"In general I think this is a well crafted and well put together album. I just think it's a little too safe..."
Geowulf - Great Big Blue
Label: 37 Adventures/[PIAS]
Release Date: February 16th 2018
Track Count: 11
Run Time: 42 minutes
Overview
Geowulf's ethereal indie/alt-pop record, Great Big Blue has some really strong surf-rock/early alt-pop influences. It's definitely remeniscent of 70s Fleetwood Mac at certain points, with a little bit of modern psychedelia thrown in; though, to be clear, this is not an overly psychedelic album.
Despite hints towards notoriously more experimental genres, with lots of washed out reverb tones and nice smooth guitar hooks, a lot of the over all compositon and produciton decisions erred on the side of safety. Betweem the nice big, catchy pop choruses and strong anthemic styling, I would've liked some more experimentation. Though everything is well put together and well pulled off, I found a lot of the album was altogether too predictable. Most of the variation can be found in the intros of each track. Once they get properly into them, things start to get a little more predictable and, looking back, it's kind of hard to differentiate between each track, particularly from memory.
There are a lot of moments that I really do like, however. I really like the layering of drum machines/loops and "organic" drum lines. Sunday is a really nice start to the album and sets things up really nicely for what's to come. There are even some really subtle knods (whether intentional or not) to tropical house producers like Kygo.
In general I think this is a well crafted and well put together album. I just think it's a little too safe.
Today's Gems
Follow this month's playlist here
- Greatest Fool
- Hideaway
- Drink Too Much
- Won't Look Back
1. Greatest Fool
- Nice guitar hooks.
- Nice use of harmony in vocal lines. However, I feel like tracking harmonies can get old quite quickly and I think these could've been used more sparingly at certain points.
- Big inspiring anthemic bridge that I've come to expect by track 4, strips back really nicely for the outro.
2. Hideaway
- Slightly darker, more minor feel, which I'm really liking.
- Nice use of saturated string lines. They sound like they've been processed through some sort of tape saturation, which works really well.
- Nice catchy, pop-y chorus.
- Love the sliding guitar hook.
- Nice variation in rhythm, in vocal melodies.
- More tracking harmonies. I think I would've preferred these to be more intermittent and hit on particular words in the chorus. It's good to think of harmonies like punctuation marks.
3. Drink Too Much
- I like the spring reverb on the snare/claps at the start.
- Slightly darker tone at the start, nice contrast to the chorus and the rest of the album.
- I like the subversive, darker message hidden behing the pop-y/indie sound design and production.
- Predictable bridge, but it works.
- I like the Drum and Bass esque drum loop.
4. Won't Look Back
- Shamefully one of the less popular tracks on Spotify.
- Really like the synth bass.
- The track feels epic and like there's a journey and proper story being told.
- I like the reversed snare sound.
- Nice synth lead hooks, kept back in the mix, mingling nicely with everything else.
- There's a nice vintage analogue picture to this track.
- The bridge hits hard and I love it!
Conclusion
As I said, a really well put together piece of work, but just feels like it lacks that experimental edge and the over use of tracking harmonies was very distracting to me. It seemed to have a tendency to wash everything out, especially with all that reverb.
Would I recommend it? I won't be raving about it for weeks to come but, if it came up in conversation, I wouldn't stear people clear of it. I'm just craving something more exciting and more "out there" (what ever that means) at the moment.
Lastly, I'd like to thank @heymattsokol for sharing my previous Nightmares on Wax review on @sndbox-alpha's Notes of The Week a couple of weeks ago. The @sndbox team are doing a lot for artists and creators across the Steemit platform. Go check 'em out.
What do you think? Are you a Geowulf fan? Have you given this album a listen? Do you have any recommendations of what I should be listening to? Let me know in the comments below.
You may have noticed a change in the titling of this article. Writing a daily review was hard to keep on top of and clashed too much with my schedule IRL. Therefore, although I am still listening to new albums daily, I will be posting less frequently until I can settle on a more solid posting schedule. There are more exciting things in the works as well, so keep your eye out for different kinds of posts coming your way very soon.
This album was reviewed using beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO Studio Headphones - 80 Ohm
and G3 KRK Rokit 6
studio monitors, through a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40
audio interface.
Last month's playlist can be found here
Your article got selected by the IINC team and is featured in the "Curator's Choice" series. Congrats!
Thank you! I really appreciate it!
wow , you are posting unique content , why dont you make a video reaction/response , it will definitely help
Thanks @theversatileguy, I really appreciate it. Watch this space, there should be some video content very soon. I've also been toying with some other ideas, but I don't want to give too much away, yet.
@originalworks
Nice review. Cool to do this about Steemians. Do you know @scuzzy Steemit Music Review contest (here)?
Thanks for the kind words @qsounds. I hadn't heard of the review contest, but I'm definitely going to check it out and get involved. Thanks for the heads up!
Enjoy and success with the contest! :)
Oh there's even a music review contest here? Wow i think I'm gonna join then.
Yep, have fun with it!