Album: Crash Kings (2009)
Paid: $7.99 (iTunes)
Grade: B-
Crash Kings are a piano-rock trio, which is a curiosity to ponder as you listen to the introduction of the album, 'Mountain Man.' Any "guitar" sections heard are produced either by Mike Beliveau on the bass or by a cleverly rigged synthesizer played by lead singer (and brother to Mike) Antonio Beliveau. In addition to the distorted synth, a more typical-sounding piano is featured in every song on the album.
By the time you get away from 'Mountain Man' and into the first few songs, I think we are also getting closer to the true melodic sound of this promising band. You begin to realize that they are not so much a rock group, but more of a product of the piano-rock that precedes them like Keane, Ben Folds Five or even Queen. There is definitely still a rock quality that might make you think of Jack White if you were born after the 80's or Jerry Lee Lewis if you are an old-school music lover.
If anything is lacking, it's that they played their first album a bit safe. You can tell that the songwriting has a lot of room for development on a second album, which is a good thing, since I think they have much more to offer. That's not to say that the songs are not good or not well-written, but what they do is hit several pockets of catchy, earworms in each song, then simply stay there. Each has the ability to get stuck in your head, but most of them simply get stuck, musically. This repetitive quality doesn't bother me. Though I do think this band could break out of the standard verse-chorus format for the next record, even for a song or two, and rise out of the pop realm. They really shouldn't limit their songs and try to fit them into a cookie-cutter format. They would be able to make more of a mark next time around by leaving their songwriting comfort zone.
In many spots, the lyrical content borders on some superficial themes. For the most part, though, we are hearing abstract, thought-provoking ideas through a somewhat plain, simplistic filter. There aren't any overly deep songs, but also nothing cheesy or too formulaic. The vocabulary leaves a little bit to be desired, yet somehow, it seems to be on purpose. The idea was most likely to not turn anyone off by singing about anything that would take more than the length of the song to figure out. Again, in a second album, I think it would behoove the Crash Kings to introduce some more outside-the-box elements. That being said, many songs do churn out some interesting phrases such as the emphatic proclamation, "I'm not a sex-crazed teacher!" in a song called 'You Got Me.'
The album ends on a somber, Beatles-like song called 'My Love.' It has a bittersweet tone of being broken, but picking up the pieces in order to move on with your life. We learn, presumably after a relationship ends, that "all the little pieces of the world come together so well." This song is a departure from the seemingly invincible attitude about life from the beginning of the album, which conjured up the hard-headed image of "climbing up to the peak with a blindfold" and leaping off into a "free-fall" with reckless abandon.
Paid: $7.99 (iTunes)
Grade: B-
Crash Kings are a piano-rock trio, which is a curiosity to ponder as you listen to the introduction of the album, 'Mountain Man.' Any "guitar" sections heard are produced either by Mike Beliveau on the bass or by a cleverly rigged synthesizer played by lead singer (and brother to Mike) Antonio Beliveau. In addition to the distorted synth, a more typical-sounding piano is featured in every song on the album.
By the time you get away from 'Mountain Man' and into the first few songs, I think we are also getting closer to the true melodic sound of this promising band. You begin to realize that they are not so much a rock group, but more of a product of the piano-rock that precedes them like Keane, Ben Folds Five or even Queen. There is definitely still a rock quality that might make you think of Jack White if you were born after the 80's or Jerry Lee Lewis if you are an old-school music lover.
If anything is lacking, it's that they played their first album a bit safe. You can tell that the songwriting has a lot of room for development on a second album, which is a good thing, since I think they have much more to offer. That's not to say that the songs are not good or not well-written, but what they do is hit several pockets of catchy, earworms in each song, then simply stay there. Each has the ability to get stuck in your head, but most of them simply get stuck, musically. This repetitive quality doesn't bother me. Though I do think this band could break out of the standard verse-chorus format for the next record, even for a song or two, and rise out of the pop realm. They really shouldn't limit their songs and try to fit them into a cookie-cutter format. They would be able to make more of a mark next time around by leaving their songwriting comfort zone.
In many spots, the lyrical content borders on some superficial themes. For the most part, though, we are hearing abstract, thought-provoking ideas through a somewhat plain, simplistic filter. There aren't any overly deep songs, but also nothing cheesy or too formulaic. The vocabulary leaves a little bit to be desired, yet somehow, it seems to be on purpose. The idea was most likely to not turn anyone off by singing about anything that would take more than the length of the song to figure out. Again, in a second album, I think it would behoove the Crash Kings to introduce some more outside-the-box elements. That being said, many songs do churn out some interesting phrases such as the emphatic proclamation, "I'm not a sex-crazed teacher!" in a song called 'You Got Me.'
The album ends on a somber, Beatles-like song called 'My Love.' It has a bittersweet tone of being broken, but picking up the pieces in order to move on with your life. We learn, presumably after a relationship ends, that "all the little pieces of the world come together so well." This song is a departure from the seemingly invincible attitude about life from the beginning of the album, which conjured up the hard-headed image of "climbing up to the peak with a blindfold" and leaping off into a "free-fall" with reckless abandon.
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