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SGR · 08-19-2022, 07:38 PM

Neverending White Lights - Act II: The Blood and the Life Eternal

Starts off kinda like Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness with a piano ballad - is the main guy in this group a Pumpkins fan? I bet he is.

And then we get to the uh….rocking, I guess? What’s the word when you’re playing guitar but it’s really depressing and not heavy? Eh, whatever. And the singing, sometimes crooning, sometimes love stricken, sometimes bereft of feeling. Sometimes it passes you by, sometimes the song begins and ends in the blink of an eye. Other times, you, like the singer, would rather die. And….where was I….?

Well how about the lyrics?

Love can save a thousand lives
Joy in a world that sweetly cries
For every violent moment it has become
The cure will come, thy will be done
Well its only lonely soul I'm after
The heart is dark but the world is darker

Er…yeah. Not big on this. This kind of sounds like the poetry I wrote when I was a depressed middle school kid. Man, was my poetry deep…

You get some synth sparkles and strings every now and then, like “My Life Without Me”. Synth sparkles….sparkles…what sparkles…? Vampires!? Well they didn’t used to sparkle, but in more recent times they have, primarily in Twilight, the famous book series by Stephenie Meyer. Why do I bring that up? Well, I can’t get that book cover out of my head when I look at this album cover - very similar - I wonder if there was some visual inspiration here, perchance?

Let’s ignore that aside, I suppose.

And then there’s Miss World…Miss World? A Hole cover?! No way…..oh….uhhh yes. So yeah, it’s basically a Hole song without the punch or the attitude. Too quiet, too forgettable, too “background music”. It’s too bad, because the original is a pretty good song. And uh, not to be controversial or anything, but the song isn’t the same when it’s a dude singing “I am the girl…”, I mean, Morrissey this lead singer is not.

Man, this album goes on for a long time. When I heard the first track, and thought of Mellon Collie, I kinda expected to get a similarly colorful soundscape but that really isn’t the case here. It essentially drifts between two tightly knit poles - inoffensive soft rock, and inoffensive soft rock with synths sprinkled on top, all of which sound depressed and detached - songs that rarely ever go anywhere, rarely ever bring you somewhere interesting. There’s no payoff here. It may start off like Mellon Collie, but it plays out more like Adore.

“Always” is okay I suppose, sounding like a weird crossover between mid ‘90s Foo Fighters and mid ‘00s Interpol. At the least, when the percussion picks up pace and the singer starts to get a little more energetic, it sounds like they’re trying to bring you somewhere. There’s some feeling in this song. Again though, by the end, it feels like it’s missing a closing act.

Where is love
Babe I hope it's where we are

Come on now…this qualifies as a chorus? Really?! I’d happily get drunk and belt out the choruses to Whitesnake...but not this…not this.

“Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart” is the first song, at least that I’ve noticed thus far, that features a female vocalist. Her voice sounds nice against the sparse piano led instrumental. Much better than the “Where Is loooooove” guy at least. Her voice is contrasted by a different male vocalist - some vocal contrast and interplay, sweet! Does it go anywhere instrumentally? Sorta, but not really.

“Bleeds to an End”? Yeah, more slow singing, more turgid, quiet, slow rock that doesn’t go anywhere worthwhile. There’s lots of interspersed spacey emotional “oooooh wooooooooooooh ooooooooh wooooooh”s though….very deliberate, very flat. It’s the kinda noises you’d make if you were suddenly a reawakened zombie who’s been doused in copious amounts of NyQuil and then thrown on roller coaster filled with loop de loops with the safety bar tightly applied.

Take all my strength
For this heart you’re to blame
Don’t you wait until it all bleeds to an end
Bleeds to an end

Are we gonna slit our wrists here and get this over with or what? Oh wait, never mind, four more tracks left.

There’s a perfect body in a perfect place
When it falls to pieces its nothing I can save

I was a witness, to your secrets
But something happens, something happened

I know I know you can
I know I know you can keep me here in darkness
Keep me here in darkness now

Another reason for me to forget your words
Baby it’s not me who hurts but that was what you said

Tell your secrets
Can you tell your secrets?

I know I know you can
I know I know you can keep me here in darkness
God knows where my heart lives now

You walk a straight line
You get it right on your first try
You get hurt but you don’t cry

I’m refilling my glass with bourbon now. There, I told you my secret. Okay…next track.

“Distance” - same ol’ same ol’. Next track.

“Last of the Great Lovers” - begins with the piano again, then some synth strings. Soft singing. If you could agree, everything’s over for us now. I couldn’t take…I couldn’t take…everything’s over for us now….but there’s one more track. This one at least has some rising synth strings and eventually the song kinda explodes a bit, and by explode, I mean sorta like a teapot that starts whistling - it explodes relative to the standard calm this album has established. So we got another track that at least tries to take us somewhere. To that end, I won’t ruin the experience here by looking at the lyrics.

Okay last track - and…almost 8 MINUTES LONG?! Oh jeez. Oh brother. This better be worth it. If the rest of the album is any indication, it won’t be. “Warding Off the Spirits” eh? Spirits have gotten me this far, I won’t be warding them off now thank you very much. Once again, we begin with the soft piano, and here comes the muted vocals. Two minutes in, we start to hear some guitar, the track changes a bit. Some nice reverb. That bass comes in right on time. And then the rest of the track is supposed to be the crescendo I guess. But the vocalist is so flat it just comes off as disappointing. Damn. Well, that’s that.

Yeah, I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t into this. Listening to this album felt like gliding from a giant flower petal into the spiky underbrush, but you never quite get caught, you just keep falling and getting scratched up. Just when you think something is going to pay off, the song turns its ass around and moons you for your naïveté. You go to slap it, but then it proceeds to quickly turn around, pull up trouser, and tell you that we’re all in darkness and nothing can be saved anyway. It doesn’t matter how many times it shows you its ass, it’s all for naught. It has all the thrills of a typical metro ride in the stinkiest subway in the early morning when you haven’t had your coffee yet but your stomach is still trilling from your overconsumption of booze the previous night and you don’t know whether or not you’ll make it to the next stop before you involuntarily **** your pants. It’s got all the charm of discussing contemporary politics with your mother in law. It has the self-reflective abilities of your average Stokerian vampire. Its like combining Kenny G, Coldplay, and your average emo band that plays at your local bar, adopting the worst aspects of each.

Still…there’s a couple tracks here that almost manage to be interesting or memorable. But the fact that it goes on for over 70 minutes is practically a crime against humanity and its collective eardrums. I guess the mix is okay, the sound doesn’t seem terrible on a technical level. But perhaps, the fact that it goes on for this long and hardly does anything interesting is perhaps an indictment of humanity rather than a crime against it.

So I tell myself
I only wished us well
Life is all we know
But somehow not for sure

2.5/10

08-19-2022, 07:38 PM	#459 (permalink)
SGR No Ice In My Bourbon Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: /dev/null Posts: 4,327	Neverending White Lights - Act II: The Blood and the Life Eternal Starts off kinda like Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness with a piano ballad - is the main guy in this group a Pumpkins fan? I bet he is. And then we get to the uh….rocking, I guess? What’s the word when you’re playing guitar but it’s really depressing and not heavy? Eh, whatever. And the singing, sometimes crooning, sometimes love stricken, sometimes bereft of feeling. Sometimes it passes you by, sometimes the song begins and ends in the blink of an eye. Other times, you, like the singer, would rather die. And….where was I….? Well how about the lyrics? Love can save a thousand lives Joy in a world that sweetly cries For every violent moment it has become The cure will come, thy will be done Well its only lonely soul I'm after The heart is dark but the world is darker Er…yeah. Not big on this. This kind of sounds like the poetry I wrote when I was a depressed middle school kid. Man, was my poetry deep… You get some synth sparkles and strings every now and then, like “My Life Without Me”. Synth sparkles….sparkles…what sparkles…? Vampires!? Well they didn’t used to sparkle, but in more recent times they have, primarily in Twilight, the famous book series by Stephenie Meyer. Why do I bring that up? Well, I can’t get that book cover out of my head when I look at this album cover - very similar - I wonder if there was some visual inspiration here, perchance? Let’s ignore that aside, I suppose. And then there’s Miss World…Miss World? A Hole cover?! No way…..oh….uhhh yes. So yeah, it’s basically a Hole song without the punch or the attitude. Too quiet, too forgettable, too “background music”. It’s too bad, because the original is a pretty good song. And uh, not to be controversial or anything, but the song isn’t the same when it’s a dude singing “I am the girl…”, I mean, Morrissey this lead singer is not. Man, this album goes on for a long time. When I heard the first track, and thought of Mellon Collie, I kinda expected to get a similarly colorful soundscape but that really isn’t the case here. It essentially drifts between two tightly knit poles - inoffensive soft rock, and inoffensive soft rock with synths sprinkled on top, all of which sound depressed and detached - songs that rarely ever go anywhere, rarely ever bring you somewhere interesting. There’s no payoff here. It may start off like Mellon Collie, but it plays out more like Adore. “Always” is okay I suppose, sounding like a weird crossover between mid ‘90s Foo Fighters and mid ‘00s Interpol. At the least, when the percussion picks up pace and the singer starts to get a little more energetic, it sounds like they’re trying to bring you somewhere. There’s some feeling in this song. Again though, by the end, it feels like it’s missing a closing act. Where is love Babe I hope it's where we are Come on now…this qualifies as a chorus? Really?! I’d happily get drunk and belt out the choruses to Whitesnake...but not this…not this. “Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart” is the first song, at least that I’ve noticed thus far, that features a female vocalist. Her voice sounds nice against the sparse piano led instrumental. Much better than the “Where Is loooooove” guy at least. Her voice is contrasted by a different male vocalist - some vocal contrast and interplay, sweet! Does it go anywhere instrumentally? Sorta, but not really. “Bleeds to an End”? Yeah, more slow singing, more turgid, quiet, slow rock that doesn’t go anywhere worthwhile. There’s lots of interspersed spacey emotional “oooooh wooooooooooooh ooooooooh wooooooh”s though….very deliberate, very flat. It’s the kinda noises you’d make if you were suddenly a reawakened zombie who’s been doused in copious amounts of NyQuil and then thrown on roller coaster filled with loop de loops with the safety bar tightly applied. Take all my strength For this heart you’re to blame Don’t you wait until it all bleeds to an end Bleeds to an end Are we gonna slit our wrists here and get this over with or what? Oh wait, never mind, four more tracks left. There’s a perfect body in a perfect place When it falls to pieces its nothing I can save I was a witness, to your secrets But something happens, something happened I know I know you can I know I know you can keep me here in darkness Keep me here in darkness now Another reason for me to forget your words Baby it’s not me who hurts but that was what you said Tell your secrets Can you tell your secrets? I know I know you can I know I know you can keep me here in darkness God knows where my heart lives now You walk a straight line You get it right on your first try You get hurt but you don’t cry I’m refilling my glass with bourbon now. There, I told you my secret. Okay…next track. “Distance” - same ol’ same ol’. Next track. “Last of the Great Lovers” - begins with the piano again, then some synth strings. Soft singing. If you could agree, everything’s over for us now. I couldn’t take…I couldn’t take…everything’s over for us now….but there’s one more track. This one at least has some rising synth strings and eventually the song kinda explodes a bit, and by explode, I mean sorta like a teapot that starts whistling - it explodes relative to the standard calm this album has established. So we got another track that at least tries to take us somewhere. To that end, I won’t ruin the experience here by looking at the lyrics. Okay last track - and…almost 8 MINUTES LONG?! Oh jeez. Oh brother. This better be worth it. If the rest of the album is any indication, it won’t be. “Warding Off the Spirits” eh? Spirits have gotten me this far, I won’t be warding them off now thank you very much. Once again, we begin with the soft piano, and here comes the muted vocals. Two minutes in, we start to hear some guitar, the track changes a bit. Some nice reverb. That bass comes in right on time. And then the rest of the track is supposed to be the crescendo I guess. But the vocalist is so flat it just comes off as disappointing. Damn. Well, that’s that. Yeah, I don’t know what to say. I wasn’t into this. Listening to this album felt like gliding from a giant flower petal into the spiky underbrush, but you never quite get caught, you just keep falling and getting scratched up. Just when you think something is going to pay off, the song turns its ass around and moons you for your naïveté. You go to slap it, but then it proceeds to quickly turn around, pull up trouser, and tell you that we’re all in darkness and nothing can be saved anyway. It doesn’t matter how many times it shows you its ass, it’s all for naught. It has all the thrills of a typical metro ride in the stinkiest subway in the early morning when you haven’t had your coffee yet but your stomach is still trilling from your overconsumption of booze the previous night and you don’t know whether or not you’ll make it to the next stop before you involuntarily ** your pants. It’s got all the charm of discussing contemporary politics with your mother in law. It has the self-reflective abilities of your average Stokerian vampire. Its like combining Kenny G, Coldplay, and your average emo band that plays at your local bar, adopting the worst aspects of each. Still…there’s a couple tracks here that almost manage to be interesting or memorable. But the fact that it goes on for over 70 minutes is practically a crime against humanity and its collective eardrums. I guess the mix is okay, the sound doesn’t seem terrible on a technical level. But perhaps, the fact that it goes on for this long and hardly does anything interesting is perhaps an indictment of humanity rather than a crime against it. So I tell myself I only wished us well Life is all we know But somehow not for sure 2.5/10** Last edited by SGR; 08-19-2022 at 07:51 PM.