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,

Where to Start?

Where do I start? The world of music is complicated and utterly massive, so it would be crazy for me to start at the beginning, although I do like the idea of cavemen banging on rocks with other rocks to some sort of rhythm. The rock would certainly have been all the rage as a musical instrument back then. To be honest I can't think they would be able to experiment with many different genres.
Anyway, back to the present day. I think in this first proper post I'll just talk about my music taste a little. I invite you to comment with your own favourite bands and criticise mine as you see fit. Ok, my top five bands, um... You see the problem with this is that after my utter favourite band the order becomes a little hazy. The fact that I have an extremely varied music taste doesn't help, in fact it makes it a lot more difficult because I would like to give a balanced view of my music taste as well as just listing bands that I like. Well I'll try, no promises but here goes:

1. Iron Maiden

A few years ago I bought my first Iron Maiden album, Dance of Death. I had first heard their music a couple of years before that but at the time I hadn't given it much thought. So I purchased my first Iron Maiden album in a second hand shop in the town closest to where I live. The shop was one of those that sold second hand CDs, DVDs, and books, but also sold new musical instruments and various hippy paraphernalia. So, on to the album itself. At the time I didn't know much about the band, other than the fact that they were famous. The album art drew me in, I love the image of the hooded figure beckoning. I listened to the album in the car on the way back. My reaction was that the music was good, but I still did not merit it as anything more than Ok. It was the beginning of this year, or thereabouts that I began to listen to them once more. This time their music really grabbed me, and I began to put that album on a nearly constant loop when I listened to music whilst travelling. I think it was soon after this that I went out and purchased my second Iron Maiden album, again going by which artwork I liked most and what I could afford. This time I bought A Matter of Life and Death, I remember loving the image of the skeletal soldiers on the dark battlefield. Incidentally now the same image occupies a portion of my bedroom wall. Anyway this album went on to share the intensive listening that I was putting Dance of Death through. This album I liked very much, my favourite track being Brighter than a Thousand Suns. I then heard about the release of the film Iron Maiden: Flight 666. I was very enthusiastic about going to see this and so I did. At this point Iron Maiden were probably up near the top of my favourite bands but their exact position wasn't clear. The film changed that, I came out and whilst waiting for my lift home I came to the realisation that Iron Maiden were my favourite band. This has stuck over the year, and I suspect Iron Maiden will be my favourite band for years to come.

2. Flogging Molly

This is another band I discovered this year, I think I first heard them in May. I was recommended them by a friend. At first listen I smiled and chuckled. I don't believe this was because I thought their music was humorous as such, but because the concept of the type of music they play is so unusual but works so well. I love they way that they combine Traditional Irish Folk with the raw power of Punk Rock. After a few songs though I began to realise that as well as the concept of the band's music working, the standard of the music they played was phenomenal, their musicians are of a very high level of talent. I particularly like the prominent violin parts on their songs. I have found the music this band plays to be a helpful remedy for sadness and anger, their music just makes me smile. Over the last year they have worked their way into my list of my favourite bands, they are one of the bands I want to see live the most, second only to Iron Maiden.

As I have said before from hereon in this list becomes a little uncertain. The list that follows may not be in order, and may not be exactly correct as I will probably forget a band or two. Into uncharted waters we plunge.

3. Alestorm

This band I recently heard, and when I first listened to this band, I probably did laugh. This band's genre is Pirate Metal, an entirely ridiculous concept, but a very entertaining one. Every lyric of every song is some thing pirate-related. As time went on I did start to appreciate the band for its musical talent, they are indeed a talented set of musicians. I highly recommend that all people who are sceptical of such a genre of music go and actually listen to some of this band's music. When I first heard about this genre I was indeed astonished, but once I listened to the band I no longer thought that Pirate Metal was such a weird genre. This band are highly entertaining and well deserved of this place in my favourite bands.

4. Muse/Frank Zappa

No Muse/ Frank Zappa is not some crazy hybrid band (undoubtedly it would be good though), no, I just couldn't decide who I liked more, and here's why. Muse I like because I can listen to them when I just want to listen to some basic rock, or when I want to listen to something with good lyrics but is still heavy enough to rock to. Frank Zappa on the other hand is my second favourite guitarist of all time (Hendrix being number 1), and I love the fact that his music is full of raw talent but also much that is experimental and different from anything else. So because they are two very different I find it near impossible to compare them, so I have placed them at an equal level.

5. Foo Fighters/Blur/H.I.M

Again here is evidence of my indecisiveness, I cannot decide what order to put these bands in. Foo Fighters I very much like for their Nirvana-ish tones, and their guitar lines. Blur is a band that I have grown up with, and I had the pleasure of going to see them live in July. Lastly H.I.M. are another band that I really like, their lyrics are very creative and are extremely emotive.

Well there you have it, my five favourite bands. I apologise for the lack of decision in terms of which bands should be there, if you're like me you'll have the same problem.

A few bands that deserve a mention, in no particular order are:

• Nirvana
• Led Zeppelin
  
• Slayer
• Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. (This was nearly in the top five, in fact it would be but it was too hard to place)
• Them Crooked Vultures
• Fleetwood Mac
• Captain Beefheart

I could go on and on...

Anyway, that's all. Thanks very much for reading, I applaud you if you managed to sit through reading half of this, I know that it isn't fantastically written. I will aim in future to make my posts more themed and more interesting.

Let me know what you think, and tell me your favourite music if you want.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters

Edit 11/06/11: My current top five bands are not reflected in this post. At some point between the above post and now my tastes have changed somewhat. I still like all the above bands, but there have been some drastic changes to the list. I won't detail it all now since I may dedicate a future post to this subject or incorporate it into another. However I will say that apart from the top two, most of the bands mentioned are not in my top 5 anymore. Thanks as always, big_friendly_letters.