Thursday, September 10, 2015
Michael Monroe - Old King's Road
Check out Michael Monroes new single and video from his album "Blackout States" out October 9th!
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Album review
Backyard Babies new album 4 by 4
Backyard Babies is a rock band from Nässjö, Sweden that started in 1987. Members are Johan Blomquist on the bass, Nicke Borg the lead singer, Peder Carlsson on the drums and Dregen plays the guitar.
Backyard Babies harrow and harrow, but dosen’t reach full rockstar status. But they seem to think that they already have. After Dregen’s successful solo career I think he should take more place in Backyard and sing more since he can sing better than what Nicke does on this album, who seems to have been spending far too much time in his own ”Homeland”. He is not present on Backyard Babies latest album.
In my meaning they shouldn’t have done this album. It’s one of those ideas that could have remained in a dresser somewhere in Sweden.
A roughly retell of what someone said, reviewing this album,” it’s such a great album from Backyard Babies with influences from the greater bands like a ”bluesy Led Zeppelin” and ”Slade” among others with a lot of rock n’ roll attitude”. Correction, you do not hear Slade or Led Zeppelin in a positive way neither as an ”influence” or ”inspiration” on this album. The only thing you hear is all good music that have ever existed from the 70’s to the 21st century being grind down into a mediocre rock album. It’s not good at all. It’s not a nice surprise after a 5 year break as a band and it seems like many people just like the album because the haven't heard from Backyard in a while. So they are glad to hear from them, but what are we hearing?
”13 or Nothing” Was the first single from this album and it’s the song that the Four by Four album opens with and that´s the song that Backyard has toured with the whole summer. It’s a nice rock song with a well appeared cowbell. But I think this song is a bit thin, something is lacking in the lyrics here. They just sing the same thing over and over again, which can be okay if it’s executed properly, here it falls flat. Otherwise it’s a nice song.
”I’m On My Way To Save Your Rock n’ Roll” It’s certain riffs in the song that has a clear resemblance from Green Day. This is a song that sort of sounds like a softer and slower modern punk song rather than a rock song. It´s like a good try for a punk song, but it’s to slow. It’s lacking the punk energy. However it’s the most popular song on iTunes. This will probably be the best song on this album. Maybe they should thank Green Day for it…
”White Light District” This intro sounds like two Hardcore Superstar songs, apart from that it’s sounding a bit like the ”old” Backyard Babies. While listening to this I get hopeful and think it might be something good here, but that wont last for long as it turns out it is a mix off something from the 70’s like Black Sabbath, more Hardcore Superstar, Alice Cooper, Fall Out Boy and Sixx :am. Did I forget anyone? Not much of their own music here and I don’t get how Nicke Borg sings in this song. He forces out the words. He sounds tired and the singing is annoying.
”Bloody Tears” The only ballad on the album is not to melancholic, after listening to it you’re still in a good mood, nice lyric and the song holds a good paste thru out. Nothing in this song stands out, it’s a ballad with some sad lyrics and some power-music. Nothing new and nothing modern, it sounds like a bad version of an 80’s one hit wonder. We have all heard it before.
”Piracy” In the same style like the three first songs on the album, but has a slightly obnoxious tone to it or that is the direction I think they want this song to go in. This one is more like the ”old” Backyard Babies, the ”Minus Celsius-era” (one of their old hits) but with more 70’s sounding riffs, it’s not quite there.
”Never Finish Anything” Dregen sings with Nicke in a few places and that sounds good, more of that. So the lyrics seem to be right, they didn't quite finish this song.
”Mirrors (Shall Be Broken)” Nice intro, but it reminds me about something that I’ve heard before… again. I hear a clear resemblance from Bon Jovi, not Backyard Babies. It’s a bit ”small town redemption spirit” over this song and ”look we made it thru this any way, despite what you did to me”.
”Wasted Years” Best song on the album according to me. The singing is good for a change, nice lyrics, all the instruments sounds well together and some guitar that takes a fun turn musically. A mood lifting song.
”Walls” It’s a 7 minutes song and that’s a bit to long for Backyard Babies. It dosen’t even sound like a song. Where does this song go? Where does it end? With an outro that are way to long inspired by a Hitchcock movie (?) or what is going on? The message was a bit lost in this song for me. This is the last song on the album and I’m sort of glad it’s over.
The message of ”4 by 4” would be easier to access and easier to relate to if Nicke Borg would sing with more emotions and if we could get a sign that he still has a pulse, right now it sounds like he is vocally flatlining and what happened to the rest of Backyard? The other guys has almost vanished except from when they’re doing live shows. Aren’t they supposed to be a band?
When you listen to music or read a story, you want to be brought somewhere else for a while. On this album it doesn't seem like they mean what they’re singing, it just sounds like Nicke is reading out loud lyrics that doesn't make sense to music that sounds like a mix of several other bands.
What might be slightly more disturbing than the fact that Backyard Babies ”new” album is an result of them just copying and paste from the music that they have been listening to, is that Nicke Borg recently said in an interview that with this new album Backyard Babies sounds more like Backyard Babies. I disagree. It’s 9 songs after 5 something years, I think they could have done a bit better than that. It makes you wonder if Backyard has lost their songwriting/music making touch/skills but it proves that it’s not hard to be a musician these days when you can copy and paste from whoever and then call it your own instead of doing your own work and be a different and awesome musician.
This album is nr. 3 on Swedish album charts and it only proves that what Keith Richards recently said about Rap and Heavy Metal in an interview is right ” The fact that these things sells only proves how many tone-deaf it’s in the world” and I totally agree.
They should rename this album to a tribute album by Backyard Babies instead of calling it their own.
☠☠/ 5
I like Backyard, especially their album ”Making Enemies Is Good”. I was up 06:50 am to buy the ”4 by 4” album the same day it got released, and I’m a huge fan of Dregen’s solo-album, so I got really disappointed when it turned out to be everything but Backyard Babies on this album. This will the first album that I will return to iTunes.
Backyard Babies next time! More of your material/work, Dregen should defiantly sing more and Nicke needs a bucket of ice-cold water thrown over him before he enters the studio. I hope Dregen does another solo album soon.
Sunday, September 6, 2015
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