't mean they don't rock every once and a while.

Download It:

What: Brand New Eyes
Who: Paramore
When: Out now
Why:
No matter how mainstream and poppy Paramore are, they still amaze me with their ability to make plain old fashioned rock and roll. Hayley Williams is still a force to be reckoned with behind the mic (and that fire engine hair doesn't hurt, either).

While Paramore haven't exactly stepped outside too many of their boundaries with Brand New Eyes (released Oct. 29), they still managed to create a few memorable tracks besides just the singles. "Careful" and "Ignorance" are easily the album's heaviest tracks, and I actually do mean heavy. William's voice surges over the powerful riffs and loud drums, and the noise generated is reminiscent of Iron Maiden at their best. (Woah, did I just link Paramore to Iron Maiden? I must be going to hell.)

"Brick by Boring Brick" is fantastic, and it features the ever poppy, but ever so deliciously catchy "woah-oh" vocal pattern. William's shows a softer, and certainly sappy, side on "The Only Exception." And don't get me wrong, it's incredibly sappy, but it's done oh-so-well that I can't turn away.

The rest of the album is truly hit-or-miss, but don't let their record label, their image or the fact that they sell out stadium shows to 14 year-old-girls turn you off from some of the ruckus they still manage to make.

"Woah, Fall Out Boy have a new album? When did this thing come out?"

Forget It:

What: Greatest Hits (actual title yet to be released)

Who: Fall Out Boy

When: Date not set, Track list found here
Why:
The whole point of a greatest hits album in general is totally beyond me. I can understand their effectiveness in the cassette age, when people weren't able to skip directly to the song they wanted to, or I don't know, burn their own goddamn hits CD.

The point of a Fall Out Boy greatest hits is even further beyond me because Fall Out Boy, unlike some other copy-paste pop bands, actually put out entirely good albums. Take This to Your Grave (Decaydance/Island 05) is solid from front to back. The same can be said for From Under the Cork Tree (Decaydance/Island 07). The whole point of having "The Take Over, the Break's Over" as Track 2 on "Infinity on High" is because Jay-mother-fucking-Z opens the record with an intro/outro on "Thriller," Track 1. Isolating "The Take Over" all by itself is stupid. Like Ben Affleck, it is frightened and inept when isolated from its Matt Damon.

Furthermore, there are no tracks included from Evening Out with Your Girlfriend (03). I am not about to be that guy and argue that their first CD is their best (because it is most definitely not), but I will at least make the case that there is good material on it that is being passed over simply because the casual (read: stupid) FOB fan (read: the guy who would buy an FOB greatest hits album) is not even aware that album exists.

"Is that the one with Dead on Arrival on it?"

No. And "Dead on Arrival" is quite possibly the worst FOB song, ever. There I said it.

And no "worst FOB song, ever" is not a redundant statement, because although you don't want to admit it, you fucking know the vocal melody to "Sugar, We're Going Down," even if you're making fun of it, and that's catchy music writing.