popwreckoning

I held off the Script as long as I could. I’m usually so skeptical about bands that have international legions of obsessed fans, especially when they are mostly female. When the Dublin band appeared as a “You Oughta Know” band prospect on VH1 and one of my English friends told me I just had to listen to one of their songs, “Before the Worst” (from their eponymous debut album released in the UK in 2008), I finally caved. And I’m so glad I did. They came into my life exactly when I needed them. R&B isn’t what comes to mind when you think of the Emerald Isle, but for the Script‘s Danny O’Donoghue and Mark Sheehan, American soul music played a big part of their musical upbringing, which explains the hip hoppy / soulful parts of some Script songs. It’s an interesting twist to the usual pop formula.

The Script – comprised of O’Donoghue (lead vocals, keyboards), Sheehan (guitar, backing vocals) and Glen Power (drums) – have somehow managed to put together blue-eyed soul with a pop sensibility in perfect combination to move thousands of albums and concert tickets. (Their debut album went double platinum in the UK, and an entire 12-date UK arena tour for this March sold out in 5 days when tickets went on sale in October.) The majority of their fans are young and female, which isn’t a surprise given that most of their songs deal with falling in love, heartbreak, or both, and it sure doesn’t hurt that all three members are in their twenties and good looking.

Unfortunately, thanks to these qualities, they’ve been marked as lightweights by most critics, which is unfair. I’m sure many of you reading this have not given the Script a chance for the same reasons I didn’t at the get-go. But Script & Faith, their second album, is worth a listen, whether you are male or female, young or old. Writing the perfect pop song is an art, and even more so if you’re writing a radio-friendly single. Anyone can try to write a good one, but few are successful. Listening to this album makes you think the whole process must be nearly effortless for this band.

Take for example the first single from this album they released in the UK in September 2010, “For the First Time.” You can watch the promo video for the song below: it stars Bono‘s daughter Eve Hewson and ends on a very moving note. With “You Won’t Feel a Thing, “Long Gone and Moved On,” and “Dead Man Walking,” you will find a cool guitar rock sound with pop piano that is comparable to other radio-friendly acts like Keane and Snow Patrol, O’Donoghue’s expansive voice making the tracks soar. Driving drums and piano propel “This is Love,” its sweet lyrics as evocative as the band’s first-ever single “We Cry,” demonstrating the struggle and hope that define the songs of the Script.

When I saw them live at a sold out 9:30 Club show in November 2010, O’Donoghue and Sheehan described their song “Nothing” as being about cheering up a mate with a broken heart by taking him to the local bar and getting him drunk to forget the ex. If the Script‘s words are to be believed, alcohol isn’t the answer because the pain is still too fresh. And really, who hasn’t felt this way right after the end of a relationship, when you haven’t fully come to grips that what you once shared with someone has ended? The words in the chorus “and I know that I’m drunk but I’ll say the words / and she’ll listen this time even though they’re slurred / dial her number and confess to her / I’m still in love / but all I heard was nothing” and the refrain of “I wanted words but all I heard was…nothing” are achingly beautiful in its emotional account of heartbreak.

Having trained as a biologist, I give the Script points for the lyrics in title track “Science & Faith,” insisting that love can’t be broken “down to the chemicals” and “you won’t find faith or hope down a telescope.” Words like these fall flat if there’s no melody, and with this band, you will find yourself tapping your toes to the beat. The Script turns to their more urban sound for “Walk Away,” reminiscent of “If You See Kay” or “We Cry” from their first album; this one elicits similar “raise the roof” hand gestures. The only disappointment is “Exit Wounds,” which, for dramatic purposes, tries to compare a break-up with being shot and plays with suicide and hospital themes. Despite the tenderness of the melody, it’s an unnecessarily sad ending to the album; I would have expected a more uplifting one from this band.

As a writer, I love examining and picking apart lyrics, so I appreciate words put together that actually mean something. I’ll be the first to admit the Script‘s lyrics can be cheesy and overly sappy at times, but sometimes this is the only kind of music that will do. If you loved the simple brilliance of their monster hit “Breakeven” (with the immortal and ever so true line “when a heart breaks, no, it don’t break even“), you’ll find a lot to love on Science & Faith. If you’re a newbie to the Script, give this album a spin and listen to them with an open mind. You might be surprised and find something deeper emotionally that you didn’t know you needed. Like I did.

Track Listing:
01. You Won’t Feel a Thing
02. For the First Time
03. Nothing
04. Science & Faith
05. If You Ever Come Back
06. Long Gone and Moved On
07. Dead Man Walking
08. This is Love
09. Walk Away
10. Exit Wounds

Science & Faith by the Script will be released on January 18 on Sony Music.

The Script: website | myspace | The Script – “Breakeven”

Live photos: Mary Chang

If you’re a first time listener, a few things most likely won’t surprise you.

1. These boys are UK-made and thriving
2. These boys are huge on the radio waves
3. These boys have seen serious family heartache

With Athlete’s first hit album, Vehicles and Animals, listeners heard more electric-tinged motion, and it included a quirky ditty, “El Salvador” that popped up on The Last Kiss soundtrack and gained quite a fan base. Fast-forward to year 2009, and Athlete is now releasing record number four, and has been mood music to “One Tree Hill” four times.

So what can we amateur Americans liken Athlete to? Well, critics seem to agree that Coldplay’s mellow swells and slows are here, and the sweethearts of popular indie success, Snow Patrol, would dig this. Lead vocalist Joel Pott has a voice made for proclaiming tender life lessons with backup from echo-ey (not acoustic or biting) guitars, symphonic synth, and moments when the arena-jammed fans are wailing “ohhh wooahhh ohh” right along with him.

Black Swan seems to have a steady plot; the whole arrangement was named appropriately for life and its cataclysmic turns. “We read an article about Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book The Black Swan,” as Pott puts it. “He was saying that our lives are made up of a handful of significant shocks, good or bad. That’s exactly how our journey has been over the last six years. We’ve had lots of unexpected highs and lows, as a band and as people.”

That being said, there are definite winners in the mix, and then moments where it just seems too FM-ready. For instance, “The Getaway” is the first single and massive fan favorite in the U.S., and one listen will bring you to the conclusion that yeah, it’s perfectly produced and breathtakingly well balanced. The lyrics, starting with, “I never really know who you are/you could be a ghost for all I know” let you know that this is the track you want motivating your all-too confusing and bipolar love life. However, the cheesy clincher explodes later in the song, “please break my heart/just so I can feel.” Come on…cue the montage.

But not all tracks sound like a band-backed Matt Nathanson, Howie Day, Travis, Damien Rice, enter-any-other-young-adult-nighttime-soap-indie-band-here. “Love Come Rescue” really is beautiful, on any facet. From the finger plucking of the acoustic, to the resonating crooning of Pott’s voice, and even the tender lyrics that aren’t made for crowd pleasing; these are the lyrics that seem to be talking only to the subject, whoever that is. This should have been the single, in all its honesty and secrecy. But it’s a short track, at under three minutes. And so I elect another, “Superhuman Touch” to grace the radio for a while. It’s fun, and still has moments that, although not too innovative, seem unique.

The album is good enough to pass with a thumbs-up, but it should come with a warning to indie-absorbed snobs like this writer—overplay is an absolute possibility, if not guarantee. Come next spring, this sucker will be in ALL the bars.

Track List:
01. Superhuman Touch
02. The Gateway
03. Black Swan Song
04. Don’t Hold Your Breath
05. Love Come Rescue
06. Light The Way
07. The Unknown
08. Awkward Goodbye
09. Magical Mistakes
10. Rubik’s Cube
11. Black Swan

Athlete: website | myspace

Speechless. That’s what I was after the local show I caught recently  at Kansas City’s Davey’s Uptown. I wish I could say that the performance was so spectacular that the music left me speechless. Unfortunately, it was a weird chain of events that led to my loss for words.

Before I explain the strange events, I must say that the music was in fact, quite good. The more local shows I go to, the more respect I have for Kansas City’s local scene (There’s a lot more here than the Get Up Kids!)

The young O’Giant Man opened. These guys have shifted their line up around recently, so this was one of the first (if not the first) performance for the latest and hopefully final lineup. The group has a lot of potential if they can stay solid and practice defining their sound. They do some great harmonies and nice instrumental solos, but they had a tendency to test out too many ideas in a single song. This is a problem that many young and eager bands have, but it is something easy to grow out of it. I look forward to seeing them again when they’ve had a chance to refine their sound.

The lone out of town band It’s True was next on the bill. They easily could have been remembered as the best band there had the singer non-gone and fucked things up later in the show. The Omaha indie pop group had a solid sound and harmonies to rival the Fleet Foxes. Considering they’re an Omaha group where warbly vocals are popular (Conor Oberst, Tim Kasher), they’re a refreshing sound for that scene. Graceful keys provided the perfect compliment to their tunes. Aside from the incident that happens later (I’m getting there! Just wait), my only other criticism is that they got to be a little predictable. Sing, then keys, then instrumental breakdown where the singer sits in plays into the monitor. It was cool the first time, but come up with a new movement or song structure. It loses its charm with time.

Lawrence three-piece Cowboy Indian Bear continued the impressive with their full sound (hard to believe there were only three of them!).  All three contributed to vocals and percussion. A recent trend in Kansas City area music is filling out your sound with some pre-recorded electronic beats and effects (see Republic Tigers), which CIB has embraced. I’ve noticed many groups tend to over-endulge in their use of the computer, but CIB was tasteful. They were joined by a friend for their final number titled “Colour Music,” I think, but not to be confused with their “Mathematicians/Colours” played directly before it. They said was this their largest KC audience, which kind of surprised me. With their Postal Service instrumental vibe and smooth vocals, I feel it won’t be long before they gain a large following. They just released an EP. Go check them out.

Sailor Sequence has been described to me as the best band in Kansas City on more than occasion. The trio reminded me a lot of Snow Patrol from the Final Straw era. Perhaps a cover of “Run” is in their future. The difference between them and Snow Patrol is that the Snow Patrol guys have a more pop tendency, while Sailor Sequence leans toward shoegaze without fully embracing that sound.

Now while I’m not sthe full Sailor Sequence converts that my friends are, I do agree that they are quite good. They just lacked in the stage presence category, which might hurt them getting bigger past KC. It just felt distant.

Now I told you that this show left me speechless and I’m finally ready to explain why.

Toward the end of the Sailor Sequence’s set, a guy in a hat walked up to the front of a stage and started drinking a random beer pitcher left on the edge. Weird, but just the sort of weird that you chuckle and roll your eyes at and forget about. But when he put the pitcher down, he proceeded to climb on the stage, stumble over to the microphone by the keyboard and then sang an “Oooh” bit into the microphone when the band was in a big instrumental breakdown.

“Omaha!” yelled someone from the back. I looked again. Sure enough, this was the Omaha band’s lead singer Adam Hawkins.

The audience was confused. Was this part of the act?

The answer: no. Sailor Sequence tried to laugh it off, but when they started another song and Hawkins tried adding notes on the keyboard, the guys in Sailor Sequence just quit and stormed off the stage, incredulous that some drunk opener would ruin your set.

Hawkins wasn’t done there. He fell on the floor in the room by the main bar and attempted getting in a fight. A strange ending to what could have been a perfect night.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say he ruined the Sailor Sequence’s set. For what they did play, they sounded great. But Hawkins did ruin my opinion of his band. Like I said, they could have been remembered as the best band of that night, but that bit at the end was just rude.

O’Giant Man: myspace
It’s True: myspace
Cowboy Indian Bear: myspace
Sailor Sequence: myspace