(Hope you aren't offended.)
Album: Greed
Artist: The Cartridge Family
Genre: Art Rock
Suggested by: Plainview
Familiarity: None.
1. Awakening - Horn at the start, and then guitars come in. And I start to wonder if two songs are playing at the same time. Nope, just one. Eventually the tune mixing stops, and a drum comes in to solidify the song. The chamber instruments aren't always exactly with the tune, so there's still some experimental-ness going on. But the calmness of the song is winning me over. Drums come back in again towards the end. And we close with one chord on the electric guitar. There's a lot going on in this one, but I still like it a lot. I will definitely be listening to this again some day.
2. Freedom Day - Now we got piano and horns, and the drums come in and out during this song as well. As well as some electronic choral stuff. This is giving me a Ghosts-era Nine Inch Nails sort of feel. With the horns, it's got a laid-back jazzy kind of feel as well. What I think this needs is something to pick up the pace. If it were me, I'd throw some speedy drum work in here to spice things up. Nevertheless, it's definitely not a bad song.
3. Greed - I like the guitar on this one immediately. Hopefully, they keep the beat going throughout. Guitar disappears and is replaced with drums, piano and bass on the next beat. Then the semi-realistic orchestral stuff comes back. Kind of freeform stuff. And, bring back the bit from the start. A noisy bit runs over top of it, which I don't really mind (see Merzbox). And then it mainly takes the stuff we've already seen and mixes it around, which is fine with me as well. Nothing really groundbreaking though, so it's just interesting enough to be enjoyable.
4. Olympus Mons - This one has a funkier vibe. Feels a lot more like a cohesive track. Ugh, and it's over! It's actually really frustrating when you're so rapidly shifting from one idea to the next. All of these ideas could have been their own songs, the fact that they are all shoved toegther feels so forced. I feel bad, because both parts are really good, but this shifting is really annoying for me. Still, it's very good. Have a blue.
5. I Believe This Still - Now this one immediately starts with the random melody mixing. Just sort of noticed that all of the drumming has been really badly implemented. Eh, I'm not feeling this one. It's honestly getting a bit pretentious as well. Okay, I'm just really not liking this. It's bad songwriting. The ending might be a bit better.
6. Ulysses - Some more slow songwriting. Then it gets a bit faster and jazzier. And then it's back to the fuzzy stuff. Then slower guitar work. Please just let something go on for more than a minute. Then faster, then fuzz, then a piano bit, and then harmonic drones until the end. At least it was catchy, and so therefore enjoyable.
7. Repentance - This one is quiet and introspective, with a great organ part to start, and then an excellent jazz piano track with some accompanying drums. It switches between the organ and the piano part, which is really as much as these songs need. This last track was very enjoyable, so at least they left a good taste in my mouth.
This album sort of feels like multiple songs and/or ideas, being chopped up and screwed all together, and seeing what it sounds like. Each idea is very unique and interesting, but all together, they don't quite make a whole, but rather feel a bit overflowing. The best songs were the ones that weren't as choppy, and held to one or two ideas. Nevertheless, the songwriting for the individual sections was incredible, and deserving of some praise.
OVERALL RATING: 8/10