Member:
BrianG
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by BrianG)
Date:
11/16/2007
Format:
CD (Album)
This Kentucky-based foursome have the biggest noses in the world, if you can trust the caricatures on the album cover. The artwork presages the need for some kind of introduction to this band, which would have been nice given the difficulty in reading the liner notes. Luckily the band sent me their spec sheet. Now I know that they have been around since mid-2004, this is their second full album release, and some magazines and websites have said nice things about them. The CD liner notes are full of odd inside jokes and drawings of ugly people, furthering their quirky image.
Except for the first two tracks "What Atrocities Are These" and "La Fin Absolue Du Monde", the music has trouble coalescing into real songs. There is somewhat of a melody, and rhythms come and go, but the actual song structure is mostly missing. Segues are done away with. The music chugs along without developing into verse chorus or symphonic structures. This may work to their advantage, and allows the band to meander without being annoying.
Relative music might be from the Danish band Mew or even shades of Echolyn. I even found some Pat Metheny references. All well done, but in a slightly crooked, offbeat way, but not offbeat like Zappa or Fripp, offbeat like just back from the sanitarium! All in all, as long as you don't feel the need to be in on the story, Chest Rockwell vs. The World is a very interesting indie-rock experiment.
Member:
Windhawk
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Windhawk)
Date:
11/20/2007
Format:
CD (Album)
Chest Rockwell is a four-man strong rock group based in Kentucky, USA, and Chest Rockwell vs. the World is their second album, released in March 2007.
Musically, the overall sound on this album reveals a band with firm roots in the indie/alternative scene. When the first real track on the album starts playing, disregarding the opening mood piece here, the sounds that emanates from the speakers are drenched in the indie/alternative feel.
As that song evolves, and as you listen to the following tracks, it won't take long before anyone will start noticing that there's lots more going on here though. The band change pace, style and mood frequently in each song; and the album as such is both mixing and moving between mellow rock, psychedelic rock, ambient, jazz, fusion, symphonic rock and metal. All of it well done; and at all times with that indie/alternative flavour in the soundscape.
The experimental quality to the music and that indie sound makes me see this release as quite related to krautrock actually; if Amon Duul II had started out today I'd imagine that they would have had a sound not too dissimilar from what Chest Rockwell has on this release.
Musical influences on this music are probably too many to be listed; and few are extremely obvious. As many other bands they have borrowed some classic U2 melodic overlays, but not to the extent that I would call this a major influence in the sound here though. It is the one influence most people will discover when listening to this album though.
All the changes in moods and styles on this album call for some very structured songwriting to make it work. Fortunately the band is talented in that department; the creativity has been channeled effectively; so that each song feels like a song rather than mixed parts thrown together. Much of the continuity comes from the band moving back and forth here, the various styles and moods flowing back and forth instead of utilizing more dramatic breaks to go from one style to another.
Overall this is an interesting release for music fans with a broad musical taste; and worth checking out for anyone defining themselves as just that.
My rating: 80/100
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