After well over a decade of reviewing music in many of its
\ndifferent forms, I know an album is in trouble when I can’t
\nremember much about it immediately after the disc stops playing.
\nThe album might have had some entertaining music on it, but when I
\nhave difficulty remembering a lot about it, that sets off the
\nwarning bells in my head.<\/p>\n
The reason that I mention this now is because I found myself
\nlistening to
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i>, the debut release from Bond. I had been
\nsent it to listen to some months ago, and just now found myself
\ngetting to it in the “In” pile at Pierce Archives Central (where
\nour money is on McGwire, but our hopes are with Sosa). After
\nlistening to the disc, I sat back, and asked myself, “What did I
\njust listen to?” I popped it in again, spent the 48 minutes plowing
\nthrough the 11 songs on it, and… the same result. Uh-oh.<\/p>\n
Led by Steve Eusebe, Bond combines a fresher-sounding
\nalternative beat with well-placed samples in the music. Guitarist
\nJimmy Hogarth, bassist\/drummer Scott Shields and keyboardist Martin
\nSlattery round out the group – already setting themselves apart
\nwith such a wild combination of people and instruments they
\nplay.<\/p>\n
The lead-off track “Starbucked” I first heard on the
\nZero Effect<\/i> soundtrack a few months back, and the song was
\nmore than enough to stir up my curiosity about this band. Mixed
\nwith double entendres and a vocal sneer from Eusebe, “Starbucked”
\nseemed to offer a lot of promise about this young band.<\/p>\n
And, indeed, there are several cuts on
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i> demonstrates uncanny ability that this
\nband has. Tracks like “Nothing Fits (Fictitious Circle)”, “Anne
\nGrenade” and “I’m A Bastard” all are quite enjoyable, even if the
\nmusic itself isn’t incredibly deep. (Then again, nothing says that
\neverything I listen to has to be as deep as reading Sartre in the
\njohn.)<\/p>\n
The problem with
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i> comes into play around the halfway point
\nof the album. Many of the tracks tend to blend together, no matter
\nhow many times you listen to the disc. Songs like “Headspace
\nInvader” seem to flow right into My Best Mate,” even if you pay
\nreal close attention to the tracks. Once the music stops, any line
\nbetween the songs is immediately erased.<\/p>\n
In addition, some of the weaker material is stuffed close to the
\nend of the album. “Dum Dum Blonde” is not a great work of art,
\nespecially when placed next to some of the great tracks on the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
So is “forgettable” necessarily bad? No, not really – just the
\nfact that you can tap your foot and hum along to some of the better
\ntracks on
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i> is reason enough to say that Bond has some
\npromise. But in the end, when your friends ask you about an album,
\nit would be nice to have a better answer than, “Uh…”.
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i> doesn’t leave a strong impression in the
\nlistener’s mind – and that is the major weakness with Bond.<\/p>\n
I have no doubt that with time Bond will be writing material
\nthat you’ll be talking about for weeks on end. It’s just that
\nBang Out Of Order<\/i> won’t even sustain the conversation for
\none minute – possibly a sign of an inexperienced band. Here’s
\nhoping that they raise the bar next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7544],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39324","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bond","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39324","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39324"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}