Switch on all the dark and let the music spin
Written: Aug 06 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: A cohesive and compelling performance that blends new wave elements with modern rock.
Cons: Sonically speaking, it's a bit monochromatic. A few cheap lyrics.
The Bottom Line: Some parts of this record are Drop-Dead gorgeous, but I enjoy it more for the emotional impact than the technical and artistic achievements.
|
|
|
| divad23's Full Review: Drop-Dead - The Violet Burning Movies |
The Violet Burning is an "underground" Christian band that appears to have been in existence for at least as long as I've been a fan of music of any kind. (That's since the mid-90's, in case you were wondering.) Especially since I only listened to Christian music in the 90's, and I quickly zeroed in on modern and alternative rock as my preferred genres, you'd think that I'd have had a chance to sample some of their work. But back in those days, when radio was my main conduit to what was "cool", it was close to impossible to hear much of anything that went the indie route. But The Violet Burning had apparently built up a following, often getting name-checked in reviews and cited as an influence by other Christian bands. They probably would have been a perfect fit for a college kid like me, had I been more open-minded, but alas, some accusations of "selling out" by closed-minded friends who though expressing oneself outside of the typical Christian-ese language was tantamount to denying one's faith made sure that I stayed away.
So my first exposure to the band didn't come until 2003, when I moved into an apartment that I shared with a friend who was a big fan of the Violets. He loaned me their album Demonstrates Plastic and Elastic, which I think was a few years old at that point, and I found some of it to be intriguing, but overall, I didn't get it. It felt like 80's new-wave rock meeting up with 90's-style alternative fuzz, and there was a certain sneering quality to a lot of Michael Pritzl's lyrics and vocal performances that kind of baffled me. At this point I was mature enough not to regard these qualities as making it not a "Christian" record, since I had been listening to a lot more mainstream music since about 2000. But there wasn't that one song that just sunk in, so I filed them away in my mind and kind of forgot about them. Since then I heard about some more worship-oriented records that the band had put out, but ironically, that was no longer an intriguing concept to me by that point (being totally overkilled by a lot of the popular figures in Christian rock). So I remained uninterested.
This year, I finally decided to seek out some of the Violets' music on my own and really give the band a chance. The brand new album Drop-Dead had been released, and I found out that they were on the bill along with their new label mate Kevin Max (they're on an underground label, Northern Records, before anyone bugs me for saying they're both independent and on a label), and also The Listening, whose lead members had actually produced Drop-Dead. Figuring I might as well learn the songs for the show, I ventured forth, and unfortunately I found myself rather bored with the album the first few times through. There's something about the fuzzy sound of an electric guitar being strummed - if it doesn't leap out of the speakers with enough power, or exhibit enough variance beyond simple chords, I'll prefer the acoustic any day, just to get a "sharper" sound in there to break up the haze. With its electronically tweaked drums and bass, and those electric guitars, comprising a mostly bare-bones band, that made it difficult for me to really latch on to most of the songs, all of which were in 4/4 time and seemed to offer little variance (even becoming tediously slow at times). I appreciated the new-wave meeting the anthemic, like The Cure colliding with U2 and a little bit of Radiohead, and I could see how some other bands I liked such as Something Like Silas claimed them as an influence, but it just wasn't doing it for me. Oh well, I figured, maybe they'll be better live.
I was right, and I was wrong. The bare-bones threesome managed to work up a wall of sound that got me really excited at a few points, causing me to pay attention to a few standout songs that I couldn't figure out how I had overlooked on the recording. At the same time, now that I've been forced to go back and listen more carefully to the songs that I enjoyed live, I'm noticing more layers - little things like keyboards or synthesizers or captivating melodies that stand out from what once seemed like monotony. Pritzl tends to be a little more plainspoken and moody than the songwriting style that I usually enjoy, be he can easily turn from lamenting a broken relationship to expressing fervor for God, all without any of it sounding insincere. Drop-Dead turns out to be very cohesive and compelling as an album - it seems to chronicle a pending break-up or divorce, and an internal struggle for a person who has run the risk of losing his childlike sense of wonder. Underneath the sea of guitars and electronics, you can sense that very human core, an urge which says, I recognize this peace that I had long ago and I miss it. Let's go back to the way things were. It's a concept that is at once romantic, and highly spiritual, and for that, I've really learned to appreciate Drop-Dead.
Humm
Turn out all the lights and let's begin
Switch on all the dark and let the music spin...
Curiously, the album starts with the best of its "slow songs". (Maybe "slow" isn't the right word, since its rhythm keeps a fairly brisk pace, but it's definitely a mellow song, not a rocker.) As the drums click-clack along, low synths buzz in the background, and the song eventually opens up with gentle guitar lines that glimmer like stars in the night sky. Michael Pritzl takes on a more tender voice for this song, gently stating the thing he's looking for in the chorus: "All my life, looking for love I cannot find within me. Hold me now, I think I'm breaking." A little "mercy to light my way tonight" is what he asks for in the bridge, and this could be a plea to God, or given the greater context of the album, it could be a lover from whom he wants one more chance. Either way, it's a compelling opener that contains a fragile realization that loving ourselves seems rather meaningless if there's not another being to give love and to receive love from.
All I Want
Even though I'm far away and I cannot say the words
"I love you forever and ever", forever, I'm with you...
More electronics swarm about, like distant crickets or radio signals or something, before this song gets going. It's a fairly upbeat anthem, and its simple declaration that "all I want is you" kind of caused me to dismiss it as a lightweight rocker at first, but it's slowly winning me over due to the way the pace of it picks up with its danceable rhythm that meets a lively backdrop of guitars and real drums. The lyrics are a tad repetitive, with all of the "forever"s and "with you"s, so Pritzl isn't going to win any awards for lyrics or even vocal performance here (he's reverting to his usual, more reedy and nasal tone that reminds me a bit of Joseph Arthur), but the backing band is solid here and the chorus sticks with you.
Do You Love Me?
Your imaginary love, it's in everything you know
It won't bring you to the sky
It's in everything you touch, your imaginary love
Baby, tell me, are you mine?
This is one of the tracks that I didn't notice until it blew me away in a live setting. Now I can't get enough of it. Ironically, it may contain some of the flimsiest lyrics on the album, with verses stating things like "I can't live without your love" and "Don't leave me so blind", and a chorus that has the audacity to solely subsist of the words, "Do you love me, do you love me, do you love me tonight?" It's the sinister, catchy lead guitar part and the droning "ooh-ooh"s and Michael's screams of "Oh yeah!" that make this one work - it may be totally inane, but it's got swagger. You might expect the titular question to result in the phrase, "Now that I can dance" - thankfully it doesn't, but this blast of a rocker might make you want to get up and dance all the same. It's one of those songs that was just designed to inject energy into a room. I also think that the bridge, which discredits a person for their "imaginary love", adds a little more intelligence to the song, because the purposes ceases to be getting someone to love them - rather, it calls them out for faking it.
Already Gone
Please, don't tell me no
Tell me that your eyes are getting brighter
I can feel your aching heart up close to mine
Now, shake it, shake it, shake it...
The sudden crash0bang ending of "Do You Love Me?" leads nicely into the high-end whining of this song's lead guitar line. (I say "whining", but it's not annoying, just persistent.) This is where I really start to get the sense that this album has more on its mind than just inane lovelorn ditties - you get the sense that a woman who has been with the protagonist for a while is turning around to leave, and he's lamenting that he can't make her "light up" any more, because in her mind, he's "already gone". (Actually, it's easy to mis-hear the chorus, where it says "If I could make you light up" - at times it sounds like "I f*ckin' make you light up". Enunciation isn't so great here.) The drums are strong here and the zippy lead guitar line and a little bit of keyboards really help to break through the musical haze that dominates a lot of the album. Chalk up one more memorable chorus - at this point they're four for four despite some minor setbacks in the lyrics department.
More
But, you're beautiful tonight, in your ultraviolet light
Kiss me softly and sing to me, I'd give anything...
Sometimes lee is more. That's a valuable lesson that the band could stand to learn on an otherwise lovely, dark track that creates a starkly beautiful ambience with its electronically-munched drums and clean guitar lines that call out at the beginning of the song. It's like floating on an open sea on some futuristic world. The problem is that this goes on for a good two and a half minutes before we get to the actual lyrics, when all of the buildup that the band really wants to accomplish has really been done within about a minute. The song itself is rather minimal on lyrics, containing some compelling lines but ultimately relying on the simplistic line "I've never wanted more". It actually gets fairly loud in the middle despite its initial mellowness, which is a nice change of pace, but Michael's vocals aren't at their best, and some lines like, "Show me how to do it, to help me find a way" could use a little more work. The song could really be whittled down from 5:40 to about four minutes without losing anything essential.
Swan Sea
I'm begging darling, please, crawling on my knees
Light the way to thee
I've sang this song before, broken, on a troubled shore
Light the way to thee...
This song can't seem to decide if it wants to be upbeat or mellow, so it kind of floats in the inoffensive ether. That kinda bugs me, so I've had a hard time really latching onto this one. It's got some mellow U2-isms in the guitar lines, which isn't a bad thing, but I think it's the repetition of the line "Light the way to thee" the bugs me - it seems lazy to me when songwriters insert the Old English "thee" or "thou" into a song that otherwise uses the modern English. There are also some "doo doo doo"s in the middle of the song that seem so half-hearted that you have to wonder why Michael even put them in there. (It's kind of like how Bono annoys me by singing "doo doo doo"s over an otherwise enjoyable guitar solo in "Original of the Species", except at least he sounds like he's trying.) I never feel like I get an explanation of what swans have to do with this calm sea that he wants to sail on (though they make for an interesting album cover), , so this registers as the first song on the album to make little impact on me.
Eleanor
With our young hearts, we're as good as gone,
We're no better than the day that we were born...
I'm fine with rock & roll singers or songs who sound a bit obnoxious. But something about Michael's tone of voice here just doesn't seem to fit into the love song that he's trying to create. The quietly chugging guitars in the verse make it a bit of a bouncy pop song (in the Violets' droll, dark-new-wave sort of way), before a catchy but ultimately weak chorus pops out, in which Michael gives us his snottiest sneer "Eleanor, I would give most anything to be where you are, ooh ooh ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh." Yeah, not much to work with there. (There's even a bridge which dares to repeat, "You know you got it, yeah, you really got it, baby". How embarrassing for him.) I guess it's less creepy than "Ilaria" from Demonstrates Plastic and Elastic, but I can't say that I like much about it other than the melodic force of the chorus, which gets even more compelling as the song heads toward its climax, with some slick, fiery guitar playing that eventually swells up to an explosion timed perfectly with Michael's shout at the end - a beautifully timed transition into the next track.
Rewind
Kiss me, kiss me, then I'll go
And leave you here all shaken on the floor
I've loved you always, and even more tonight
I never meant to hurt you, I never meant goodbye...
This track is unabashedly 80's. I should really hate it for that, but I have to admit that the relentless "thump-thump-thump-thump" of the retro drums and bass gives the song a wonderfully cheeky feel. This might be my other favorite on the album, after "Do You Love Me?" and "Humm". Michael remarked in concert that he was confused by some critics not understanding the lyrics, which playfully beg, "Shoot, shoot, shoot me through the heart" to a lover has hurt him and later get more serious, begging the person not to go as he says what he really means, "I forgot to say 'I love you' this time". The fun's in the details here - the vocorder-processed BGV's that beg, "No, don't stop, rewind", the hand claps, and the interplay between human and robotic elements. Alright, so it's one of those songs that the Christian radio watchdogs won't get. I was rather amused by Michael's explanation of the song and his comment (a clear dig at mellow radio station The Fish) that The Violet Burning doesn't get played on the radio because they're "only safe for part of the family".
Blown Away
The two of us together would never be forever
The shining rain running down your face
And that skipping sound that my heart would make
All I've wished is gone...
There are actually a lot of upbeat rockers on the album - this being the last of those - it might just be the sheer number of those within similar subjects and rhythms that it becomes easy for them to bleed together in the listener's mind. This one's a little more buried in the guitar buzz, and it doesn't take hold as easily, but Michael still manages to grab me with the line "Sing it while we're young", as if it implies that time is running out for this couple and he's holding onto the last vestiges of romance that he can, declaring "I won't desert you" even though she's already starting to check out emotionally. The song gets a little repetitive, but it's an effective lament, one that appeals to fond memories of the beginning in order to prevent the inevitable end.
Trans
This track is kind of a waste of space that would have worked better if it was just a lingering fade-out from the previous track. It's simply the buzz of guitars (possibly recorded and then played backwards) rehashing the guitar chords from "Blown Away" for about forty seconds.
The Ends Begin
Hold me so tight and tell me tonight, whispering soft to my heart
You move me, like you did back then, I wish these days would never end....
Man, I thought this song was so boring at first. I was irked when the band closed with it live, too, and didn't play "Humm". But it's another one of those that has a subtle beauty which I've come to appreciate. I think it's the way that beat slowly and insistently bumps and bangs its way through the song that makes it feel like such a dirge - there's a very sparse latticework of instruments that drive this song, with the drums and vocals being the prominent elements until the guitars and fake strings start to build up a few minutes in. Mellow keyboards (this is where I can tell the band influenced Something Like Silas) fill in some of the quieter moments, and it's actually that point where the drums fall away and Michael's voice almost breaks as he sings, "I fall for you, breathless dear, I'm going down" that I can't help but feel a real, raw emotion. It's a beautiful idea for a song that just gets dragged out for too long due to its ornery tempo and a drummer that plays it too simple. Several moments will make you feel a bit misty-eyed, but other moments will make your eyelids start to feel very heavy.
One Thousand Years
I needed to forgive you, I needed to throw it down
Into the depths of the sea that forgets these things, beneath the walls of sound...
The album closes with a totally blatant U2 rip, which feels uncomfortably similar to "Where the Streets Have No Name" at several points. That said, the Violets copy U2 much more convincingly than most Christian bands who copy U2. And given the source material and the sense of release communicated through this song, it's hard not to feel something. Michael is singing almost acapella at the beginning, with just the low hum of synth to accompany him, until the drums and a very light guitar line gently start to pick up and then take off running. (Like I said, exactly how U2 once did it.) The lyrics even remind me of "Where the Streets Have No Name", stating "I wanna run, I want to fall into your arms", with some of the depictions of searching high and low for peace echoing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". It's all got that elated feeling of "I've finally arrived at some heavenly place and I'm exhausted, but I've made it", so it's a compelling enough closing song, but the final refrain of "Yeah, you're my heart, you're my home" does seem a bit cheap and manipulative. Maybe sometimes you can communicate powerful emotions by saying something simple, but there are times when I think it would benefit Pritzl not to rest on simple repetition, especially on a song that runs close to seven minute long and closes out your album.
I appreciate the personality and work ethic behind this band. I haven't mentioned other band members at all in this review, and it's not that their contributions weren't important (Josiah Sherman does his duties well on the synth bass and various programming/synth duties, and Jason lord Mize can add a lot of percussive power to a song when Pritzl wants him to - Pritzl actually jokes about his name, saying that he's a lord, but only a little lord, because the "Lord of lords" needs some other lords to lord over), but Pritzl wrote all the songs and I can tell that he seems to hire band members on an as-needed basis for studio recording and touring, so he's the one doing a lot of the hard work and maintaining the vision here (hence, less potential worry about impending breakups due to band members with conflicting visions). Pritzl is an admirable and thoughtful guy - at least when I saw the band live, he opened the concert in heartfelt prayer, which is never something you'd expect to hear from a band whose appeal isn't generally to "typical Christian" tastes, and he also showed a real knack for humor and sarcasm. The scared, the silly, and even the sorrowful are allowed to coexist in The Violet Burning's world, and I really respect them for that. I may wish they'd step it up a level in terms of making the music a little more diverse and thinking about the lyrics a little harder before committing a song to tape. But at least I know they're just being themselves and not dumbing it down for the sake of a demanding record label. That's promising enough to make me interested in checking out whatever they do next.
ALBUM WORTH:
Humm $1.50
All I Want $1
Do You Love Me? $1.50
Already Gone $1
More $1
Swan Sea $.50
Eleanor $.50
Rewind $1.50
Blown Away $1
Trans $0
The Ends Begin $1
One Thousand Years $1
TOTAL: $13
Band Members (for this album, anyway):
Michael Pritzl: Vocals, guitars, synth, bass, moog, drones, prophet, Rhodes, programming, Mellotron, sampling
Josiah Sherman: Bass, synth, voyager, XT80
Jason lord Mize: Drums, percussion, programming, piano, handclaps
Gabriel Wilson and Chris Greely (a.k.a. the Glitter Twins): Drums, programming, various production duties
Website: http://www.thevioletburning.com
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
divad23
|
 in Music |
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: David Martin
Location: Pasadena, CA
Reviews written: 570
Trusted by: 263 members
About Me:
Just add an implicit "in my humble opinion" to every sentence I write.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.