In the tradition of rock and folk singers with something to say about society sits Jeff Ting, singer\/songwriter for Mayday Radio. The band\u2019s third release, Don Quixote<\/i>, <\/i>finds Ting commenting this time around on insider politics, the lack of clean water in third world countries, and the need for everyone to get involved to fix our global problems.<\/p>\n
These positive messages are buried somewhat in Mayday Radio\u2019s underwhelming songwriting and the occasional clunky, simplistic lyrics, which try to be obvious in their attempts to rally people. Case in point is \u201cInsiders & Outsiders,\u201d which decries the lobbyists and corporate billionaires who truly influence politics; it\u2019s a valid subject to be angry about, but the lyrics \u201cThis conflict of interest is fucking crazy\u201d and \u201cWe are the outsiders \/ Fuck the insiders\u201d sound like a 14 year old scrawling in his notebook during freshman comp. Same goes for \u201cThe status quo, we must refuse\u2026Cuz what the hell we got to lose?\u201d from the closing \u201cThe World Is What We Make.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is actually the worst of the lyrics here; Ting, for the most part, is a better writer than that, as evidenced by the sincere acoustic ballad \u201cApology,\u201d the emotional duet \u201cThe Veil,\u201d and the simple piano-led \u201cOckham\u2019s Razor,\u201d which is as good a post-breakup song as any written in the last decade, featuring the lyrics \u201cFind some validation for your soul \/ But don\u2019t go chasing fading afterglows.\u201d <\/p>\n
The best song is \u201cConfide,\u201d an intense piece with the words sounding as if they are being sung in an adjacent stairwell, forcing you to pay attention, before segueing into the chorus. The song \u2013 actually, the whole album \u2013 is wonderfully produced and doesn\u2019t sound like any one or two artists, though it draws on bands like Coldplay, late period Pearl Jam and even strains of folk music (such as on \u201cWine To Water\u201d).<\/p>\n
But most of the nine songs don\u2019t stay in your head musically, nor will you be rushing to push the repeat button, which is a shame. Ting\u2019s passion and skill is undeniable; he just needs songs worthy of his message and voice, and Don Quixote <\/i>only has four of those, at best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":31223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8993],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-42915","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mayday-radio","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42915","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42915"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}