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The Airborne Toxic Event

post #1 of 12
5/12/09 at 9:18am
Thread Starter 
Their debut album is perhaps one of the most inconsistent LPs I’ve heard in a long time, but it’s also oddly listenable. What hurts their album is the hodge podge of styles they employ, which make the ten tracks on the album each sound like they’re coming from different bands. For example there big single Sometime Around Midnight has almost no phonic relation to the rest of the album, which tends to go towards a hybrid of the Clashes spikey riffs and Springsteens Wall of Sound anthems.

Despite this inconsistency some of the songs are really great and live they’re absolutely phenomenal, and you get the feeling that with a few more albums under their belt the band could mature into something great, but at the moment they kind of sound like a band trying to discover their sound.
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post #2 of 12
5/12/09 at 10:28am
Got their album last month and have have been listening to them quite a bit. Gasoline was the first single I heard and remains my favorite. For a debut album, its pretty good. Can't wait to hear them grow.
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post #3 of 12
5/12/09 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
Gasoline is an amazing song. I think they’re at their best when they’re going for anthemic rock like Gasoline, Wishing Well and Happiness is Overrated. The one thing I will say for them is that the albums work a lot better live. They make alterations to certain songs and everything flows together a lot better.
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post #4 of 12
5/12/09 at 6:04pm
A local rock station's been playing "Some Time Around Midnight" a lot, and I really like that song. It just so perfectly captures what running into an ex & getting slimed when she leaves w/ someone else is like. Excellent lyrics. I was looking forward to eventually purchasing the album.
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post #5 of 12
5/18/09 at 1:27pm
Heard "Sometime Around Midnight" this morning and decided to give the album a try on Lala. Eh. It's a good song, but the inconsistency that Spike mentioned is a big problem. The vocalist's delivery is more suited to the grand, melodramatic Arcade Fire stuff than the poppier stuff. I guess I don't hear anything particularly anthemic about "Gasoline." It's jumpy like The Strokes or something, and the singer's affecting a jerky Spencer Krug/Isaac Brock manner.

Based on "Sometime Around Midnight," I can see them getting better, but they really need to work on their own style instead of just borrowing from other bands, throwing the sounds in a blender, and smoothing out the rough edges.
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post #6 of 12
5/18/09 at 2:06pm
I'm starting to develop an interest in this band, thanks to "Sometime Around Midnight" (I'm down with Iggy on this one - love the slow build and the subject matter is fucking dead on) and "Gasoline", and occasionally hearing them on the drive home. I heard the album, and I must agree they seem to be developing their sound. Still, there's a lot of potential in what I'm hearing, and hopefully it'll pay off.
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post #7 of 12
5/18/09 at 2:14pm
Thread Starter 
The other odd thing about Sometime Around Midnight is that it's fantastically insightful into male urban angst and the scene and story it paints is relateable and empathically told. Yet no other song on the album even attempts to be relateable.
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post #8 of 12
5/18/09 at 2:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post
The other odd thing about Sometime Around Midnight is that it's fantastically insightful into male urban angst and the scene and story it paints is relateable and empathically told. Yet no other song on the album even attempts to be relateable.
Yeah, but isn't it kind of easy to be insightful about male urban angst if you're an angst-ridden urban male? It's a detailed song, but it's not like he's doing much beyond bitching about some girl he likes going off with another guy. It's "Mr. Brightside" with a few fancier turns of phrase.
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post #9 of 12
5/18/09 at 3:02pm
Thread Starter 
I think insights the wrong word, it just feels like it's a pretty perfect summation of laying eyes on that special someone and being utterly destroyed by it
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post #10 of 12
5/18/09 at 10:43pm
Man this album pissed me off. I love love Sometime Around Midnight. Its a fantastic single. When I got the album though I didn't think anything lived up to that. Maybe once I got over the inconsistency I would like the album but it just left me bitter.
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post #11 of 12
7/22/09 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
These guys are kind of incredible live. Lots of energy, which is a given with a new band, but also lots of structure and lots of respect between the musicians. They're a remarkably tight band and they allow each other to have their little moments and never attempt to step on each others toes musically. The singer is remarkably strong live and they pull the album together when playing live in a way that makes every song fit, there's a distinct narrative which makes Somewhere Around Midnight fit naturally in with the rest of their songs. Lots of cool, but old, tricks like playing basses with bows and having the violinist and lead guitarist have a solo duel.
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post #12 of 12
7/23/09 at 1:49am
I got the album because of "Sometime Around Midnight", but now I can't stop listening to "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" It's interesting to compare the two, as they're both about the same subject (hell, they could almost describe the same night), but if the lead singer's voice weren't so distinctive, I'd never think they were by the same band.

If they can figure out their own sound, I think their next album might be spectacular.
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