If you're just getting into The Sounds now then there is a good chance you're missing out on their 2002 debut album Living In America, which to me is still their best album (this shouldn't take anything away from the subsequent album but Living In America is just such a great album). I'm not really positive how I discovered The Sounds as I sort of had two connections: the first was hearing the song Dance With Me (which is my favorite track on the album) during an MTV promo. Dance With Me is a great song for dancing along to, singing along to, and just makes you feel really good. The song itself was never credited nor was any footage of the band shown, but rather just the song playing in a sort of "You should watch MTV cause we sometimes still play videos" (in fact in might have even been for MTV2 which barely plays videos anymore) and the second connection was a buddy by the name of Matt Simon who would wear kickass yellow on blue Sounds t-shirt to a sound theory class of ours in college (and how fitting that is is not lost on me). Somehow the two connections got crossed at a certain point and the next time I was on a break from school I was in Massachusetts (one of the last times while still living there before my folks moved to Florida) and I visited a used CD shop I liked but rarely went to named Mystery Train in Amherst, MA. For anyone that is a connoisseur of Used CD you know that its basically a futile attempt to try and find a specific CD (unless you go to Amoeba Hollywood, but that's more the exception to the rule and even then its not a guarantee you'll find what you're looking for used) so I was quite surprised when I decided to look for The Sounds and actually found the CD. Needless to say I'm quite glad that I did because this has easily become one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time (ya know the kind that you'd bring on a desert island under the assumption that you have a CD player that will somehow never run out of juice?). What I love about this CD is that its so incredibly fun and danceable and yet there are a lot of somber moments about difficulties with love, and not necessarily breakups or fights but the difficult choices between devotion to art versus a committed relationship (see the track Rock 'N Roll) or love that just isn't meant to last forever but is so strong in the moment. But this certainly isn't a purely love-themed album as you have songs like the punk rock tribute Riot, the Blondie/Siouxsie & The Banshees-esque Hit Me! or one of my favorites in the form Living In America which certainly can be left open to interpretation but hits me as a comfort to the youths of Sweden (especially the bands) that perhaps desire to be apart of the American scene but there's something sort of punk rock about having your own small scene (something that people in small towns in America can certainly appreciate as well). All of the tracks on the CD could be singles unto themselves and yet the album works together so well. There's a great mix of styles including synth-pop, punk, disco, and straight up rock with individual tracks that are reminiscent of the aforementioned Siouxsie & The Banshees and Blondie in addition to ABBA (hard to be a Swedish band and not get compared to ABBA). I love the simple artwork for the album with the band's logo on the back of a leather jacket worn most likely by vocalist Maja Ivarasson. Iverasson's vocals are so great that while the rest of the music is performed so well her vocals really make everything pop. The CD also includes Enhanced CD software that allows you to look at some photos and listen to an exclusive remix of Rock 'N Roll that is pretty much a throwaway remix (not a lot of good remixes of The Sounds out there) and watch videos for Hit Me!, Seven Days a Week, and Living In America which are essentially glorified videos of the band playing the songs but The Sounds are so charismatic (especially the facial expressions of Ivarasson who so incredibly beautiful) that it makes watching the videos at least somewhat worthwhile (especially Seven Days a Week which is a really fun video of the band playing in a small club for some die-hard fans). Favorite Tracks: Seven Days a Week, Dance With Me, Living In America, Hit Me!, Mine For Life, Rock 'N Roll, Fire, and Riot
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Album a Day: The Sounds - Living In America
If you're just getting into The Sounds now then there is a good chance you're missing out on their 2002 debut album Living In America, which to me is still their best album (this shouldn't take anything away from the subsequent album but Living In America is just such a great album). I'm not really positive how I discovered The Sounds as I sort of had two connections: the first was hearing the song Dance With Me (which is my favorite track on the album) during an MTV promo. Dance With Me is a great song for dancing along to, singing along to, and just makes you feel really good. The song itself was never credited nor was any footage of the band shown, but rather just the song playing in a sort of "You should watch MTV cause we sometimes still play videos" (in fact in might have even been for MTV2 which barely plays videos anymore) and the second connection was a buddy by the name of Matt Simon who would wear kickass yellow on blue Sounds t-shirt to a sound theory class of ours in college (and how fitting that is is not lost on me). Somehow the two connections got crossed at a certain point and the next time I was on a break from school I was in Massachusetts (one of the last times while still living there before my folks moved to Florida) and I visited a used CD shop I liked but rarely went to named Mystery Train in Amherst, MA. For anyone that is a connoisseur of Used CD you know that its basically a futile attempt to try and find a specific CD (unless you go to Amoeba Hollywood, but that's more the exception to the rule and even then its not a guarantee you'll find what you're looking for used) so I was quite surprised when I decided to look for The Sounds and actually found the CD. Needless to say I'm quite glad that I did because this has easily become one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time (ya know the kind that you'd bring on a desert island under the assumption that you have a CD player that will somehow never run out of juice?). What I love about this CD is that its so incredibly fun and danceable and yet there are a lot of somber moments about difficulties with love, and not necessarily breakups or fights but the difficult choices between devotion to art versus a committed relationship (see the track Rock 'N Roll) or love that just isn't meant to last forever but is so strong in the moment. But this certainly isn't a purely love-themed album as you have songs like the punk rock tribute Riot, the Blondie/Siouxsie & The Banshees-esque Hit Me! or one of my favorites in the form Living In America which certainly can be left open to interpretation but hits me as a comfort to the youths of Sweden (especially the bands) that perhaps desire to be apart of the American scene but there's something sort of punk rock about having your own small scene (something that people in small towns in America can certainly appreciate as well). All of the tracks on the CD could be singles unto themselves and yet the album works together so well. There's a great mix of styles including synth-pop, punk, disco, and straight up rock with individual tracks that are reminiscent of the aforementioned Siouxsie & The Banshees and Blondie in addition to ABBA (hard to be a Swedish band and not get compared to ABBA). I love the simple artwork for the album with the band's logo on the back of a leather jacket worn most likely by vocalist Maja Ivarasson. Iverasson's vocals are so great that while the rest of the music is performed so well her vocals really make everything pop. The CD also includes Enhanced CD software that allows you to look at some photos and listen to an exclusive remix of Rock 'N Roll that is pretty much a throwaway remix (not a lot of good remixes of The Sounds out there) and watch videos for Hit Me!, Seven Days a Week, and Living In America which are essentially glorified videos of the band playing the songs but The Sounds are so charismatic (especially the facial expressions of Ivarasson who so incredibly beautiful) that it makes watching the videos at least somewhat worthwhile (especially Seven Days a Week which is a really fun video of the band playing in a small club for some die-hard fans). Favorite Tracks: Seven Days a Week, Dance With Me, Living In America, Hit Me!, Mine For Life, Rock 'N Roll, Fire, and Riot
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