Review of: ‘Dan + Shay’ by Dan + Shay

After two surprisingly good album’s, I was looking forward to the new self titled album by pop country duo Dan + Shay. In the tide of pop / bro country stars that took hold of the genre when it caught on, Dan + Shay was among the better ones, capable of combining accessible pop country hooks, rich and textured country instrumentation, and also occasionally injecting some true drama into their lyrics. Talented songwriters were rare indeed during the bro country boom when the duo rose to attention after a few singles.

I hadn’t heard an awful lot of songs teasing this upcoming album, but I was still rooted for these guys. All I was truly hoping for was that the production played to their strengths, and the rest would follow. Did it happen?

Well, yes and no. I’ll put it this way. Dan + Shay’s self titled album is by far their least dramatic, least instrumentally diverse and rich, and, overall, a rather boring affair. Undoubtedly a disappointment, and the fact that there was potential in this album makes the entire album even more disappointing. A key issue is the inconsistencies in the production. Most of the time it is utterly dry and flavourless, similar to the worst songs of their previous album ‘Obsessed’: far too stiff, not enough melody. What happened to the endlessly sticky hooks? They seem to have been replaced by flat, basic melodies far too simple to be remotely memorable courtesy of the guitars. It’s only when the darker, misty piano’s pick up a bit of texture in the mix do the songs start building some pathos. Both the organic texture that builds up on ‘Tequila’ and the explosive hook that builds some pathos on ‘Keeping Score’, a track where Kelly Clarkson turns up and has surprisingly good chemistry with Shay Mooney. Among the highlights is the quieter ‘My Side Of The Fence’ as well as the opener ‘Alone Together’. While both of these tracks lacks on drama, the do flex the duo’s storytelling skills nevertheless, even if they’re both underwhelming written.

It’s not the only bad song on the album, though. The lumbering, choppy cadence of the pandering ‘What Keeps You Up At Night’ and the utterly forgettable ‘Speechless’ both mark low points that male up a a compromised album.

On the other side of this album you get a song like ‘No Such Thing’ where I swear the production team sneaked in some thin, rattling, clearly programmed high hats right at the back of the mix on the hook that seem to contradict with Dan + Shay’s entire appeal. Furthermore, a popular pop country band does not need to pander to the trap trend. Luckily, this is just the one song.

But what about the songwriting? I’ve already discussed ‘Alone Together’ and ‘My Side Of The Fence’ being agreeable if undramatic, and the unfortunate truth is that most of the album fits into this category. A few songs do hit the mark. In terms of capturing the moment when the memory of an ex comes flooding back to you, you could do a lot worse than ‘Tequila’. Same with ‘Keeping Score’ where I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to focus on the present and not the future in the context of a relationship. Other than that, ‘Speechless’ is an utterly pointless boring love song, ‘Island Time’ is a dull closer, ‘Make Me, Break Me’ tries to show the protagonist in the midst of an unhealthy relationship that you wonder why he doesn’t just end, and ‘What Keeps You Up At Night’ and ‘No Such Thing’ might be the most pathetic attempts at pandering I’ve heard by this band, with the latter song including the line ‘There’s no such thing as too much money / ‘Cause if I had it all, I would spend it on you, honey’.

Overall, this album is not unbearable. It’s pleasant (barely) but you could do so much better than this album in pop country (either of the band’s previous albums for instance). It’s an extremely light 2.5 / 5You could probably get away with skipping it.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Best Songs: ‘Tequila’, ‘Keeping Score’, ‘Alone Together’

Worst Songs: ‘No Such Thing’, ‘What Keeps You Up At Night’

Review of: ‘Pray For The Wicked’ by Panic! At The Disco

To say I was looking forward to this album would be overstating it. Brendon Urie’s last album ‘Death Of A Bachelor’ being only passable did not help, but I did like ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night)’, the lead single for this new album, so maybe Brendon would be able to salvage something from this?

Unfortunately, he really didn’t. ‘Pray For The Wicked’ is a total mess from start to finish, an album that could have easily turned out catastrophically awful, but thanks to Brendon Urie’s ability to command an album like this, it’s merely bad: nothing more, nothing less. And, unfortunately, pretty much all of this album’s issues can be boiled down to one fundamental issue: melody. The only melody that makes up an overwhelming majority of these songs are huge, anthemic, garish blasts of horns that don’t so much come across as melodic, but more staccato and indistinct than anything else. It’s worst on ‘(Fuck A) Silver Lining’, ‘King Of The Clouds’ and ‘The Overpass’ that all fall in similar territory of being too melodically abrasive to be all that memorable. Even when some synth tones break through the overstuffed mixes like on ‘Roaring Twenties’, they are often far too high and squealing to connect fully to be memorable. It is almost as if it is Urie’s intention to replicate a similar style to Panic!’s debut album, ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’, but just without a band this time and with a few modern touches.

On that topic, why are there trap and hip hop elements on this album? Is Urie that desperate for mainstream attention? Between the trap snares on ‘High Hopes’ and the rigid hi hats crowbarred into the final chorus on ‘Hey, Look, Ma I Made It’ that clash with the rest of the instrumentation horrendously, I struggle to understand the reason they would be included, and what the appeal is.

That does not mean to say this album is totally throwaway, it does occasionally stick the landing, the potent souring hook on ‘Old Fashioned’ is pretty sticky, even if there’s no real crescendo to pay off the build up, and, despite all their flaws, both ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night)’ and ‘High Hopes’ do connect lyrically with the former discussing letting everything go on the weekend, and the latter being about Urie’s rise to fame.

On that note, the lyrics on this album are also a total mess. I have close to no idea what Urie is trying to say on this album. While ‘High Hopes’ is the down to Earth track about working your way to fame, while ‘King Of The Clouds’ is a song literally written whilst Urie was high on drugs. This is the level of messiness we are looking at. I can appreciate Urie finding some closure in the albums dying moments, as he acknowledges there will be a time when no one will care about the art he poured his heart and soul into, but the album is nowhere near cohesive enough to properly pay it off and make it worthwhile.

Overall, Panic! At The Disco’s ‘Pray For The Wicked’ is far from the worst thing ever, but it’s still only a strong 2 / 5. A failure that is marginally redeemed by good performances and a few good songs.

Rating: 2 / 5

Best Songs: ‘High Hopes’, ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night), Dying In LA, Old Fashioned

Worst Songs: ‘The Overpass’, ‘King Of The Clouds’

Review of: 'Living Proof' by State Champs

RIP All Time Low 2004 - 2017. Luckily, we have State Champs to carry the pop rock torch. The first real sign of this to a lot of people was their debut, 'The Finer Things', but I was much more sold by their sophomore effort titled 'Around The World And Back'. This new album is one of my most anticipated of the year, and, on that note, how is the album.

If you couldn't tell already, this is going to be a review of the shorter variety, not because the album is bad by any means, there's just not a lot to say. Basically, if you liked 'Around The World And Back', you'll unquestionably like this. State Champs make another rock tinged pop album that mostly delivers. Not a lot has changed, the hooks are quite excellent even though very few end up sticking with you. They also have a tendency to fall together occasionally and lacking in distinctive flare. This leads into my first key criticism of this album, a lot of the time, any instrumental intricacies that could have otherwise came though are sacrificed in favour of huge guitar riffs and, while they might sound fine, they often swamp out any cohesive melody, and that's a shame.

Of course, it's not always a problem. The production gives the melody some room to breath in the opening in some of these songs, 'Our Time To Go' bring the standout, and 'Safe Haven' works fine too, I like a lot of the tonal choices on that song despite the main melody being completely buried on the hook. It gets significantly worse on 'Mine Is Gold', a generic, blocky, staccato stomping punk song lacking in edge, as well as a clumsily handled instrumental shift when transitioning into and out of the chorus.

Although, if it's edge your looking for, this album may not be for you. You get two punk songs ('Criminal', 'Dead And Gone'), nine huge, heavy pop songs, and 'Time Machine' and 'The Fix Up' the two token slow songs that sound utterly tired, a total contrast to the rest of the album despite the latter trying to build to some kind of crescendo in its final moments.

It is worth saying that these criticisms are minor, and the album is able to hit a stride with a few good to great songs. I've briefly touched on how 'Criminal' and 'Dead And Gone' nail the pop punk balance, but I'll also credit the huge hooks that pummel through on 'Our Time To Go', 'Cut Through The Static' and 'Safe Haven', even though I would personally wish for more instrumental layers.

And that really is the huge overarching problem with 'Living Proof'. The hooks are great, but lacking in deeper intricate layers that All Time Low mastered when they were in their prime. A good album, without a doubt, but also one that had the potential to be amazing. I expect a lot of people to brush this album off as a pop punk band slowly tipping towards pop, but there is something more to it, not a lot, but there is something more. It gets a light 3.5 / 5.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Best Songs: 'Our Time To Go', 'Cut Through The Static', 'Safe Haven', 'Dead And Gone'

Worst Songs: 'Mine Is Gold', 'Time Machine'

Review of: 'Shawn Mendes' by Shawn Mendes

Review of: 'Shawn Mendes' by Shawn Mendes

Not going to lie, I was really dreading this album. Shawn Mendes may have had a somewhat promising start to his career with his debut album 'Handwritten', but ever  since then, things have gone downhill hard. 'Treat You Better' made my list of the worst hit songs of 2016, and I stand by it. On top of that, 'Illuminate' was a pretty bad album. It lacked instrumental flavour, had numerous writing issues that lacked the appropriate framing to make them work. To restate what I said at the beginning of the review, I was dreading this. So, how was this?

Well, this was an interesting experience, and it for the reason you might think. The weird thing about 'Shawn Mendes' is that it's actually kind of close to being almost decent. Almost. Make no mistake, 'Shawn Mendes' is a pretty dry album, particularly instrumentally where, just like 'Illuminate' before it, it suffers from a lot of the same issues, but, this time around, it seems that Mendes and his co-writers seem to have gotten an idea of how to frame the relationships that were on display on 'Illuminate' and are on this album too. Either by simplifying the framing to the extreme, or by adding unique that flesh out these songs and make them work.

If anything, the most consistent issue with this album is the production. Muted melodies that are too simple to be memorable plague this album, nothing new really. The opening track 'In My Blood' initially seems to fall into this category, but the track actually ends up building some momentum. The biggest culprit is probably 'Like To Be You' with Mendes singing opposite Julia Michaels. Not only does Michaels sound awful on that track - there's no getting around that her whining mumbly vocal tone does not sound good - but the flavourless plucky instrumental does nothing all that interesting. 'Why', 'Falling All In You' and the weirdly cluttered 'Queen' fall into similar territory, but the stripped back guitar pickup and Mendes in his most confident vocal range plus gorgeous multi tracking on 'Because I Had You' does actually work for me.

Furthermore, while the combining of the slicker, funkier instruments mentation with the acoustic guitar (which ends up getting swallowed in the mix anyway) on 'Lost In Japan' is a tad clumsy, the song does have some charm to it that I can't deny. 'Particular Taste' tries to be the same, but the awkward squeaking melody on the hook blows any 'Youth' might be the best song on this album for having some unique, dark smoulder that Khalid's textured delivery complements exceptionally well. However much Mendes' slightly thinner delivery, but he still sounds really good and I still like the song.

And on that pleasant note, let's discuss the element of the album that I've seen most improvement in, the writing and framing. Needless to say, it's not always great, it is a Shawn Mendes album after all. For instance, in 'Like To Be You' the writing shows the couple as unwilling to fully communicate with each other or get to the bottom of what sparked they're argument, instead they'd just rather brush it off. 'In My Blood' is easily the worst written track on the album as Mendes reflects on the challenges of life (obviously he is not specific as to what the challenge is) and contemplates the possibility of 'giving up' but instead of engaging with his problems or acknowledging the consequences that could surface if he were to give up, he instead defaults to insisting that giving up is simply not 'in his blood' with the huge melodrama of the instrumentation sounding okay, but only in isolation.

I would argue that these moments are not are not representative of the whole album, though. This saves this album from being bad, and might show some hope and promise for Shawn Mendes down the road. 'Where are You In The Morning' may initially appear pretty unimpressive, and, really, it is, but the framing is quite interesting. Instead of anger that this girl just left after one night despite making it clear that she wanted to stay longer, it's more confused reflection. Mendes playing the bemused, exploited young man works very well. It comes up again on 'Perfectly Wrong', a significantly worse song where Mendes knows the relationship is dying, but can't end it, despite the girl saying that he hates him purely because of the sex he gets, yet the instrumentation frames Mendes as completely helpless. 'Because I Had You' is a much better song. It starts with the line 'I think it's time that I be honest / I should have told you not to go', which may imply that he is trying to win an ex back who left out of his own doing, but this is actually not the case. Instead, Mendes is, with the acknowledgement that it is going to be hard, is going to move on. He still has regrets, but he's trying hard to overcome them.

The album ends white a song that particularly caught my attention. The track is 'When You're Ready', the song where Mendes insists to the girl that if it doesn't work out for her after the breakup, he'll be there if she wants. 'Happier' by Ed Sheeran may be the easy comparison, but on that song, Sheeran insisted that he would be the 'knight in shining armour' ready to save this girl when it doesn't work out, Mendes is more reserved. He simply promises that he'll be around if it doesn't work out, even if he does flirt with melodrama on the line 'And if I have to I'll wait forever'.

But overall, I don't believe I'm saying this, but it's a 2.5 / 5. The fact that this album almost worked for me says a lot.

Overall Rating: 2.5 / 5

Best Songs: 'Youth', 'Because I Had You', 'Lost In Japan'

Worst Songs: 'In My Blood', 'Particular Taste' 

Review of: ‘Love Is Dead’ by Chvrches

Chvrches are a band that’s a bit hard to place. A Scottish trio that seemed begging for mainstream attention off the back of a great sophomore album ‘Every Open Eye’, that never seemed to truly materialise, and I have genuinely no idea why. They had the hooks, they had the glamorous pop crossover appeal, they had a great front women in the form of Lauren Mayberry, but for whatever reason, any attempt at pop crossover has been unsuccessful, including in the run up to this third studio album, 'Love Is Dead'.

My personal frustrations aside, I was expecting big things from this album, after all, 'Every Open Eye' was a great cohesive sugary slice of synth pop that never fails to amaze me every time. My concerns started to arise when the news came through that pop producer Greg Kurstin was hopping on board for this project, bringing with him his bad reputation for compromising melody in favour of stiff, programmed drum beats that may have a lot of momentum, if nothing beyond it. As such, my expectations were skewed going into 'Love Is Dead', but what did we get?

We got a measurable step back, that's for sure. Compared to 'Every Open Eye', this album is overlong, and both inconsistently produced and written. And, while I would love to just be able to blame Greg Kurstin for this and just move on, I can' tin good conscience do that. Nevertheless, numerous issues heavily compromise an album that had the potential to be great, but instead is merely decent. If that.

The production on this album is the first key issue. To sum it up in one word: exhausting. This album is tiring to get through and, unfortunately, that's more on the group themselves than Kurstin. The problem is, while a lot of these songs have plenty of melodic foundation, but not a lot rising above it. 'Miracle' is a good example. I don't mind the intense build up, but in the hook it breaks into this stiff, lumbering progression with hardly any driving melody outside of the vocal line which is covered in fuzzy vocal filters when it does not need to be. The fact that these production issues mostly turn up on songs the band themselves produced baffles me.

'My Enemy' is a tuneless, dreary bore of a track that features both Matt Berninger of The National and Lauren Mayberry on total autopilot white both of them sounding they'd rather be anywhere else. 'Wonderland' has some pretty instrumental moments on the verses, but, just like on 'Miracle' completely breaks down on the hook. But if there's a song that encapsulates everything I dislike about this album, it's 'God's Plan'. The kind of swampy track that is clearly trying to build up some intense swell, but without any consistent pulse or cohesive melody to pull it off. There is melody, but not where it needs to be in the mix to fully connect.

When some of the brighter melodic elements do shine through, we do get a few good songs. The production seems to get halfway there on the opening three songs, but 'Forever' is the first indication to me that something could have been salvaged from this album. While the purchasing is a tad too heavy, the hook and the high tempo the song has manages to work for me and I like the song. Similar reason why 'Graves', 'Heaven/Hell' and 'Never Say Die' mostly work for me too, despite the latter feeling a tad underwritten.

And that takes us nicely onto the lyrics and themes of this album, and in comparison to 'Every Open Eye', this is a mess. The breakup seems to happen on 'Get Out' and is framed as a mutual departure, 'good intentions never good enough', and on the rest of the album, Mayberry tries to make it work out again, and, surprising no one, the guy turns out to be a manipulative asshole and Mayberry is left alone on 'Really Gone' just as she was left alone on 'Afterglow' on 'Every Open Eye'. This is the same story told through a slightly different lens and very little else. Lines like 'ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies' from 'Miracle' don't frame Mayberry all that well and doesn't make the way she is handling the situation all that likeable.

However, there are elements of the thematic arc that do connect. The regretting of the post breakup madness on 'Forever', the desire to make something out of a bad situation that comes across on 'Never Say Die', and especially the song 'Heaven/Hell' as Mayberry isn't sure if the fact that this relationship is sputtering out is good or not, but she's just going to enjoy wallowing in its final moments anyway.

But overall, you'll be infinitely better off listening to 'Every Open Eye' and getting the same thematic arc told measurably better. Light 3 / 5 from me.

Overall Rating: 3 / 5

Best Songs: 'Heaven/Hell', 'Forever, 'Graves', 'Never Say Die'

Worst Songs: 'My Enemy', 'God's Plan'