25 Albums in 2019 Challenge

Diorama
Artist: Silverchair
Released: 2002

1. "Across The Night" 8.5/10 - An easy-listening, Beach Boys inspired art-pop track that has orchestral arrangements and horns during the bridge. I particularly like the way the song takes a different approach around the 3-minute mark. This is a great opening track and Silverchair reach heights in this that the majority of their other alt-rock/post-grunge contemporaries never inspired to.

2. "The Greatest View" 8/10 - The lead-single off the album and arguably the only song off the album that most people out there will recognise. Unlike their opening track, "The Greatest View" finds itself treading into familiar post-grunge territory. However, with that being said, this comparable to angst-ridden . I melody

3. "Without You" 8/10 - I used to prefer this over "The Greatest View" a few years ago, but now I actually tend to favour the latter. Don't get me wrong, this is still a great song in it's own right, however I feel as though "The Greatest View" has a much stronger hook and sense of melody. One thing I do particularly like about "Without You" though is the outro. It has some great guitar riffs.

4. "World Upon Your Shoulders" 7.5/10 - Very harmonic.

5. "One Way Mule" 8/10 - The introductory guitar riff and drums in "One Way Mule" sound like they harken back to the Freakshow-era. This probably wouldn't have sounded too out of place on Neon Ballroom actually. That aside, the song itself is genuinely great in the way in which Daniel Johns evokes a lot of aggression in his vocals and how menacing the drums sound.

6. "Tuna in the Brine" 7.5/10 - Silverchair had a real knack for creating great melodies. This is a nice atmospheric, chamber pop song with some truly great guitar strings and psychedelic elements.

7. "Too Much Of Not Enough" 8/10 - The chorus is pretty "rocky" for what is otherwise a beautifully crafted, melodic art-pop song. Fortunately it pays off well.

8. "Luv Your Life" 6/10 - My least favourite song on the album. I can recognise this as being a 'good song', however it's simply too poppy and 'cute' for my liking.

9. "The Lever" 7.5/10 - Ugh, why did they have to place this song after "Luv Your Life?" The track sequencing was perfect up until this point. Like "One Way Mule", this is another song that draws influence from their grunge days. It sounds absolutely nothing like the majority of the songs that proceeded it on this album. However, it is still an enjoyable listen and Silverchair hadn't lost the ability to 'rock out' when they wanted to. The guitar riffs are very reminiscent of the ones off Freakshow.

10. "My Favourite Thing" 7/10 - Well this isn't my favourite thing off Diorama, but it's still decent overall. I feel as though this is one of the weakest of the art-pop styled songs on this album. I'm not really a fan of the lyrics in this.

11. "After All These Years" 7/10 - The closing track of this album is Daniel Johns on the piano.

Hybrid Theory EP
Artist: Linkin Park
Released: 1999

My interest in Linkin Park has waned over the past couple of years. I listened to Hybrid Theory (and album which I loved as a kid) a few months ago and found the overly self-pity lyrics, “in your face” teenage angst and formulaic song structures to now be a huge turn-off. However, my curiosity got the better of me when I noticed that their EP has a respectable rating of 3.22 on RateYourMusic a few days ago. I just had to listen to it. Their debut EP couldn’t be more different from the album of the same name and its a genuinely great record in its own right. I would even go as far as saying that it is better than any album that followed. The production is rawer and less polished, however I actually feel as though it makes the overall listening experience much more enjoyable. The band are at the peak of their powers here. Mike Shinoda’s rapping is on point in every track and his style of delivery is noticeably different from later releases; the best comparison I can make would be Eminem's style of delivery during his “Slim Shady” era. It’s full of passion, flows really well and he even sounds aggressive in his delivery at some points. I quite like it if i’m being honest, even though hip-hop is a genre which I’ve always struggled to get into.

The late, great Chester Bennington sounds just as great as he always did, but what’s particularly interesting is the fact that he actually doesn’t have a huge presence on this. He plays more of a complementary/secondary role to Mike, which thanks to the overall quality of Mike’s input, isn’t as bad as what you might expect. In future releases, Chester would of course be the primary singer/songwriter in the band and the roles were reversed. Here, however, Mike is very much the one running the show. It’s worth noting that Chester joined the band just 2-3 months before this EP was released, so I can only assume that the dynamics between the two weren’t fully established yet and that ultimately had a flow-on effect on their music. I’m sure they would have equally split the vocal duties more if they had recorded this later on in their career.

That leads me to my next point. One thing which I find particularly interesting about this EP is the greater orientation towards the hip-hop angle of their sound. Hip-hop has always been an integral element of Linkin Park’s music what with Mike and Mr Hahn being in the band, however rock was always the primary focus and driving force behind their music. This EP very much straddles the boundary between rock and hip-hop.

Instrumentally, while the overall sound of this record is unquestionably nu-metal, the Hybrid Theory EP differs quite a bit from the album and Meteora. For starters, the EP is hugely indebted to bands such as Alice in Chains and Korn. You can really hear those influences shine through during the chorus to “Carousel” and the first verse of “And One”, in particular. Some of the songs even have bass guitar chords similar to what you would hear on a Seattle alt-rock album. The Hybrid Theory EP is a very dark, sludgy, grunge-inspired record, yet despite it being very much a product of its time, I actually feel as though it has aged exceptionally better than the band’s other nu-metal releases. The structures of the songs themselves and the lyrical themes are leagues ahead in terms of overall quality, to the extent where listening to the EP and album is almost like comparing the work of two different bands. Why didn't this level of experimentation carry over into their later nu-metal releases? The final third of "And One" even breaks-down into pure hip-hop. 

All of the seven tracks bring something different to the table and there’s something here for everyone to enjoy, whether you appreciate the rock element of their music more or the hip-hop element. The opening track “Carousel” is a particularly dark, heavy track and parallels can be drawn between Chester and Jonathon Davis during the chorus. “Technique” is a nice little instrumental which I feel as though really should have been the opening track to the EP (as it would have worked better that way). “Step Up” is a catchy, hip-hop orientated number which is basically just Mike ranting about how rock and rap artists have been collaborating with each other for years despite people suggesting otherwise. I can appreciate “High Voltage” for what it is, but it is probably the weakest track on here. "Part of Me" is the only song off this EP which I was previously aware of. My Mum downloaded it off Limewire back in 2007 and also had it on her iPod Classic, so I heard it quite a bit in the car when I was younger. “Ambient” is an early demo version of “Session” (which is an instrumental that would appear on Meteora four years later) and in my opinion, is one of the best instrumental tracks they have ever released. It’s a shame they decided to tweak it into what “Session” ultimately became.

As a long-time fan of their music, listening to the Hybrid Theory EP leaves me feeling frustrated for a number of reasons. It makes me wonder what the band could have accompolished had they not placed more of an emphasis on style over substance. What makes this EP so good is the fact that they literally poured every bit of themselves into making it. Their influences, as well as each member’s unique strengths and weaknesses, are all here to show. The band had yet to secure a major record label at the time, so they really had a point to prove. Of course, i'm not suggesting that no thought was ever put into their later material, but you can't deny the fact that Linkin Park became more focused on shifting to a certain sound/style for each record rather than working to their strengths (e.g Minutes to Midnight being alt-rock, A Thousand Suns a concept, art-rock album). Being a jack of all trades doesn't mean that you are a master of them all. Just imagine how great the Hybrid Theory album would have been if it had featured the songs found on here and the standout tracks off the album; “By Myself”, “Papercut” and “One Step Closer”. You’d easily have a 3.5-4-star album and it would have been regarded as one of the greatest releases to come out of the nu-metal scene.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Linkin Park or nu-metal in general, I would highly suggest giving this EP a go. I think you would really enjoy this @loosebolt if you haven't listened to it before. The full EP is on YouTube. 

Yeah, I suspected that you would probably be familiar with it, but I thought I'd ask anyway. What's your opinion of the EP? 

This is pretty left-of-field, but tonight I decided to listen to Garbage's self-titled debut album. There's actually a bit of a possibility that I have listened to this album once before. My Mum quite often played their songs in the car when I was little, but I don't think she actually owned any of their studio albums though. In any case, I've always liked the singles off their '90s albums (particularly "Stupid Girl" and "When I Grow Up") and there's a Garbage song which I have been trying to guess the name of for ages now (but I haven't been able to as I can't remember how exactly the lyrics go), so I had hoped that I would come across it on the album. I didn't though.

Garbage is an enjoyable album overall, however the singles are the obvious standouts and the only songs I can see myself returning to. There is a bit of filler on here unfortunately, particularly in the middle of the album. 

I listened to more Garbage tonight, namely because i'm determined to try and find that song which I still haven't been able to identify. I personally prefer it over their debut album. Version 2.0 doesn't stray much from the style of their self-titled and it's very much a product of the Late '90s, however this isn't a bad thing. The songs are generally better structured, there is more experimentation in the choice of synths that they go for and it's just a well crafted album with every song being enjoyable. "When I Grow Up" would have to be my favourite song on here (nostalgia plays a part in that though), but I also particularly like "Temptation Waits", "I Think I'm Paranoid", "Medication" and "Dumb". Great album!

I only listened to two new albums since my last post in this thread, which is Sum 41's and Lizzo's work. I fell short of 25, but it was a fun ride trying to get there