The Grouchy Gaijin's Thoughts on Music and Such

The other day I received a submission from Steve Hirjak who is the main member of the band The Constabulary out of Seattle.  His album is called This Life Postponed.

His press kit states " The album is a series of demos and ideas recorded while building a recording studio in his basement. Steve is hard at work recording a new album now that the studio is complete."

Let's start with the good.  Killer album cover!  Unfortunately the music doesn't match the vibe I got from the cover.  I thought this is some kind of Rock and Roll prison guard who is going to blow me away with some righteous guitar.  When I listened to the album I almost felt like I was listening to a guard whose goal in life was to play middle of the road music that is in search of an identity.  To be sure there are some good points and good songs on this record, however most of the songs sound, to us here at grouchygaijin.com, like Steve is trying to figure out who he is musically.   I wanted to give this album the benefit of more ears so I played it for Gabe O the Magical Mystical Mexican Biker Elf and contributor to grouchygaijin.com

Track 3 - Tomorrow - Rocks.  I like it.  The drums are really cool and the guitar sounds goods.  I like the majority of the vocals a lot.  Steve has a good voice.  Then he gets to the chorus and goes into the falsetto - it sounded so cool until then.  That aside, this is the best song on the album.  I like it.

The problems are basically in two areas:

1. It sounds like the music is overproduced.  There are a lot of layers and he definitely put a lot of work, thought and emotion into each of the tracks.  I hear lots of little parts, but the fundamental song gets lost.

2. The falsetto doesn't work.  In fact, it really bugged me by the end.  Case in point track 4 One More Try.  The music is pretty good.  The guitar intro had me pretty excited then the singing started.  Dude, it ruined it for us.

The Grouch rating is 1 and 1/2 scowls - harsh I know, but dude the vocals really got on my nerves.  Please consider singing in your normal voice.  I'd like to hear the next album.

Add your comment

Your name:
Subject:
Comment (you may use HTML tags here):
Word verification:
	Post Preview

yvComment v.1.21.1