Opinion: Musically speaking, October is off to a slow start
Music blogger, David Bradford, looks at the albums that have come out so far in October and expresses his disappointment in the new releases.
Creativecommons.org
The beginning of last month was painfully slow when it came to quality music and unfortunately for this month, it appears to be more of the same. Here are some notable releases from this month thus far and my thoughts.
Revival by Selena Gomez
If this is Selena’s revival, then she has come back as one of the walking dead because this is one of the most boring, uninspired pop albums I have heard in a while. From the cliche lyrics to the redundant choruses to the cheesy, un-thought provoking spoken word passage on the intro, this album makes Taylor Swift’s latest release look interesting. And honestly, Selena’s voice has such little personality that anybody could be singing these songs. Rating: 1/10
Stories by Avicii
Ahhhh, Avicii, writer of some of the worst pop songs over the past few years. Songs like “Wake Me Up,” and “Hey Brother” are symbolic of Avicii’s ineptitude, combing mind-bogglingly cliche and nonsensical lyrics with an awful and distasteful mix of country/folk/bluegrass and dance. With Stories, Avicii dives into other genres, such as reggae, jazzy hip-hop, and continues with southern flavor. It’s an improvement from True because the instrumentals are more tasteful, but the album doesn’t bring anything lyrically and does not approach different genres in an interesting way. Rating: 4/10
The Documentary 2 by The Game
The first half of a double album, The Documentary 2 is the sequel to The Game’s critically acclaimed debut album The Documentary. With over 70-minutes of music and 19 tracks,
The Game is clearly showing a load of ambition, especially considering the extensive list of features. While there are a handful of great songs with outstanding lyricism, charisma and solid production value, where The Game fails is that within the 70 minutes there a number of tracks where the features and trendy production don’t match the aggression that The Game is going for. Hopefully the second 70-minute half of this album is more cohesive than the first. Rating: 5/10
New Bermuda by Deafheaven
Deafheaven really turned heads in 2013 with their album Sunbather, which was one of the heaviest, most intense, yet brightest and uplifting albums of that year. With New Bermuda, Deafheaven sill possess the same intensity, but unlike Sunbather where the interludes were simply a blissful break from the intensity, the softer moments on this album kill the momentum. They don’t sound bad if they stood on their own, but in the context of the album, they absolutely crush the momentum, which is unfortunate because Deafheaven’s music is so relentless and powerful. Rating: 6/10
The opinion of our writers/bloggers are not a reflection of the opinion of the Tennessee Journalist as a whole.
Featured Image by Rashid Akrim, obtained via creativecommmons.org
Edited by Jessica Carr
Follow me @DavidJBradford1 on Twitter, email me at dbradfo2@vols.utk.edu for any questions.
