Album Openers

The opening song of an album is more important than you might think. It's the first thing you hear when you stick it on the stereo and it often decides whether someone will listen to the rest. Essentially it's got to hook the listener and get them to leave the album on. But what makes a good opening track? Here's a list of a few songs that I think work really well as album openers and I'll explain why in each case.

Kill the Rhythm - Gallows

The crushing first song from their debut album Orchestra of Wolves, Kill the Rhythm is fast paced and fierce. The listener is immediately drawn into the catchy song and can't help listening to the rest of the album. It's easily one of the best songs on the album and is my second favourite Gallows song, after London is the Reason from their 2009 album Grey Britain. Recently Frank Turner, who had fronted the band for both their albums, announced that he was leaving the band. He has since been replaced with ex-Alexisonfire singer Wade MacNeil. A third album is in the works and their latest Twitter post says:

"Drums and guitars for the new songs are tracked and sounding huge!"

I'm really looking forward to the new album and to see what the new singer produces. They've released one track with their new singer (available from www.gallows.co.uk) called True Colours, and it's rather good but at only 37 seconds long it's way too short. Whenever they next hit the UK I'll be there, I've seen them twice already (the most recent being Sonisphere 2011, the day after Frank's announcement of his imminent departure) and they were fantastic.

Since We've Been Wrong - The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta are renowned for their individual brand of music full of mesmerising intricacies and complex melodies. One result of this however is that their music isn't all that popular in the mainstream musical community, and I think that this is because people find it hard to connect with it. The good thing about Since We've Been Wrong, the opening song of their latest work Octahedron is that although it has many of the features typical of the band, it has a consistent vocal part that reappears throughout. This repeated chorus has the effect of bridging the gap and as a result I think Octahedron would be a good album to start with for anyone looking to get into The Mars Volta. Another element of the song that I like is a piano trill which has a nice effect.

Aces High - Iron Maiden

If this isn't a classic then nothing is. Having stood the test of time Aces High remains popular today with millions of people. This fast paced, action packed song is the first track from the 1984 album Powerslave which also contains the famous Maiden songs: 2 Minutes to Midnight and Powerslave. Centring on the Battle of Britain and the pilots flying the Supermarine Spitfire planes the song makes you feel like you're in the cockpit as the music twists and turns like a plane in a dogfight. For years the band opened with this song, only changing it recently for their tours where they're playing more songs from recent years. I predict however that it'll return to their performance at its rightful place: the first song on the setlist.

New Born - Muse

Even if you don't know Muse at all you may well have heard this song. The first track of their 2001 album Origin of Symmetry, it has appeared on television advertisements in the UK at least. The riff to this song is fantastic, and Matt Bellamy's vocals are great as usual. Like Aces High it's fast paced, a quality I think helps create a good album opener. The band played the album, Origin of Symmetry all the way through at their shows at Reading and Leeds Festival 2011 and I've heard it was a fantastic gig (sadly I couldn't be there). I prefer this, their second album, and Absolution, their third, to their newer material as it's less produced. I feel their current genre, especially their latest release, The Resistance, has too many effects and that this obscures the music.

One More Time With Feeling - Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

The opening song from his debut album Get Cape's One More Time With Feeling is a masterpiece. Featuring the picked guitar melody technique that Sam Duckworth (the man behind Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) is so good. It's a short song like most of the rest on the album, but it's a really lovely piece. The lyrics are thoughtful and make the listener think. This is true throughout the album. Overall the album is my favourite of Get Cape's releases.

Duckworth has also released an album under his real name which came out at the end of August. I quite liked it, it's has many parallels with the work on The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, the album that One More Time With Feeling features on. You can read my review of it here: http://malfunctioning-musical-madness.blogspot.com/2011/09/mannequin-review.html

Enter Sandman - Metallica

This is a really interesting choice of album opener. It works very well, its fast, powerful and extremely catchy. It's debatably the band's best known song. However I think that's a problem. An album opener should be a hook, but having the album's main hit right at the start is risky. It means that the rest of the piece may not live up to the opening track. For me this isn't an issue with this particular album because it isn't my favourite song. My album highlight (and in fact my favourite Metallica song full stop) is the eighth track (out of twelve) on the album: Nothing Else Matters. Enter Sandman has a fantastic riff and a chorus that demands crowds' to sing along with no regard for the condition of their vocal chords. A really good song.

So there you have it, a selection of my favourite album openers. Out of that list I'd say Aces High is the best at introducing the album. In my humble opinion it's the best album opener of all time. A good album opener is important and if a band gets it wrong they can lose a lot of potential fans that won't listen to the rest of the piece. Musicians, take not,

The Mannequin: Review

Sam Duckworth, aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, has released an album under his own name as a side project from his main act and it's been available since 29th August. I've gotten hold of a copy and given it a listen. I enjoyed what I heard; here's my review.

The first track, which begins with a nice piano and guitar intro, immediately evokes an air of nostalgia. The drums are then introduced and the three parts combine nicely. The song is fairly reminiscent of Get Cape's first album, The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, which incidentally was my favourite. I'd been hoping for this since Duckworth had described the album as different to his current work with Get Cape and I'd always preferred his earlier work. The song gets a little heavier around 2:30 which is really nice; the best part of the track.

The second track, Crane Song (The Wall), begins with a guitar intro more complex than that of the first song. Using a picking technique that he does very well, in this track Duckworth provides further parallels with the first Get Cape album. Around 2:20 a really nice chord progression is introduced. It's not the most memorable song of the album, but that's not really a problem. Very nice.

Next up is Nights, which begins with guitar and vocals melding well with the stronger drum beat that this song boasts. There are places in the song however where the vocals seems at odds with the other parts, so in this respect it could be better. This might not be such a problem, but on second listen it's still distracting.

The fourth track begins with another lovely guitar melody using a different tone than has been used before. The vocals in this song remind me of Chronicles which, as I've said before, is what I was hoping for. The lyrics and the way they're sung are really soothing and contribute to the relaxing effect that the album, and all of Sam Duckworth's current work, has. About 2:10 another guitar part is introduced which is nice. It's definitely a highlight of the album for me.

By Rhiannon Rees (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Next we reach Angels in the Snow, which starts off with two parts; one of which is a lovely picked guitar tune. The two parts go together nicely, something that Duckworth generally excels at. I particularly like the lyrics to this song, they remind me a little of Regina Spektor's work on her album Far. Also the vocals work well with the rest of the piece. The inclusion of an organ part in the background is interesting addition that works well. Finally there's a pause towards the end of the song that's nice for some reason.

The sixth song, The Miracle of Science, is more electronic than the other songs, but not too much so. I've got no problem with electronic music I should add, I just think that the later Get Cape records are a little too much so and I prefer the first album which is much more acoustic. The song's a little mysterious at the beginning and reminds me a bit of some of David Bowie's work on Space Oddity. It's a lot slower than the rest of the album which sets it apart; it also has a waltz style which makes it a little different. These differences don't ruin the song, on the contrary they make it unique and worth listening to. About 3:20 in the track speeds up and I find myself nodding along. At the end the lyrics have an effect that sound like they're being whispered which works and creates a nice atmosphere. Overall the song isn't a hit in the conventional sense, but it's one of my favourites from the album.

The seventh track is called This Farmer, and begins at a slower pace than many of the other songs. About a minute in the drums are introduced way too loudly. They're only slightly too prominent but the effect is very distracting. The lyrics are repetitive in places as well. About 3:30 the song speeds up which produces a nice effect. The presence of backing vocals sets this track apart from the others and gives it an interesting quality.

Next up is Clementine, the eighth song of the album, which has a niceish guitar introduction- I'm not crazy about it but it's ok. It gets better about 30 seconds in when another acoustic guitar part is added. The song however lacks variation which makes it a little monotonous- not necessarily boring, but definitely lacking. Towards the end of the song there's a slight change to the chord progression; it changes to an ascending chord pattern which is nice. This relieves some of the sense of monotony, but not enough.

The final track, 8888, begins with drums and guitar; very much like some of the work on Chronicles though the guitar part in the background is definitely different. Everything in this song fits together well, it's all very tight. The tambourine is a nice addition, however it’s way too loud. It's more prominent than the guitar, which is a problem. The song works well as the album finale as the parts when there are lots of parts interacting make it seem grand. It's not terribly interesting for the most part, but it's a nice song.

Overall it's a nice album. I like the fact that it's less electronic than Get Cape's newer work, and that it's similar to the first album that was released under that name. In places it is repetitive and can seem to lack variation in others. There are moments when everything is tight but others when it seems like things aren't quite melding together well enough. Despite these faults it's a nice piece, very relaxing. I give it a 7.8/10. It's not as good as The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager, but then I suppose comparing the two is a little strange since they're from separate projects. To summarise it's a nice relaxing album where, although it has faults, the talent is obvious. Good work from Sam Duckworth as expected, and I'll be keeping an eye on any future developments.

Recent Discoveries

I'm always discovering new music, whether by recommendations from friends or by hearing about it elsewhere. Calling it "new music" doesn't in this case mean that it is recent in the chronological sense, just that I hadn't heard it before now and that it's something that I think you might not have heard before and that you might appreciate.

 ††† (Crosses)

A while back I downloaded the debut EP of Chino Moreno's (of Deftones) side project ††† (Crosses). I like Deftones' music, although I don't know it that well, and I remember liking Chino's vocals so I thought I'd give it a listen. The fact it was free (legally I might add) sweetened the deal a measure, but when I hit play I was ready to give it a fair chance without any prejudice, or pre-bias as the case may be. I really liked it; the vocals seemed like a fusion of My Chemical Romance and HIM. The former really came out during snatched moments of the vocals where Chino really sounded like Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance). In terms of overall genre it's a combination of Electronica and Rock. The way in which the two parts fit together is really good, neither dominating the music. Listening to it as I write this, I'm struck by a moment in the fifth song that's very Nine Inch Nails. I was pleasantly surprised by this piece and will be watching them closely. Go to their website to download the EP (www.crossesmusic.com).




Parov Stelar

I can't really comment too much on this artist since I know very little about them. The song I've heard I first came into contact with at work and loved it. So I bought it when I got home and have been rather addicted to it. It's called Come Closer, and it's one of the most relaxing things in my library. Do check him out.

Devin Townsend

There's a story to this. For years I'd loved the album artwork for Devin Townsend's Ziltoid the Omniscient but had never listened to it. Not that long ago a friend of mine was collating album art as inspiration for an art project. I sent a copy of the album artwork to her and it was well received. Not long later the same friend tells me that the music from said album is also phenomenal, so I decided to get hold of it. Turns out it's awesome. Lots of bands try to be silly or funny and succeed, but often when they try to take themselves seriously it all falls apart. The thing with this album is that while it is hilarious (it's about an omniscient being besieging Earth for coffee) the talent is obvious and the music itself is enjoyable; and that's difficult to pull off. Annoyingly he was playing really close to where I live a couple of months back; I wish I'd listened to it sooner.

The Protomen

Just the other day I listened to The Protomen for the first time as was very taken by them. I don't know them that well, having only given them a preliminary listen, but they're rather good. I listened to their self titled album (The Protomen) which was full of lovely choral type parts that really gave the music something that made them unique. I've got their other album, Act II: The Father of Death, which I'll listen to soon; but from their debut I'm expecting good things.

That's it for now. I'll write one of these articles every so often so that I can talk about new things I find that might not necessarily have their own individual posts.