From the first thrumming, pulsating, impossibly dense seconds of
\nthis album, you can tell The Ten Pound Factor is aiming to be just
\na little bit different.<\/p>\n
Imagine the drive and innate melodic sense of Cheap Trick
\nmatched with the lush, almost symphonic production of a Brian
\nWilson extravaganza and you’d be in the neighborhood. It’s
\ncotton-candy rock, bells and guitars and throbbing power-pop
\narrangements that open out into soaring vistas of sound.<\/p>\n
Calling The Ten Pound Factor a band would be a bit of a
\nmisnomer, though. The group consists entirely of Ryan Chisholm
\n(vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, songwriting,
\nengineering & production) and Chris Chisholm (drums). Thus the
\nquality of the album pretty much rests on Ryan’s shoulders — and
\nthat is the story of the rise and fall of The Ten Pound Factor.<\/p>\n
Bookending the album, the opening “Our Philosophy” matches up
\nwell with the closing “Sitting Up Tonight,” a propulsive number
\nwhose muscular guitars and sweet melodies never let up. “Are You
\nRollin'” and “Into Outer Space” have strong moments as well, with
\ndrive to spare and entertaining dynamics.<\/p>\n
For all its surface appeal, though, this album suffers from a
\nsevere bout of — of all things — taking itself too seriously. The
\nmusic and lyrics seem like mismatched cousins, buffed-out melodies
\npaired up with lyrics that seem to have been cribbed from a series
\nof second-rate self-help manuals. “Things are changing for me \/ I
\ncan feel it \/ Can you?” goes the close to “Now,” though it isn’t
\nperhaps as cringe-worthy as “Where do I go \/ Where can I find
\nmeaning I don’t know \/ Where can I find the reasons I search for \/
\nWhere can I find feeling not alone.” I don’t know, but how about
\nnot calling me back until you get there, ‘kay?<\/p>\n
This was the lyric that officially killed this album for me,
\nthough: “I know a place divided by culture \/ Both have much hate
\nfor one another \/ If they’d just come together to find a solution \/
\nAnd begin by using communication.” The sentiment is worthy, but
\ncompared to a song that actually tries to grapple with the
\nsubtleties of these kinds of issues in a thoughtful, evocative way
\n(see Bruce Springsteen’s “Worlds Apart” off
\nThe Rising<\/i>) this sounds like a rejected Hallmark card. (And
\nthe cadence when he sings “communication”\u2026 jeez. Let’s just
\nsay matching a five-syllable word to a four-beat melody is the
\nsongwriter’s equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard.)<\/p>\n
Chisholm clearly wants to break out of the pack with this
\nunlikely combination of thick, dreamy melodies and dime-store
\nphilosophizing, but the effect on these ears is jarring.
\nDisconnecting music from storytelling, and substituting platitudes
\nfor characters and situations, feels to me like an artistic dead
\nend.<\/p>\n
To be fair,
\nFed ‘Til We’re Dead<\/i> *sounds* great, and suggests that Ryan
\nChisholm has much potential as a player, arranger and producer.
\nIt’s the words, man\u2026 it’s the words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7145],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38328","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-ten-pound-factor","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38328","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38328"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}