I really do like the CD. It is remarkable for me to hear Ryan's singing voices (yes, voices) after hearing him speak for a coupla hours when I interviewed he and Shannon last week. In the Review, I will talk about Rush a lot, and Geddy Lee, vocalist/bassist of Rush. Little King will proudly tell you that Rush is their major influence, and it would be hard to miss, anyhow. A lot of what you hear is early Rush, though.
I am going to make some comments on each song, then wrap it up at the end, but I have to get my major complaint out of the way up front:
Many a time when I am in a Juarez bar, though, the whole crowd will start singing along with the jukebox. They know the lyrics. Like most Americans, I don't really listen to lyrics, except on country music, and other music that isn't very busy. Since I am reviewing this CD (this is the first CD I have reviewed), I thought I should read what Ryan is singing about. I am not impressed with the lyrics here. Ryan would've been better off writing about getting laid. Virtually none of the lyrics are comprehensible without added explanation; they are too abstract.
You know what Blue Suede Shoes, A Boy Named Sue, Pretty Woman, or Living on a Prayer are about. Most of the songs on this CD, you don't. Maybe they should do videos instead of CDs, so the viewer would have more to go on. Also, some of the lyrics express an anger that contradicts the bright rhythms.
With that out of my system, we continue.
The Songs:
1) All I Need::
At the beginning of the song, the drums playing a nice pattern that
gets old fast. Wes plays straight up, as Ryan says. This is
about the only place on the CD where the drums sound like a machine.
There is a nice, unattributed (on the liner notes) female vocal for
a part. Ryan's picking of chords for parts of the song is a little
annoying; it makes the song too busy. There is a nice slow guitar solo,
with nice sound. This is the song that KLAQ is playing a lot.
EPMS Note: Ryan pointed out to me later where the attribution for
the female singer, Heather Coley, is. Right in front of my face. Doh!!
She also sings backup on the song, Virus Divine.
lyrics:
This is what I mean about the songs needing to be explained. I, the
listener, am supposed to go from "A little town up in flames, those
children could have been mine" to the Columbine High School shootings.
The only way I figured it out was taking "four twenty one triple nine"
from the lyrics and looking up April 20, 1999 on the internet.
BTW, the music is way, way too bright for such a morbid topic.
2) Narcissus and Echo::
The tempo is faster on this song. I am starting to like this guitar solo,
but it is not syncopated enough. This happens a few times on the CD.
You hear some bass soloing here. The guitar fills have a nice sound.
lyrics:
I have no idea what they mean.
3) Peacemaker::
This features a nice, if common, chord progression by an acoustic guitar.
The later chord progression by the electric guitar is more abstract.
There is frequent switching back and forth between electric, acoustic
guitars. Let's see him do this on stage!
lyrics:
These actually make sense! The peacemaker is his gun. 3/4 of the song
talks about why he needs it, then he briefly says at the end that he
gets into a shootout and loses. Again, the feel of the music does not
match the subject matter of the lyrics. Most of the song is in 2/4 time,
which is a little unusual.
4) Second Wind::
Some of the guitar riffs sound like they came out of a sitar.
Maybe this is the Beatles influence, from when they went to India and
hung out with the Maharish Mahesh Yogi. We hear a little bit of the
louder Geddy Lee voice. There is a slower, short solo, and a nice
placement of harmonics. I e-mailed Ryan on the harmonics at the end,
which sound different than the harmonics played earlier; I thought
maybe he was using an acoustic at the end. He responded, "harmonics
on the 12th fret, alternate picking, strings 1-4. clean electric
('91 CS-24 Paul Reed Smith.)"
lyrics:
Near as I can tell, he's talking about a romantic encounter
when he can't get it up. Or maybe the woman is frigid. I'm not sure.
It could also be about a guy dealing with his wife's flatulence when
she dances.
5) antibodies::
The Rush influence is very clear on this song, both in the vocals, and
the chord progression. There is a cheesy fake vibrato sound
(Ryan Rosoff responds: the vibrato thing...right and left hand at
the same time, with the whammy bar and ring finger bends...)
in the
middle of the song. Again, I hear a lack of syncopation on the guitar
solo. Ryan is playing almost straight sixteenth notes. There is a
nice rhythm switch of the drum, playing on the up-beat for about 4
bars toward the end. Ryan's voice gets throaty toward the end of the song.
I'd like to hear more of that throughout the CD.
lyrics:
About a guy that is preparing for a battle, getting ready to
fight evil. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
6) Virus Divine::
The song starts out with a clean, but almost-syrupy, with chord-picking,
then we get a nice change of rhythym to heavy, distorted power chords,
then back. On the guitar solo, another lack of syncopation. This time,
we hear only triplets. Ryan's voice is throaty in parts. Again,
a lot of the song is in 2/4, with triplets. Shannon had told me he
busted a bass move in this song, but I think he might have meant
'Paso del Norte'. He is playing on top of the song more than on most of
the tracks, though. I wish he would do this more.
lyrics:
Seems to be basic anti-capitalism.
7) Paso del Norte::
The song starts very slowly. Shannon's bass is knocking on the door a bit,
leading, not just following the song. Good! The tempo picks up. a little
ways into the tune. The drums get a little aggressive.
The song features an acoustic guitar strumming in front of a wall of
sound - heavily-distorted electric chords.
lyrics:
This song is about El Paso. It references the star on the
mountain, the desert, and people that complain instead of trying to fix things.
I think my eyes are misting up.
8) Horsefeathers::
It is hard to tell when the previous song ends and this
one begins. The song is short.
I would've tried to tie this into another song, or place it somewhere
else in the order, or paused more before starting it.
lyrics:
I think it is a short little piece of basic advice for Ryan's daughter.
WRAP-UP
Ryan seems to have 3 voices: a soft, nasal Geddy Lee voice,
a projecting Geddy Lee, and a throaty voice. The nasal Geddy Lee
is the one he uses 80% of the time.
His voice is too nasal. He also needs to learn better projection. This is not a knock, but he should start taking singing lessons, now. His voice is nice, but not quite nice enough for the Big Show.
Ryan needs to mix up the rhythm on the guitar solos more.
I really appreciate that the CD is not just filled with major, minor, and dominant 7th chords. There are plenty of Maj7 and mi7 chords. My ear is not good enough to talk about extended chords.
I like Ryan's right-handed strumming technique.
Very nice how they switch back and forth between different things on the CD. They change from acoustic to electric guitars, from clean to distorted, and they change rhythms without so much as a 'By your leave.' Still, they border on making the music unlistenable, so they'd better not try to take this any farther.
There is a good bass foundation (wink, Shannon), but he follows the song too closely. I'd like to hear Shannon be a little more out front, more often. The drums are a reasonably aggressive; but I'd personally like them to be even more so. Wes does play on top of the beat, except for on All I Need.
It will be interesting to see how they play on stage; they would need a 2nd guitar player to match some of the changes Ryan does on the CD.
- Charles Hurley
P.S. Ryan pointed me to the Bio on their web site after I wrote this review, where it says, "The disc continues Rosoff's tradition of conceptual lyric writing and follows a theme of enlightenment, inner conflict, and resolution. Based on the story of another anonymous man who is moved to change the world after watching news coverage of the horrible tragedy at Columbine High School, Virus Divine examines the impact one righteous person can have on the world around him."
