Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.3: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review Part 4d: The Rubric

Category 5: In The End...

Variety: One of the most important pieces of creating a good album is making it exciting from front to back, and the easiest way to do this is to create an album with a variety of sounds, so that the listener is kept on the edge of their seat, excited to see what the band will through at them next. Nobody wants to hear an album made of ten songs that sound exactly the same, are built around the same structure and occupy the same emotional space. In order to be awarded a high variety score, an album must have multiple instances in which the sonic or emotional textures are changed, and little change in tempo is always welcome.

Lasting Impression: Lasting Impression is pretty simple- it’s an entirely subjective category that looks at how much of an impression the album made on me. Was the entire listen enjoyable? Did I want to listen to it again after it ended? Did I ever find myself in the middle of Theory class just dying to hear that one sequence of songs from the middle of the album? The Lasting Impression score will often go up if there was something really creative or exciting on the album that I had never heard before, or if it in some way manages to separate itself from the pack. Conversely, the score will go down if a band constantly rehashes material that other bands have covered, even if the album is a particularly good example of that material. Lasting Impression is the final word on whether or not you should buy the album, since it attempts to look at the whole album, and asses how much of a mark it left on me and how exciting the album the album was as one coherent piece.

Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.3: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review Part 4d: The Rubric

Category 4: Album Presentation

Album Structure: This looks at how well an album is put together. Do the songs flow nicely between each other? Are transitions logical? Is it too long or too short? This rewards a band (and a producer) that not only know how to write good songs, but knows how to put them together to make the entire album an enjoyable piece of art. For an album to get a good score in this category I have to be able to say that I enjoy listening to it front to back without skipping songs or gravitating towards certain parts of the album. The album should come together as whole piece that has a consistent flow and narrative. It should have carefully placed high and low points and should make listening as engaging as possible.

Production: Production is a pretty simple category- it takes into account how the album was produced. This category does not look at whether or not there was a lot of money thrown into the production of the album, but it looks at how well the album is produced. An album can be marked down for being over-produced as well as underproduced. Basically what I’m looking at here is how good everything in the album sounds. Does the producer bring all of the instruments and effects together to make a compelling and cohesive sound, without sacrificing the integrity of each individual part? Production is a particularly important category because it can affect other categories, most notably album structure and emotional landscape.

Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.3: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review Part 4c: The Rubric

Category 3: Emotional Impact

For me, the Emotional Impact of an album is the most important aspect of an album. For an album to really bring me in, I need to feel some emotional connection to the music, whether it be through the music, the performance or the lyrics, “emotion” is very important. Emotion does not just refer to dark or sad emotions (I’m not talking about “emo” here), it refers to any emotion that can be felt through the music. It might be sadness, it might be anger, but it could also be excitement, or happiness. In order to look more closely at emotion in music, I split this category up into “Energy” and “Landscape”

Emotional Energy: Emotional Energy looks at how strongly the album makes you feel the emotion that it is trying to convey. If the music is fast and energetic, emotional “energy” looks at how pumped up the music makes you feel. If a piece is sad, this becomes a measure of how directly you feel that sadness. A band might be rewarded for using melodic and harmonic ideas that do a particularly good job of complementing the emotion mood of the song, but it may also have to do with the lyrics, or the individual performances (particularly of singers).

Emotional Landscape: Emotional Landscape evaluates how well an album creates a particular mood or world. This category looks at how interesting and immersive that world is and how well it is brought to life through musical ideas, lyrics and production. For me this is a particularly important piece of an album, because one of the things that makes music most powerful to me is it’s ability to take me out of my world and immerse me in the world of the music. That is when I am most impressed by an album or song, when I feel a deep connection and involvement with the music. This category is most important for concept albums and musicals, as it looks directly at the world of the album and evaluates the bands ability to create that world.

Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.3: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review Part 4B: The Rubric

Category 2: Song Presentation

Song Structure: The basic question with song structure is, “Are all of the elements of the song put together in such a way that it maximizes the emotional impact of the song?” This category looks closely at how well a band uses different types of song structures. A band might be rewarded for using an uncommon song structure that moves away from classic verse-chorus-verse. A band will not be marked down, however, for using verse chorus verse, as I think that such a structure can at times be the one that best fits the song, and best carries the themes and emotional weight of the song. That being said, it should be used sparingly, and appropriately, because, let’s be honest, we’ve all heard it a thousand times. A band will get marked down for having structure that doesn’t promote the song well or that makes the song overly confusing and hard to follow. One thing that will really help a band out is their ability to build a song up. Having a strong build and a fulfilling climax is one of the most important things in a good song and any band that consistently turn out songs with good build (but not the same build!) has won some major points in my book. A song that is carefully constructed, with a strong build (sometimes a de-build works too!) often carries considerably more emotional weight and power than a poorly constructed song, even if the latter song contains the stronger melodies.

Lyrics: Lyrics are an obvious choice for a category here, but it can be very hard to judge lyrics, and every listener is drawn to different lyrics. For the most part, this is a category where I will talk about what appeals to me and what doesn’t when I’m listening to the album, but There are a few things that should generally be avoided. I will call a band out on some of these, such as meaningless and or immature subject matter, poor phrasing and grammar, and of course, lousy cliches. I think its pretty safe to say that no one wants to here any of these in their music... That being said, I think the most important thing with this category (as with almost every category on this list) is that the lyrics help to maximize the emotional potency of the song. What this means specifically for lyrics is, words that work well with the melodies and that they are put to. Usually this means matching like with like (for instance, dark lyrics with dark melodies), but sometimes this can be an intentional shift of the two, like using a cheerful melody for dark brutal lyrics (see Coheed and Cambria’s “Three Evils”). Lyrics can be a tricky area to judge, but in general I look for this kind of harmony between the lyrics and, well, the harmony, and I look for lyrics that flow well together with strong evocative language, and clear and interesting concepts and themes.

Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.3: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review Part 4a: The Rubric

Category 1: Musically Speaking

This category as a whole looks at how adept the writers are at creating intriguing musical lines that are both musically complex and exciting, but also musically fulfilling and appealing.

Musicianship: Musicianship is a pretty common subject for the analysis of a musical work. My personal interpretation of an album’s “musicianship” looks directly at the musical ability and talent of the performers on the album. How technically proficient are they? Do they play things that are above the average for that type of performer? For guitarists, this might be the the ability to play really complex lead lines or solos. For singers this category might reward performers who deliver a performance that demonstrates an impressive range and vocal quality. The main thrust of this category is that high scores are given to albums in which the individual performances really stand out and show that each performer is at the top of their respective class. A musicianship score may also increase for a group that shows knowledge of complex time signatures or advanced harmony, and likewise will decrease for a group that treads over the same musical ground that has been covered a thousand times. This category as looks at (to a lesser degree with studio music) the ability of the band to play together coherently and in time.

Musical Cohesiveness: “Musical Cohesiveness” May be one of the most uncommon and unclear categories on this list. Musical Cohesiveness looks at a groups ability to weave together cohesive and appealing lines in a way that sounds like music. This category is meant to counteract “Musicianship” because so many groups today write entire albums showcasing their virtuosity, but pay little attention to how strong and appealing their melodies are. This can be summarized in one simple rule: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The obscure metal band “Behold the Arctopus” (check them out in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq89wxYlKtM)* is a perfect example of a band that would receive a high musicianship score and a rock bottom “musical cohesiveness” score. They can play their instruments like nobodies business, but they couldn’t write a good riff to save their lives. The musical cohesiveness score rewards bands that string strong melodic sections together smoothly, like Mastodon on Rush who are able expertly switch between vastly different sections and time signatures without sacrificing a cohesive and appealing sound. Many bands that receive high Musicianship scores, get poor Cohesiveness scores, so the trick is to balance the two categories to get the maximum effect, and create a sound that is both appealing, and complex.

Stay Tuned for the Next Segment of Reviewing the Review part 4- Category 2: Song Presentation.

Nit Picks, Pet Peeves and Guilty Pleasures 1.2: Reviewing The Review

Reviewing the Review: Part 3: The Score

The practice of giving a albums, movies and games a “Score” as part of the review is at times a hotly contested subject. Some reviewers believe that a review cannot be without a score, otherwise how would the reader be able to tell how much the reviewer liked the game. Other reviewers (including one of my personal favorites, “Yahtzee”) hate it, claiming that their opinions are best voiced through detailed criticism of the work, and that a scored encourages readers to glance over the text and assume that they know all they need to know by a set of numbers. Despite my desire to bow down and lick Yahtzee’s bootstraps, I like the score, and believe that it is a nice summary of the reviewer’s overall impression. I dislike the fact however, that many music reviews use just a single number or star rating for their reviews, and don’t take the time to break down that number into subcategories to give specific insights to each key aspect of the album. I like the score because it helps to clarify exactly how the reviewer feels about a segment of the work that he or she might have had mixed reactions to. For example, a Rolling Stone review of a Guns and Roses album might applaud Axl Rose’s vocal talents or a Slash guitar solo, while simultaneously complaining about the band’s ability to write appealing melodies. This written detail gives us a good sense of what exactly is good or bad in terms of musicianship on the album, but it gives no insight into just how the two criticisms come together to form the reviewer’s opinion on that aspect as a whole. For this reasons many video game sites (see IGN, Gamespot) and a few music review sites (see absolutepunk.net) have devised ways to summarize what they think are the strong points of a work either with a rubric or a set of awards (both positive and negative) to give to the aspects that they find most important to point out.

I have devised a similar system for my reviews, although It is a little more complicated and confusing that those on other sites. I chose 5 categories that I felt were the most important in determining an album’s quality, and then further divided those into 2 very specific sub categories. For each album I review, I give each sub category a score (From 1 to 10) and then total the scores and take the average to get my overall album score. I chose to go from 1 to 10 because I personally hate it when reviews are out of 5. Five tells you absolutely nothing about the album, because there is so little difference between each score. For instance, a classic album like “Who’s Next” might get a score of 5/5, while another very strong album, say “Tommy,” might get a 4/5, to show that it was good, but not as good as “Who’s Next.” The Problem here is that 4/5 is an 80%, a B- if were calling these grades, and Tommy, is not a B- student. Tommy is at least worthy of a B+ if not an A minus. Now we get to the real problem. What happens when we have a contemporary album that is good, but not as good as Tommy? The next highest score below 4 is a 3 (or I guess a 3.5, but if you’re using decimals, why not just use a 10 point system?), which is in High School, a Failing grade. Is The Killers’ “Sam’s Town” a failing album? No, absolutely not. Is it as good as Tommy? No. So then where does it fall on this list? Hard to say. Its for examples like this that I abhor the 5 star system and adhere to a 1-10 spread along with all of the tens place decimals (8.3, 6.1, 5.7) as possible scores as well. In the interest of simplicity, I only use the integers for sub category scores...

... Stay Tuned for an In depth description of each Category and Subcategory in Reviewing the Review Part 3: The Rubric!

Note: Originally, I intended on having on big post that consisted of the above section and followed by a summary of my Rubric, but due to the length of my explanations I will post each category (it ands two subcategories) separately

I'm Baackk!

So after a nice long "Look at me I'm Starting College" break, I am hoping to get back into this blogging world a bit. I have finally completed and uploaded the conclusion to Broadway Week, with my long overdue Next To Normal Review. I may or may not have drooled all over it. But anyway! Going forward, I am looking to finish my set of articles called "Reviewing The Review," and potentially a few more new release album reviews. (Potential Victims are Paramore's "Brand New Eyes," and Porcupine Tree's "The Incident").

Enjoy!

Album Review: Next To Normal

Next To Normal

Music by Tom Kitt

9.2

Released 2009

Rubric:

Musicianship: 8

Musical Cohesiveness: 10

Song Structure: 10

Lyrics: 8

Emotional Energy: 9

Emotional Landscape: 9

Album Structure: 10

Production: 10

Variety: 8

Lasting Impression: 10

Sometimes you hear a piece of music, that comepletely takes you away emotionally. A song that immediately and unrelentingly pulls you into a new world, allowing (even forcing) you to leave your own life behind, and become entirely immersed in the emotional push and pull of the piece. As you listen, chills creep down your back and you find yourself unable to resist the urge to sing along and literally become one with the song. It is experiences like this that make listening to music so incredibly rewarding. It’s not often that songs can have this deep and profound effect on me, so I was excited beyond belief when I first heard the lead single from Tom Kitt’s new musical, “Next To Normal.” I was introduced to the show and specifically this song by a close friend who showed me the “N2N” Tony Awards performance. After getting over my initial shock at the sheer power of the song and performance, only one thought came to my head; There is NO WAY the rest of this show is that good. It wasn’t. But came very close.

Next to Normal is an incredible emotional romp through the lives of its maladjusted characters. It will make you laugh, cheer, cry, and even think (!) before it ends, and as the final vocal harmonies of the closing track die out, you will find yourself very satisfied. N2N’s story focuses around Diana, a forty-somethings mother of a “perfect loving family,” as she and her family go through the motions of their “average” suburban life. If that sounds like a boring setup to you, imagine how it struck me, a complete Sci-Fi/Fantasy kid who can’t be entertained without an epic space battle or castle siege erupting every five seconds. Tom Kitt proves however, that you don’t need to be epic, that the world doesn’t need to be at stake in order to make a story compelling. What makes a story exciting is more than just a good set up. An enticing and emotionally compelling story can be realized through intriguing characters, a original plot, and strong presentation. N2N pulls all three of these together, but its strongest suit is its presentation. Each element of the show is channeled through music that fits the overall themes and thrust of the show. Every song fits perfectly into the mood and world of the show, and every chord change and melodic line reflects the emotional happenings of the songs and lyrics. The vocal performances are stunning, each one working in tandem with the music and lyrical narrative to paint deep and intriguing characters. These factors come together to instantly and effortlessly immerse the listener in to the world of the show, but more importantly, they personally invest the listener in the lives of each individual character. Fortunately, the story does not stay as stale as the premise might indicate, as the true nature of the family is slowly revealed through a serious of well placed and well executed plot twists that help keep the experience fresh. All together, Next to Normal utilizes excellent presentation to realize story, characters and concepts in way that helps to make it one of the most coherent and compelling soundtracks out there.

Next to Normal isn’t completely without its faults, but they are few and far between. I could spend this time complaining that not all of the songs live up to the same emotional and energetic standards as the album’s stand outs numbers, but that would be like complaining about finding a $10 bill on the ground after finding a $50 bill. The event of finding $10 was significantly less exciting after finding the $50, but the $10 bill was still awesome in its own right, not to mention, you now have $60! I might also say that they lyrics at times teeter on the brink of the cliché and overly silly, but on the whole the lyrics do a great job of telling the story, and there are plenty of lyrical gems that more than make up for the bad. Finally, I will say that I did find there to be a few two many soft “piano ballad” type songs that slow up the beginning of the second act (starting with “Song of Forgetting” and ending with “Better Than Before”), but this trend is quickly brought to a halt with the reemergence of Gabe, the son, in “Aftershocks.” The bottom line is this, Next To Normal is not perfect, but when it stumbles, it is immediately picks itself back up and gets back on track.

Next To Normal’s strongest suit is its ability to tell the story that it wants to tell, how it wants to tell it. One of the most rewarding parts of the soundtrack is the latter half of the second act, which is almost entirely comprised of short “snippet” songs that flow perfectly from one to the other, introducing themselves and then fading out before outstaying their welcome. It is a hectic and schizophrenic delivery that perfectly mirrors the condition of the characters and the flow of the story. This section climaxes with the “I Am The One Reprise,” easily one of the most emotionally potent reprises since Judas’ “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” reprise in Jesus Christ Superstar. The sound track ends on a slightly more hopeful, but no less powerful note with “Light,” a beautiful and moving reflection on each character’s need and ability to move forward in light of what hardships they experienced throughout the course of the show.

Musically, the soundtrack is a treat, as Tom Kitt expertly weaves each song with excellent builds, great harmonies, and lots of unexpected chord changes and clever tricks. At times it feels like he is channeling The Who’s Tommy while at other moments he clearly draws influence from Stephen Sondheim, but he brings his influences in such a way that never feels contrived or overly derivative. The vocal performances are all incredible, with Aaron Tveit (Gabe) and Alice Ripley (Diana) turning in the most lively and convincing interpretations of their respective characters. While none of the performances are on the same level, at least technically, as those of a really good production of Jesus Christ Superstar, each performer truly makes their character come alive.

Next to Normal is also consistent. The performances are stellar across the board, each song stands out in its own way (some are better than others, but this says more about the really incredible songs songs than it does about the rest of the soundtrack), and the story never drags. The soundtrack starts strong (indeed “Just Another Day” is one of the strongest songs in the show), ends strong, and reaches its musical peak somewhere in the middle. Next to Normal is a prime example of how to pull of a great musical soundtrack, and it is a must buy for anyone with the slightest interest in Musical Theater. Simply put, it is one of the best musical soundtracks available.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: THE BEST

Here's what you've all been waiting for (maybe) - My list of the Top 10 Best Musicals and Broadway songs!

SATURDAY: THE BEST OF THE BEST

Top Ten Best Songs:

10. Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening

9. Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins

8. Tonight - West Side Story

7. What You Own - Rent

6. Superstar - Jesus Christ Superstar

5. Do You Hear the People Sing? - Les Miserables

4. You Don't Know/I Am the One - Next To Normal

3. Oh What A Circus - Evita

2. Heaven on their Minds - Jesus Christ Superstar

1. One Day More - Les Miserables

Top Ten Best Musicals

10. Sweeney Todd*

9. The Sound Of Music

8. Evita

7. The Producers

6. Assassins

5. West Side Story

4. Next To Normal

3. Rent

2. Jesus Christ Superstar

1. Les Miserables

*So I've never seen the entire production of Sweeney Todd, and haven't listened to the full soundtrack in years, but the little bit that I have seen/heard recently warrants a listing at #10 on this list. So If I watched the whole thing, it would probably place higher, but for now, this is how it is going to be.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: INSPIRING SONGS

Due To Strange Schedule Stuff I'm Going to have to Post some of the intended material later than expected, but here to tide you over is a list of the most Inspiring Broadway songs- (remember, just like the over/underrated list, this list is in order of most inspiring, not best song. One Day More is clearly a better song than Climb Every Mountain, but Climb... is just so inspiring!)

Friday: Most Inspiring Songs

10. Tonight - West Side Story

9. Hosanna - Jesus Christ Superstar

8. Heart - Damn Yankees

7. Seasons of Love - Rent

6. Light - Next To Normal

5. A New Argentina - Evita

4. Everybody's Got The Right - Assassins

3. One Day More - Les Miserables

2. Do You Hear The People Sing? - Les Miserables

1. Climb Every Mountain - Sound of Music

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 5 LIST: MOST OVERRATED SHOWS

Wednesday: Your Show Sucks

Note: As much as it might seems so from the title, I am not trying to antagonize anyone with my selections for Overrated Shows, I'm simply taking the time to groan over the many shows that I think get talked about a little too much. Just because the show is on here doesn't mean it's a bad show, in fact it probably means it's a good show, it just means that I think it gets more credit than it deserves. With that said, I'm going to give some true classics a royal bashing! Please feel free to leave a comment if you disagree!

Top 5 Most Overrated Songs:

5. Oklahoma - Oklahoma

Since when does anyone care about Oklahoma? Nothing ever happened there, nothing ever will. Just a bunch of Farmers and Cowmen being real friendly like. Yet somehow, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote and song about it, and somehow, everyone except me liked it. Go Figure.

4. Maria - West Side Story

Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria. After hearing this song once in your life, you never again want to meet someone named Maria, I swear to god. If I have to hear that name one more time... Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad!

3. I Don't Know How to Love Him - Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ! This song is so overplayed! JCS is one of my favorite musicals of all time, with one of the best soundtracks out there, so explain to me how the most atrocious song on the album is the one that everybody knows? The only good thing that I Don't Know How To Love Him spawned was an absolutely heart rending reprise during "Judas' Death." The Song is still bad, but the due to the nature of the situation, the lyrics become that much more potent.

2. Tomorrow - Annie

There is no more oppressively redundant and obvious song in the world than "Tomorrow." Next time you sing along to this song, take a second to listen to the lyrics you are singing, "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, You're only a day away." Well thank you captain obvious. I would never have guessed it. The most creative moment in this song is when she sings, "Betcha bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun," because, you know, there might be fog, or even rain, and if you live in Minnesota, you might even see snow!

1. Memory - Cats

I swear to god, the next time I hear some woman made up in feline fashion start crooning "Memory..... all alone in the moon light..." I think I will punch a whole through the wall. I (I think along with the rest of the world) am 100% sick of this song. And There Is a perfectly good reason for that- IT'S TERRIBLE.

Top 5 Most Overrated Musicals

6. Oklahoma

Okay so I know it says a top 5 list, but I hate this musical so much that I thought I'd extend the list just to add it. It's really not a bad musical at all, I just happen to hate it. Whether its that Southerner twang and locale, or the fact that it gets drooled all over upon as one the best Rodger's and Hammersteinn Musicals when it shouldn't even been in the same category as The Sound of Music and The King and I, I just can't stand it.

5. The Phantom of the Opera

Let me let you in on a little secret. I love Andrew Lloyd Webber (probably not a secret seeing how much I drool all over Jesus Christ Superstar), and I love The Phantom of the Opera, but lets be frank, it is completely and utterly overrated. The music is pretty much just OK (although a lot of it is really beautiful), most of it is overly simplistic, and in the true Webber fashion, terribly derivative (don't believe me? take a look at this). It's also dreadfully corny and predictable.

4. Annie

I guess my real question with Annie is, who actually cares? It's a feel good story about some bratty Orphan getting really lucky. The music is cutesy and stupid, and it's corny enough to make me spit (which is saying a lot, I love corny). Also, as a friend of mine pointed out, what the fuck kind of name is Daddy Warbucks?

3. Spring Awakening

If you really want a sense for why I think Spring Awakening isn't very good, take a read of the review I just posted. A lot people are calling it my generation's "Rent," and while I really enjoyed the show when I went with my '08 Urinetown cast, its really not nearly as good as Rent. It keeps getting thrown up in the Upper Class of rock musicals, and it just doesn't deserve to be there. The music is a unfortunate mix of some really fun songs and a lot of really really terrible songs, and who's really going to get excited about a romance involving someone named Wendla?

2. Singing in The Rain

Oh, Oh no! I'm treading on treacherous ground here! Singing in the Rain is a widely appreciated fan favorite, and seriously, who doesn't dance around rain flooded streets swinging their umbrella around while shouting, "I'mm siiiiinging in the rain!"? But truthfully, I've never liked this musical. It boring, overly cheerful, and relatively uneventful. Call me a square, an emo child or a manic depressive, but Singing in the Rain is not the masterpiece it is often made out to be. (On a completely different note, I quite love the song "Moses Supposes")

1. Cats

I dearly hope that none of you are surprised by Cats' showing on this list. I think someone once said that there are very few things in the world that could turn men off more than the musical Cats. But Seriously, its not just men. I can't think of a single human being wanting to see a bunch of other human beings running around on a stage dressed up as CATS. CATS. Really now. This what children's animated movies are for. People are not cats, they never will be and they never should be. Not to mention the music is really really really really bad. Like colossally bad.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 5 LIST: MOST UNDERRATED SHOWS

Tuesday: These Guys Deserve More Credit!

Note: These are not the most Unknown or least mainstream musicals or songs, but the most UNDERRATED songs and shows. So there are some really mainstream songs on here that just never quite get the credit they deserve. They are also not ranked by how good each song is, but by how Underrated that song is. So for instance I like Judas' Death more than Someone in a Tree, but Someone in a Tree is more severely under appreciated than Judas' death, so it is ranked higher on the list.

Top 5 Most Underrated Broadway Songs-

5. Sunrise, Sunset - Fiddler On The Roof

Sunrise, Sunset is one of the prettiest songs in Fiddler on the Roof, with gorgeous imagery and a strong emotive melodic line. Definitely one of the least recognized songs in the show, and definitely one of the best.

4. There's A Place For Us- West Side Story

Similar to Sunrise, Sunset, There's A Place for Us is one of the softer, slower songs in West Side Story, but lyrically and emotionally it is one of the most powerful. It speaks to the many themes in West Side Story and puts them all together in one beautiful and easily relatable song. not to mention it saved my ass in Music Theory Class, since I could always remember that the first two notes of the song were a minor 7th apart.

3. Judas' Death - Jesus Christ Superstar

Of all the songs in JCS, Judas' Death is the one song that manages to span the most emotional territory. It follows Judas through his anguish at having turned in Jesus up to his decision to kill himself. It solidifies Judas as a character that you can sympathize with just in time for him to kill himself. Possibly the most heartbreaking moment of the show is when a broken Judas reprises "I Don't Know How To Love Him" in the middle of this song. Since this song doesn't have the hooks of "Superstar" and doesn't have the original version of "I Don't Know How to Love Him," it almost never gets mentioned along with the best songs of the show, but it is clearly up there.

2. Someone In A Tree - Pacific Overatures

An absolutely lovely song from Pacific Overtures about "that guy" who happened to be eves dropping when something really big went down, and how important "that guy" can be. Much like the rest of this under the radar show, "Someone In A Tree" strikes the just the right balance between comedy, drama and meaningful commentary with just a sprinkle of sweet racism and stereotyping.

1. The Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins

The Ballad of Guiteau is probably the funniest, most entertaining and most frightening of all of the songs in Assassins, a musical full of songs written with the intent of scaring the crap out of you while making you fall out of your seat laughing. The Guiteau character is wonderfully eccentric, and his antics are in full display in this song, as he slowly makes his way to the Gallows, all the while trying to psych himself out by singing "I am going to the Lordy/I am so glad."

Top 5 Most Underrated Broadway Shows

5. Les Miserables

Okay so maybe Les Mis isn't classically underrated, and it certainly isn't unknown, but a Musical this good can never get enough praise, and I don't think enough people appreciate just how good Les Mis is. It is one of the greatest musicals of all time, and I get the feeling that it is almost never considered in that Upper Echelon. It Should Be.

4. Urinetown

Unlike Les Mis, Urinetown is not the best musical ever. In fact there are a lot of things I don't like about Urinetown, but after being in my High School's version of Urinetown, I have to say that there is a lot here. There is an almost astonishing abundance of great humor in the show, and I think that as far as comedies go, Urinetown should get a lot more recognition than it does.

3. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

AFTHOTWTTF (as I will now lovingly refer to it) is a truely top notch comedy that often seems to get overlooked in the scope of things. It's got that lovely Roman setting, a locale not often visited in musicals, it's got the absolutely irresistible Pseudolus character, and it has a bundle of terrific songs like "Comedy Tonight," and "Everybody Ought To Have Maid." AFTOTWTTF also kicks off what I would like to dub "The Lost Sondheim Trilogy" or "LST."

2. Pacific Overtures

Pacific Overtures is part two of the "Lost Sondheim Trilogy" and of the three, it is probably the least well known, and that's really a shame. It's a great show that continually strikes a great balance between humor and a serious, compelling story. Pacific Overtures remains dark and serious throughout while managing to constantly poke fun of itself and lighten the mood with Sondheim's great sense of irony and humor. It is a balanced and entertaining show, and it gives some really enlightening perspectives into the rarely discussed Westernization of Japan.

1. Assassins

If you can't tell by its placement on this list, I absolutely love Assassins (LST Part III). It is probably one the sickest, funniest, and darkest musicals out there, as it takes a sarcastic, ironic, and sympathetic look at the lives of the men and women who have tried to kill the President. You probably never thought that you'd feel sorry for John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald, but during Assassins, you will. The best part of Assassin though is the music and lyrics. I think that Assassins contains some of Sondheim's best Music, and the lyrics capture all of the eccentricities of each character while being bitingly sarcastic and clever. This show deserves to be considered alongside other Sondheim greats, like Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods, but due to it's controversiality and sickly humor, it always seems to fall by the wayside.

Album Review: Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening

Music by Duncan Sheik

7.0

Released 2006

Rubric:

Musicianship: 7

Musical Cohesiveness: 9

Song Structure: 7

Lyrics: 6

Emotional Energy: 7

Emotional Landscape: 7

Album Structure: 8

Production: 8

Variety: 5

Lasting Impression: 6

It can be very tricky thing to review a musical soundtrack, since the quality of a musical is dependent on the performance that you see. For all intensive purposes, each time I review a musical I will attempt to exclusively review the SOUNDTRACK as if it were simply a very detailed concept album (ala Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or Ayreon’s “Into the Electric Castle”), and not the musical as a whole as I saw it onstage. In the case of some Musical Reviews, I may not have seen a performance at all (for example, Next to Normal) but I will critique the soundtrack based on how good the music is, how good the story is (an important piece of creating a concept album) and how well the music conveys or compliments the story. Spring Awakening serves as a good example of show with a noticeable difference between the actual show and the soundtrack. As a performance, Spring Awakening is Lively, Raunchy, Inappropriate and Moving. As a soundtrack, Spring Awakening is Slow, Uninspiring and ultimately boring. That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about the music, it’s just that I came out of the listening experience feeling completely unfulfilled.

The highlights of Spring Awakening are actually very good, but the problem is they are very few and far between. The two best tracks are the most upbeat tracks on the album and incidentally the two tracks with expletives in the name, “The Bitch of Living” and “Totally Fucked.” In the scope of things “The Bitch of Living” comes in as an early attention getter, attempting to give energy and personality to the soundtrack and it’s characters, and it does a very good job of this, introducing a number of the characters and describing the trials and tribulations of being a 19th century teenager. It captures the energy and spirit of each individual character in a simple verse chorus verse structure in which each teenager takes a few lines to describe his situation and the cast joins together for the energy packed chorus, “It’s the bitch of living/bitch, just the bitch...” This song also showcases the show’s best lyrics, as the teenagers sing about frustration and masturbation clearly enough to make you laugh, but vaguely enough to make you think, “We’ll work that silver magic/then we’ll aim it at the wall” and “It’s the bitch of living/with nothing but your hand.” The other song, “Totally Fucked” is the perfect 11 o’clock number, as it packs in just the right amount of punch and excitement just as everything else in the show is getting darker and darker. The song is relatively simple, but it is undeniably catchy, and you will find yourself singing along every time you hear it, no matter how hard you might resist. If you are a big broadway fan, you really need these two songs in your collection. The third really good song on the album is “The Dark I Know Well,” a frightening and powerful look at the horror and the consequences of sexual abuse. A couple of other stand out moments are the melodies in “Mama Who Bore Me” and “Song of Purple Summer,” and Moritz’s two big numbers “...And Then There Were None” and “Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind” are solid tracks, but none of those tracks quite separate themselves enough from the pack to make up from mediocrity that is the rest of the soundtrack.

One of Spring Awakening’s weakest points is its lyrics. Throughout much of the show, the lyrics are too vague to really convey what needs to be shown in a musical. For example, in “Mama Who Bore Me,” Wendla sings “Mama the Weeping, Mama the Angels,” yet at no point in the rest of the album (or show for that matter) is there any mention of who is crying and why, and what role “the angels” play in the show, and to make matters worse, that song opens the show, and it seems to hint to something that has happened or something that will reappear later in the show, but there is clarification! I suppose you could make the argument that it is a type of foreshadowing, but since there is no other clear foreshadowing in the show, it seems either a weak argument or at least a poorly implemented convention. The lyrics also go downhill when the writer attempts to write “like a teenager,” and more often than not, these sections just end up sounding awkward and trite. In some cases, the lyrics are just flat out bad, such as “I go up to my room, turn the stereo on/shoot up some you and the you of some song.” First of all, I understand that Duncan Shiek is trying to Update the story to be more applicable to modern audiences, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there were no stereos in the 19th century. Second, the last half of that line makes absolutely no sense, and it sounds absolutely atrocious when sung.

While the Lyrics are certainly aggravating, the reason that the Spring Awakening soundtrack doesn’t work is much more complicated. On the most basic level, it has to do with an Issue of variety. Almost every track occupies the same emotional and musical plane, and almost all of those songs are slow and boring. Spring Awakening attempts to use the songs as something of an “inner monologue” for the characters in order to give the audience a feeling for what’s happening in the character’s minds, but the lack of variety limits the emotions that are being conveyed and that the listener experiences. If I knew anything about teenagers (which I do) I would point out that teenagers are prone to a wide range of emotions that could only begin to be described by a diverse set of of music, ranging from soft calm songs to crazy angry fast songs, with everything in between showcased as well. Spring Awakening is a set of incredibly boring and unmemorable slow, introspective songs, with a very very sparse sprinkling of emotionally potent songs. It would be one thing if every slow song was actually good (see Coldplay, Stars) but most of the songs on Spring Awakening are simply bad. Most songs in themselves are repetitive and there are very few memorable hooks. Spring Awakening is also completely lacking in licks and riffs. If you listen to the best rock musicals and the best rock music, each song is almost always propelled by a memorable lick or riff. On Jesus Christ Superstar, classic songs such as “Heaven on Their Minds” and “Superstar” start out with exciting and mood setting instrumental lines. Many songs in Rent also have great riffs, as the creepy intro to the title song, and the super 80’s riff of “Out Tonight,” serve as perfect examples of how to weave a memorable riff into a song to make it stand out. Spring Awakening never does this, and as a result, there are almost no songs that leave any kind of lasting impression.

On the whole, Spring Awakening is a very weak soundtrack, and given the current asking price for soundtracks, you are probably best off saving your money, and just grabbing the best songs (Totally Fucked, The Bitch of Living and The Dark I Know Well) because honestly those songs are awesome, but the rest of the album simply isn’t worth it.

BROADWAY WEEK TOP 10 LIST: COMEDIES

Disclaimer: All of the Musicals and songs that I will include on these lists are from shows that I have seen or for which I know the soundtrack very well. I will not put on musicals or songs that I do not know. This probably means that there will be some glaring omissions in these lists, but they are MY best of Lists, so that's what they will be. (Also, these are all based on the work of the musical, how good the score/story/dialogue is, and not on individual performances that I have or haven't seen)

Monday: Comedies

Note: For the purpose of this list, a "comedy" will be any funny (dark comedies included) or happy musical. Remember, in Shakespeare it was a comedy just as long as everybody got married at the end!

Top Ten Funniest Songs:

10. Please Hello - Pacific Overtures

9. Those Were the Good Old Days - Damn Yankees

8. Brush Up Your Shakespeare - Kiss Me Kate

7. Privilege to Pee - Urinetown

6. King Of Broadway- The Producers

5. Comedy Tonight - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

4. Everybody Ought To Have Maid- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

3. Everybody's Got the Right - Assassins

2. Agony - Into the Woods

1. Springtime For Hitler - The Producers

Top 10 Comedies

10. Urinetown

9. Spamalot

8. Pacific Overtures

7. Damn Yankees

6. Into The Woods

5. Kiss Me Kate

4. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum

3. Guys and Dolls

2. Assassins

1. The Producers

BROADWAY WEEK!

Welcome to Broadway Week, also know as the Week of Musicals! This week I will be attempting to review the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed new Musicals, "Spring Awakening" and "Next to Normal." Spring Awakening won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2007 and Next to Normal won for Best Original Score in 2009.

Watch as I tear them apart for this very exciting Edition of "Through the Wall"* reviews.

As Part of Broadway Week, I also will be running a series of "Best (or worst) of Lists" for Broadway Shows (with the aim of doing one each day for the next five days). In the Interest of suspense, I will present the lists in descending order, from number ten to number one.

*(If anyone has a better idea for a name for the blog, let me know!)

2009 Recommendations

Thought I might take a few moments to look back at the Music that's been released so far this year, and give my Recommendations for '09.

Buy These Now:

Crack the Skye - Mastodon

Mastodon has really outdone themselves with Crack the Skye, a Prog Metal masterpiece about an astral traveling quadriplegic, Rasputin and lots and lots of Acid. Crack the Skye has singlehandedly changed the way I listen to metal. If you do not have this album, you should go find it, right away.

Next to Normal - Written by Tom Kitt

I found out about Next to Normal when a friend of mine showed me the performance of "You Don't Know/I Am The One" at the Tony Awards and I was completely blown away. I had shivers down my back throughout the entire performance, and much to my surprise and excitement, the rest of the soundtrack was equally strong and moving. Next to Normal is the best Rock Musical since Rent, you really don't want to miss out on this one.

Worth Your Time:

The Exited Door - Kirk Hamilton

The Exited Door is possibly one of the most entertaining and creative albums of 09. Kirk Hamilton weaves intricate and appealing melodies together to create a wonderfully varied track list and brings each song to life with his legion of talented San Francisco musicians. Kirk utilizes strings, horns, guitars and keyboards to create what he calls "Diversely Orchestrated Pop." Whatever it is, it's awesome! Give This album a chance, you wont regret it.

21st Century Breakdown - Green Day

The sequel to American Idiot is about as ambitious as Green Day gets (which isn't really saying much, but oh well). It contains some of the best songs Green Day has ever written (see 21st Century Breakdown, Before the Lobotomy and 21 Guns), but it also has some songs that are upsettingly derivative, including a couple of songs that take direct melodic lines and structures from earlier Green Day songs.

Octahedron - The Mars Volta

Octahedron A fun, entertaining romp through the heads of Cedric and Omar, but it lacks the energy and punch of some of their earlier work. Somehow it's just not pretentious enough... (For more information read my full review of Octahedron)

Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater

Dream Theater remains constant with Black Clouds and Silver Linings, another strong Prog Rock release. Dream Theater is at their best when they embrace all of their Progressive Tendencies, but the music quickly gets dull when they start to forget that they aren't just a straight up Pop-Metal band. BC&SL also sometimes leans a little to heavily on Dream Theater's influences, particularly on "Best of Times," which at times feels like a direct copy of Rush's Spirit of the Radio. "Court Of Tuscany" is the album's best track, and fortunately, its AWESOME.

Consider It:

Swoon- The Silversun Pickups

Fuzz , Fuzz, Fuzz. That's what Swoon is. A whole lot of Fuzz. It's basically a Carbon Copy of the bands first album, Carnavas, so if you liked that album, you'll probably like Swoon, or maybe you'll just be annoyed at how little the band has grown over the last few years. The music's not bad, it just never surprises you or really gets into your head.

Don't Bother:

Metamorphosis- Papa Roach

Uhhh.... Papa Roach has never been a great band, but I really liked "Getting Away With Murder." Unfortunately, the band's music has been going downhill since then. "The Paramour Sessions" wasn't horrid, but it lost a lot of the edge and energy that made "Murder" so appealing. It seems that that energy has completely disappeared on Metamorphosis. And the Lyrics are atrocious.

The Lonely Road - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

To be honest I can't really say much about this album, since I turned it off after the four minutes and fifteen seconds of complete hell that was the song "Believe." It is without a doubt one of the worst songs I have ever heard in my life.

It's Blitz - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have never really captured my attention, but I always thought that they wrote decent songs. Unfortunately, This is not the case on It's Blitz. Each song on this album is a mess, as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs stray a bit to far into the Art Rock realm that they love so much, and they left the "rock music" part behind.

Stay Tuned:

Untitled - My Chemical Romance

If you were living under a rock in 2006, you might have missed My Chemical Romance's over the top Epic, "The Black Parade," but chances are you've probably heard of it, and probably have a very strong opinion about it. I happened to be in the "loved it" camp, but even if you don't like MCR, you have to admit, they write strong music, and they have improved drastically over each of their first Three Albums. They are apparently going back to their roots as a real "American Rock and Roll Band," and what they mean by that I don't think anyone really knows, but knowing MCR, it will probably be awesome.

Resistance - Muse

Its not a secret that Muse is a terrific band. Black Holes and Revelations was totally awesome and I don't really know many people that don't like their classics like "Time is Running Out" and "Plug in Baby." Chances are a new Muse album will not disappoint.

Beggars - Thrice

I really don't care what you say, Thrice Rocks. They have experimented with a whole range of musical genres, playing a lot of "Emo" Rock, sampling some prog, some metal, some electronic, but the really fun thing about Thrice is that they try something new with each album, and they always combine all of their influences to create something that sounds uniquely, Thrice. Beggars looks to be no different, you really don't want to miss this one. Not to mention, Thrice is a group of absolutely great, hard working guys who spend lots of time advocating different charities and helping others. They also do all of their own studio work. Thrice is a true creative band, doing exactly what they want to do.