This review comes as a guest post from Wicky. I’ll take this oppertunity to to thank him deeply for his contribution, and anyone else who wants to do a review - please say so. Great job Wicky.

Release Date: November 1, 2005

Track listing:

Like white on black, Dallas Green’s debut solo album is quite a contrast to that of his regular band Alexisonfire. Originally only available at live shows or off the internet, City and Colour - as Dallas named his project - soon garnered the attention of the Alexisonfire faithful, and a studio album was assembled. The album, featuring a total of 10 songs, was well received by both Alexisonfire fans, and listeners who had no such appreciation for the screaming tunes of Alexis. The heavier listeners were won over from the sincere music and lyrics as well as the fact that city and colour was still considered indie and associated with Alexis, where as the traditional listeners enjoyed the alternative to the over produced pop-music of today. Whichever you were, the album was well received.

First impressions are supposed to tell a lot about someone, however this is not the case with this album as the opening track, …Off By Heart, is the most bland of the album. However with the next track a shimmer of hope is starting to appear from the album. A track which sounds better after a few listens; Like Knives displays a glimpse of the vulnerable work Dallas Green creates with regularity. Hello, I’m In Delaware appears to be the first of two tracks on the record dealing with time away from home. Although audibly calm, the track shows the evident hardships touring places on Dallas, who tends to tour extensively with Alexis.

Produced as a single, Save Your Scissors appears to be. With the sincere lyrics, hidden with a happy-go-lucky tune, the song seems as if it was produced as a hit, and boy did that hit the mark. Although not the highlight of this album, Save Your Scissors is a solid song which should not go over looked, but grows tiresome after repeated listening.

From track 6 on, Sometimes is solid, if not classic. Day Old Hate shows the most sincere thing to come out of Canada since Sarah McLachlan hit the scene, with beautiful vocals, an accompanying piano tune, and a very warm, but chilling melody. Continuing on with Sam Malone - one of the first songs Dallas wrote as a teenager - a good rhythm appears, later more prominent on Bring Me Your Love. The rhythm is ridden throughout the song with an accompanying lead guitar track until the riff of the album is reached, sung to; “And I know, there is - some place I can go, where no one knows my name”, borrowed from a similar tune by Alexisonfire.

The Highlight of the album comes with the second single; Comin’ Home. From the opening lick, to the solemn lyrics, this song is the cream of the crop. The song tells of travels across Canada, and of a relationship, possible on the rocks because of it. A chilling lead guitar track, plays throughout the song encouraging thoughts of what else Dallas has up his sleeve. But the real treat comes with the bridge. “You told me life was a risk”, he sings. Emotion pouring out into the lyrics, the song breaks in the chorus until the end of the song, and so ends a song that won’t soon be forgotten.

Sometimes (I wish) is the end to the album, and is a huge contrast to the opener. Returning again to some sort of rhythm, last seen on Sam Malone, the tambourine featured on this track is the only form of percussion featured on the album. The song, features Dallas asking his love, if life would be different if he was just a “simple man”. The song, after a good five minutes, ends with the sung word; “Sometimes”, rightfully naming the album with just the single word.

In the end, the album seems stark in comparison to Alexisonfire here, yet there is more than enough emotion to make up for it. The stripped down style may not be for everyone - but the lyrics and music is sincere if you are tired of what else is playing on the radio. And if you are this is a great place to start, as this album is absolutely solid. However, don’t expect much more than what it really is, as it’s with the follow up, Bring Me Your Love, that Dallas Green begins to find himself, and take a fuller direction with City and Colour. Dallas’ calm tunes and raw emotion are front and centre here, and his voice is one in a million, if you’re looking for some raw - yet real, this is for you.

Overall - 7.5/10

Release Date: August 22, 2006

Track listing:

1. Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints
2. This Could Be Anywhere In the World
3. Mailbox Arson
4. Boiled Frogs
5. We Are the Sound
6. You Burn First
7. We Are the End
8. Crisis
9. Keep It on Wax
10. To A Friend
11. Rough Hands

2006’s Crisis came to the forefront as a new album, behind which lay a questionable album catalogue for Alexisonfire.  2004’s Watch Out was a surprise to many fans, and certainly not a continuation of the sound found on the self titled record.  Watch Out took a strange diversion with interesting and structural guitar playing, rather than the rough and harsh chords of the first album.  Lyrically it was a lot different too, as George Pettit took a back-seat to the melody of Dallas Green, and even his moments of vocal expression were much more understandable and much less powerful than they had been.  To some old fans AOF had a lot of ground to make up and a lot of apologies to be made, while to newer fans, drawn in by the melody of the sophomore album, more of the same would be super.

The album begins as powerfully as it really could. Instruments are practically cast aside as Wade and George exchange anger, screaming “Alright, this is from our hearts, sincerity over simple chords, we made some mistakes, we made some mistakes, but it’s a long time coming when you’re giving it everything”. Power and aggression bleeds from this song as the powerful guitars from the first album are back, but still with hints of beautiful melody from Watch Out. Things seem to have mixed to make a wonderful concoction.

The second track introduces new drummer Jordan “Ratbeard” Hastings, who is the new drummer from this album onwards. “This Could Be Anywhere in the World” stems on almost exactly from the previous track, with the intros and outros melding together, we still find the same aggression from George and it is beautifully paralleled by a slower and more melodic chorus from Dallas. Wade’s punk-like vocals also fit in well in a number of spaces making the track a good mark of Alexis throwing all resources into the album.

The album continues in a similar way, with aggression and beauty set against each other against a backdrop of powerful guitars and hard-hitting drums. Of course, the album does find fault: “You Burn First” seems agonizingly slow, with a strange intro more fitting to the previous album - it certainly doesn’t belong here. That is not to say Alexisonfire cannot manage slow songs, and as we see on the (almost ballad) “Rough Hands” screaming can be beautiful. The song captures Green’s vocals perfectly as he takes the front seat to tell a sorry of love that didn’t work. The guitars on the track do seem to fit more with the previous album, but the aggression of the vocals and the heart tearing story found in the lyrics allow it to fit as a beautiful ending track.

The artwork of the album shows the aftermath of the great North American blizzard of 1977, which a number of the albums tracked are loosely centred on. The title track “Crisis” in particular details the hardship of the storm in its lyrics:

“The temperature is through the floor
Your fingers are turning black
There’s a crisis knocking at your door

1-9-7-7

1-9-7-7!

You better try to make it home
The snow is getting too deep to drive
your car might be a coffin”

Overall, the album steps away from the progression of Watch Out, but not too far to disappoint newer fans. However, for anyone wanting a drop back to the s/t they may find themselves disappointed as the band move more into their hardcore influences. The technically beautiful intros of the first album have all but gone and Dallas’s vocals seem to shine through more than ever. This album is a triumph to me, but will split fans down a strict line.

Overall - 8.9/10

It has been quite a while since my last review, its been a summer with few albums of interest, but some news of albums to come. I realise that anyone who ever reads this may miss reviews and i will, from today, continue my stint of bringing people news and reviews of albums (both past and present).

Along with this i will introduce something new to my found sense of ideal with this website and have decided to review all the gigs i have been to. This comes in the light of perhaps the best musical day ever where a select few encountered the live energy of Alexisonfire in the London Barfly.

Over and out, expect something new by the end of the day.

Release Date: May 13th 2008

Track listing:

1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. I Will Possess Your Heart
3. No Sunlight
4. Cath…
5. Talking Bird
6. You Can Do Better Than Me
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed
9. Long Division
10. Pity and Fear
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner

After 2005’s Plans was certified as a Platinum album on February 28, 2008 and then nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album much was expected of the 4-piece band from Washington. Plans allowed easy empathy with the characters in the songs, but this second major-label release exposes characters more worrying than wonderful. On a first play the album comes across as seemingly lively on some songs, and less so on others - the norm - but it is only on listening again that you begin to notice the dark undertones on every song. While “You Can Do Better than Me” comes across with a pacy, marching band-esq. style, it actually tells the tale of a man clinging to the threads of a relationship because he can’t do any better.

The album is the darkest album the band has done, as promised us in the months leading up to it. A chilling example is the album’s first single “I Will Possess Your Heart”. The song begins with over four minutes of build-up which culminates in a letter from a stalker. “You gotta spend some time with me…” sings Gibbard “…and I know that you’ll find, love. I will possess your heart.”

While being dark as anything, the album exudes brilliance for almost every second you listen to it. In terms of beat and pace the album seems to have everything - aged fans even see a glimmer of the Death Cab that once was in “Pity and Fear” which takes a thoroughly different direction to the recent albums, and ends with and abrupt cut off as the narrator is pushed over an edge and hits the ground. This is one of few examples of a fast ending as almost all the tracks meld into each other with almost claustrophobic moments of mid tempo groove-building before the vocals of the next track kick in.

A thorough stand out track for me is the lyrically brilliant and pacy “No Sunlight” which tells a story of the death of an optimist, over an ironically new wave background. The saddening theme of destruction continues into “Grapevine Fires” - a procession of the bands talent in more minor keys, filled with piano and harmonic vocals. The song itself is a bleak tale of the fires which ravaged California - Gibbard sings that “everything will be alright” but he seems to have taken the optimistic approach as “news reports on the radio said it was getting worse”.

Sadly, the album is not without fault as is found on the track “Talking Bird”, which is filled with almost annoying feedback and seems to find no place in the course of the album. It is simply too slow and mellow compared to the other tracks and would be more suitable (if suitable at all) starting or finishing the album. None the less, this seems a very progressive step in a wonderful direction for DCFC. The band seem stripped down, without the multi-track recording of Plans, and this reviewer is no less than extremely impressed with what the band have put out, and other fans find themselves similarly disposed.

Overall - 9/10

Release Date: September 25th 2007

Track Listing:

1. Shadetree Mechanics
2. You Should Be Ashamed Of Myself
3. Threes Away
4. Asleep On The Frontlines
5. Platonic Sleepover Massacre
6. Starving Artiste
7. The Silver Lining
8. Some Just Vanish
9. Breathing Room Barricades
10. Beheaded My Way
11. My Bitter Half

Silent Treatment is the third release from The Bled - a post-hardcore band from Tucson, Arizona. After forming in 2001 the band were snapped up in 2003 by Fiddler Records and in July of the same year they released the brilliant and hugely successful “Pass the Flask”. The album demonstrated The Bled’s skills in both a lyrical sense and music sense as the band incorporated a wide variety of genres including metalcore, melodic hardcore, and post hardcore. The album was particularly revered in the hardcore community and much was expected of the group.

But things did not go as expected, the follow-up album (Found in the Flood - 2005) was quite a drop down the scale for The Bled as they lost much of their early integrity. But, with Silent Treatment the band have regained composure with an album that bleeds confidence and returns to some of the solidarity found on the first album.

The first track “Shade Tree Mechanics” tells you all you need to know with a pacy entrance followed by James Munoz’s signature powerful vocals which absolutely kill, surrounded by excellent guitar work. It seems that, unlike the last album, I wasn’t going to be leaving this one in the Flood.

This album doesn’t just remind old fans of the brilliant days of the first album, but it finds what was good about Found in the Flood and draws on it to create “Asleep on the Frontlines” which channels the eerie vibe found on Flood. It is early on that we find reminders from the early album - “You Should Be Ashamed of Myself” strongly rediscovers the sound which captured the hearts of many fans.

When I first got this album, all I hoped for was some improvement on Found in the Flood, little and the Silent Treatment surpassed all my expectations. Everything that was good about the bled returns with a bit of spice added in, and while the album hardly boasts any amazing move forward in the genre it performs highly with a hard-hitting core that means this reviewer and old fans certainly wont be giving it the silent treatment.

Overall - 8.5/10

For the first of my posts i thought i would review this absolute classic album by one of the top bands of the decade - Alexisonfire.

Release Date: October 29th 2002

Track listing:

1. .44 Caliber Love Letter
2. Counterparts and Number Them
3. Adelleda
4. A Dagger Through the Heart of St. Angeles
5. Polaroids of Polar Bears
6. Waterwings (And Other Pool Side Fashion Faux Pas)
7. Where No One Knows
8. The Kennedy Curse
9. Jubella
10. Little Girls Pointing and Laughing
11. Pulmonary Archery

Shortly after coming, out the album exploded, with boost from its reception in America, to telling over 50,000 units in Canada giving it Gold Certification. Not just amazing is the brutally raw vocals and excellent guitar work, but the fact that Christopher Steele (Bass), Wade MacNeil (Guitar), and Jesse Ingelevics (Drums) were a mere 17 years of age when the album was recorded. The album cover itself seems slightly sadistic - a depiction of two young girls holding knives on a school playground, but the image itself does introduce the album itself and its themes and style - ear stabbing screams, intricate guitar melodies and beautiful singing which create a very exciting musical juxtaposition and debut album from the Canadian five-some.

The album bursts into action with the memorable track “.44 Caliber Love Letter” which I believe holds a stunning and beautifully intricate piece of guitar work to get the album rolling. This opener, like all songs on the album, tells an eerie story. The song is also an appropriate way of introducing the band’s vocal style with a prevailing screamer mirrored by a subservient and eternal back-up vocalist. While some less prepared listeners may be nearing migraine after the very first songs others will find it hard not to appreciate the blunt vocals of George Petitt which penetrate the tumult of instruments in the background.

A favourite song for me is the most upbeat and punk-rock sounding song on the album - “Water Wings (And Other Poolside Fashion Faux Pas)”. The very speedy song with very few lyrics shows the talent of the guitarists who pump out harmonies throughout. The video for the song - the third single off the album - is well produced as well as being fairly hilarious - with seemingly no connection to the song whatsoever.

Overall, the album appears to be a one off for Alexisonfire who moved on from the thoroughly aggressive style of music to a less crude one in their next album. However, for true fans this album must ring a note of solace in the beautifully constructed and metaphorical lyrics which tell stories of anger - not particularly found on later albums which have less dramatic songs. The lyrical styles somewhat remind you of marmite as they could simply be too much for some listeners or be pure beauty to others. The stand out tracks on the album really do stand out but others seem to sadly fade into the background. The album does start and finish strongly which is always a good sign but it seems that several of the songs just get lost into the background (perhaps behind the brilliance of their peers).

Overall - 7/10

As today is the first official day of all this and no albums are out that interest me (and probably none will be for a while) ill do some posts reviewing my favourite albums, and looking forward to very distant and upcoming albums with tentative reviews and some informative news.

Also, i will attempting to deal with the ropes of blogging. Ive never done it before and only have a very sketchy idea about html and such so it might take a while to actually work out what the hell im upto. Enjoy.

After some pondering (very brief pondering) i decided this blog is going to be a lifeblog with certain musical aspects to it, if a new album is out that catches my interest I’ll review it and such. Also, you will be getting some general jibber jabber about my life in general.

Hey… everyone I suppose, how’s it going? This is my first post so… I’m not really sure what is going on or what should be going on to be honest. But you know. Lets rock and roll.