Ace Audio: "Upside Down & Inside Out" - OK Go

Or, why OK Go is more than just a group that makes awesome music videos.

Yeah, anybody who knows OK Go most likely knows them for they're utterly amazing music videos. I mean, when I eventually do my best music videos list, it will be a damn near impossible task to select one of their videos, and you can damn sure it will be top five. However, that is not the point of this review, I want to showcase why they are more than just guys who make amazing music videos, and are also good musicians.

Picking one of their songs was itself a challenge, I could've gone with "Here it Goes Again" as that was the video that got them famous. I could have picked "This Too Shall Pass", and I even thought about doing "Needing/Getting", but then there was this song, which was attached to one of the best music videos I've ever seen, and I thought that the video might be overshadowing the song.

So, I think the first thing I should say is that, the instrumentals are a weird techno-rock kind of style. I'm not talking about Daft Punk's Human After All where they included more rock elements, this is something entirely different and quite honestly, I like it. The opening instrumentals are very energetic and upbeat which is an immediate hook to any good song, really if you are bad at making an impression with your opening, or you completely change styles from your opening your song won't really go far, and this opening makes a nice impression.

The instrumentals do shift into a less energetic sound at some points in the song, but it's welcomed because the instrumentals themselves are always loud and upbeat. I think this is a good song to highlight something I don't like about a lot of songs, when they mistake being loud and obnoxious for being loud and upbeat. "Call on Me" had this very same issue, so what is the main difference? Something that is loud and obnoxious is just that, annoying and sometimes painful, and even though some upbeat songs can be annoying, it's never to the point where it physically hurts to listen to a song, "Call on Me" gives me a headache after just thirty seconds, "Mr. Blobby" and "Bananaphone" were both just annoying, with the latter song also being repetitive, and "Hello Kitty" was actually very close to giving me a headache with it's dubstep wub-noxious beat that took over the whole song.

"Upside Down & Inside Out" does not have either of those problems, even though, in some cases, it really should. Why does this song not give me a headache? Maybe because it doesn't sound like a drill going through my head nor like the song is causing my brain to vibrate uncomfortably. Why is this song not annoying? because, unlike "Mr. Blobby" or "Starships" when it does shift it's tempo and tone, it doesn't come out of nowhere and is actually a very welcomed change, the other two songs almost randomly switched into a completely different genre which makes it harder to really attach myself to those songs. Then we have the harder question to answer, why is this song not repetitive? Well, I think it is because, although the chorus is repeated a lot, each one is usually different from the last, take the ending part as an example, it begins slowly and then ends like any good upbeat song should, with a bang! Whereas in a song like "Bananaphone" the only change we got was changing a couple letters in the verse, which lost it's charm quickly.

I'd also like to talk about the lyrics, but I can't really find anything about this song. Wikipedia only has information about the music video, you know how I said the video was overshadowing the song? So, I'm going to give you what I think the song is, and honestly, it's not very easy to decide. A part of me thinks it's a break up song, maybe it's about making a personal change, maybe it's about being confused, or maybe it's about nothing at all. I don't really have much of a starting point to jump off from here. Although despite this, I do like some of the lyrics, especially this verse: "So when you met the new you/Were you scared?/Were you cold?/Were you kind?/Yeah when you met the new you/Did someone die inside?"

I wouldn't say this is my favourite OK Go song, it does lack some of the lyrical quality of a song like "Skyscrapers" or "The Writing's on the Wall", but I would say it's up there. It does a lot of things that usually annoy me in music, but in this case it actually does them correctly and not as badly as the songs I cover on the other part of my blog. I know that in the end OK Go is going to be known for their amazing music videos, but once the novelty of those fade, it's nice to know we're going to have good songs to go with them.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time is another look at the pop punk scene... hooray...

Auditory Abominations: "I Hate U, I Love U" - Gnash ft. Olivia O'Brien

As much as I don't like covering music from this decade on Auditory Abominations, I figure I should at least mention what I thought of the Hot 100 last year. Okay, first off Justin Bieber made Number 1, immediate problem there. Next, The Chainsmokers, can't stand them, and of course we get the usual crap from our pop idols, talentless new comers and Vine anthems. 2016 is no different in the pop charts than any other year in the mid-2010s, so I kind of just picked a song at random, so I guess I should go through with it.

The song begins with the most boring piano and female singer combination ever. I mean seriously, within ten seconds I wanted to throw on a more interesting song. I mean I'll give "Mr. Blobby" credit, that song may be worse but at the very least it's an interesting specimen, I'm only ten seconds in I can tell this is going to be one of the most boring songs I've ever heard. Getting back to the song itself, the female singer sings with the most uninteresting voice in the world, and she just drones on and on through the beginning of the song, and then there are the drums and snaps that, may have been used before "Royals" but that was the song that popularized them. I haven't even made it to the main part of the song, and I already want to end this review.

Gnash is no better, he also begins the song by droning on and on, because it worked for Drake right? Although considering his style, I think he wants to be a Macklemore, if the only Macklemore song he heard was "Same Love". He does sound like Drake, but has nothing Drake has, essentially he is Drake zero. The piano is also getting on my nerves, it is literally press a key and let it drone, and that is what this song is, drone on the song.

You know what this song reminds me of? "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago, another song I can't stand for the exact same reason, it is boring, boring enough to put me to sleep. Gnash throws no emotion into his performance, like even some of my most hated vocalists like Austin Josh and Scott Stapp put emotion into their vocals. This is the equivalent of the acting in The Room.

I dislike the lyrics too, although not the extent of the performance, but they do this song no favours. It is some girl stating that she hates and loves our main singer here and that he misses her, and not "Her" as in the female singer, no he is talking about a completely different character in the song. That just makes everything much more confusing. Seriously, the chorus is girl singing "I hate that I love you and I know that you want another girl that I'll never be", and then Gnash sing-speaking "I miss you" to a completely different girl, and I thought "Lips of an Angel" was bad with this kind of relationship song writing, at least that song was clear in who was talking to who.

Olivia O'Brien also has more than the chorus in this song, but she sings with the same amount of charisma and emotion, i.e. NONE. I'll give her this though, at the very least she is actually singing, unlike Gnash who is sing-speaking. This part of the song is also awful, as it is her just saying, "I love you and I watch you watch this other girl and-" seriously? Move on, I understand it can be hard, but if he isn't interested or if he is spending to much time thinking of another girl than you should not be interested in him.

And this song, a song that has no emotion in any of the vocal performances, a Drake wannabe that only sing-speaks, a droning piano and messy lyrics, reached as high as Number 10 on the Hot 100, which means it actually charted, at Number 38 sure, but it still charted. Meanwhile in "Sweater Weather" peaked at Number 14 in 2013 and didn't chart until 2014 at Number 75.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and if you excuse me, I'm going to listen to "Take Me to Church", or as I should call it, Drone-on the song done right.

Ace Audio: "Moth Into Flame" - Metallica

As much as I hate to say it, Metallica has not been doing well at all in the modern era. Fans have been thrashing (No pun intended) albums since Ride the Lightning, but after ...And Justice For All, it seems that very few fans are ever being pleased. Sure they released some good stuff here and there but many fans were flat out displeased with Load, Reload, and St. Anger and plenty of other things have not been very good on the band. After the entire Napster debate that killed off a good chunk of the band's fan base, it seemed like Metallica was doing nothing but going down hill. To give you some perspective, in 2013 Metallica released a movie called "Into the Never" which costed around $32 Million dollars to make, and it flopped hard, making back only $7 Million at the box office, despite good critical reception. What I'm saying is that Metallica was on a downhill, and whether you like St. Anger or not, we can agree it is nowhere near the quality of Metallica's older stuff like "Master of Puppets", "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "One".

I say this because Metallica decided to release another album, and they have already released a few singles from it, the first one was alright, nothing to amazing, but good. This one is however a much better sounding song.

The opening instrumentals definitely have a Metallica sound to them sounding like "Master of Puppets" but I think that the similar sound is very welcomed here. Really the song just sounds like the Metallica many fans wanted during St. Anger, and I feel like this song can easily fit alongside "Master of Puppets" and "Battery".

I also got to say, the instrumentals are awesome, especially that guitar solo. Hot damn I haven't heard a good guitar solo from Metallica in a while, and James Hetfield's vocals still have the power of the older days.

This is the newest release from their upcoming album, and if the rest of the album has awesome songs like this, I really think Metallica is going in the right direction. I do think this is also better than the previous released track "Hardwired" which to me sounded a bit more like Megadeth. After almost a decade of displeasing fans, Metallica could have and quite honestly should have thrown in the towel after "Through the Never", but they kept pushing and this is the kind of stuff you can get if you keep pushing. I have high hopes for the album when it comes out, I may not get it on release, but I will get it eventually.

Sorry this review came off a bit short, but I really wanted to talk about this song. I wanted to talk about how Metallica are heading in the right direction. Because this song is so recent, I really didn't have a whole lot to say about it, and this also took the place of another review that I was planning on doing. Considering my last Ace Audio, this is kind of fitting as well, and honestly, I think now I can forgive "St. Anger".

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and keep moving, whether it is forward, backward or sideways, just keep moving.

Auditory Abominations: "Rise" - Katy Perry

New blog, yeah! I thought that even though I enjoy listening to albums, I will run out eventually, plus listening to songs is just easier, so I have decided to just review songs I don't like. Welcome to Auditory Abominations, because Todd in the Shadows does not upload weekly.

To Start this blog series, I decided to look at the music artist I despise the most, Katy Perry. Katy Perry to me is the opposite of a music artist, nothing about her seems to be natural in anyway, her voice, her songs, her outfits, it's like she took a bunch of aspects from other, better artists and poorly sewed them on her own image. Of course, I will cover other songs by artists I don't like, such as Creed or Chicago, but I think it's wise to discuss why I don't like Katy Perry, and the song "Rise".

Now for all of those who want to hear the song I put it above so you can listen for yourself although sometimes I have no clue why you would want to. Also I should mention that it is okay if you like any of these songs, I am not here to judge you as a fan or person, just the song.

With that said, the song itself is just a slow Katy Perry song about, rising above the situation. A simple concept, but the execution of the song is the real problem. This isn't the best song to show Katy Perry's weaknesses, but this does showcase a good chunk of her worse problems, such as her voice. Katy Perry may have power and a presence with her voice, but that is nothing impressive. If you want a female singer that has vocal power, I recommend listening to "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane or Heart's cover of "Stairway to Heaven". That actually is my biggest problem with a lot of pop music, it has to be restrained as safe to appeal to a mass audience, but it can't be to safe by hiding behind metaphors. So often pop music has no real defined sound, which is often why I prefer rock and metal myself, as those genres have defined sounds, it is not a metal song without showing off the strengths of the instrumentalists.

Katy Perry's "Vocal Power" is pretty much just singing a bit louder than before, I mean say what you will about Lady Gaga, but she actually has vocal power, which you can hear in a song like "Edge of Glory", so Katy Perry really doesn't have a whole lot of vocal power, which is fitting because Katy Perry is also a pretty boring singer. In this song especially, she sounds like she's tired and forcing a lot of her singing, which really means she should probably take a brief break from music.

The music itself doesn't help matters either, as it is a simple pop-tronic beat, you know one of those faux dubstep-ish beats that tries to be a dance beat, but is over shadowed by other, better dance songs like Ellie Goulding's "Lights", plus who the hell would dance to this slow, boring, dull, kind of downer of a song?

This is not my most hated Katy Perry Song but I think overall it's just a dull, boring mess of auto-tune and generic pop-tronic beats. However, I will give it this, this is not the worst song I've ever heard.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and this song sucks, the end.