Re: The ToonForum Album Club
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 6:55 pm
Abdominal and the Obliques - Sitting Music
A cool, lazy, who-cares sort of style and musicianship with tight vocals and amusing lyrics. An aptronymous album if there ever was one. Sock Hop probably was the best track on offer, the little guitar hook was sweet and the whole piece seemed a good summation of the album's intentions. Others weren't so good. Courage, for instance, was a bit erk. Even when done ironically that sort of thing is difficult to not cringe at.
I didn't think I was going to enjoy his vocals after Inoutro and Broken, but actually they turned out pretty enjoyable. During the first of the two shorter tracks he flipped into Spanish seamlessly which was nod-grin-worthy, then the second was (as far as I recall) entirely a cappella which sounded cool and deserves a clap. His singing voice wasn't so bad either, so it was nice to hear more made use of it as the album drove on. I didn't end up loving his voice, but I can't imagine any other style achieving what he set out to achieve, so it works and ought not to change.
Also obviously after my last review I can't avoid nodding at the use of a nicely toned Hammond on Hot Cross Buns (though I think it may actually have been the GarageBand Hammond sound - willing to be disproven and who cares really, it sounded nice), which was probably the next best track after Sock Hop, even if it was a bit rambly in both melody and lyric.
Overall it's an album with focus, with one idea. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, indeed it had personality, but it did mean a sort of redundancy had long taken hold by the time the record had ended. I probably won't remember much about it and that doesn't strike me as a particularly sad thing. Sixty per cent, three out of five golden stars.
A cool, lazy, who-cares sort of style and musicianship with tight vocals and amusing lyrics. An aptronymous album if there ever was one. Sock Hop probably was the best track on offer, the little guitar hook was sweet and the whole piece seemed a good summation of the album's intentions. Others weren't so good. Courage, for instance, was a bit erk. Even when done ironically that sort of thing is difficult to not cringe at.
I didn't think I was going to enjoy his vocals after Inoutro and Broken, but actually they turned out pretty enjoyable. During the first of the two shorter tracks he flipped into Spanish seamlessly which was nod-grin-worthy, then the second was (as far as I recall) entirely a cappella which sounded cool and deserves a clap. His singing voice wasn't so bad either, so it was nice to hear more made use of it as the album drove on. I didn't end up loving his voice, but I can't imagine any other style achieving what he set out to achieve, so it works and ought not to change.
Also obviously after my last review I can't avoid nodding at the use of a nicely toned Hammond on Hot Cross Buns (though I think it may actually have been the GarageBand Hammond sound - willing to be disproven and who cares really, it sounded nice), which was probably the next best track after Sock Hop, even if it was a bit rambly in both melody and lyric.
Overall it's an album with focus, with one idea. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, indeed it had personality, but it did mean a sort of redundancy had long taken hold by the time the record had ended. I probably won't remember much about it and that doesn't strike me as a particularly sad thing. Sixty per cent, three out of five golden stars.
Wasn't keen on the first few songs but gradually got better and it was actually quite enjoyable overall. I got a bit bored during some of the longer songs though, especially Courage. The song Breathe Deep had a slightly similar idea to Courage but was far superior in my opinion. The short and sweet songs were all pretty decent as well.
Although I must admit that I enjoyed A Brief History of the Chicken Wing a bit more than I should have (even though it made me crave chicken wings 
)!
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