Coldplay - Charlie Brown - Track Review

Chances are if your reading this, you have heard your fair share of coldplay songs. Your expecting sly overdriven guitar riffs, lots of atmosphere, gratuitous falsetto, crowd catering, and hooks. If you said yes to the above, you wont be disappointed in the least. You will get easy to sing lyrics with the depth, and the 'wtf?' factor of 'viva la vida' with phrases like "When they smash my heart into smithereens / Ill be a bright red rose combusting the concrete". I noticed a twist of time signature in the intro a la 'glass of water', fitting snuggly with the words and not unnecessary to the track as a whole.

When you get Coldplay, you get fun. You get something you can turn up in your house or car and sing along with (unless your afraid of being beat up by metalheads). Jonny Buckland knows how to dole out those guitar phrases that seem to be exactly what the song needs. Not overplayed, but rather simple and just right. A noise your not likely to hear since earlier albums is the rare acoustic guitar seemingly abandoned in X&Y and Viva/Death, but back in full swing with the new tracks you can hear across youtube.

"All the boys / All the girls / All the madness that occurs". Experiences ring true in this track as much as any other coldplay song. Almost like an inside joke or viewing a clip of a movie with no context. Lets hope the Full LP gives this nice track its proper placement and context into the album as a whole.

Battles - Ice Cream - Track Review

Mmmm Battles. Ill try to stay subjective on this one, but I think you'll understand my bias when you hear how freaking incredible these guys are.

Ice cream = delicious. Music about Ice cream, turns out, also very good. Now then. I tried my darn hardest to come up with some lyrics to this song but then I realized how much I really dont want to know the lyrics to this song. Who knows what this guy is actually singing here but man does it make you feel great... Like Ice cream. Get it yet?

Ooh. Ahh. Aw. Ugh. Just a few of the strange noises you hear at the beginning of this song as its starting out. It gets progressively more 'messy' and fun and bouncy through the four and half wonderful minutes. For those of you who haven't heard battles before, this song is extremely accessible in comparison to the album 'mirrored'. You see, battles recently replaced their vocalist with a new guy who sounds eerily like the guy from animal collective. Battles can be far-fetched with their melodies sometimes but thats just part of their charm. These guys are nerdy. Very nerdy. There's a reason the term math-rock was invented for these guys. Don't let that sway you though, this track is exactly what you want from them. Hooky as hell.

New album is do next month so expect a full review. My proverbial breath is held.

Mike Mains and The Branches - Home - 7.8/10

Mike Mains and the who?? That was my reaction when my brother threw me their album. I admit I wasn't thrilled to listen to "another Christian band" as I put it. After a listen I had changed my opinion of them. After a few more listens, I found Mr. Mike carries quite a few punches with his branches. This album has a lot to offer with 46 minutes of solid tracks. Not a lot of flab tracks and stuffing here folks. Let me go out and say that this band doesn't take themselves too seriously as a Christian band. Not a bad thing in Mike's case. If your looking for an uplifting experience, go download Carmen.

The main track here is "stereo". Starts strong with a oh-oh war-chant that will not disappoint when your driving in your car alone looking for a song to croon along to. His intentions here are pretty clear as he sings to his girl (presumably) that all he wants is to be is 'in your stereo / that kissed your ears in your sleep' and then asks her to take the proverbial leap off the edge with him to find happiness together. Unfortunately that all comes crashing down with 'lady love' that has him taking back every 'I love you' against a soft Coldplay-ish sway. His voice at times seems to emulate Brandon Flowers which seems aggravating to say the least considering his talent for singing. You can tell influences from certain bands here with ease like mewithoutYou and Manchester Orchestra specially on 'rush' and 'love'. Although thats not necessarily a bad thing! In fact, the time when the band shines the most is when they have their 'swagger' going in songs like 'stereo' and 'free'.

Mike covers a lot of themes here, mostly noble and every-man themes like relationships, religion, freedom and having fun. Seeing as they are Christian, God inevitably comes up a lot. Thankfully, its not an annoying thing when they do, and it always feels like a welcome addition to the song rather than an 'oh yeah we like jesus, uh... throw some of that stuff in there'. Instead, right at the start he offers serious curves in the 'God narrative' like 'don't you know your body is a temple?/so how bout you make a little room for me' and 'I didn't die for you to live like this/I died for you to love'

This is the sort of album that you could about throw on whenever you feel like. Its got anthems, its got retrospective, its got hooks, its got it all. A few more years of experience and I think Mike will age nicely and improve their already amazing sound.

7.8/10