Blog Maintenance

I've done a little maintenance as you may have noticed. Or maybe you haven’t.

- I changed the settings so anybody can leave a comment now, even if you do not have an account with Blogger or Google. So now you don't have any excuses.

- I made the links to other blogs all fancy so they display the title of their most recent post.

- And I added a new song to my Rock Box. “One Day All This Could Be Yours” by Oceansize. I didn’t really feel like writing a review of the entire album (Effloresce), so I just added this song here, which is by far my favorite song on the album. I don’t think the Rock Box really does the song justice. It’s severely lacking all the movement from the bass line, causing the song to seem slower and less active, but the vocal harmonies come through very nicely. It’s so nice to hear a song with 6 beats per measure that does not sound like a waltz. That's right folks, there is no rule that says the accents have to be on beats 1 and 4!

Featured Album: Oceansize

Album: Everyone Into Position

Artist: Oceansize

Year: 2005

Oceansize is a British alternative rock band that I would describe as artsy, spacey, and a bit on the commercial side of prog. They are excelent at creating a very spacious soundscape.
Here is the tracklist as well as my random comments regarding each song:

1. The Charm Offensive - Some funk, sounds like King's X at times (good)
2. Heaven Alive - Upbeat. Reminds me a bit of Collective Soul. Excellent vocal harmonies. Very good.
3. A Homage to a Shame - Musically reminds me of Tool - especially the bass. Some vocals remind me of Oblivious by James LaBrie
4. Meredith - Slow with a prominent bass line. Porcupine Tree meets Tears For Fears (good combo). Featured on an episode of The O.C. (not that I watch The O.C. but I read about it.)
5. Music for a Nurse - Very slow build. Starts out by simply playing the chord progression, slowly adds other elements. Reaches an intentionaly awkward plateau 3/4s through. Ending is conflicted, vocals rise up as they fade away. Music slowly touches back down to earth. Excellent musical symbolism if you have the patience. This song was used in a TV commercial for a cell phone company called Orange. Great song.
6. New Pin - Reminds me of Muse and some other modern mainstream act(s) I can't put my finger on since I've stopped listening to the radio.
7. No Tomorrow - A bit too mainstream for me. Vocals remind me of Daughtry (not good, too generic). Has good instrumental moments reminiscent of the band Tool, and Raise the Knife by DT. Ending reminds me of a song from Joe Satriani's Engines of Creation (good thing).
8. Mine Host - Very slow. At 4:09, it's the shortest song on the album by a full minute and yet tends to drag on because the song doesn't move much.
9. You Can't Keep a Bad Man Down - Very remeniscent of Spacehog (not a bad thing), but too repetative. Repeats same pattern until 4:15, suddenly breaks for a quiet section until 5:10, then goes back to the previous pattern with only a slight variation.
10. Ornament / The Last Wrongs - Very slowly builds on a theme. Calming. Available to hear at ProgArchives.

The Verdict: A couple parts are a bit too repetative/static for me, but it's still a very good disc. Great to listen to at work, or as background music around my less-proggy friends. It's mostly relaxed but has it's share of exciting moments. I would buy their other albums if I found them at the used music shop.