Music: The Near Future by I Fight Dragons

I can't think of anything to say before the review. 

And I finally have images that my antivirus won't stop me from putting in here. 

So here. We. Go.

"Eighteen at a traffic light/Got nowhere to be on a Friday night/I got it all."

This is by far the best set of opening lyrics that I've heard in a long time. In fact, the whole album now ranks among my top 7 (still have to make that list). I have never heard such smooth transitions from one track to another (listen to the whole album). If you aren't paying attention, you'd probably think that the whole album is one giant track.

Track IV: Another Week, reminded me of another one of I Fight Dragons' songs, cRaZie$, from their debut album Kaboom! I liked this, and I like even more that the digital version of the album comes with the DEMOs (deleted tracks) and a .pdf to narrate the story told in Track I thru Track IX. Okay, the Deluxe Digital Package does, and that's the one I have.

Overall, I enjoyed this entire album. It was a great album in every way, and there was not a single track that I didn't enjoy. This is one impressive album, and I am happy that I decided to get this instead of something else.

Now here's my top 7 albums:

1. Portal 2 OST [SONGS TO TEST BY]
2. The Near Future by I Fight Dragons
3. Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY
4. Kaboom! by I Fight Dragons
5. DEMOlition: Songs That Didn't Make KABOOM!
6. Red vs. Blue Season 9 Soundtrack
7. Red vs. Blue Season 10 Soundtrack

Music: OneWordOnly (4 Reviews in 1 Post)

"Alex, where have you been?" is what I think some of you are wondering right now. After all, I did say that I'd be posting 2 reviews per week, and I clearly have not been doing that. I'll admit that it's my fault that I haven't been keeping my schedule, and so here's 4 reviews in 1 post. All songs in here are singles by OneWordOnly, who is a great friend of mine, and so here we go. If you're wondering why there are no image-based links, I kept getting pestered by "security notices" from my new antivirus software whenever I tried to copy/paste any images or links onto this post. Looks like I'm going to have to explore the settings. 

Just so everyone knows, these are singles, not albums, which means that each individual review is going to be shorter than my reviews normally are.

Review 1: Flintlock

So, I went on SoundCloud today, and saw that this track was posted yesterday. I clicked the play button, and the humming started. "Unique" is the best word to describe this track. I haven't heard anything like it anywhere else, except for the Jet Set Radio soundtrack, but we don't speak of that. This song is, in my opinion, better than the whole of the JSR soundtrack. While this is not one of my all-time favorite songs (due to the humming that plays for nearly the whole song), I do like it.

Review 2: Crystal Garage

To get it out of the way, I will start by saying that I enjoyed this track only somewhat more than Flintlock. The vocals in the background add an ominous tone to the sense created by the foreground instruments, which is one of time dragging on endlessly. Because of this combination, I'm reminded of the NieR: Automata soundtrack. I may review it, but I don't know yet.

Review 3: Whisper

First few seconds, my ears hurt. Then, the things that didn't make my ears hurt began. For some reason, I feel as if I've heard this before. That reason is most likely that the loops used in this song are also used in many of OWO's other tracks. Regardless, I still found that I liked this track a bit. However, I did not get the sense of a whisper from this song, so I do believe it could've been given a more... appropriate name. 

Review 4: I Had Thoughts

I think this is the first time I've heard piano loops in any of One's songs. In fact, this is the most unique of the four tracks reviewed in this post, and my favorite of the four by far. It's not distracting, which means that I can listen to it as I work on pretty much anything. I'll end it here, since I don't have any other notable comments to make. 

Music: All the Right Reasons

I would like to say something: I like Nickelback, or rather, I like some of their music. This is probably due to the fact that when I was a toddler, my parents bought those "Toddler Tunes" albums for long car trips (mostly up to my grandparent's house, 8-hour drive from our house without traffic or my dad confusing one dirt road for another), but switched the CD after 5 minutes (our car had a 6-disc CD changer, quite nice to have). This album, along with a blues collection, were the two things they'd switch to. The Toddler Tunes CD was taken out long ago, but the blues collection album still remains in slot 1, Eye to The Telescope (by K.T. Tunstall) remains in slot 5, and All The Right Reasons remains in slot 6. The CD full of other Nickelback songs my dad got from a friend remains in slot 4. We still use that car. Amazon link embedded in the image. No, the car on the cover is not the car I'm talking about, might as well get that out of the way.
Warning: this album review is going to be one of my longest ones yet.
Also, please follow this blog. If you do, then you'll know when I start posting the photos I've taken (I'm a novice photographer, aspiring novelist, and many other things, future lawyer and newbie engineer among them).

The Actual Review

Honestly, I don't know why so many people feel as if they have to insult those who like Nickelback. I get why people might not like their music, I, for one, don't like all of their music. However, I do find that I can connect with many of the songs in this album far more easily than I can connect with most music produced today. Maybe that's why people don't like Nickelback songs... many of them are easy to connect to reality in a significant way, and from my experience, many people don't like it when they find out that someone else thinks of reality in the same way they do. That, and all of the screaming in some of their songs.

To me, Savin' Me seems to be describing the thoughts of someone considering suicide. I haven't considered suicide or self-harm (closest I ever got was punching a brick wall, regretted that), but I do know people who have. 

Side of a Bullet sounds like a criticism of the US' eagerness for war. I know that most people there don't want war, but it seems as if the voices of those who object to war are drowned out by the voices of those who want it, which deeply upsets me. I know I might get a lot of heat for saying this, but I think there should be more steps added to the process of declaring war. That way, war is only declared when the people in power have the determination to finish the seemingly-endless amount of paperwork involved. Think about this statement: no one wins at war. All those involved lose quite a lot.

The lyrics of Rockstar are basically just a commentary on aspects of capitalism, how people idolize celebrities, and how many seem to think that being rich and famous will only make their lives better. News flash: money and fame don't solve all of life's issues. Although you may have money, that doesn't mean you have money to spend frivolously.

Remember how I mentioned my two previous schools in my review of Liberation Transmission by Lostprophets? Well, Photograph and If Everyone Cared evoke my memories of those schools, as well as many other things in my life. No matter what age I am, I begin recalling the past whenever I listen to these two songs. 

For some reason, when I listen to Next Contestant, I think of that once scene from Firefly where Nathan and his wife are in the bar, the one where some overly-patriotic drunkard is insulting Nathan because he's wearing a brown coat, and then when the drunk asks Nathan "What'cha gonna do about it?" Nathan says "Nothing. I just got you to face me so that she could get behind you." definitely one of the best bar fight scenes I've ever seen. I like Firefly more than I like Next Contestant, by the way. 

Overall, I enjoyed this album. Sure, I didn't like all of the tracks, but that's minor compared to the effects that certain tracks had on me. Also, this album does cause my imagination to go all over the place, even to places completely unrelated to the track I'm currently listening to, which is something that only Kaboom, DEMOlition, and Portal 2 [SONGS TO TEST BY] have been able to do. By the way, I have reviews posted for those three albums. 

Music: Jupiter-18

Hey, Jupiter-18, you asked me if I could review your stuff, and I said "Yes." so here it is!
For those of you who don't know, Jupiter-18 is one of my closest friends, and he writes his own music. He's one of the best people I know, for sure.

The Actual Review

Where to start? Well, I've known this guy for quite some time, and he's always been a musician who clearly enjoys what he does. Some of his works, I enjoy, and there are others that I don't enjoy. Either way, I don't hate any of his songs; after all, I know very well that he puts a lot of work into each and every individual track he writes, some even taking half a year or more to make. 

Overall, I like his work (the fact that I've listened to some of his works-in-progress have a lot to do with that), even the tracks that I don't particularly enjoy. He recently told me that he's planning to come out of hiatus, and make more songs! For everyone who follows him on SoundCloud, as well as those who know him, this is definitely great news.

I know this review wasn't very detailed, I just don't know how to explain my opinion in words that exist (which says a lot, since I know a lot of words and have a way with them). All I can say is that you have to listen to his stuff to truly understand what I'm saying here. 

 

 

Music: KABOOM! by I Fight Dragons (EDITED)

Firstly: no, I Fight Dragons is not the same thing as Imagine Dragons. I Fight Dragons does chiptunes (NES guitar, can you get more awesome than that?), Imagine Dragons does not. I'll say it right here: I Fight Dragons is one of the best bands I know of.

The Actual Review

Like me, those of you who remember when the original 3DS was the newest thing from Nintendo will probably remember when the music video for Save World, Get Girl by I Fight Dragons showed up on Nintendo Video. I know I remember, and I remember getting my friend into this band soon after. Still not regretting that. 

I have to say, this is definitely one of the best albums I have ever listened to, and I have not found anything like it as of yet. The cover art grabs your attention, and then you completely forget that it doesn't actually have anything to do with the actual songs themselves as you become focused on the lyrics and instruments. 

I can honestly say that I don't have a favorite track on here. At first, I thought I wouldn't enjoy track 4, My Way, but I did. Then, I listened to the other tracks I didn't think I'd enjoy (With You, Disaster Hearts, and Suburban Doxology), and while I didn't like them, I didn't hate them either. The lyrics were well-written, but I felt that the songs were played far too calmly for my tastes. Still, I have no regrets when it comes to listening to this entire album. 

EDIT: I actually like Disaster Hearts, even though it made me cry a lot. When I say "a lot" I mean a lot. Also, Suburban Doxology was AWESOME!