Dejected? Sure. Annoyed? That’s putting it lightly. Pissed?
\nAbsolutely!<\/p>\n
Now that my checklist for this review is exposed, let’s just
\ndive right into this baby.<\/p>\n
I’m dejected because my elevated hopes have just been dashed
\ndespite the all-to-frequent references supplied by my half-way
\naround-the-world friends and music contacts that make Sweden’s,
\nMando Diao out to be the next big thing in rock n’ roll. Their
\nclaims just aren’t checking out after my repeated listens to
\nHurricane Bar<\/i>, the band’s second full length release, which
\nadmittedly isn’t to say that I am even close to being familiar to
\nthe material found on the band’s debut breakout, Bring ’em In.
\nLet’s just say that I hope that the release of
\nHurricane Bar<\/i> finds the band moving in different musical
\ndirections than their debut for the sole fact that I’d hate to have
\nto reevaluate the high regards I have for my source
\nrecommendations.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse, even the band’s website reads like a
\nMuhammad Ali proclamation speech touting the fact that the band’s
\nyouth, teamed with opening slots on tours with fellow Swedish
\nGrammy winners, the Hellacopters and Kent, have earned Mando Diao
\nwhat the European rock media has deemed a spot on a short list of
\n“Swedish Bands with International Potential.” One of the guys in
\nthe band even babbles in defending the opening slots on these bills
\nciting the same motivation that drove another Swede and ladies
\ngolfer, Annika Sorenstam, into entering into a men’s PGA golf event
\nlast year. The circumstance referenced was Mando Diao using their
\nopportunity as a vehicle to measure themselves against the biggest
\nbands in Sweden. Seeing how they punctuate the rationale by saying
\n(in Mando Diao’s words) that they”do it better” than their older
\ntouring partners, I’m calling bullshit as I detect someone
\nbelieving their own hype.<\/p>\n
I was told the band’s music was rock. If this were the sixties
\nand Mando Diao were a part of the same British invasion that first
\ngave us Ray Davies and the Kinks and followed into the early 70’s
\nversion of David Bowie, we might be on to something. And that
\nassessment would be kind given the fact that the Kinks and Bowie
\nhave proven to truss the foundation that has spawned so much of
\nwhat the term rock n’ roll stands for today. It is one thing for a
\nband to have the sound of others; it’s quite another thing to
\nactually have the songs to match up. You see, it’s 2005 and I’m not
\nsure this is the case with
\nHurricane Bar<\/i> as I find myself feeling anesthetized in a
\nBritpop bubble after hearing this disc. Boring.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, I said I am annoyed. EMI has put a copy controlled
\nseal on this disc making the fact that I write 99% of my reviews
\nlounged on the couch with my laptop CD-ROM as the source of my
\nplayer moot. Why? The damn CD skips to the proverbial loo (that pun
\nis intended, mind you) with the Real Player software I have on my
\nsystem. I downloaded another player and
\nHurricane Bar<\/i> began playing normally. Chalk up another 45
\nminutes in getting my bearings set for an album that isn’t
\ninspiring me to be nothing short of a minor annoyance.<\/p>\n
Now, as I conclude this piece, I’m pissed! Five songs into what
\nI’ll call my habitual
\n“refresh-my-memory-by-playing-the-disc-as-I-write-my review”
\nexercise, my computer powers off — and stays off for the better
\npart of ten minutes! This is the same laptop that powers my iPod as
\nwell as the one that supports many of my DVD viewings and now I am
\nbeing forced to surrender to some crappy CD from a branch of a
\nmajor label in a relatively remote part of this world?<\/p>\n
Not a chance since this intentional component malfunction caused
\nme to lose my more friendly first draft of this article. The world
\nis now going to get this straight from the heart assessment. And
\nguess what? I’m not done as there’s more.<\/p>\n
The constant shifting of my position on my couch in addressing
\nthese errors saw me spilling a perfectly good beer all over other
\ncd’s I do care about!!!!<\/p>\n
So, I say screw it. Music isn’t supposed to be this complicated.
\nThe industry forces the CD format on us and if they can’t get it
\nright, I’m going to really expand on the concept of what a CD
\nreview is all about and remind everyone that it’s not always
\nentirely about the music. It can and in this case should be
\nexpanded into also defining the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7111],"rating":[5620],"class_list":["post-38239","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mando-diao","rating-rating-f"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38239"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38239"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}