Review Summary: Free music? Of course! The Bastard Fairies released their debut album for all the internet to listen, but a series of faults (but many successful moments too) make it a nice, but slightly confused album.
Sexual attraction is fundamental for human existence. It is a basic for one of the quintessential elements of the life cycle: Reproduction. If it weren't for sexual attraction, it'd be impossible to determine why breast implants are so important nowadays (being the most requested plastic surgery in the United States last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons), or why are males biased towards those women whose relation between their hips and their waist is more proportionate than those who have a pretty butt. Or something of that order.
So, why would I stop from listening to music just to check out some internet, completely unknown band? Sexual attraction. I thought the singer was pretty when I was using Windows Media Player, and then I noticed her breasts which are quite large. So I thought "Oh, what the hell". I'll never base my music taste on sexual attraction, ever again.
Nonetheless, I tried to write about the album a while ago and I couldn't, because I wasn't writing based on facts, but merely on my devious sexual attraction towards the singer, which isn't good at all because it completely biases any point of view I may have portrayed in a text message. I had to wash it off first with some obscure music and then, go back to the album and see how it went.
First thing in agenda would be discussing the singer's voice tone. I didn't find it to be as suiting as I expected. It's a nice tone, but it lacks warmth, and certainly the overall vocal work is nice, but as stated before, it doesn't really come off as excellent, mostly because the singer probably hasn't found her niche vocally. Most moments are well arranged and achieved; For instance, the song
Apple Pie has a really catchy chorus, or
Guns and Dolls, for instance. There's also a very consistent lack of color in the voice. There isn't enough variation in her tone, or the overall execution. There are some feeble attempts at it, but there's a good chance it could be coloured better, not just to "fit the music", but to actually make it stand out. Not bad though. It sounds pretty for the most part, but pretty doesn't always equal good.
Music should be addressed now. Music, as a counterpart, is much more significantly diverse than the vocal work. The classic rock elements are there: Guitar, drums, and some bass (I think I could be wrong) thrown there in most songs, and of course a nice keyboard here or there to add flavor to the mix. Overall, the keyboard sections are very nice and fitting, not to mention interesting in some parts, for instance, the intervention in
The Greatest Love Song, or the little parts in
Habitual Inmate, so that makes me happy. Guitar is basic but effective, considering the mellow background of the music itself, and so are drums. My favorite guitar moment has got to be
Ode to the Prostitute and
Moribund, but also the keyboard work there is nice. What I truely liked though, must be the xylophone in songs like
Apple Pie, because it shows an alternative vibe to the music, despite its inherent pop nature.
Everything comes down to the lyrical aspect. Omitting
Ten Little Indians, a weird cover of that song you used to sing in Kindergarten (or still listen, since the internet is now crowded by obtuse, puerile little characters who like to look at nude females), the overall lyrical value of the band is... good. Besides
Apple Pie, which I must clarify is clearly a song meant to be listened by a wider percentile than internet people, is written to be easy and nice. Nothing to contrived or special. The rest of the songs are nicely written, except maybe the love-theme oriented being slightly cheesy every now and then, or the politically/socially oriented being to accusative, or otherwise. It's also kind of varied thematically, which surprises me positively, because I clearly expected some very light-hearted love songs with not a single nice argumentative subject.
So overall, what is to say in the about this internet-happy band? Well, first of all I'd say the album is free on the internet, at their website and their myspace, and on last.fm. So, if it's free, why not give it a shot at least? Also, I'd like to point out the overall vibe of the album is very mellow, which probably can justify the fact that there isn't much color vocally, but still, comparing it to bands like
Neutral Milk Hotel for instance, a band who are mostly folk, you can see some nice vocal variations from song to song either to fit the music ambient portrayed, or maybe just to add color and keep things interesting. The band is mostly great, and there's no need of pulling off masturbatory licks to make someone think they are good musicians, nonetheless there could easily be a much more varied guitar work here or there. The keyboards are a stand out in the whole album, anyway. So considering the problems but being more positive on what the band brings us, I think it's a great album, which struggles between being a pop project in the vein of
Lily Allen, for instance, a very experimental kind of pop project, and a more alternative rock-driven project, in the vein of
The Cranberries, but with that nice cool edge everybody adores.
But yeah, I have the hots for the singer so I could be biased.
- tojes reviü crü
