"Let us live for the beauty of our own reality." - Charles Lamb. I don't know whether or not I agree with him.
You may remember that I wrote a review of All Caps' album Lowercase after it came out. Bmin/E is a bit older, but I've been listening to it a lot today and I'm kinda bored, so why not? CD reviews tend to bring me in a lot of views...haha.
All Caps is probably my favorite band, and Bmin/E is my favorite of their albums.
Track 1: "World of Warcraft Ruined My Life"
You may remember from the Lowercase review that I greatly prefer this electronic version to the acoustic one. There's anger! There's passion! There's WoW references that date back to when I used to play it! Tidbit: Kristina began to play WoW just days after they filmed the music video for this song.
Track 2: "Don't Unplug Me"
"Don't Unplug Me" is probably their most popular song. It details the heart-breaking story of a robotic couple whose male half stops loving his girlfriend after getting the "upgrade to version 2," saying "What is a hug? That does not compute." It is most famous for the super-epic performance at Vidcon 2010. I like the acoustic version's music video better, but in terms of the music, I again prefer the electronic one.
Track 3: "Lumos Flies"
"Lumos Flies" is a parody of "Fireflies" by Owl City about Ron and Hermione at the Yule Ball. I'm most impressed with the lyrics on this one. It's more difficult to work with a song that's not yours, and they did a great job adapting it to Harry Potter while still retaining some of the same phrases as the original. That's the best kind of parody, I think: one that closely mirrors its parent.
Track 4: "You Kissed Me At The Dundies"
I never watched The Office, so this is one of my least favorite tracks of the album just because I don't understand the references. I assume that if you have watched the show, then you'll like it.
Track 5: "Hey Kristina"
This is the kind of song that lonely nerdfighter girls listen to when they wish they had a super-awesome boyfriend. Or when they're just lonely and wouldn't mind if the person to break their loneliness happened to be a super-awesome boyfriend. Our narrator likes "this nerdy girl who does nerdy things, who likes John Green and goes to book signings." If that applies to you, you will love the song. Replace "Kristina" with your own name. Problem solved. ;) There's also references to Twilight, Renaissance Faires, lots of social media sites, FiveAwesomeGirls...
Track 6: "Can't"
"Can't" was originally written by Alan Lastufka and Tom Milsom for their album Taking Leave, so it's a bit different from the average All Caps fare. It's not the song I pick to listen to, but if it comes up in Shuffle mode, I won't skip over it. And I skip over a lot of the stuff on my iPod, so even that is a compliment.
Track 7: "Summer of '09"
Dance. Party. Originally written by Alan Lastufka for Erase This, but given to All Caps because it a) didn't fit the album and b) did fit them. I love it. This is the one I choose to listen to.
Track 8: "Happy"
This is the only song on the album that I do skip over. I'm just not really sure what it's about. When juxtaposed with "Delete You," it makes more sense, but I would have swapped the two in the track listing, in that case. Don't worry, All Caps: I still love you.
Track 9: "Delete You"
This is the angry break-up song of the century. Kristina did an amazing job with her vocals. It's not just the lyrics that are filled with passion and hurt; you can hear it. If you listen very carefully towards the end, you can hear the chorus from "Happy."
Track 10: "Your Song"
See my commentary for "Hey Kristina," without the specific Kristina-related references. The music video for this is really good, and it's a very sweet song.
Track 11: "The NaNoWriMo Song"
I must have listened to this at least 50 times during November of 2009, and it is my inspiration for creating "The Phantom of November." I'm so glad that they portray 30k-40k has the hardest part, because it is, and the Office of Letters and Light calls it "The Place Where Everything Gets Much Easier." Yeah right.
Track 12: "Christmas Wish"
See what I said for tracks 5 and 10. What heterosexual girl doesn't want a boy who will stop playing video games for her? (Actually, I would prefer to play said video games with him...but that's beside the point. It's romantic.)
My favorite album at the moment! I haven't really heard much of ALL CAPS except these songs actually, but I listen to most of them quite frequently. Comments numbered by track:
ReplyDelete2) So much win! One of my favorite songs at the moment.
3) Only sad that lumos flies really were not important in the song.
4) I also think this is lackluster, and I watched up to a season or two ago in the Office. It is a fun, upbeat song, but nothing much really happening here for me.
5) I shouldn't speak for all those with a why? chromasome, but it makes me go, "awww," too. Reminds me of a song by someone I went to undergrad with Knight in Nerdy Armor the acoustics are not great in the room, and the guitar sort of drowns out the vocals, but fun song.
6) I really love the original version of Can't, but this cover is pretty good. What I really want is something in the style of the original that is as long as the ALL CAPS cover, just not enough of the original.
7) Another great song for lonely nerdfighters. Makes me think of a Paper Towns that turns out happy, which means that John Green probably doesn't write it ;) .
10) A bit saccharine for me.
12) Again, "awww!"
I think that 4, 8-11 are decent songs, but look a bit lacking in comparison with wonderful songs like 1, 2, 5-7, and 12!
This album, I think, is the best they have. The other stuff is good too, though.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on 7 made me laugh.
ok so, let me say that this isn't my type of music normally. I like all kinds but normally I would not put on dance pop that is not Lady Gaga.
ReplyDeleteBut I read your review and went to groveshark to listen to it. I listened to World of Warcrft ruined my life and....did not like it.
So I come over to your blog here it raze the earth and then Nanowrimo song comes on. Aside from being about something awesome it has clever lyrics and, surprisingly, really really nice melodies.
Then I turn on Hey Kristina and it is really nice and sweet. And then, just as I was writing the above line, I heard a reference to gmail chat which I use. A nice, clever, happy song.
Being an angry song sort of guy, I turn on Delete You. You calling it the angry breakup song of the century made me very suspicious. There are a lot of really really good angry breakup songs. And while Delete You is not the greatest it is very good.
Next up was Lumos Flies. I am not a fan of fireflies(I was once but then my brother started to like it and I saw how truly awful it was) but it is a clever parody.
Summer of 09 actually works as a song. I mean, in the begging I was put off by the, for lack of a better word, jokiness of ALL CAPS. They are electro pop and sing about Nanowrimo. Come on! But actually a lot of their songs work as songs. Not all, but some. In my opinion, they would be better if they stopped with the corniness and actually focused on the songs. Because they have talent and passion and it breaks through often. But not all the time.
They have been added to my endless playlist.
They make their money through corny, for one thing.
ReplyDeleteYou being the most musically-selective person I know, I'm glad you like them.
Great review! About "Happy". the reason it doesn't really fit with the other songs it's because it's much older. I couldn't find the post in MOM's myspace where Lke first posted it, but here's what he says on the youtube video:
ReplyDelete"I was driven to write a song about the most painful break up I've ever been through. This happened last summer. My ex suddenly decided she needed a shallow lifestyle pursuing men that own yachts and riches over the love I was offering her.
I'm completely serious. It was emotionally traumatizing. If you've ever been hurt in a relationship, this one is for you."