Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 08-13-2012, 01:04 PM

Decent effort from Irish rock band

Artiste: Bell X1
Nationality: Irish
Album: Music in mouth
Year: 2003
Label: Universal Island
Genre: Rock
Tracks:
Snakes and snakes
Alphabet soup
Daybreak
Eve, the apple of my eye
Next to you
West of her spine
Bound for Boston Hill
Tongue
White water song
In every sunflower
I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine
Chronological position: Second album
Familiarity: “Bloodless coup”
Interesting factoid: Although this album didn't quite break Bell X-1 commercially, it did get them noticed outside of Ireland when one of the tracks featured on the TV series “The O.C”
Initial impression: The production on this album is woeful!
Best track(s): Eve, the apple of my eye, In every sunflower, I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine
Worst track(s): Although some of the tracks are not great, I can't in fairness paint any of them as bad.
Comments: Again I fall foul of not paying enough attention to my native music. I reviewed Bell X1's most recent album, “Bloodless coup”, back at the end of last year and was quite impressed with it. It did in fact win a Polly award (see my main journal) for one of the tracks, but other than that album I really don't know any of the music from this Dublin band, so in an attempt to redress this I'm giving this one a shot. The first thing I have to say is that I thought the opener, Snakes and snakes, was an instrumental, but find this is either down to woeful production, where the guitar is so loud and overpowering that the vocals can't be heard, in fact you barely realise they're there at all, or the singer can't sing. I know the latter not to be the case, unless he's vastly improved his ability on "Bloodless coup", so maybe this is an intentional thing; I guess we'll find out as the album goes on.

Actually, about thirty seconds before the end, the vocals come in strongly, and it is a good song, but you have to wonder at the production values? Even if it was meant to sound like that, why? The next song seems to have very muddy vocals too, so is this going to continue? Yeah, “Daybreak” is the same: vocals so distant it's like they're being sung hundreds of yards away. That said, the guitar work on this track is lovely, but with rubbish production like this (unless I've got hold of a bad copy: and why then would only the vocals be hard to hear? It's not like it's muffled, just seems so far down in the mix it's almost buried) it's difficult to critique a track which is not supposed to be an instrumental, but comes across almost as one.

Note: Okay, the mystery is solved. Seems it's my amp which after my computer had to be disassembled earlier today has decided to throw all the treble into the left speaker and bass into the right, so with the balance in the middle, where it usually is, I'm getting little of either. Let's reset the knob and see how we go again, back from the start. I'm not erasing the above, to remind myself not to be such a dickhead in future. Probably won't work though...

So, back we go. Bearing the rant I had at the beginning, Snakes and snakes now comes across as a much more powerful song, and yes, the guitar is sharp and loud, but now that I've sorted my amp it doesn't drown out the vocals, far from it. God I'm an idiot! Ah-ah-annnnyway... the track that got them noticed via the series “The O.C”, a lovely piano ballad called Eve, the apple of my eye is indeed a worthy song by which to announce your presence to the world, and I can see why it raised some eyebrows. Definitely indications of what was to come. Some lovely Nick Cave-style Fender Rhodes, I think.

There's a certain sense of folk or bluegrass about West of her spine, and a deep, lazy, almost Waitsesque quality to Bound for Boston Hill, with some nice slide guitar, while Tongue comes across with a very Zep vibe. As we head towards the last third of the album I have to say it's a decent rock effort, but I don't see anything too fantastic about it. I'd probably listen to it again, but unless something really good happens in the next three tracks, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry.

Well, White water song is almost heavy metal, frenetic and close to dissonant at times, but with a good strong vocal, then Bell X1 slow everything down with what sounds like an accordion melody line to take us into In every sunflower --- actually, it could be oileann pipes or something similar. Course, it could also be a sound programmed into a synth, but it sounds quite organic and is pretty effective. It's a nice song, as is the closer, the cleverly-titled I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine.

A good, solid album with some great tracks, certainly, but nothing that makes me jump up and shout “Go buy this album now!” Though if you do, you'll probably not be disappointed.
Overall impression: Good album, not a great album.
Intention: Maybe check out another of theirs.

08-13-2012, 01:04 PM	#48 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Decent effort from Irish rock band Artiste: Bell X1 Nationality: Irish Album: Music in mouth Year: 2003 Label: Universal Island Genre: Rock Tracks: Snakes and snakes Alphabet soup Daybreak Eve, the apple of my eye Next to you West of her spine Bound for Boston Hill Tongue White water song In every sunflower I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine Chronological position: Second album Familiarity: “Bloodless coup” Interesting factoid: Although this album didn't quite break Bell X-1 commercially, it did get them noticed outside of Ireland when one of the tracks featured on the TV series “The O.C” Initial impression: The production on this album is woeful! Best track(s): Eve, the apple of my eye, In every sunflower, I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine Worst track(s): Although some of the tracks are not great, I can't in fairness paint any of them as bad. Comments: Again I fall foul of not paying enough attention to my native music. I reviewed Bell X1's most recent album, “Bloodless coup”, back at the end of last year and was quite impressed with it. It did in fact win a Polly award (see my main journal) for one of the tracks, but other than that album I really don't know any of the music from this Dublin band, so in an attempt to redress this I'm giving this one a shot. The first thing I have to say is that I thought the opener, Snakes and snakes, was an instrumental, but find this is either down to woeful production, where the guitar is so loud and overpowering that the vocals can't be heard, in fact you barely realise they're there at all, or the singer can't sing. I know the latter not to be the case, unless he's vastly improved his ability on "Bloodless coup", so maybe this is an intentional thing; I guess we'll find out as the album goes on. Actually, about thirty seconds before the end, the vocals come in strongly, and it is a good song, but you have to wonder at the production values? Even if it was meant to sound like that, why? The next song seems to have very muddy vocals too, so is this going to continue? Yeah, “Daybreak” is the same: vocals so distant it's like they're being sung hundreds of yards away. That said, the guitar work on this track is lovely, but with rubbish production like this (unless I've got hold of a bad copy: and why then would only the vocals be hard to hear? It's not like it's muffled, just seems so far down in the mix it's almost buried) it's difficult to critique a track which is not supposed to be an instrumental, but comes across almost as one. Note: Okay, the mystery is solved. Seems it's my amp which after my computer had to be disassembled earlier today has decided to throw all the treble into the left speaker and bass into the right, so with the balance in the middle, where it usually is, I'm getting little of either. Let's reset the knob and see how we go again, back from the start. I'm not erasing the above, to remind myself not to be such a dickhead in future. Probably won't work though... So, back we go. Bearing the rant I had at the beginning, Snakes and snakes now comes across as a much more powerful song, and yes, the guitar is sharp and loud, but now that I've sorted my amp it doesn't drown out the vocals, far from it. God I'm an idiot! Ah-ah-annnnyway... the track that got them noticed via the series “The O.C”, a lovely piano ballad called Eve, the apple of my eye is indeed a worthy song by which to announce your presence to the world, and I can see why it raised some eyebrows. Definitely indications of what was to come. Some lovely Nick Cave-style Fender Rhodes, I think. There's a certain sense of folk or bluegrass about West of her spine, and a deep, lazy, almost Waitsesque quality to Bound for Boston Hill, with some nice slide guitar, while Tongue comes across with a very Zep vibe. As we head towards the last third of the album I have to say it's a decent rock effort, but I don't see anything too fantastic about it. I'd probably listen to it again, but unless something really good happens in the next three tracks, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry. Well, White water song is almost heavy metal, frenetic and close to dissonant at times, but with a good strong vocal, then Bell X1 slow everything down with what sounds like an accordion melody line to take us into In every sunflower --- actually, it could be oileann pipes or something similar. Course, it could also be a sound programmed into a synth, but it sounds quite organic and is pretty effective. It's a nice song, as is the closer, the cleverly-titled I'll see your heart and I'll raise you mine. A good, solid album with some great tracks, certainly, but nothing that makes me jump up and shout “Go buy this album now!” Though if you do, you'll probably not be disappointed. Overall impression: Good album, not a great album. Intention: Maybe check out another of theirs. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 05:38 AM.