John Nolan - Sad Strange Beautiful Dream

(Words by Burra)

Sad Strange Beautiful Dream is a solo album from Taking Back Sunday guitarist/backing vocalist John Nolan. I've been meaning to give this a listen for a while, after being a fan of Taking Back Sunday since the beginning as well as enjoying the Straylight Run project, so I thought I'd actually sit down and give it a good listen.

This is a very mellow and minimalist album. I actually find it quite refreshing and laid back to listen to; it's quite nice to get an album like that, so this is definitely an album I would turn to if I'm looking for something to put on and just chill out too. There's quite a bluesy, maybe folkier-style sound here than what the masses would know John Nolan for and a break away from the emo/post hardcore sound those would maybe associate him with.

There is definitely a few stand out moments here, especially with the quiet ballad-like number "Drinking Your Way To Confidence"; one of the album's finest moments, and one that really showcases John as a songwriter and his comfort-ability in this style of music.

Overall a great album, and one that could easily hold it's own without the Taking Back Sunday association, if such is the case. Well worth a listen.

Death In June - Nada!

Nada! is my favourite Death In June record. Brown Book is kind of similar but I prefer Nada! for its dominating dark 80s synthpop vibes and martial background. There’s also less Nazi imagery flirtation going on here, which is always a plus. I believe that this album was the last the group did as a three piece; and seems a fry cry from the acoustic solo project that Death In June has been for so many years now.

I love the dense electronic sound on most of these tracks. I’ll have to find out what equipment was used here, especially the drum machine (not so I can go out and get one, but see if any .wav rips exist that I can import into iDrum or something like that). “The Honour Of Silence” opens things up on a haunting, sombre note (what else would you expect though?), and “The Calling MKII” sounds like it could have been in regular circulation on the radio back 25 years or so. “Rain Of Despair”, “Foretold” and “Carousel” bring those dark synth vibes in by the truckload, which is just what I want. My favourite track though has to be “Crush My Love” with its excellent synth lead and unusual vocal approach (for DIJ). To top it off, Nada! is probably the best place to start with Death In June, although I could be slightly biased.

Swans - Can't Find My Way Home

Ever onwards through collecting the Swans discography! Ever onwards....

Unfortunately, Can't Find My Way Home is one of the weaker tracks off the somewhat-hated The Burning World album (and a cover song to boot), so this single doesn't really do anything for me in that respect. It is merely a completists item for me, as I go on to collect at least one version of every release Swans have put out. I have the 7" version here, although there is a 12" version of this single in existence, which I believe possesses yet another extra track. 

 

The b-side here though, is a cripplingly-weak acoustic re-working of "(She's A) Universal Emptiness", which is one of my favourite tracks off The Burning World. This version, is for some godforsaken reason, sped up in tempo, and not only sounds rushed, but loses it's depressive and brooding feeling. 

To briefly conclude; this release offers nothing to the Swans discography in any way, and is entirely a completists item. I do not recommend purchasing it to anyone, anywhere.

Anathema - A Natural Disaster

I've recently been playing catch up with Anathema. They are a band I have now known about for years, but I only own a very small amount of their albums. Thank Zombie Jesus then, for the Amazon marketplace with it's sometimes insanely cheap prices. A used copy of A Natural Disaster ended up costing me almost next to nothing. And to be honest, I'm really glad.

The first thing that surprised me about this record - often regarded I think as one of Anathema's best - is that it's an absolute disjointed mess. For the first few songs, I don't think anybody really has any idea about what is going on; the band just drift from one song to the other with what seems like no real drive at all. It's like it's acoustic and floaty for the sake of being acoustic and floaty, and it goes nowhere until the start of track 3, "Closer", just cuts in clumsily. Here at least, the album starts properly. "Closer" is a hell of bloody good tune, making (for once) good use of a vocoder or harmonizer, that builds and builds until it explodes in a post-rock-esque orgasm of sound. Good stuff!

"Are You There?" on the other hand is probably one of the worst things I have ever heard. "Childhood Dream" is almost as pointless, and then bam - another rocking track just cuts in rudely, the thankfully excellent "Pulled Under At 2000 Metres A Second", which isn't dissimilar in writing style to "Panic" from the previous Anathema record, A Fine Day To Exit. This album reminds me of Swans' Soundtracks For The Blind, in the way that dreamlike ambiances and floaty acoustic passages mesh awkwardly with heavy-hitting, full-band pieces. It just doesn't flow at all, in my opinion.

Thankfully though, things are a-okay from here on out; every track is a belter. "Flying" is an Anathema favourite of mine, with a chorus that has a through-the-roof sing-a-long factor. "Electricity" is a lesson in post-rock swelling and building done far better than by many of the restrictive genre's current participants.

All in all, there are some brilliant songs here, it's just this album suffers from a whole bunch of filler crap as well. Couple that with the "flow" issues and you really have one disappointing record, which is really inexcusable for a band with such passion, integrity, and musical dexterity as Anathema, especially on an album that is only 10 tracks long. I'm glad I bought this, as I can now move on with finishing my collection, but unless you really love this type of music, I'd look for my Anathema kicks elsewhere. That's exactly what I'll be doing, at least.

Anathema - Hindsight

Yes yes, I know you’re all probably thinking the same; “not another bleedin’ Anathema post!”, but tough shite! I’ve done a lot of listening to Anathema recently, and that’s how Lines In Wax works; I don’t randomly just pull reviews out of my arse, I generally try to write about what is fresh in my head to give a more accurate, in depth review. That’s why there isn’t any tangible order to the stuff I get through, and new and old releases are reviewed in no particular sequence. When I first started Lines In Wax I did posts alphabetically, that’s why most of the A & B section of the 7”s is almost complete, but you’ll also notice that when I started, I was purely posting images posts with no reviews, and posting multiple blogs per day. The reviews came afterward.

Annnnnnywaaaay, how I can ramble! Where were we? Yes, that’s it; Anathema’s Hindsight. This very fancy little CD package marked my first physical purchase of a brand new CD in an actual chain store (it was HMV) in an ungodly amount of time. I don’t like paying top-draw (read: over the odds) for CDs but this looked really shiny on the rack and with a tenner burning a hole in my pocket I couldn’t resist and caved.

Hindsight is beautiful, providing the listener with “MTV Unplugged” kinda versions of classic Anathema tracks. The opener, “Fragile Dreams” sounds absolutely epic on strings, and the acoustic version of “One Last Goodbye”, whilst a bit sappy, shows a whole new heart-wrenching side to an already cripplingly emotional song. “Are You There” sounds just as awful as the original, and songs like “Flying” and “A Natural Disaster” don’t really sound that dissimilar to their original recordings, which does get me thinking about the point of their inclusion, but I’m not really that bothered as these newer versions of both tracks sound absolutely fantastic.

All in all, if you’re an Anathema fan, you need Hindsight in your life, although to be fair you probably don’t need me to tell you that. 

The Angels of Light - Angels of Light Sing 'Other People'

This is the closest that Angels of Light ever came to Gira's bare bones solo work; ...Other People is a stripped down acoustic, folky romp that sees Gira and co. writing homages in song form to people that...well, deserve songs written about them, I guess. It's all very artsy-fartsy, and whilst I don't feel it's the best Angels of Light album in any universe, there is still a fair dollop of good tunes here.

The first notable difference here is that drums (or percussion generally) are absent for the entire album, rendering the whole thing with more of a Gira 'n' Pals kinda vibe than a full-blown Angels of Light record. For the most part, the songs are driven by Michael Gira's voice and a simple acoustic guitar, decorated now and then with some other sparse instrumentation and gang-style backing vocals on the choruses. 

My favourite song by a country mile is "Destroyer", although there is a whole bunch of decent tunes here, such as "On The Mountain", "Michael's White Hands" and "Purple Creek". For me, this is a funny one in the Angels of Light discography; in no way would I consider it vital, like How I Loved You, or We Are Him, but it is also by far the easiest Angels record to get a hold of on wax. I got this for a tenner, which was an absolute bargain considering how much original presses of earlier records of theirs cost.

In a short conclusion then; worth a listen if you enjoy the softer side of Swans or Michael Gira's solo work (the acoustic stuff, rather than the abstract stuff), but for beginners I'd say definitely start with one of the above-mentioned records rather than this one.

Sunn O))) & Pan Sonic / Alan Vega / Stephen Burroughs - Split 10"

This is a nifty little split 10" that I keep forgetting I own. It's in a plain white sleeve with a stamp like a club 12" and recently until I separated my 10" and 12"s onto different shelves I would keep losing it in the pile of vinyl that I have. The choice of artists appearing alongside each other here is pretty varied, but there isn't a shit song on the entire thing. It spins at 45rpm so it doesn't last very long but it's a nice little cross section into the work of the featured artists.

Side A is taken up entirely by Sunn O))) collaborating with Pan Sonic, making a slightly more higher pitched drone than usual, complete with brooding vocals and creepy as shit synths. The fat tones just build and build and then about half way through this full-blown organ-sounding synth kicks in and the entire thing becomes so epic that it's just bloody brilliant.

Side B begins with a fellow named Alan Vega, rambling on about "13 Crosses" over and over, accompanied by some spazz-happy electronics and a rabid audience. The first time I heard this I didn't like it, but it eventually grew on me. Last but not least, Stephen Burroughs sings us a mournful tune with just an acoustic guitar. "Goodbye Darling" is a slow, sorrowful track that starts off great but kinda loses it's way towards the end. It's a great song, but I just think it goes on for too long. Also, I just can't shake the thought that it was sound a thousand times better being sung by Michael Gira.

Anathema - A Fine Day To Exit

This is one of my favourite Anathema albums - if not my favourite out of them all (that I have heard). It was also the first "soft" Anathema record I got hold of after discovering the band didn't play doom metal anymore. I spent a while worshipping the Serenades album, which was probably one of my first introductions to the ultra-slow and miserable side of doom metal. I was so excited to see the band play live at Download 2007, as they were one of the few decent acts on the line up. Having only heard Serenades, you could imagine the fucking shock I had when the band took to the stage (with Lee Douglas in tow, as I believe they were still touring A Natural Disaster at the time). 

It took me a while to adjust to these fancy English-folk with their flowery shirts and uplifting music, and A Fine Day To Exit helped me greatly to appreciate the softer side of music! For somebody who through 2007/2008 was pretty much 100% living and breathing shitty grindcore, A Fine Day... was one of my more experimental purchases, but it has through time cemented itself as one of my favourites. I don't really listen to it that much, but when I am in the mood for it, there really isn't anything else that can be accepted as a substitute. 

Opener "Pressure" is epic as fuck, which a huge piano leading a stomping drum beat and soft vocals. Second track, "Release", starts off all twinkly and acoustic but develops into something much more progressive and "rock-band" based. This song can really sum up what Anathema is all about! "Underworld" has one of the weirdest (and best) guitar riffs in the history of music and track seven, "Panic", is one of my favourite songs of all time, sounding like an upbeat and slightly heavier (and a whole world less boring) Radiohead. I won't go into every song here, but the four above are probably my favourites so I'll just leave it at that.

 

If you've never heard Anathema I implore you to check out the link below and chillax to the fuckin' max. If you're a regular on the metal or rock festival circuit, keep your eyes out for these charming gentlemen as they still seem to play a rather large amount of heavier festivals. I guess that's where their roots are, as are a lot of their fans despite their softer sound, and whilst they do seem out of place sandwiched between the likes of Candlemass and Turisas etc., I promise you it will be a refreshing and eye opening break. 

Staind - Break The Cycle

Since I began listing not only my vinyl but my entire music collection on Lines in Wax, I knew the day would come where I would have to touch upon the questionable purchases I made when I was younger. Today that day has finally come. Scorn at nu-metal all you like, but I actually like this CD. I actually prefer it to say, I dunno, Deathcrush by Mayhem. Well, maybe not prefer. Wrong choices of words. But I find it more listenable.

I bought this when I was 11 or 12 years old. The live version of "Outside" was the most played video on Kerrang! TV and that's probably what made me buy Break The Cycle. Staind were quite lovey-dovey so I remember being pretty suprised at how heavy some of the songs were. What Staind have become or what they did with their career is not what I am discussing here, only what I am experienced with here on this album. A good half of this stadium-filling nu-metal record actually contains pretty good songwriting. Despite the chart success, both "Outside" and "It's Been A While" are extremely well crafted and catchy songs. Opener "Open Your Eyes" is a fairly grim affair, and "Pressure" is geniously heavy for something of this nature.

Other songs on the record don't really amount to much, but even the terribly angsty "For You" has one hell of a riff, and the uninspiring "Fade" is actually pretty thoughtfull under the boring fuzz. Staind as a group used baritone guitars and five-string basses before it was particularly well-known in mainstream metal, and this definitely contributed to the heavier-than-usual sound here. Sometimes it feels like the music is too heavy for the words. I read that somewhere before in an article about the band Kroh, but I definitely think it applies here better.

Hate me for writing about this if you will, but I don't particularly care. There's a lot worse to come! Ha Ha!

Anal Cunt - Picnic of Love

In my last Anal Cunt post I mention briefly that Limited Appeal Records put out some fantastic records, and this here slab of ridiculousness is a prime example. Regardless what you might think of Anal Cunt's Picnic of Love record, the pressing itself is a labour of love; the front has whole new artwork from the original, each one is hand numbered (I have 13 out of 311), the art and text on the labels is hand done; and there is a huge printed booklet with hand written lyrics! This is DIY as fuck, if you look passed the fact that the record itself was pressed by a machine (ha ha). I have one of the absurdly rare coloured versions (numbered to 55 copies) that I scored for a small fortune on Ebay.

 

Musically, Picnic of Love is a test of patience; somewhat unusually pleasant but equally or more so grating on the nerves as time goes on. Saying that, I wish I had manned the fuck up at 17 and made the trip to Newcastle when AxCx did a Picnic set at the first ever Blastonbury Festival. I imagine it was very entertaining live! If you don't know the history of the Picnic record, it's probably not the best place to start in the extensive AxCx catalogue, if I'm entirely honest. Check out the track below and play it to your lover / girlfriend / wife / object of affection; I guarantee it will get you laid.