Yeah, Linkin Park's aim with Minutes to Midnight was to prove that the nu-metal tag they'd been labelled with wasn't quite worthy. It doesn't do that though, it just proves they can change their style of music fron nu-metal to something else more grown up and straight rock. The fact they had a rapper and a screamer just throws nu-metal cliches all over the shop.
Well, 3 weeks of thinking's brought lots of music stuff forming in my head...
Firstly, TAYLOR! I got a free Canadian music scene CD the other week, and there's some good stuff! Your country can do music!
Yeah, I got a free CD with NME, compiled by James Jam (their new music man), and I was quite impressed actually. There were a few bands/artists on there that caught my attention though. Metric were one, a female-fronted sort of punk-rockish band, maybe with a slightly generic sound for a female-fronted group, but at the same time there's a quirky element to the music rarely found in the punk-rock genre. Also rather ear-catching were a band called The Midway State; a more chilled out band with a bit of a piano-y element running through and some cracking lead vocals. Probably the most well-known (at least to me) band on the CD were a band called Tokyo Police Club, who have started to get some attention over here recently. That's quite possibly down to the fact thattheir music is quite similar to the sort of stuff that's gracing the British music scene at the moment. There's definitely elements of Franz Ferdinand and (sadly) The Cribs in there. Very catchy stuff though.
Another band i've had a bit of a whoring spell of recently, and not completely out of the blue, is Biffy Clyro. Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to the British Isles' best kept secret. 4 albums in, and with a small but massively dedicated fanbase, the band with the world's best spoonerism as a band name (they found a Cliff Richard biro on the tour bus; Cliffy Biro = Biffy Clyro) actually finally seem to be getting a bit more widespread recognition. Their 4th full-length album 'Puzzle' is due out next week after a couple of weeks' delay, and only continues to follow the excellent formula they've had going on for the best part of 10 years now.
Their music's a tough one to classify, even more than normal, taking elements of punk rock and metal, and mashing it all together into one big rock melting pot complete with more quirks than i've ever heard in a band ever. I've been a bit of a passive fan of the band for the best part of their LP-making career, but never really looked further than the singles available to me on music channels etc. Until a couple of weeks ago anyway... I've managed to get my hands on all 3 albums, and had a full listen to their forthcoming LP too, and I honestly can't stop listening! From their early successes from Blackened Sky like '27' and '57', to the quirkiness of 2nd and 3rd albums The Vertigo of Bliss and Infinity Land, right through to the Scottish Nirvana-ness of tracks like Semi-Mental on their new album, its all just pieces in the ultimate rock band puzzle.
As mentioned, the band's not without their quirks either, and stylistically can change quite a lot across that discography. Early single 'Joy. Discovery. Invention' is a calm tune with random vocal harmonies thrown in every now and then, until half-way through when it heavies up a bit and becomes a proper rock track. Current single 'Living's A Problem Because Everything Dies' comes complete with a 90-second intro of nothing more than a completely random pattern of guitar stabs and percussion, with the odd bit of choral singing, before breaking out into the perfect guitar music. The 'Infinity Land' album is pretty much full of quirks all the way through, with the oddly named track combo of 'There's No Such Man As Crasp' and 'There's No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake' forming a partnership starting with a sparse vocal-based track sounding like a male version of Imogen Heap's 'Hide & Seek', breaking into one of the most random rock tracks ever, going from screamed, yelped vocals, to lovely soaring choruses.
Biffy are a band every single person needs to have listened to, whether you like them or not.