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Biggest disappointment: Heroes and Thieves - Vanessa Carlton
(sorry, Charness)
The hype: songs test-driven at her Melbourne concert sounded promising, new and supportive label, positive reviews, addiction to first single Nolita Fairytale, and the trouble I went through to find this album: looked for it on the release date, found out shipments got delayed, when it was in store, it had to be retrieved from the back room, and I paid more than normal full price for it.
I will say straight off that this is not a horrible album - it was just horribly disappointing. I think Miss Carlton sums up her own album for me in the song Home - "they search for the colour they can never quite see / cause it's all white on white". And that is exactly what is wrong with this album - it is blandly pretty, with not enough musical complexity. For the most part, the melodies are based around your stock-standard chords and that is bo-ring. We even get two bridges that sound virtually identical - Nolita Fairytale bridge, meet your twin sister, This Time, which is in the same freaking KEY for crying out loud. And sometimes the melodies get echoed by three different instruments while they are being sung AS WELL - why why why? Plus, honestly: "I'm a sycophantic courtier with an elegant repost"? How Briony Tallis.
Anyway. This album will probably be reviewed in full, so I will reserve some of the scathing comments till then. As well as some of the positivity.
Runner-up: Greatest Hits - Spice Girls
The hype: The Spice Girls get back together. Need we say more.
The only Spice Girls album I own is the maligned Forever, which is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Hence, I was excited to finally own on disc the classic songs of my high school years - Wannabe et al. And I thought I would be listening to this album non-stop for boppy nostalgic funness. But the truth is, it's managed 4 paltry plays in its entirety on my iPod. Why? Well, yes, I still love songs like Say You'll Be There and Spice Up Your Life, and discovered Too Much. But overall, I feel like it's just too patchy - Mama and Move Over are low points in the first half of the album, and then the singles from Forever feel very out of place, and the new songs are dross - and so I never really feel like listening to it. Maybe I should just learn to use the 'skip' button.
Dishonourable mentions:
Little Eve - Kate Miller-Heidke
She's amazing live, and I enjoyed her Circular Breathing EP, but somehow this, her major label debut, lacks oomph. The singles Words and Make It Last are quirky and fun, but the slow songs come off a little boring, and... I don't know. I may have to get back to you on this one.
Older stuff by Fountains of Wayne
Traffic and Weather, their 2007 release, made me think that they would be my new favourite band. First, I got their B-side collection, Out-Of-State Plates, and found it rather up-and-down. But okay, they're B-sides - maybe that's natural. Then I ordered Welcome Interstate Managers from 2003, which had the uber-fun Stacy's Mom, but also found that patchy. So, meh.
1 comment:
I can totally see where you're coming from about being disappointed with the CD because I feel the same way and I wholeheartedly agree with this sentence: "For the most part, the melodies are based around your stock-standard chords and that is bo-ring."
The complexity of the music was a disappointing (with the exception of the outro of Home). Other than that, there's really nothing that jumps out immediately at you. The album has its moments but overall, I am slightly disappointed with it (and I hate admitting that). Vanessa's so much more talented than this. Surely she can come up with grand compositions. *sigh*
And don't be sorry for putting this as your disappointment of the year. I'm not gonna go after you. ;)
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