Ace Audio: "Innocent" - Aurelio Voltaire

The internet is simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to the music industry. I mean, thanks to stream sites like YouTube and the like, we can literally find any music we want and anyone can share their own music. This is where we get artists like Gotye, and although this does mean that there will be plenty of talentless folks trying to get famous online, there are still a number of talented musicians on the internet that often get overlooked, such as Aurelio Voltaire.

If you know any Voltaire, you will know that two of his songs were bumpers for the Nostalgia Critic, those are "When You're Evil" and "Death, death (Devil, devil, devil, devil, evil, evil, evil, evil song)" or for any fans of Mr. Enter you may know "The Dirtiest Song that Ain't", well that's how I was introduced to him anyway. You may have also heard the song "BRAINS" if you grew up with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but I never saw that episode. I would've done any of those songs and any of his others songs, but I chose lyrical content over personal preference this time. I can't say that this is my favourite Aurelio Voltaire song, that would probably be "Raised by Bats" or "Straight Razor Cabaret", but the lyrical content makes this song stand out.

Unlike most of my blogs, I'm not really going to go into the actual music, although whenever I do this, you can pretty much assume that the music itself if really good, since I am much more of a music guy before a lyrics guy. If I don't like the way the song sounds, I will dislike the song as a whole, even if the lyrics aren't to bad, and even then I can stomach some pretty bad lyrics or even a lack of lyrics if the music itself is good. This is what made "She's a Beauty" a song I didn't like as the lyrics mostly just passed my limit of bad lyrics I can tolerate. I will talk about the music and vocals briefly, but the focus of this review is going to be the lyrics, and oh boy what lyrics they are.

This song is about bullying, like the poem "To This Day", which is one of my favourite poems of all time, up there with "The Raven" and "In Flanders Fields". Although this isn't a subject I know well, it's not a subject that is foreign to me, and not just from media portrayals.

The song's opening lyrics set the tone nicely, by describing bullying as evil pushing down on you, and that is actually cutting most of the opening lyrics off. However, I would say that it's the third verse that really gets the ball rolling so to speak. "And all the venom in their words" describing the pure vitriol some bullies spew out, often times going beyond name calling. Aurelio Voltaire then goes further asking "What kind of ignorance/ Causes them to be so, / So sick and vile and evil?" which is a question lots of people ask, and although the song doesn't really delve into this, it isn't a song that analyzes bullying, but more a song that tries to inspire and encourage the victims of bullying.

The chorus of the song is nice, it's nice for people to hear that it is not their fault that they are being bullied, and I feel like this is something that people need to believe, it is never the victim's fault. He goes on to add "It's the world that's wrong" to the chorus, which is a lyric I both like and dislike. On one hand, sometimes yes, the system a lot of countries, especiallyAmerica, use often encouraged people to think they are better than another because of class and wealth mostly, but on the other hand, I don't think it's fair to exactly blame the world as a whole. I don't know, see what you think about it. The second and third chorus add some more lyrics, stating that "Someday the world will belong/ To the innocent", which adds a bit of hope to the song, that someday everything will be alright.

Although, I think my favourite part of the song lyrically is the part after the second chorus. Since Voltaire is a part of the goth scene, he mostly wrote this song with gothic interests in mind and goes on to name a few, wearing black, listening to The Cure and Siouxie Sioux and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As someone who isn't a goth but loves the gothic culture, I love hearing tiny references like these, and it also let's others know that it's okay to like what you like and be yourself. If you want proof, you can easily replace each of those things with stuff you like, such as Great Big Sea or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. The song basically still works, whatever you put in there, whether it's your biggest guilty pleasures (for me that would be Aqua) or a song that you legitimately love, I know people who love songs I hate, and I let them know that it's okay because it makes them who they are, and a lot of them, I like as people.

But as I said, I am a music guy before a lyrics guy, let's actually talk about the music because it is beautiful. Voltaire himself is a guitarist and mostly plays acoustic on this track, but the band behind him does and amazing job, especially the violinist. The violin just makes the tone of song and no instrument ever feels out of place, nor sticks out in a negative way. Voltaire himself is a talented singer as well, and he is one of very few singers who can make the "moaning over a microphone" sound actually not sound like utter shite.

As I said, I'm more of a music guy before a lyrics guy, but some songs do have lyrics that really resonate with me, and although this isn't in my list of songs with favourite lyrics, they really did strike a chord with me, pun intended. If all you know from Voltaire is the music you heard from Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, or Billy and Mandy, I must insist you check out more of his work, he is a talent and hosts a pretty cool web series on YouTube as well.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and being serious again, if you see somebody getting bullied, tell somebody because bullying is wrong and should not be tolerated by anyone.

Auditory Abominations: "Tonight, Tonight" - Hot Chelle Rae

Although I love this decade for music, I must admit there is a yin-yang happening. Since a lot of the good stuff is amazing, many of the duds and failures are much more noticeable. This is nowhere more apparent than the pop scene of the 2010s. Sure, we had plenty of good songs from the 2010s, but that doesn't excuse the massive amount of crap we also get, and although I've covered more good songs from this decade on Ace Audio, that doesn't mean that the majority of songs from the decade are good, although that probably is the case but to contrast, Hot Chelle Rae.

you know, the early 2010s were not a bad year for putting a rock song or two on the chart, I mean sure they don't sound as rock as Led Zeppelin, but by that logic Aerosmith isn't a rock band then. The decade had plenty of good rock songs on the charts including "It's Time", ""Pumped Up Kicks" and "Animal", but there is always a dud here and there, and I'm looking at one of them right now, joy bunnies.

This is one of those songs that pretty much just throws you into the water, kind of like "Basket Case", so there is no instrumental build-up to anything and the song just starts. The opening beat follows the frontman's delivery and it, works I guess but the instrumentals don't sound that great. You know how in some songs I complained about a sound where it could be one instrument making but it sounds like another? Well, this song has that problem too, I really don't like it when songs do this, mostly because I like picking out what the instruments are, is this a bass or a keyboard, or a guitar? I have no clue, and it also doesn't help that the beat is just "daa-daa-DA" in the opening. So how does frontman Ryan Follesé sound? The sound of his voice is hard to nail down, it is nasally but not too much. I don't know, but it sounds Meh, I guess.

The opening lyrics describe how the frontman's week has been, "Seven days of torture, seven days of bitter," So, did he spend seven days in a torture dungeon with the world's worst British pub? I know he most likely means his job sucks, but there really is nothing to go off of. You may as well say, "My week sucked, I did seven days of crap." Then of course, we get the perfect lyrics of any song "La la la, whatever, la la la" That isn't even lazy writing, that's just last second writing.

The chorus kicks in and suddenly Ryan's voice sounds auto tuned, it probably isn't because I've heard some bad auto-tune, but it sounds like it. The chorus also tries to make the song sound like a party song, except it sounds like one of the lamest parties ever. I mean even if "Dancing on the edge of the Hollywood sign" sounds awesome, there is no passion behind singing it, so instead of a wild and crazy party with people jumping around and having a good time, I imagine a party where the most dancing you do is like shaking your hips as you move your arms and legs in a circular motion, the dance people do when they don't know how to actually dance.

We also get one of the strangest lyrics I have ever heard, and considering I looked at "Afternoon Delight" previously, that's saying something.
the line is "I woke up with a strange tattoo/ Not sure how I got it, not a dollar in my pocket/ And it kinda looks just like you/ Mixed with Zach Galifianakis." I don't even know what to make of it, it's just so odd.

The chorus also drives me up the wall. It's just so, annoying. I mean, the vocal work mixed with the instrumentals, I can barely even tolerate it, and it's the majority of the song. The song is three minutes and SERIOUSLY! Three minutes and you couldn't write more than a piss poor chorus?

This song is crap, the lyrics suck, the chorus is annoying, the instrumentals blow, the frontman has no passion behind his voice, how this song became a hit I have no goddamn clue. I'm the Entity of Darkness, what's next? Another trip to the 80's alright fine.

Ace Audio: "Lights" - Ellie Goulding

A lot of my Auditory Abominations are often about pop songs, mostly because a lot of pop songs are just fluff, which is a term of many definitions, but it generally means that the product is really nothing but sugar and air, giving it very little substance to it in the end, but sometimes a fluff product can work. Fluff is not really accepted overall by most people because after a while when whatever fad it is a part of dies off there really isn't any thing to hold on to. A lot of the songs I talk about have many things that fail on their own merits, such as "This is How We Do" (You know, I really need to stop picking on Katy Perry so much), that is a song that has horrid lyrics, awful music and a dreadful theme all of it sung by someone who can't sing. The song on it's own is awful, but when I compare it to a song that has good beats and tempos, good lyrics and a good theme by singers that can sing, it becomes even more unbearable, and that's not even comparing it to heavy metal music I'm just in my head comparing that song to "Face to face" by Daft Punk.

Pop music is going to be a regular on that series, but sometimes there is a good pop song, and for those of you who have been reading my previous posts, you'll know that I have been praising this song pretty much since the beginning. But I don't think that is really enough to describe my thoughts about this song, so I'll say this; this song is in my top 15, on the same list as "Chlorine and Wine" and "Octavarium". That means that I put this song higher on my favourite songs list than most of the other songs I'll cover here.

I'm not saying this song is better than most of the stuff I'm covering, in fact it may be one of the weakest songs I'm covering, but I say you should recognize failures, but you also have to recognize successes. Often because the failures allow you to appreciate some of the lesser successes.

What makes this song different from most pop songs is that unlike most other pop songs like "Starships", I actually understand the appeal. The song has a bouncy beat that is easy to groove and dance to, and Ellie's voice is just beautiful. Even the song's theme is easy to identify with, it's about the fear of the dark, something plenty of us had and have.

A lot of issues I have with pop music is that it is often beyond basic, I mean repeat four chords and sing some song about being famous, in a break-up or just some generic dance song that doesn't hold up after the next big single comes out. This song actually gives me something to hold onto after all this time, allowing me to enjoy it much more than something like "I Knew You Were Trouble".

Is this a good song, or is it just a victim of what some people call the frozen effect? You know where a lot of the other stuff is crap making whatever isn't really bad sounds so much better. I do have to say that around this time I never really heard a lot of music on the radio, most of what I listened to was modern rock so I can say that this is a good song on it's own, and not just because everything else was crap.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and always keep an open mind, you may find something new to enjoy.