Music

Although Dream Theater is one of my favorite bands, I don’t follow Dream Theater websites, news, or forums to learn about their upcoming releases; I like to be surprised once a year or so to stumble across a new album while browsing the music store. That’s how I came upon Systematic Chaos, their newest effort, earlier this week.

One thing I love about Dream Theater is that they know what they do well, and they tend to stick with it. Apart from a brief stray into slightly more “alternative rock” territory with 1997’s Falling Into Infinity, they’ve been plugging along almost since the beginning with their signature style: hard and surprisingly agile progressive metal. Albums filled with 10+ minute metal epics and long instrumental showing-off do not make for a lot of radio airplay, but if prog metal is your thing, nobody does it better.

Systematic Chaos does not buck this trend; right out of the gate they’re Doing Their Thing with “In the Presence of Enemies,” a 25-minute epic (spread across two tracks) with heavy guitars, symphonic pacing, and sweeping vocals to match any of their past half-hour pieces. The lyrics paint a picture of brooding and nebulous spiritual struggle–a bit grimmer and more theatrical than Dream Theater’s typical fare, but it works very well.

“Forsaken,” “Constant Motion,” and “The Ministry of Lost Souls” are all strong examples of Dream Theater’s style (although “Ministry” is the only one of the three that strikes me as particularly memorable). “Repentance” is a continuation of a piece from an earlier album, and is an extended reflection on regret and the need for forgiveness in our everyday lives. “Prophets of War” is a perhaps obligatory anti-war piece, but as with most of Dream Theater’s social-commentary songs, it gives the impression of reasoned passion rather than mindless anti-establishment rage. Lyrics throughout the album are interesting and mature. The songs are complex and reward multiple listens; on each subsequent listen, one can try to follow another of the many different interweaving song elements: guitars, drums, keyboards, vocals. Key changes, tempo shifts, and long instrumental interludes are everywhere.

All in all, Systematic Chaos is a great album. As you may have gathered, it’s a pretty typical Dream Theater album; if you like or dislike Dream Theater already, this album won’t change your mind. It’s Dream Theater doing what they do best. And judging by Systematic Chaos, they’re still at the top of their game.

It’s Friday afternoon, the sun is finally visible after a week of April snow, and I’m having an awful time getting anything done. So I think I’ll treat you to one of my favorite rock tunes from the ’90s–”A Walk” by Bad Religion:

The video’s kinda cheesy in a mid-90s way, but the music makes me want to crank up the stereo and start wailing away on the trusty ol’ air guitar. One of the reasons I love this song so much is that it contains one of the best put-down lines in the history of rock:

I don’t need to live in your stinking zoo
you can’t even feed the animals donated to you
your storage sheds are ramshackle; flies decorate the walls
and you expect me to die here in this shit-filled tiny stall?

Next time somebody insults you, just fling the ramshackle state of their storage sheds back in their face! I think that verse makes more sense if you imagine that it’s being sung by an abused zoo animal, or something. Anyway, rock on, my religion-disliking friends. Rock on!

Oh, and the subject of Bad Religion comes up so infrequently here that I must take the opportunity to share a related link: a Christian college professor’s dialogue with the lead singer of Bad Religion.

This is, I’m told, a new Radiohead song that’s cropping up in concerts:

It’s a bit hard to judge a song based on a low-quality capture of a concert performance, but… I like it a lot. Hypnotic melody, classic Radiohead vocals, interesting guitar, uh, noise. Like some of my other favorite Radiohead songs, it’s haunting.

The viral-marketing campaign for the upcoming NIN album is quite elaborate and exceedingly cool. Dang, I’m really looking forward to this one.

Hey, what do you know–the guys from The Jesus and Mary Chain have apparently formed a new band, with a few additional members. It’s called Sister Vanilla, and from the two tunes I’ve found online, it sounds a heck of a lot like classic J&MC, which is to say, it’s really good:

• Jamcolas

• Can’t Stop the Rock

(Both songs found at this 3Hive post.)

“Jamcolas,” especially, sounds like it’s straight out of a J&MC album–simple and catchy hook, fuzzy guitars, driving beat. It’s taking me a bit to get used to female vocals, but I think it all works.

Two things about this post:

1. My wife doesn’t understand most of my music. Prince and CAKE top the list of artists she would just as soon see dead; as such, I find myself continually re-listening to them to see if they’re really as good as they seem in my mind.
2. I don’t listen to a ton of “new music”. I’m not the avant garde type. Thus, most of my music reviews will cover years- or even decades-old music. Hopefully, somewhere in there, I’ll cover a band or album that you might have missed the first time around—chances are, I did.

Prince personifies the pomp and circumstance of the mid-80s. His over-the-top productions capture the excess of the decade; the sexuality drips from his music to the point of absurdity. Many would write him off as an 80s act, signifying that his work belongs with the rest of the forgettable music churned out in the era that defined one-hit wonders. To relegate him to the trashpile with the likes of Kajagoogoo, though, is to ignore the impact his music had when it was released, and to deny the fact that he was a fabulous musician, irrespective of his contemporaries.

Purple Rain is arguably the last great album, chronologically, in Prince’s colorful repetoire. From start (the bizarre eulogy in “Let’s Go Crazy”) to finish (the haunting “Purple Rain”), the album is superbly varied. It evokes images of a fainting James Brown with his cape, an androgynous Little Richard… all mixed with something much darker.

Nowhere is the darkness more evident than in the signature song of the album, perhaps of Prince’s career: “When Doves Cry”. Amidst the typical sexual imagery, the chorus belies a creepy undertone:

How can you just leave me standing,
Alone in a world that’s so cold?
Maybe I’m just too demanding
Maybe I’m just like my father—too bold
Maybe you’re just like my mother
She’s never satisfied
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like when doves cry.

This is typical of the entire album: the sexual is mixed with the somber. Sandwiched between a song about a sordid encounter with a random dominatrix and a confusing confession of undying love is a song about an abusive home and its effects on Prince’s relationships. No offense, but this is no “She Blinded Me With Science”.

If your parents were anything like mine, there was no way they were going to allow Prince in the house, and certainly nothing like “Darling Nikki”. I’d say that unless you’re still morally opposed, Purple Rain belongs in your CD collection as the one of the best of the otherwise-mediocre 80s.

P.S. For the record, I adore 80s music, including stuff by Kajagoogoo and Thomas Dolby and the rest. My goal, though, was the differentiate the frou-frou stuff of the 80s from this album, which is absolutely epic.

A track from the next Nine Inch Nails album has been leaked–
My Violent Heart, from the upcoming Year Zero. (Why Trent is coming out with an album so quickly after With Teeth is a mystery, but a happy one.)

I’ve given the tune several listens this afternoon, and I must say: I really like it, and if it’s representative of Year Zero, then we have a pretty rocking album to look forward to this April.

“My Violent Heart” is clearly recognizable NIN, with enough that’s new to make it interesting. If you know your NIN, you can detect a lot of vintage Reznor tricks throughout–it reminds me particularly of his Downward Spiral era. (The opening, closing, and percussion throughout are hugely reminiscent of “The Art of Self Destruction, Part One” on the DS remix album.) There’s a definite pop sensibility to it that I associate with With Teeth.

Rock on, Mr. Reznor. Rock on.