Important update for PMM

I have been thinking about taking project music Monday a different direction for some time now and due to the minor decrease in followers and increase in my schedule it is time to do this. I am not canceling PMM by any means as it has been so much fun so far and I am learning so much from it but I feel that it needs to move from a weekly update to just "every now and then" updates. I will be updating as I find an artist worth reviewing. Another main reason for this change is money, I can't afford to buy and research a brand new album every week.

Since this will no longer be a weekly blog the name project music Monday does not really apply anymore so I'm asking you the reader to help come up with some new ideas for the site. Any idea is welcome! Tweet me your ideas! @ProjectMusicMon

Week 10: "Rearrange Beds" By An Horse

      An Horse, Indie rock band from Australia, was my focus this week. They are actually a duo mashed up from 2 separate bands. Part “Iron On” and part “Intercooler,” Kate Cooper and Damon Cox have been creating music since around 2007 when they started practicing after hours at a job they both shared working in a record store. A band of similar tastes going by the name Tegan and Sara “discovered” An Horse soon after their release of their first EP.
      The indie genre may be one of the hardest to review mainly because there is just so much included in this genre, but An Horse brings us all that is good. I can’t say that the genre of indie rock is my favorite but I will have “Rearrange Beds” on repeat for some time.
      I will say that when I first listened to “Rearranged Beds” they didn’t really stand out from the crowd which may be a downfall to a casual listener just browsing bands, but if you allow them to get into your head and get overtaken by such powerful writing and beautiful song structure it will be an album you wont soon get rid of. Somehow An Horse was blessed with the ability to write some of the catchiest melodies that I have heard in some time. After my first listen through I had felt I had a good idea of the record, little did I know that subconsciously, I had memorized most of the record. When I listened back through this throughout the week I was able to sing along almost instantly or know when the drums would pick up or the next song on the album. You could say that this was because each song is rehashing on a previous track, and while this can be a tad true I really see it as just great writing.
      Overall this was a superbly enjoyable album, one that I would be listening to again. If the scene of indie rock is not one you are interested in…this may not change your mind on the subject.

Next Week: "The People's Key" by Bright Eyes

Week 9: "Valhalla Dancehall" By British Sea Power

The band, “British Sea Power.” The Album, “Valhalla Dancehall.” 

…What?

           My thoughts exactly when I stumbled across this album on Monday at my local Barnes & Nobel.

I want to say that this album completely blew me away and is now on my top ten list but I can’t. Not to say that this is a bad album by any means, it does what it means to do and it does just that. Mixing the sound of The Killers with The Cure and a little bit more electronic programming, BSP brings “Valhalla Dancehall” to the table in early 2011. Even though this review starts on a sour note with the band please don’t take it in anyway that BSP is a terrible band, there just was not much to me in the album that would keep me returning to it.

     “Valhalla Dancehall” can rock, and it can be chill…for a band this genre, they are fairly versatile. That seems to be a little uncommon with the “British pop-rock” genre, at least to my knowledge. All these combinations of musical enhancements on their songs never really leave the set genre that they claim to be so there is no real…expanding with their music. “Valhalla Dancehall” is, however, filled with loads of catchy hooks and melodies that will bring back the right listener time and time again. A big catching point in this record with me is that this is that a lot of the tracks are very huge sounding with spacey pads and overdriven delays. So there are a lot of learning that can be taken from listening to effects and postproduction sounds.
      I say all this to say again that this British pop rock band is just that. If that is what you like then this album will not disappoint fans of bands like The Killers, Franz Ferdinand. But BSP is not a mainstream sounding band so if you are uncomfortable listening to new and different music, stick to what you know.


NEXT WEEK!
An Horse - Rearrange Beds (2009)

Twitter: @ProjectMusicMon
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