Alice Allan

Manners

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

To get the most out of Passion Pit’s debut album, you will need: a healthy appetite for sugary keyboard riffs, plenty of enthusiasm for falsetto vocals, and a large space in which to dance around like crazy. Having gathered these things, you can dive straight into Manners and experience all the colours promised by the album’s cover art. This is music that isn’t afraid of a bit of fluoro.

But once you’ve danced around the room a few times and flopped down on the couch, you might start to notice that there’s darkness in Passion Pit’s world as well. In between those insistent beats and sparkling keyboards, composer Michael Angelokos is asking questions like, "Is this the way my life has got to be?" and "Why do I always need to need you when you’re fleeting?," or simply requesting that we leave him alone.

Angelokos launched Passion Pit three years ago as "a humble one-man multi-track laptop project" from his college dorm room. Since then, he has managed to create Manners and gather a band to perform the album live. Passion Pit even had a hit on the Billboard Heatseekers chart with "Sleepyhead," which made it to number nine.

Passion Pit’s website describes Manners as "baroque and intricate in its construction," which sums up both its appeal and its main stumbling block. There’s enough going on here to sustain multiple listens, but perhaps too much for us to ever really get a grip on the emotion behind the material. Angelokos is in there somewhere, but more often than not, he’s obscured by the blinding brightness of his music.

If the emotion on Manners is hard to make out, its take on gender is all but buried. While Angelokos is generally singing to or about a "you," the identity of this person—like much of the album’s lyrical content—remains a complete mystery.

It’s only as the album winds down that we finally get a glimpse of the Angelokos behind the beats and sparkles. The acoustic versions of "Sleepyhead" and "Moth’s Wings" reveal a thoughtful, reflective man with a sweet, soaring voice, while the final track, a cover of The Cranberries’ "Dreams," suggests either a love of early nineties pop or a wicked sense of humour. All this points to one conclusion: we need to hear more from Passion Pit.

Written by: Alice Allan, July 9th 2010

Keyboard City

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Salvador Santana

Quannum Projects

Welcome to Keyboard City, a place where the sun is shining, the people are friendly, and everything is going to work out just fine. It’s a place created by Salvador Santana (son of ten-time Grammy winner Carlos), a young man determined to make his own mark on music. After a lilting introduction, Keyboard City jumps straight into the party atmosphere of “We Got Somethin’,” a bouncy number that sets the tone for the rest of the album. There are a few thoughtful moments, such as the dream-like title track, but, for the most part, the focus is on fun.

After a glance at the album’s liner notes, one question immediately springs to mind: What instrument can’t this guy play? Santana is credited on every track with various combinations of vocals, drums, bass, keyboards, organ, and even something called a clavinet. While there’s no denying Santana’s abilities as an instrumentalist, his lyrical efforts are less reliable. A track like “Under the Sun” has everything a hit single needs, but it’s sometimes difficult to sing along with the lackluster lyrics: “I see so many faces up on the Internet, some like to keep in touch, and some I never met.”

“Salaboutmoney” strays into similar territory. It aims for biting political commentary, but ends up here: “Corrupt politicians drunk off the power. Face it, you’re all over the Internet browser.” What’s telling is that the album’s gorgeous packaging—a jungle-themed pop-up complete with poster and intricate artwork—doesn’t provide us with any of the words. It’s when Santana puts his vocals in the background that Keyboard City really shines. “Video Game, Save My Life” makes you want to invite all your friends for a round of cocktails to nod along to the infectious percussion.

So, what do women do in Keyboard City? Well, they back Santana up by playing some of the instruments and providing additional vocals. The album’s only love song, “Keep Smiling,” puts a gentle, positive spin on a relationship between a woman and man separated by distance. But ultimately, this isn’t an album about anything as complicated as gender; it’s about keeping it real, and enjoying the moment.

“With the last record I was very passive and insecure, only because I wasn’t listening to my gut, allowing my second opinions to get to me,” Santana explains on his website. Even if he’s not completely on top of the lyrical side of the equation, he has clearly found buckets of confidence and plenty of sunshine in Keyboard City.

Written by: Alice Allan, April 11th 2010

The Best of Ally McBeal

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:58:00 +0000

By Vonda Shepard

Sony Legacy

"I’ve been searchin’ my soul tonight... I know there’s so much more to life..." If you’re starting to hum the theme tune to a certain late-nineties television show about the life of a diminutive lawyer, you’ll understand that this album’s opening track is as much a time capsule as it is a pop song. Everything there was to love (and love to hate) about Ally McBeal is summed up as singer and pianist Vonda Shepard works her way through "Searchin’ My Soul."

Fans will doubtless remember Shepard’s regular appearances at Ally’s local piano bar. As the characters gathered for a post-work tipple, Shepard would use her uncanny ability to sum up their emotional landscape through song.

Some might also remember that, while sometimes hailed as a great leap forward for women on television, Ally McBeal wasn’t completely trouble-free from a feminist perspective (after all, Ally was the character that prompted Time magazine to ask whether feminism might in fact be dead back in 1998).

For those in need of a quick reminder: Ally’s professional concerns were consistently overshadowed by near-crippling neuroticism, flashes of baby mania and a desire for romantic love that often eclipsed the details of whatever case she happened to be working on that episode. Her struggles arguably reflected those of many women looking for success and fulfillment in a male-dominated environment, but the show’s unwillingness to challenge stereotypical representations of women in the workplace was also clear from the start.

The Best of Ally McBeal probably won’t be hailed as a great leap forward for women in music, but it’s safe to say that isn’t its intention. Like Ally, it aims to please and entertain without challenging its audience, and it succeeds. Many listeners will enjoy the balance of light and shade in its track listing, the way each composition builds to a satisfying chorus, and the catchiness of the songs that will have them singing along before they really know the words.

There will doubtless be others listeners, looking for murkier lyrical depths and tougher thematic challenges, who will be lost by the end of track two. Lines like “snow is cold, rain is wet” and repeated instances of rhyming the word “baby” with “maybe” will soon sort the former from the latter.

There’s certainly no faulting Shepard musically. Her vocals are rich and the piano backs her up reliably. At the same time, there’s a slight sense of detachment that comes across on a few tracks. Covers "You Belong to Me" and "Hooked on a Feeling" somehow fall short on impact, and in light of Shepard’s musical prowess it’s tempting to point to the blinding shine of the production as a possible explanation.

All that said, what’s most satisfying about this retrospective collection is how timeless these songs actually are (bar "Searchin’ My Soul," which never really stood a chance after the first episode of Ally went to air). Stand-outs are the subdued yet soulful "The Wildest Times of the World," "Maryland," and "Baby, Don’t You Break My Heart Slow" along with rousing versions of "It’s in His Kiss" and "Tell Him"—toe tapping non-negotiable.

So if you think there’s a “best of” to be found in Ally’s world, this album delivers. All that’s missing is the scene where the snowflakes fall on the woman walking dreamily through the city streets after a hard day’s litigation.

Written by: Alice Allan, March 6th 2010