Trollheart's Theme Park
 

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Yes, another one! I know: new Trollheart journals are about as rare these days as a racial/gender slur by Trump during a presidential campaign! But I have my reasons. Really, I do. This was originally envisioned as just being another section in my main journal, but as always the problem is that I want to keep it updated fairly frequently, and in the Playlist, that usually can mean once every six months! Honestly, stuff goes in there with the best of intentions, meant to be a recurring feature, and is not heard from again. If I absorbed this into my journal then the best I could hope for would be one entry every two or three months, and that would never do.

Why? Because this is an idea I had a long time ago but only remembered today, and it's nothing terribly original, like many of my ideas, but like many of them, I thought of it first (shut up Batty!) and so here it is. What's the idea behind it? Simple really. I choose a theme (hence the journal title) and then listen to as much music as I can within that theme. It will often be just a word, or a concept, though occasionally it may be something else entirely. As per usual with my ideas, I haven't really thought it through fully yet. But the basic premise is that I'll be trying to listen to albums, bands or even single tracks that fulfill the criteria I set down here.

How often it will be updated is also debatable, but I'm hoping to at least manage an entry a week. Suggestions are welcome, both as to music that fits this theme and also for further themes, though I will reserve the right to take or ignore suggestions as I see fit. In essence, yes, I tried this already in my journal with “Variations on a theme”, but there I only posted videos with a very short description. Here, I'll be going into a little more detail, and as I say, I'll be listening to whole albums. Not only albums, but there will be a lot of them. Not quite sure how deep the reviews will be yet but we'll see.

The interesting thing about this, for me anyway, is that it opens up all kinds of possibilities. Choosing one overarching theme means I can and hopefully will end up listening to a wide variety and selection of music genres. Today I could have an atmospheric black metal album, tomorrow a hip-hop one, the next day something by Bing Crosby. Who knows? I'm going to try to ensure, in fact, that I don't just listen to the same genre or subgenre, and sort of like with my “Love or Hate?” thread, I will discipline myself to listen to maybe only one album or song in a particular subgenre before trying another one, although this won't necessarily be a hard and fast rule.

How many albums/songs/bands before I move on to a new theme? Don't know. Probably play it by ear; when I get bored with, or feel I have exhausted all possibilities in one theme, then I'll probably start a new one. But as I say, nothing's carved in stone. As ever with me, I'm flying by the seat here so it could very well be a bumpy ride! But fun, hopefully, and also with a bit of luck somewhat educational, for me and for any of you who choose to come on this journey with me.

Only one question left to answer then at this point: what's the first theme? Well, it's quite simple. I've been preparing for this one for a long time, seeking out and downloading albums that all have this one trait in common. They all either have this in their name, sing about it or are linked to it in some way.
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Yeah. Autumn. I do know some bands who have autumn in their name already of course, but hope to find out about a lot of new ones. So, if you know of an album, artiste or even a song that has autumn in it, or is based around autumn in the lyric, or in which the band or artiste is called or uses the word, let me know. I'm going to pre-disqualify any girls named Autumn, as that's not what I'm going for here. Also don't bother with The Fall or Fall of Troy or whatever; I know you Americans call it Fall but here it's Autumn and I am going to be concentrating on that word alone.

With all that in mind, my first album review will be this, though I have something else lined up for the very first review, see below.
http://www.melodicrock.com/sites/def...?itok=pSXwzp7R

Level Eleven --- Last Autumn's Dream (2014)

Before I get to my first album though I want to talk about this song, which is one of my favourite ballads, from one of my favourite albums from my youth, and was also a big hit at the time.
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Title: “Forever Autumn”
Format: Single
Written by: Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass
Performed by: Justin Hayward
Genre: AOR/Progressive Rock
Taken from: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Year: 1978
Acclaim: Rose to number five in UK charts
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To a large extent, “Forever Autumn” is something of an anachronism on the album from which it's taken, as it's the only love song on the thing and the rest is basically concerned with describing how the Martians arrive on Earth and start wiping out humanity, and the author's attempts to evade destruction, culminating in the defeat of the aliens. There's little time for romance and reflection, and yet in a very real way this works, as the author (the journalist, played by the late Richard Burton) arrives at the house of his lover to find she has already fled, and then begins to reminisce about how things were with her in happier times.

As a singer, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues has the perfect voice for this song, and indeed Jeff Wayne, when considering using it on the album (it had previously been written without lyrics as an advertising jingle) specifically wanted him, or as he put it, perhaps unkindly, “that Nights in White Satin voice”. Previously a minor hit for the two other co-writers, the song was turned into a massive success and appears on love compilation albums even now, nearly forty years later. It's a simple song at its heart, driven mostly on strings and flutes, as the singer thinks about the times he spent with his girlfriend, and wonders if he will ever see her again. It has some very telling, perhaps even twee lines, but they work within the context of the song: ”Like the sun through the trees you came to love me, like a leaf on a breeze you blew away” and ”Through autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way.”

It evokes memories of innocence and a time when anything seemed possible, and the idea that the two would be parted seemed very remote if it was at all considered. Hayward notes the change in the opening lines: ”The summer sun is fading as the year grows old, and darker days are drawing near” and at the end he cries that ”My life will be forever autumn cos you're not here.”. There's a pretty cool flute solo in the middle of the song, with lush strings accompaniment; it's probably synth-created, as I can't see any flautists credited on the album, but it works very well with the song.

Quite a lot of people think that either a) the song is Hayward's own composition or that at least b) it is a song by The Moody Blues, for whom he is the lead singer. Both views are of course false. From what I can see --- and I haven't researched this too thoroughly I must admit --- this song became Justin Hayward's biggest hit, certainly solo, and even with The Moody Blues it seems to have been his biggest success at least on this side of the pond, where the classic “Nights in White Satin” only reached number fourteen (third time of asking) though it did much better across the water, getting to number two in the USA. Nevertheless, if there's one song he'll be remembered for, I feel it is definitely one of the two, and many people will know him more for this, as it was released under his own name.



Things I like about this song:

1. The gentle flute melody, which suits it perfectly
2. Hayward's voice, which again fits the song like a glove: Wayne was right to seek him out
3. The lyric itself, very evocative of a love affair in danger but hoping to triumph against the backdrop of global alien invasion
4. The flute and string solo in the middle
5. The sort of false ending and restart for the final verse and chorus

Things I do not like about this song:

1. People tend to think it's a Justin Hayward and/or Moody Blues song, and Jeff Wayne tends to get little if any credit for it from those who are unaware of his work
2. Having heard it on the album, I am always waiting for the narration to break in, as it does on the album. It doesn't (there's no narration on the single) but I always expect it to.

That's all I can get, two things I don't particularly like about it.

And of course, I'll be rating everything I listen to. After what I've said above it will come as no surprise to anyone I'm sure that this gets the highest rating right off the bat...
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Next up, a true legend and a song I have never heard.

When you speak of the jazz greats, even a peon like me (as Batty would say) who has no interest in jazz knows of the likes of Davis, Coltrane and Ellington, and it's Coltrane we're focussing on in this segment. Not known for teaming up with any singers during his long and illustrious career, John Coltrane deigned not only to collaborate, but to make a full album with ex-Dizzy Gillespie vocalist Johnny Hartman, reportedly the only vocalist he would agree to sing with. Their album of covers, imaginatively titled John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, spawned some classic songs but this one is not as well known, and I have never heard it.
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Title: Autumn Serenade
Format: Album track
Written by: Pete DeRose and Sammy Gallop
Performed by: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
Genre: Jazz
Taken from: The album of the same name
Year: 1963
Acclaim: Unsure

Hartman has that deep, mellifluous voice endemic to the greats such as Tony Bennett or Bing Crosby, and the upright bass is really nice. Like the line ”Love was ours till October wandered by” but of course the song only really comes to life when Coltrane's sax slides in and basically takes over. Not, to be fair, the kind of sax I prefer, sort of warbly where I prefer smooth, but it certainly makes the song. It does however seem to be the case that Hartman and Coltrane don't tend to play together, ie at the same time. You have the first vocal from Hartman, then Coltrane takes over with the tenor sax solo, and then he fades out for the last minute as Hartman comes back in. Seems like they could almost have recorded their parts separately. Maybe that's how these things work in jazz, I don't know. Hasn't changed my mnd about the genre though.

Things I like about this song:

1. The vocal is rich and deep, does evoke autumn days
2. There's a nice smooth feel to it
3. The bass is great

Things I don't like about this song:

1. I'm not particularly enamoured of Coltrane's sax playing here
2. The idea that the two of them don't play in tandem sort of ruins the song



Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat3.png

Alrighty then, the single tracks have been fun but it's time to knuckle down and tackle the first of our themed albums. So here it is.
http://www.melodicrock.com/sites/def...?itok=pSXwzp7R

Title: Level Eleven
Format: Album
Written by: Mikael Erlandsson, Jamie Borger, Jeff Scott Soto
Performed by: Last Autumn's Dream
Genre: AOR/Melodic Rock
Year: 2011
Acclaim: Unsure

Man are these guys hard to track down! Can hardly find any information till I get to a page called Metal Temple and there I find that the band are a crossbreed of members of Europe and Fair Warning, and are Swedish. This is their (anyone?) eleventh album in a career so far spanning twelve years. Billed as “Melodic rock”, I'm kind of expecting a hybrid of AOR and the odd bit of hard rock, maybe even a little metal mixed in, who knows? But big choruses, keyboard solos and catchy melodies, as I think our friend Anteater once said, should be the order of the day.

And off we go, with a big grindy guitar that quickly gives way to peppy keyboard as “Kiss me” opens the album and sounds totally familiar; where have I heard that before? That melody is very definitely ripped off from somewhere. Even the way the vocal goes up is copied from another song. God, talk about unoriginal. A great song, but it's pretty much not theirs, so I can't award them any kudos. Jesus! It's “Paranoid”! They're fucking using the melody from Sabbath's classic! How disrespectful. The bridge is from another song, but I can't place it. Man, this has not set me off on a good footing with these guys. Dear oh dear, I hope the rest is a bit more original. Next up is “Follow your heart”, which at least sounds a little more like one of their own songs, though there are some very obvious AOR cliches and tropes in it, including the “Woah-oh-oh” so favoured by Bon Jovi among others. Kind of a little hard to take seriously so far.

“Fight the world” begins, rather oddly, with a soft piano and then orchestral Beatlesesque violin with a rather nice vocal. Not what I expected from a song so titled to be honest. A power ballad? I guess so. Pretty good to be fair. Some expressive guitar adds to the sense of drama, and Mikael Erlandsson can certainly sing. This is a bit more like what I'vc come to expect of my Swedish AOR bands. The country that gave us Work of Art, Houston and yes, Europe, it's become one of the meccas for melodic rock and AOR, and any band coming out of there has to satisfy a certain pedigree as far as I'm concerned. Care of Night were the last ones I experienced, and they were certainly quite brilliant. This is showing definite purpose, as long as they can keep it up. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea in the world to title one of their songs after one of the bigger hits of Bon Jovi, but far from being a slushy ballad, “I'll B there 4 U” (yeah, that's how they spell it) :rolleyes: has a sort of mixture of seventies rock and Beach Boys charm, and works very well. It's certainly catchy and you could see it being released as a single. Was it? I don't know: I told you, information is very very sketchy on these guys. But it should be. Title might cause some problems though of course, as might the length, five and a half minutes.

A lot of power, energy and drama in “Losing you”, which keeps the tempo high and features some really nice piano. Another powerhouse performance for Erlandsson, with Peter Söderström proving himself a really capable guitarist, but I'd like more information because either someone is playing a violin, there's an orchestra or at least string section, or the keyboards of, it looks like, Erlandsson himself, are pretty damn good. I must say though, “Losing you” gets a little tired around the last minute or so when it basically just repeats the same phrase, I suppose it's the chorus but it just seems like they ran out of ideas. “Go go go get ready for the show” (can you think of a worse title for a song?) is another powerful rocker, showcasing again the talents of Söderström. “Delirious” is a good rock tune but kind of not much more than that, pretty generic. It had been going so well.

Well, maybe we're getting back on track with “Made of stone”. Sounds like another ballad, though I feel it could take off at any moment. No actually, it stays a ballad all the way through though there is some real power and passion in it. “Stick around” has some good moments but it's a little too cheesy even for AOR and it kind of seems like it's being done on autopilot. “Star” sounds a little like a rip-off of some famous song too. It's a pity these guys can't be more original, as they seem to have a lot of talent but keep falling back on established melodies to form the basis of some of their songs. It doesn't do them any credit. We end on the rather annoyingly-titled “Plz” (what is it with the text speak here? Damn you, Prince, for starting this trend in music!) which belies the laziness of its title and allows the boys to come up with a showstopping ballad to close on. Snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, just. Great recovery.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Kiss me
2. Follow your heart
3. Fight the world
4. I'll B there 4 U
5. Losing you
6. Go go go get ready for the show
7. Delirious
8. Stick around
9. Star
10. Plz

Overall I'd have to say this is a very competent AOR album, but it could stand to make some serious improvements, like getting more original melodies and perhaps looking at the process of titling songs. Who knows? Maybe that's their thing. But they're certainly a very decent band and you can see how the merging of elements of Europe and Fair Warning works really well. It's the first album I've heard from them so maybe I'm judging them too harshly, but then again it's their eleventh so by now they should really have this down to a fine art.

Final Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat3.png

This is a really cool idea for a journal! Maybe try "Maple Leaves" by Jens Lekman? I was going to suggest "Autumn Sweater" by Yo La Tengo but I see you've already listened to - and enjoyed - the album it's on, although you didn't review it. If you're in the mood for something very angsty you could also listen to Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters by the Twilight Sad.

I'm trying to stick to tracks and albums with autumn actually in the title, as otherwise it would open it up too much, and I do actually have the YLT track lined up. I'll look into that Twilight Sad thing though, thanks. Glad you're enjoying it.

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Title: Autumn Symphony
Format: Album
Written by: Fabio Zuffanti
Performed by: Hostsonaten
Genre: Progressive Rock
Year: 2009
Acclaim: Unsure, but probably zero. Hostsonaten are not quite what you'd call a commercially successful band.

I've only quite recently got into Italian prog rock band Hostonsaten, but everything I've heard so far I've really liked. This album forms part of their Season Cycle Suite, which includes Summereve, Winterthrough and Springsong. Like most of the band's output it's the baby of Fabio Zuffanti, and includes a full lineup of musicians with cello, oboe, flute, trumpet, classical guitar, violin and even bagpipes! It is of course a musical rendition of or ode to the third season. Soft drumming is joined by a thick bass as we enter “Open windows to Autumn”, some very nice basswork indeed and then sax slides in very smoothly. Quite jazzy in its way I guess, touch of soft funk there too. Clarinets and oboes with what sounds like cello coming in too. Suddenly stops and clarinet and bass take the tune, violin joining now as we head into the last minute. A nice solid ending and we're into “Leaves in the well (including Riverbank prelude)" which opens on a soft piano and violin before acoustic guitar gets into its stride, creating a very pastoral progressive rock feel, very early seventies Genesis or Rush. Electric guitar slips in, counterpointing the acoustic in a kind of way that makes me think of Sky. Really nice solo now on the electric guitar, bringing it back to a more Genesisesque model, quite haunting and sad.

Yeah, the electric guitar really drives this song, with some keyboard choral vocals and some nice flute as the piano returns there at the end, taking us into “Out of water” and bringing in soft violin and cello in a really nice, relaxed melody, then in the midsection there's some backwards masking and jazzy piano as that bass from the opener returns, and the clarinets and oboes set up something of a flurry, though they disappear as quickly as they arrived and we're left with the violin and piano to take us out. Darkly lush synth then rolls in as the electric guitar with I think some sort of effects pedal rises too and “Nightswan 1” begins. Dropping back then to a more relaxed, gentle melody and bringing in some flutes and piano and then that bass shows what it can do. There's no point in me naming names here, as there are about fifteen players taking part, but suffice to say they're all great at what they do, as we move into “Nightswan 2” which rides along on a sprightly flute line with some really nice acoustic guitar backing it. Heavy keyboard then joins in with choral vocals and electric guitar gets involved too.

Cello and violin then take centre stage for “As the night gives birth to the morning", and we hear for the first time trumpet, running off a slow solo against high-octave synth which certainly gives the impression of the sun rising. And now we get those bagpipes, which to be fair are not too intrusive. Not an instrument I like personally, they always seem to be too harsh and loud for my tastes, but these are gentle enough while still having that punch about them. Another sedate trumpet solo, after which we hear a kind of distant chant, like something Arabian perhaps. A lonely clarinet finishes the track and leads in “Trees in November” as again a more jazzy overtone descends, breezy and uptempo without being in any way fast. Finishes on some nice classical guitar.

“Elegy” then is the only track with any kind of vocals, supplied by Simona Angioloni, whom we met on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Chapter One. This short track seems to be just piano and her voice (though there may be some sparse violin in the background), and she doesn't so much sing as just use vocalise, but it's very effective. We end on “Autumn's last breath/The gates of winter”, beginning with a single piano line then some cello before Simona reprises her vocal performance, though it seems to be a very small contribution indeed, and the piano and cello take over the piece, creating a dark, ambient, sad piece, with I think trombone coming in, the same basic melody all through but it really works, especially when percussion and clarinet come in and add their voices. Beautiful ending.

Things I like about this album :

Pretty much everything really. I love the way the music paints, without words, a scene of bleakness and cold, with yet the remembrance of the departing summer still fresh in the mind, and the cold blast of winter not yet upon us. It conjures up visions of blowing leaves skittering along with a dry, crunching sound on the ground, branches of trees being slowly stripped of their finery as if winter were a thief or needed to survive the cold and was robbing nature. I love the breath of cold wind, not yet freezing, that whistle through those branches as the lights in house windows go on earlier, the days shortening and the nights getting longer and darker. I love the instruments used, the textures created and the overall ambiance Zuffati weaves over the slowly changing landscape. In short, I love it all.

Things I don't like about this album: Nothing.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat5.png

May as well go for some rap/hip-hop while I'm here. Not too often I feel that a rapper's lyrical material will turn to the likes of the seasons (maybe “Bitch you're cold as winter” or something) but neverthless Chris Brown did include a track on one of his albums that really screams to be included just for the title. What the song is actually like I don't know, but I guess we're about to find out.
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Title: Autumn Leaves
Format: Album track
Written by: Chris Brown, Leon Youngblood, Kendrick Duckworth (Lamar), Melin Watts, Mark Pitts
Genre: Hip-hop/R&B
Performed by: Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar
Taken from: The album X by Chris Brown
Year: 2014

Well, there's a pleasant guitar and piano intro with what sounds like a female vocal before the beat comes in, but to my surprise and delight it's a slow ballad, not without its autotune but you can't have everything. Slightly harder kind of beat coming in now, but still slow, and there's a nice lyric: ”It seems that the autumn leaves are falling/ I feel like you're the only reason for it.” Then we get Lamar coming in with his rap, which quite honestly for me ruins the song. Don't see the need for it at all but that's hip-hop for you. It's not to be fair a hard rap, and it works relatively well with the music, but as usual we have to have the expletives. I mean, I'm not trying to be a prude, but why do we need the f-bomb in a song that doesn't require it?

Good enough song, but the addition of just that one f-word gains the video the warning “Explicit” and it really does not deserve that. Not quite sure why many rappers seem to think they're obligated or even duty-bound to drop f-bombs everywhere. It doesn't make you harder, you know, the more times you swear on a record. :rolleyes:

Things I like about this song:

1. Good vocal, even if he does use autotune
2. Nice instrumental parts
3. Good imagery in the lyric

Things I don't like about this song:

1. Lamar's contribution: I feel it ruins it and is unnecessary
2. The f-bomb, again totally pointless and just dropped either for shock value or because he doesn't know any better.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat3.png

Now I have heard of, but not heard, The Bombay Bicycle Club, so this will be my first foray into their music. They're shown as being indie, so at least it's not punk or dubstep!
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Title: Autumn
Format: Album track
Written by: Jack Steadman
Performed by: The Bombay Bicycle Club
Taken from: The Bombay Bicycle Club album I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose
Year: 2009
Genre: Indie Rock
Acclaim: Unsure, but it must be popular because as soon as I typed the band name into YouTube it was the first result that came up...

Nice kind of a marching beat to start off, jaunty little tune, nice guitar. The vocal is kind of menacing a little somehow, and I don't really see the link with autumn in the lyric. Listening but not hearing any mention of it. Meh, it's okay but nothing special.

Things I like about this song:


1. It's cheerful and upbeat

Things I don't like about this song:


1. Not mad about the singer

2. Can't see the connection with the season in the lyric


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The only two things I know about Bobby Goldsboro are likely the only two things most people know. He hit number one with the dreadfully insipid tearjerker “Honey” in 1967 and he also had a hit with the somewhat more mature, possibly autobiographical account of one man's transition from boy to man one hot summer evening with “Summer (The First Time”) later in 1973, a song which did much more poorly but is in my opinion the better written of the two. I don't know if he wrote it, but I know he can't be blamed for “Honey”. Anyway, this is of course neither of those songs, but it has autumn in the title --- he has in fact two songs I could have chosen, I just happened to come across this one first --- so we're gonna give it a spin.
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Title: Autumn of my life
Format: Single
Written by: Bobby Goldsboro
Performed by: Bobby Goldsboro
Taken from: The Bobby Goldsboro album Word Pictures
Year: 1968
Acclaim: Surprisingly (or perhaps not, considering it was the single released after his first big smash, “Honey”) this did quite well when released, breaking the top twenty in both the US Country and the regular US charts of the time.

The first thing I notice, other than the I think accordion opening it, is a blatant attempt to cash in on the big hit, as this opens with another high female choral vocal, just as “Honey” did, and maybe unwary listeners may have been fooled into thinking this was “Honey part 2”, as it were. Sneaky, man! Sneaky! In the event, it seems to be a fairly bog-standard Country/Pop song with some nice strings accompaniment. The melody does sail close to “Honey” too, and it's also about a woman of course and the love she gives him, but unlike “Honey” he at least stays away from having her die, instead preferring to have the flame of love die within him as the “Autumn of his life” approaches. Rather selfishly, he decides to leave his woman, and his child --- ”What do you say to a child of ten/ How do you tell him his daddy's going away?/ Do I tell him that I reached the autumn of my life/ And he'll understand some winter's day?” Yeah, great idea, Bobby! Make the kid so bitter that not only will he hate you for the rest of his life, but implant in him the idea that when he's grown up he can do the same thing to a woman he loves. Fucking excellent parenting!

This song, though it's the first time I've heard it, pisses me off. Not a word about the woman he leaves behind, scant regard for the child, and all we get at the end is ”I'm content in the autumn of my life.” Well good for you, you selfish fuck! This is the kind of crap that would pass for a “heartfelt song” in the sixties. Try that today son and you'd get a whole different reaction!

What do I like about this song?

Very little.

1. The tune's ok but much of it is ripped from his hit of the previous year, “Honey”.

What do I not like about this song?

2. The message it sends, that it's okay when you grow tired of your woman to just desert her, leave your son behind and not care about what happens to him, or indeed her. Yes, I know it's just a song and probably not indicative of the man's own views, but then again, this is the man who wrote (or at least sang) about basically underage sex/statutory rape on his biggest hit. The inherent selfishness and indulgence of it, the sweet sickly voice disguising a message of pure misogyny. As Blackadder once said, “No doubt he's shacked up with a new pair of tights by now!” Cunt.

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The maple leaves in this thread have made me, as a canadian, very proud.

Well, they're just meant to be autumn leaves, but whatever makes you happy and keeps you reading... ;)

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Title: "My cosmic autumn rebellion (The inner life as blazing shield of defiance and optimism as celestial spear of action)"
Format: Track
Written by: The Flaming Lips
Performed by: The Flaming Lips
Genre: Dreampop/Psych pop
Taken from: The Flaming Lips album At War with the Mystics
Year: 2006
Acclaim: I think none. The album won a Grammy, but this was not one of the three singles released from it. Of course, I know nothing about The Flaming Lips, so maybe it's one of their best loved songs. If so, please let me know.

With a title like that, it's probably fair to assume that this really has nothing to do with the season, but it does have autumn in its title so it qualifies. Has a beautiful dreamy opening, on organ, piano and with twittering sounds that I think are meant to be birds. The vocal is very relaxing and it looks to be a really beautiful ballad which I'm already falling in love with. Really didn't expect this. Reminds me very much of The Alan Parsons Project. Now it's taking a bit of a leap and a powerful guitar is soloing as the percussion drives it along in a much harder, yet still somehow laidback vein. Back to the singing we had at the beginning, and it looks like it's going for a powerful end. Another fine solo, and I think I may need to start listening to this band more.

Things I like about this : Everything. I love the soft but passionate vocal, the organ, the guitar solos, the way everything comes together, the whole dreamy feeling the song gives me.

Things I don't like about this: Nothing.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat5.png

Some time back, JosefK suggested I try this band and this song. To be fair, he may have meant the whole album, as this is the title track of same, but I'm not quite ready to leap into that yet, so let's just do that title track and see if he is on to something.
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Title: Fourteen autumns and fifteen winters
Format: Track
Written by: Andy MacFarlane and James Graham
Performed by: The Twilight Sad
Genre: Post-Punk, Indie, Shoegaze
Taken from: The Twilight Sad album of the same name
Year: 2007
Acclaim: Again, although the album was feted I don't see anything about this particular track. It must be popular though, because when I typed in “The Twilight Sad” to YouTube it was the first result to come up.

Sounds like a steam train or something at the start, which sets up a nice ambience, then the guitars come in kind of slowly, coming and going, staggered and rising then falling back. Reminds me a little of what I heard of British Sea Power. Think it may be an instrumental. Very ... what's the word ... ethereal. Yeah. Ethereal. Very ethereal. Gives you a kind of surreal feel, as if your'e not quite sure what's going on but are enjoying it anyway. Some sort of familiar melody sliding in and out there, though I can't quite pin it down. Think it may be “Spanish eyes”, would you believe? Now it's fading out with a kind of swishing motion. Hey, that was really pretty nice.

Things I like about this : The ambience, the mood set, the way the instruments are used and the way there kind of is no real melody; there is, but it's fragmented and never fully developed, which actually plays to the track's strengths.

Things I don't like about this: Not really anything. Very impressed.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat4.png

I've also been talking about doing this one too, and apparently (though I must admit I don't recall) I listened to the album already, so let's see if I can refresh my slowly deteriorating memory.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...artheheart.jpg
Title: “Autumn sweater”
Format: Single
Written by: Yo La Tengo
Performed by: Yo La Tengo
Genre: Indie Rock
Taken from: The Yo La Tengo album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Year: 1997
Acclaim: Again, although the album is highly respected and regarded as the band's best effort, and this time the song I'm looking at was released as a single, I have no details as to how well or otherwise it did, so can only assume it's probably liked by YLT fans but otherwise mostly unknown? Again if I'm wrong, please set me straight; this is another band I know nothing about.

Once more I find this is first up in the results for YouTube, so must be well known. Heavy beating drum at the start (reflecting the album title?) then a thick organ comes in (shut up!) before the vocal starts, quite restrained and sort of low-key. The tempo is definitely mid-paced, then the bass cuts in and the song gets a little more intense, sort of conga percussion too. Takes on a sort of marching, almost militaristic feel in the drumming but the vocal remains more or less the same all the way through. Interesting that there seems to be little or no guitar; this is almost totally driven on the keyboard.

Things I like about this : Again, pretty much everything. I liked the vocal, I loved the organ and the way the percussion changed was cool. The laidback feel of it was really nice.

Things I don't like about this: Again, nothing I can point to.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat4.png

Time to do something totally different now, and head all the way back to the end of the 1960s, to the summer of love. Maybe.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...UTUMNSTONE.jpg
Title: "The Autumn stone"
Format: Track
Written by: Steve Marriott
Performed by: The Small Faces
Genre: Rock/R&B
Taken from: The Small Faces retrospective album of the same name
Year: 1969
Acclaim: For this particular song? None I think, as it was apparently an unreleased song from the sessions for one of their other albums. This retrospective was released after the breakup of the band, so I don't see any great acclaim accruing to this track at least. Nor was it released as a single.

Nice soft acoustic guitar opening, sounds a little folky to me with a kind of echoey vocal. Love the flute solo, so sixties! Really gentle the way it slips along, then out of nowhere we get a harmonica and a jews harp, and it starts to up the tempo a little just before it ends. Bit odd.

Things I like about this : The vocal, the guitar, the soft relaxed way it slides along. The flute.

Things I don't like about this: The kind of jarring change just at the end when it goes for me a litlte off-track and I feel ends badly.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat3.png

Gonna cheat a little here! Both these albums fit the criteria I set out here, but both have been already reviewed by me in my main journal. Was a long time ago, so I think I'm justified in reprinting them here. If not, tough: it's my journal...
http://www.trollheart.com/resyk.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ver_Autumn.jpg
Title: Forever Autumn (Yes I know I've already had a song by that name. Your point?)
Format: Album
Written by: Daniel Brennare
Performed by: Lake of Tears
Genre: Gothic Metal
Year: 1999
Acclaim: Unsure; don't think it's terribly well known outside of their fanbase.

Lake of Tears are, apparently, something of an enigma. Beginning in the early 90s as a black/doom metal band, this four-piece from Sweden scored critical success with their second album, 1995's Headstone, which was an all-out doom/gothic metal album, but then for their third recording, 1997's A Crimson Cosmos, they evolved progressive metal and psychedelic styles into their music, weaving in fantasy and mythological imagery to their songs. Much more melodic than doom metal, this was followed two years later by their fourth offering, which seemed to eschew the original influences entirely and is a far more laid-back, introspective album with hardly a whisper of black metal anywhere.

This is immediately apparent from the opening track, “So fell autumn rain”, with its mournful cello intro, picked up by piano and then crashing guitars, but keeping very melodic as the keyboards slide in, the vocal initially very low in the mix, almost an afterthought but still clearly audible and discernible. For the verses, vocalist Daniel Brennare kicks it up slightly so that you can hear him better, but it's the music that really carries the track: it could almost work as an instrumental. The intensely melancholic nature of the album is due to the fact that it's dedicated to the memory of Juha Saarinen, whom I have to assume is some relation to keyboard player Christian, though I can't confirm who he/she was.

“Hold on tight” opens on acoustic guitar, then the electric screams in and the song picks up, still mid-paced, almost a cruncher, but in the mould of a very heavy ballad with growling then crying guitars from Magnus Sahlgren, slipping back into the acoustic variety for the low-key ending. The title track then is another with an acoustic opening --- there's very little evidence of Lake of Tears' previous life as a doom metal band here --- and another ballad, with some very nice keys and introspective guitar. Brennare's vocals are clear and clean on this track, and you no longer have to strain to hear him. More beautiful cello here really adds an extra layer to the song, thanks to Henriette Schack.

The first real time the guys rock out on this album then is when “Pagan wish” hits, a mid-paced heavy rocker, with solid guitar from Sahlgren and swirly organ from Saarinen, then “Otherwheres” is a beautifully piano-constructed instrumental with slowly fading in acoustic guitar, with some nice sound effects --- rain, thunder, children laughing in the distance --- and some truly lovely and dramatic strings with choral vocals, to take us into “The Homecoming”, where Bo Hulpheres' flute makes its entrance and the song is another slow-paced rocker, nice keys in the background, almost unnoticed and an impassioned vocal from Brennare, measured drumbeats from Johan Oudhuis keeping the pace perfectly.

Another mid-pacer is “Come night I reign”, which you would probably expect to be a thrash rocker, but it's not: in fact, just about nothing on this album is headbanging material. It's mostly slow or mid-paced, often acoustic or partially acoustic, and indeed the best description of the music on this album would have to be “introspective”, as it certainly makes you think about things, like your own mortality. Lots of lyrics about death, sorrow, loss and loneliness. Christian Saarinen's keyboards almost seem to be crying on this track.

The enigmatically titled “Demon you/Lily Anne” again starts with deep, mournful cello, then Brennare lets loose with perhaps his most powerful vocal performance on the album, and even the music speeds up just a little tiny bit in response, the guitars heavier, the drums a little louder, even Saarinen seems to be stabbing the keys with a little more fervour. And then we're into the closer, the longest track on the album by a considerable way, clocking in at just over eight minutes.

“To blossom blue” kicks in with nice guitar, heavy drums and accordion --- yes, you read that right: accordion! --- with lush keyboards drifting around the melody like a ghost haunting the song. But the song is really a showcase and vehicle for Magnus Sahlgren's expressive and at times almost unbearably emotional guitar work, some of his best on the album. The final word is, though, reserved for Schack's sorrowful cello, and “Forever autumn” ends as it began.

Unless you're in a very depressed mood already I wouldn't look too closely into the lyrical content, as this is not a happy album, nor is it meant to be. But neither is it a typical doom metal album. It's hard to pin this down: it has elements of prog rock and prog metal, certainly, ambient music in there, classical, straight-ahead rock and even some folk elements. One thing it is not in any way is predictable, and even if you're a fan of Lake of Tears and think you've heard everything from them, this album will most certainly change your mind about them.

If, like me, you're just getting into the band, Forever autumn is likely to come as a very pleasant surprise.

TRACKLISTING

1. So fell autumn rain
2. Hold on tight
3. Forever autumn
4. Pagan wish
5. Otherwheres
6. The Homecoming
7. Come night I reign
8. Demon you/Lily Anne
9. To blossom blue

Things I like about this : The slow, melancholic mood, the cellos, the unexpected instruments like accordion, but most of all, the surprise. This is like when I listened to Antimatter for the first time, and was totally surprised by what I heard.

Things I don't like about this: Pretty much nothing really.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/autrat5.png

https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/...x/66440130.jpg
Time to get my arse back in gear and sort this journal out. I guess at this point we'll assume we've done enough on autumn, so it's time to move on to a new theme. What could it be? Let me see ... oh yeah. What about this?
http://en.es-static.us/upl/2015/08/g...0601501849.jpg
Although I've never seen one, and would in all likelihood run a mile if I did (though they'd be hard-pressed to get much of a meal out of this skinny nine-stone walking skeleton! Oh wait: dogs like bones, don't they? Drat!) I've always had something of a fascination with wolves. In a fantasy world, I'd love to have one as a pet. Imagine the stir it would cause if you were to walk down the main street with a wolf on a leash! But anyway, yes, wolves is the new theme, so let's get underway.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...nbowRising.jpg
Title: R “Run with the wolf”
Format: Album track
Written by: Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio
Performed by: Rainbow
Genre: Heavy Metal
Taken from: Rising
Year: 1976
Acclaim: None; it's just an album track, albeit from one of the seminal heavy metal albums of all time...

While there's no question it's among the weaker tracks on Rising, which is pretty much defined by the two tracks that made up the B-side, “Run with the wolf” is still an early pointer to where not only Rainbow, but also Ronnie's later band, Dio, would go with many of their compositions. There's a sort of medieval feel to it, the idea of wolves prowling the forest, on the lookout for unwary travellers, and the guitar riffs that underpin it remind me in an odd way of “Sixteenth Century Greensleeves” off the previous album. There's also some nice magical/mythical lyric here – ”There's a hole in the sky/ Something evil passing by”. I like the idea of nature – savage nature, not tree-huggers, though there's nothing wrong with them (gotta hug something) – being allied with dark forces, magic and primal powers. Great stuff!

Things I like about this :
1. The raw energy and power in the guitar riffs
2. The very melodic chorus
3. Ronnie's powerful growl of a voice
4. Tony Carey's sonorous keyboard that backs the whole thing

Things I don't like about this:
1. Not crazy about Blackmore's solo; it's a little tepid I feel


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Well, aren't you a busy body with all these journal entries... welcome back my friend.

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Title: “Hungry like the wolf”
Format: Single
Written by: Nick Rhodes, Simon LeBon, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor, John Taylor
Performed by: Duran Duran
Genre: Pop/New Wave
Taken from: Rio
Year: 1982
Acclaim: Reached number five in the UK, helped break the band in the US through rotation of its video on MTV

You'll be totally unsurprised, I would imagine, to find I was never a fan of Duran Duran. I tended to see them as a scrappy pop band who were just pretty boys, and to some extent I still hold this belief. However it has become clear with age and the passing of time that they did in fact have, and write (to be fair, they wrote most of their own material) some pretty good songs. You might chance to catch me on occasion humming a badly off-tune version of “Rio”, “Girls on film” or even “Save a prayer”, though I'd never admit to it. “Hungry like the wolf” was certainly a popular song, though it could be argued that at this time Duran Duran were already long-established, at least in the UK and Europe, having already had four hit singles and two successful albums, though Rio, their second, from which this single is lifted, was without question their commercial breakthrough, and introduced them finally to a rabid horde of American fans. Still, it could also be argued that without the constant running of the clever video for this song on the then very influential MTV (a show that could quite easily be said to have made more than one artiste's career) they might have struggled to have crossed that transatlantic divide.

At its heart, of course, it's a vapid pop song. It doesn't have a lot to say. Whereas previously featured Rainbow's song likened the wolf to an ancient figure of savagery and nobility, and hinted at dark magic, Duran Duran here go for the idea of the wolf as a romeo: ”I'm on the hunt/ I'm after you” gives no impression that the hunt will end with the prey being eaten, rather it's the age-old pursuit of a lover for his woman that we're talking about here. It's undeniably catchy though, and you can't help yourself singing ”Do do doo-doo do doo-doo” at the end of each verse. The song also used emerging advances in synthesiser technology, putting Duran Duran at the forefront of what would be generally regarded (by me anyway) as “synth bands” and thereby pushing the poor old dependable guitar firmly to the background.

I suppose for the time its very weakly sexual imagery in the lyric could have been seen as being slightly risque, though it's hardly Slayer or Metallica, is it? There's a very boppy “Popcorn”-like synth riff running through most of the song, and to be fair the guitar does get to strut its stuff a little so it doesn't sound as bland as many of the new wave synthpop bands would. Interestingly, the song was all written over the space of one day, and I have to admit, it doesn't sound like it, does it?

Things I like about this :
1. It's a catchy song; can't help singing it
2. It's not too twee
3. It has a certain amount of balls

Things I don't like about this:
1. It's Duran Duran, and I retain a legacy bias against them from my younger days which I've never seen any reason to change or challenge
2. It's pretty repetitive

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Thanks man. Good to be back. All this work, though: it's really piled up. I can't even see my desk for the contents of the "in-tray"... :shycouch:

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Title: Woodland cathedral
Format: Album track
Written by: Aaron and Nathan Weaver
Performed by: Wolves in the Throne Room
Genre: Black Metal
Taken from: Celestial Lineage
Year: 2011
Acclaim: n/a

Time to go for a band with wolves in the name rather than a song, and there are a few. I remember reviewing, I think it was, Two Hunters, probably for Metal Month at some point, and being mightily impressed with it. Over the course of three years of running Metal Month, I did gain a new appreciation for some Black Metal, not all – bands like Panopticon, Gehenna and Blut Aud Nord really spoke to me, and in screechy voices I had not expected to listen to, but I did – and so I don't have the kind of trepidation about listening to it that I would have had, say, three years ago, nearly four now. As it happens, I seem to have stumbled, in my patented Trollheart close-your-eyes-and-run-across-the-road method of choosing albums, upon what seems to be regarded as one of their best, or to put it in the words of critic Brandon Stousuy, “American Black Metal's idiosyncratic defining record of 2011”. Um, yeah. I'm assuming that means he likes it. Will I? Well, who knows, but it's just the one track I'm taking, and as most of the tracks are in the double-digit mark, I've chosen one that's only six.

I know WitTR tend to veer a little towards the more pagan side, as it were, of Black Metal, which is to say, they come down a little more on the hard, melodic manner of Pagan Metal as opposed to the breakneck, cursing and roaring of some other Black Metal I could name. This one certainly has dark medieval overtones, much more than the Rainbow song, with almost a kind of slow, doomy chant in the opening, female vocals of all things. Who by? Let me just check that. Oh. Jessika Kenney, apparently, an experimental vocalist whose bag is mostly Persian and Indonesian music. Indeed. Well she does well here. I'm pretty sure I can hear a church organ going, slow, heavy, muted percussion, not too much guitar, though it does come in later.

It's the kind of song that I would, were someone to tell me, scoff and say there's no way it's Black Metal, if my understanding of this wide and varied subgenre had not changed forever over the last few years. Far from being all about screeching maniacs and guitars played rather less expertly than a novice punk band in the late seventies, it's a deep, thoughtful, dark cornucopia of various styles, vocals, ideas and lyrics, and while you can certainly lump many Black Metal bands in the one category, others just refuse to be pushed into a box. Wolves in the Throne Room are one of those. Further listening definitely required.

Things I like about this :
1. Not your “standard” Black Metal song
2. Female vocals
3. Good use of the organ
4. Great ominous percussion
5. Very slow, almost more Doom Metal at times

Things I don't like about this:
Nothing, really

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Still willing to take suggestions?

Destoyer 666 - Unchain the Wolves


http://netstorage.metrolyrics.com/albums/5165842jpg.jpg

Time for something, to coin a phrase, completely different now...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...lbum_cover.jpg
Title: “The Wolves, Act I and II”
Format: Album track
Written by: Justin Vernon
Performed by: Bon Iver
Genre: Folk
Taken from: For Emma, Forever Ago
Year: 2007
Acclaim: n/a

A band I tried to get into, or, I should I suppose say, an artiste, as it's the one guy, is Bon Iver. He gets a lot of love here in the forum, but when I tried his self-titled second album, while I didn't hate it, it sort of left me with an overwhelming feeling of “So what?”, the same kind of impression I had after listening to another proclaimed god here, the late Eliott Smith. Just didn't get it. Good, yes, but just that. I listened to Newton Faulkner and liked his album, but I wasn't suddenly possessed by an urge to tell everyone how great it was (it isn't; it's okay) whereas certain people here seem to think both these people are something really special. So maybe I just missed the boat. In either case, this is from Vernon's debut album, and again while I've no intention of listening to the whole thing now, it might be interesting to see if anything clicks on this one that failed to on my previous outing into the man's work.

The background to the creation of the album is interesting though. Having become disillusioned with being a songwriter, and also falling ill, Vernon spent time in his father's log cabin in Wisconsin and hunted for his food. Here he began to compose melodies, and later to add lyrics, and though initially reluctant to make an album, pressure and encouragement from family and friends told, and he was quickly signed, releasing his debut album. Given that he did hunt, we can I guess assume that this song came from personal experience, or if not, was at least informed by his attempt to communicate with nature and shut out the hurly-burly of the world.

The first thing I'm reminded of is early Eagles, with the multitracked vocals (I'm pretty sure that's just him singing but it sounds like a choir or at least that he has backing vocalists). Nice slow acoustic guitar, kind of stopping and starting, almost interchanging with the vocals: when one is working the other stops. Mostly. Quite melancholy, which you'd expect, given that he has just broken up with his girlfriend and returned home, having lost interest in music, in just about everything. Guitar and voice meshing a little more now, perhaps this is “Act II”? Hard to know, as it all flows together. Guitar getting more insistent and louder, but not drowning out the vocals, nor ever in any danger of doing so. A lot of emotion and heartache coming through, especially at the end. Very raw. Sort of slight gospel overtones to the music too. Not bad. Still not convinced though.

Things I like about this :
1. Vocal is very good, very warm yet harsh, and given that it's only him it sounds like a lot more
2. Eventual convergence between vocal and guitar works well
3. A lot of emotion in the song

Things I don't like about this:
1. I feel it's hard to understand the falsetto vocal; I don't know what he's singing
2. The end part, where it all stops then comes back up again seems to me to be a little superfluous. Maybe that's Act II?


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Back from the dead eh? Welcome back bastard, I missed you.

Wolves, you say?

I'll check it out. Am I likely to regret it?
Thanks man. You need to improve your aim.
Let the Dad Jokes flow forth! :laughing:
Ah yes, but not in Sheepskin. Well, unless you can recommend me a track I wouldn't hemorrage through and is less than a day long...
:shycouch:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...erNewCrown.jpg
Title: “My tangerine dream”
Format: Album track
Written by: Andrew Stockdale
Performed by: Wolfmother
Genre: Hard rock
Taken from: New Crown
Year: 2014
Acclaim: n/a

I for some reason always assumed Wolfmother were a metal band – well, they sound like it, don't they? But apparently they're not. And that's all I know about them. Reading up, I see they've been compared to the greats like Zep and Sabbath, and now I look, I see the tag Heavy Metal is present, so maybe they are. Who knows? This is, as if you couldn't guess, my first experience of this band, so let's see what they have. I've chosen the track above more or less at random, as indeed the album has been chosen arbitrarily, although the veiled reference to Chris Franke's seminal psych/prog band of the seventies did, I admit, swing my choice a little.

Well that certainly sounds very seventies, the guitar kind of fuzzy, and even the vocal is quite Ozzyesque, so I can see the comparisons to Sabbath being somewhat valid, as well as those to the sort of Robert you put in a pot and water to see him grow. Kind of laidback in its way, with the guitar screeching riffs here and there, then a nice solo before the vocal comes back in. Perhaps a little bland, but not bad. Like the guitar buildup in around the fourth minute. Oh wait, it's stopped completely and now here's an acoustic, slow guitar with phased effects (?) and a much different vocal, almost like the late great Johnny Cash. Weird. But good.

Things I like about this :
1. Guitar is good, powerful without taking over too much
2. Vocal is a little derivative but engaging
3. Acoustic guitar at the end is nice and unexpected

Things I don't like about this:

1. The Johnny Cash vocal at the end does not work for me
2. The constant stabs of riffs after each “My tangerine dream” kind of irritates me
3. The reprise is kind of pointless really.

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Maybe this one but it's up to you if you want to do it. It actually has quite a bit of harmony.

https://wolvesinsheepskin.bandcamp.c...-is-impossible

Hey, welcome back TH! Nice to see you again!

Thanks man! I just couldn't take life on the streets any more. The cold, rainy nights, moved on by the cops, selling my body to survive (you don't get much for EUR 5.31, I can tell you!) and living like an animal. And then, one cold drizzly night, as I struggled to keep warm and watched the alleys for the approach of the Kneebreaker Gang, to whom I owed big money, it came to me: why not just come back here? Sure, Batty's here, but I could put up with that. The very next morning I hopped on a train (hobo class, of course) and that afternoon found myself back here in Journaltown. What a ride!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../Danzig2na.jpg
Title: “Killer wolf”
Format: Album track
Written by: Glenn Danzig
Performed by: Danzig
Genre: Heavy Metal
Taken from: Danzig II: Lucifuge
Year: 1990
Acclaim: n/a

Now this is definitely Heavy Metal! I only know Danzig from, apart from the general mention of their name around the forum, my listening to their third album a good while back. Think it was for “Love or Hate?” not sure. Seems the guy has a lot of problems with organised religion, something I find ironic when you consider his guitarist decided to call himself John Christ! Anyway, enough of that. Let's see what this song, apparently a reworking of an old blues song, is like.

Well, that's very doomy, quite a Waitsesque vibe in the opening, then the guitar kicks in with what sounds to me like a very Western (as in, Western movie) feel, and of course Danzig did mention it was a blues song, so we get, well, a blues song. Not sure who wrote it originally, or how much it's been altered by our man Glenn, but he's credited with all the writing on this album, this included, so I guess he must have changed it a good bit. Doesn't sound like it though if I'm honest: I could hear some old Delta Blues singer howling this. Speaking of which ... but that's for later.

Basically a metal blues tune (steel blues?) about a guy who goes after every woman in town, very much the stuff of your thirties and forties blues song, with a nice metal guitar solo there in the middle. Certainly gives this wolf teeth!

Things I like about this :
1. It's the blues, Jim, but not as we know it!
2. That solo
3. Very drowned-in-whiskey style vocal

Things I don't like about this:
Can't think of anything really. Might go for
1. If he rewrote the tune, should he not give credit to whoever originally did? Though I don't know that of course.


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Time to let the ladies loose!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ngle_cover.png
Title: “She wolf”
Format: Single
Written by: Shakira, John Hill and Sam Endicott
Performed by: Shakira
Genre: Pop
Taken from: She Wolf
Year: 2009
Acclaim: Top ten in most countries, including the UK and US

When I wrote about Duran Duran's song “Hungry like the wolf” earlier, I mentioned that the song was written in a single day. Impressive. Well, this one was apparently written in ten minutes! Reminds me of the old line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, when Doctor McCoy says, with typical hyperbole and lack of accuracy, “According to myth, the Earth was created in seven days. Now watch out! Here comes Genesis! * We'll do it for you in six minutes!” Still, it doesn't seem to be hype, as there's a quote from her saying exactly that. Either way, it's quite an achievement, not only to write a song so quickly but for it to be so successful.

Of course, let's remember I'm Trollheart, so I have never heard this before. Never even heard of it. I'm sure you're all very surprised. :rolleyes: The lead single from the album of the same name, it continued a string of successful singles from this mini-powerhouse after she had hit the big time, and despite her insistence on releasing albums in her native tongue in between the smash hit albums, she has remained very popular. I have heard the odd song, so I'm not totally clueless about her (not totally) but as I say I have not heard this so let's go.

Like the wolf howl and the heartbeat at the start, but then it kicks up into a pretty generic pop/synthpop song. Catchy yes, but everyone knows this is not my kind of thing, and I really have little to say about it. Goddamn Autotune! :mad:

Things I like about this :
Nothing really; not my kind of song.
1. Okay, okay! The video's hot hot hot!

Things I don't like about this:
Pretty much everything I'm afraid

Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat2.png

* Note: that's the Genesis device, a terraforming tool, not Phil Collins and co!

Shrug. I don't even know what ****s with you these days. At the very least you don't seem to be bothered by black metal anymore.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Cult_Love.jpg
Title: “Brother wolf, sister moon”
Format: Album track
Written by: Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy
Performed by: The Cult
Genre: Gothic rock
Taken from: Love
Year: 1985
Acclaim: n/a

The Cult for me evoke memories of a sort of “other Cure” performing live on Top of the Pops, though what song it was I don't remember. I always got a kind of, how can I say this, weird vibe from them but have never listened to, nor indeed wanted to listen to any of their music. On the face of it, this song sounds like something you'd hear on one of those compilations of Native American music, or some New Age thing. I doubt it will be either.

Melancholy doom style guitar to open with (I bet the singer is dark and dangerous-sounding, well not quite). A little manic perhaps in a restrained way, very slow pounding percussion, the song gives the impression of perhaps building up to something? Guitar puts me in mind of Big Country to a degree. Okay, the percussion got a little more forceful and just a shade faster now, but it's still basically the same – what would I call it? A lament? Yeah, a lament. Kind of enjoying it I must admit. Good solo, powerful but restrained; I like that the guy didn't just wank all over the song, which is something it definitely does not need, and yet he stamps his identity on it effortlessly. All in all, quite impressive. Oh, great ending! Love the rumbling thunder receding into the distance.

Things I like about this :
1. The atmosphere evoked; quite dark and tribal in its way
2. The guitar riffs, sparse but effective
3. The vocal; kind of reaches out and grabs you by the throat
4. The thunder at the end

Things I don't like about this:
Nothing really


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Like one of the guys says in this ad... (see if you can guess which one)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-Wol-58306.jpg
Title: “The boy who cried wolf”
Format: Single
Written by: Paul Weller
Performed by: The Style Council
Genre: Pop/Soul
Taken from: Our Favourite Shop
Year: 1985
Acclaim: n/a

Another band I really hated was these guys. Weird in a way: I hated the Jam (not so much now of course but back when I was young) and then despised the way Paul Weller had the effrontery to break them up and then put together a new band. Who's ever done that before? :rolleyes: But even I had to admit that songs like “You're the best thing” and “Walls come tumbling down” were catchy slices of eighties pop, but they were hit singles and this was not, so I was exposed, if you will, to the Style Council kind of against my will, whereas this time I'm heading into their inner sanctum. As it were. Although released as a single, it appears to have flopped, which might be why it never came to my attention. Or not.

Reminds me a bit of a-ha with a slice of forties French lounge or something, maybe a bit of Sade, quite a little soul in there. If there's orchestration it's really nice. There is orchestration. It is nice. Some female vocals too, from who? Either Tracy Young or Alison Limerick, apparently. It's quite a nice little tune really, inoffensive but with a certain bite. Not bad at all.

Things I like about this :
1. The rhythm and tempo
2. The orchestration
3. The female vocals

Things I don't like about this:
Oddly, nothing really


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

Man, once you get going you just can't stop, can you? Must be all that pent-up energy and frustration from being away for so long!:laughing: Here we go again!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ssion_Play.jpg
Title: “7 days to the wolves”
Format: Album track
Written by: Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala
Performed by: Nightwish
Genre: Gothic/Symphonic Metal
Taken from: Dark Passion Play
Year: 2007
Acclaim: n/a

I heard this song only a few days ago, and indeed though I'm not familiar with much of Nightwish's catalogue, this happens to be one of the few albums of theirs I actually reviewed at one point, though I have to say I don't recall this track, and I should, as it's quite long at over seven minutes. A lot of people hate Nightwish; for me, the jury's still out as, as I say, I haven't listened to enough of their music to make a proper decision, and sometimes the female operatic vocal – especially when allied to the dark, growly male death vocal – can get tiresome, it's used in bands so often. But let's refresh my memory as to how this one goes.

There's the orchestral opening that often gives this subgenre a bad name, which it may or may not deserve, crashing drums and guitars and choral vocals, all very gothic and dramatic. I must admit, I prefer vocalist Annette Olzon to Tarja, who had left by this time. I've heard her solo stuff and I'm not that much of a fan, if I remember correctly. No death vocals yet, which is nice. Song is a little marching and dramatic, anthemic and powerful. Good interplay between the two vocalists, though I see they have a choir on this, so maybe it's them that I'm hearing. Instrumental section in the middle is pretty boss.

Interesting use of uileann pipes, not something I've heard on a metal record very often, if at all. Great orchestral run there near the end, builds up really nicely. Yes, very impressive all told.

Things I like about this :
1. The sense of drama and power
2. The instrumental section
3. Uileann pipes
4. Good vocals
5. No operatic screeching or indeed death growling
6. Orchestration

Things I don't like about this:
Nothing


Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/wolfrat3.png

God damn 90s.

And I suggested that album cause it's awesome, not to **** with you.

Love that ad! :laughing:
Coola boola, as we say here. Well, it's spelled "cula bhula"...