Hi,
My name is Surjo and I'm a pro-musician. The songs you're hearing (hopefully) are from my debut album 'The Key Has Turned' and you can buy the album here.
I shall be reviewing Junkyard Groove's album 11:11 today, and for those readers from outside India, JYG might be an unfamiliar name, but I do believe that this review shall help you in uncovering a really good album from a band which has yet to settle in and flex it's creative muscles. The album was released in 2009, although the band was formed in 2005. You can download this album for free by going to http://www.junkyardgroove.in/downloads
The album starts with 'Open', which just sets you up with big lush guitar chords and a lilting vocal in the background. It's only a 2 minute hook and it sets the tone for the rest of the album.
'Imagine' comes in next, with a simple acoustic guitar riff giving way to an electric guitar burst that might be more in place inside a stadium than inside my headphones. Singer Ameeth Thomas talks about a conversation between two people, maybe friends or lovers, with one being troubled by the thoughts inside their head, and the other being concerned about the first. The repeated line in the song is 'Just imagine if it was you, tell me exactly what would you do'. Hmmm..
'Thank you' starts with Ameeth screaming the count, and it finds it's way to a really slithering riff and madness on the drums. The words are quite concise and therefore fall out of favour with me, since they fail to do much more than say thank you with 4 more lines written in there. No real story or anything told in there.
'Been So Long' starts with a lot of different elements before gelling into the riff, which is definitely racks up high points for just being cool and creative. One thing which is permanent through the mixes is that they're clearly pushing the music more than the vocals, which is just a little sad, Ameeth is way too big a personality to not be front and centre in everything. The words are quite cool, delving into his mind, and his desire to find the correct space for his thoughts to dwell in. Not sure if he's talking to himself or questioning the listener. Cool bridge section.
'Folk You', well with a name like that, you know you're in for a fun ride. The riff literally bites, what with the squeals and all. There's quite a bit of Malayalam thrown in the words, so that part is off my radar, but the lyrics there suggest a girl who's got a good grip on Ameeth's mojo. This song is just pure unadulterated fun, just a song for the good times, to jump and bounce. I'm writing fewer lines so you can stop reading and go listen to the song.
My name is Surjo and I'm a pro-musician. The songs you're hearing (hopefully) are from my debut album 'The Key Has Turned' and you can buy the album here.
I shall be reviewing Junkyard Groove's album 11:11 today, and for those readers from outside India, JYG might be an unfamiliar name, but I do believe that this review shall help you in uncovering a really good album from a band which has yet to settle in and flex it's creative muscles. The album was released in 2009, although the band was formed in 2005. You can download this album for free by going to http://www.junkyardgroove.in/downloads
The album starts with 'Open', which just sets you up with big lush guitar chords and a lilting vocal in the background. It's only a 2 minute hook and it sets the tone for the rest of the album.
'Imagine' comes in next, with a simple acoustic guitar riff giving way to an electric guitar burst that might be more in place inside a stadium than inside my headphones. Singer Ameeth Thomas talks about a conversation between two people, maybe friends or lovers, with one being troubled by the thoughts inside their head, and the other being concerned about the first. The repeated line in the song is 'Just imagine if it was you, tell me exactly what would you do'. Hmmm..
'Thank you' starts with Ameeth screaming the count, and it finds it's way to a really slithering riff and madness on the drums. The words are quite concise and therefore fall out of favour with me, since they fail to do much more than say thank you with 4 more lines written in there. No real story or anything told in there.
'Been So Long' starts with a lot of different elements before gelling into the riff, which is definitely racks up high points for just being cool and creative. One thing which is permanent through the mixes is that they're clearly pushing the music more than the vocals, which is just a little sad, Ameeth is way too big a personality to not be front and centre in everything. The words are quite cool, delving into his mind, and his desire to find the correct space for his thoughts to dwell in. Not sure if he's talking to himself or questioning the listener. Cool bridge section.
'Folk You', well with a name like that, you know you're in for a fun ride. The riff literally bites, what with the squeals and all. There's quite a bit of Malayalam thrown in the words, so that part is off my radar, but the lyrics there suggest a girl who's got a good grip on Ameeth's mojo. This song is just pure unadulterated fun, just a song for the good times, to jump and bounce. I'm writing fewer lines so you can stop reading and go listen to the song.
'Let You Go' starts off with a riff that wouldn't be out of place in John Mayer's first two albums. The words deal with the common sentiment of being in a relationship and not feeling the relationship enough, and doubting the committment of the other person involved. The words have a real generic feel to them though, wish he'd have pushed it a bit more with the sentiment. The guitar solo is kinda cool, with the generic being kept to a minimum there.
'Twinkle' has a lot of Dave Matthews stamped on the initial riff, and then as it turns out, almost a whole verse lifted from them. Huh? Why Ameeth? Oh and they sampled the nursery rhyme 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' for their chorus. 'Grace Is Gone' is the Dave Matthews song that they've lifted part of the chorus from. I would never have known had I not reviewed 'Busted Stuff' previously.
Next up is JYG's signature song, 'It's Ok', which has one of the cooler acoustic riffs you'll hear. The words speak of a doomed love story with the girl giving all she could and the boy taking all he needed. Cool points for a cool song.
'Rock n' Roll' has a hilarious entry, probably one of the most creative ways to ever enter a song. The lyrics hype the virtues of rock n' roll almost like articles extolling the virtues of exercise or something. The chorus has the sort of frantic energy that does justice to the song title. There is a cool bridge section with the wanton abandon that rock n' roll personify, and followed by a generic rock n' roll guitar solo. Man, they really went all out to stick to the song title. And of course, the song has one of the most creative ends to it too.
'Feels Like A Knife' starts off with cool points for a cool riff. The lyrics are about people's perception of Ameeth and how doesn't care because he feels alright. Teenage angst? That's what this is about? There is almost a feeling of how his lyrics could get to the next level of cool but it held back by lack of metaphor and personification. Neat little breakdown in the song though with the snare and guitar taking centrestage, before exploding into some wah-laden pentatonic histrionics. Well done Siddharth Srinivasan.
'Hold' starts off with almost classical vocal stylings to a very involved riff, and definitely suffers from the music overshadowing the words. He speaks of his determination to hold on to his life which is given to me. Also he speaks while he is lying down on the floor, is this a song written in a state of hallucination? Or maybe, just the burden of his memories has pushed him to the floor. More likely the latter. There is a sample of another vocal in the guitar solo, which sounds like a chant from a temple, and that's followed by some pyro on the guitar, shreds into sweeps into blues and descends into some more chaos in the end. Siddharth might have exhausted all his 14nps licks in this one.
The music is definitely the highlight of this album, can definitely run in the car on a long drive on repeat, no doubts there. The lyrics get too generic at times, and that's sad because like I wrote before, it seems just on the edge of being great and then settles back into being generic. Nevertheless, the album is a very enjoyable listen, and contains a lot of fun music. I hope you enjoy the music.
No comments:
Post a Comment