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.