Review Summary: Lydia James
Lebron James had the Boston Garden in complete silence. He showed he could be one of the best basketball players in NBA history with that performance in game three of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, scoring twenty one of his thirty eight points in the first quarter and still finding a way to dish out seven assists and be the best defensive player on the floor. It was James masterpiece. We all assumed that LBJ would come out in the games after this and continue to show his brilliance and get his first championship, instead he put on one of the worst superstar performances in NBA history in game five. Looking uninspired like one of his teammates had just banged his mom (wink), Lebron essentially gave up on the Cavaliers in not only game five but game six. We all agreed that this was no way to follow a masterpiece, and that Lebron owed an apology to all of the fans who swore he was the next Jordan in Cleveland and around the world. We all agreed that no one should ever quit on there team no matter what caused them to quit.
Lydia is Lebron James. Lydia’s game three was there brilliant 2008 masterpiece titled “Illuminate”. “Illuminate” was essentially indie heaven, one of the best flowing albums of all time and one of the more emotional albums released in the 21st century. The lyrics fit the music perfectly and you could not possibly find anything to complain about, because Lydia showed all of there strengths on this LP (like when Lebron was double teamed in game three he also had seven assists and was the best defensive player). I thought this was going to be a start of a string of indie masterpieces for this band, I mean to me it only made sense that they would continue to grow musically and there music would just keep getting better and better. But instead Lydia put out one of the most disappointing releases of the year.
Lydia’s game five is titled “Assaliants” and essentially carries no momentum from there masterpiece “Illuminate”. The first thing that stuck out to me about “Illuminate” was how well the album flowed from track to track, it was as if you were listening to a forty three minute story or one big forty three minute track and all of the eleven songs still sounded completely different. This is one of the things that made Lydia extremely unique in today’s music scene and that is virtually non existent on this EP. Lydia cannot seem to even seem to make their two songs shorter than two minutes flow into the track on the EP. Like Lebron took away his greatest strength in his scoring in game five, Lydia took away their greatest strength by making none of the seven tracks on the EP flow together properly. This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the EP but there are still other things that Lydia did well on Illuminate that they could repeat on the EP.
When James was essentially shut out of the scoring column in game five he could have still used his other strengths to help his team (such as passing and defense). But it was apparent during the game that Lebron did not want to use his strengths and essentially was doing everything he could for his team to lose. This is also true of Lydia’s performance on “Assailants”. “Illuminate” had other things it did well besides its flow, it also had very good lyrics on that masterpiece and some of the best instrumentation we have seen in indie. Both of these qualities are only someone existent on “Assailants” and this is a major disappointment. Even the two best songs on the album (“We Clean Up So Well” and “Assailants”) have very generic lyrics and come no where near the songwriting of “Illuminate”. On “Illuminate” the witty lyrics also perfectly fitted the instrumentation of the particular song. No song on “Assaliants” comes anywhere close to matching the lyrical quality of even the worst songs on “Illuminate” and none of the lyrics seem to match the instrumentation. Lydia continue their game five performance by not relying on their other strengths to improve this EP, similar to James not relying on his passing and defense when he was not scoring in game five of the Eastern conference semifinals.
Lebron couldn’t have left in a worse way. He was all Cleveland and him leaving was tough enough on the organization but he had to choose to leave on a one hour ESPN special, constantly referring to himself in the third person, and never thanking his teammates or fans in Cleveland. Kobe had raped one woman that night in Colorado, but it was if James had raped the whole state of Ohio in that one hour on July 8th. This will go down as one of the more egotistical moments in history (not just sports) and instantly made James a punchline and one of the most hated athletes in the world. Lebron just did not know the proper way to leave.
Lydia did not know the proper way to leave or follow either. They did not how to follow a masterpiece as the above paragraphs state. But they also did not know how to properly say goodbye, I believe when you leave a profession it should always be when you are at your best and you should make people want to love you as much as possible. Lydia did not do that on “Assailants”, instead they put out what seems to be a half assed effort that did not capitalize on any of the momentum that was built on 2008’s masterpiece of “Illuminate”. You don’t leave a career filled with so much potential on a mediocre EP and that’s what Lydia has done here.
I only wonder if Low Altitude records will release a Dan Gilbert like letter bashing the band. We can only hope………………
