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Solid State review
May. 4th, 2017 12:53 pmI've listened to Jonathan Coulton's new albumn Solid State a few times now, and it's just not clicking for me.
I think it's trying to do two different things, and as result not doing either well.
It's trying to be a fun nerdcore pop album; long on geeky references, with occasional pathos to accent this. But fails as it's a concept album set in a dystopia. For instance the "watching kittens videos" and "don't feed the trolls" songs felt more melancholy and depressing than fun or pathos inspiring.
The other thing it's supposed have is "a bit of a concept behind it," with a "character that you follow throughout his life." But because most of the songs are trying to also be standalone songs, I'm just not finding the story here. But the chorus of the main track (released before the album), makes absolutly no sense to without more detail.
"What if Kurzweil doesn't make it?
What if all the switches get struck on destroy?
When the shuttle goes, we won't take it,
When the final counter-measures are deployed,"
Who is Kurzweil? What shuttle? Etc.
If the album only makes sense with the accompanying comic book, then only making that available as hardcover comic, that won't arrive for weeks after the album comes out is an odd decision.
Having said that, once I stumbled upon the explanation for his last concept album, I did enjoy it a lot more. Giving each track a counterpart track with an opposing mood makes for a disjointed, but interesting, album.
So I hold out hope that when the comic book arrives, the album will be more enjoyable.
I think it's trying to do two different things, and as result not doing either well.
It's trying to be a fun nerdcore pop album; long on geeky references, with occasional pathos to accent this. But fails as it's a concept album set in a dystopia. For instance the "watching kittens videos" and "don't feed the trolls" songs felt more melancholy and depressing than fun or pathos inspiring.
The other thing it's supposed have is "a bit of a concept behind it," with a "character that you follow throughout his life." But because most of the songs are trying to also be standalone songs, I'm just not finding the story here. But the chorus of the main track (released before the album), makes absolutly no sense to without more detail.
"What if Kurzweil doesn't make it?
What if all the switches get struck on destroy?
When the shuttle goes, we won't take it,
When the final counter-measures are deployed,"
Who is Kurzweil? What shuttle? Etc.
If the album only makes sense with the accompanying comic book, then only making that available as hardcover comic, that won't arrive for weeks after the album comes out is an odd decision.
Having said that, once I stumbled upon the explanation for his last concept album, I did enjoy it a lot more. Giving each track a counterpart track with an opposing mood makes for a disjointed, but interesting, album.
So I hold out hope that when the comic book arrives, the album will be more enjoyable.
