Review Thursday: Drake, Coheed and Cambria and Danko Jones

Drake
Thank Me Later
Young Money/Universal

Aubrey Graham's highly anticipated Thank Me Later has proven to be deserving of all its hype. The Canadian-born rapper, better known as Drake, delivers lyrical and inspiring music and leaves out the drugs and gangsterism. He offers an open and honest look into his personal life and state of mind. Drake chooses truth over fame as his songs mostly depict his climb to success, and how grateful and humbled he is. He shows off his newly-obtained status with siginificant guest appearances on the album. Artists such as T.I , Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz, Young Jeezy, Nicki Minaj and Alicia Keys willingly jumped on board to help bring this album to life. His efforts come through as the album gives his premature success a run for its money. Songs like "Thank Me Now", "Over" and" Light Up" give his listeners a view of how his career took off, and lessons learned through the process. The 23 year-old savours the moment with songs like "Firework" and "Up All Night". His beats are creatively simple yet classic, his flow smooth and enticing and his songs bring back the real meaning of hip hop, poetic and inspiring. The Degrassi Graduate lives the "American Dream" of Hip Hop. Anyway you put it he made it.

(Sarah El Fangary)

Coheed And Cambria
Year of the Black Rainbow
Columbia

So I have a difficult relationship with Coheed and Cambria.  I started listening to them after In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 when I got it from my radio station in the States to review.  I thought it was, as we used to say back then, "all that and a bag of chips", and then I listened to their first album, Second Stage Turbine Blade, and was also pretty happy with that (read: "made me so excited I had to change my pants".  Think what you will).  I then looked deeper into them and found out the whole story that they had about space nerdiness and Monstars and more details then I care to go into here and got even more excited.  I mean, here's a band that not only has a concept album, but a whole goddamn concept band with albums and comic books.

They subsequently released Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, and they got even more prog-rock than their last albums and though there seemed to be some songs that were kind of lacking, I still felt confident that they would be putting out albums that were both cohesive, good with relaying an overarching story, and, most importantly, musically sound.

Then came Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 2: No World for Tomorrow.  This album, while being easier to type and talk about in name, was a considerable drop in storytelling and musical quality.  Not only did the album seem overly polished and poppy, but also, all of they storytelling was now done in the comic books being released as "accompaniments" for the album.  It was ultimately a sad day to realize that a band that was so good at what they were doing were getting really lazy at writing and relying on comics as the sole voice to tell the story and then making a shitty soundtrack to accompany that set of comics.

So now I have Year of the Black Rainbow, a prequel to the whole story that's been going on through all the albums and a 352 page novel to go along with it.  Before when there was no comics, the music was great, and as more stuff starting getting added with the music, the music itself started to get worse and worse.  Following this logic I logically assumed this album to be the worst thing I heard by them, not even reaching the previous 2.5 good songs that the last album had.  However, the album really isn't that bad.

It has all the prog-y elements that made In Keeping Secrets and the first Good Apollo album so good.  It also has some rockin' riffs that manage to keep me really interested in them.  "The Broken" is an amazing song that manages to be a solid rock song and feel pretty epic without dragging on the way some songs of theirs do.  The same thing with "This Shattered Symphony", and "World of Lines".  These songs, however, are joined by some songs that don't really strike me as being exciting or even really memorable.  "Here We Are Juggernaut" was released as their first single and I started out disliking it, then liking it, and now, not really liking it again.  Also, the last five songs are pretty boring, and seem slapped on in an attempt to stretch the album out.  Putting long songs at the end of the album isn't new for Claudio Sanchez and co., but never has it felt so boring and forced.  At least on the last album, as bad as it was, it seemed like it was part of the album, and not a tacked on bit of filler.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I can't tell if I actually like the album or if it is suffering from what I dub as "St. Anger Syndrome".  This is when a band (in this case Metallica) releases an album (St. Anger), the worst thing you could ever imagine them doing, usually after an album you like.  You feel really let down and truly disappointed by the album.  So, then the band releases a new album (Death Magnetic), and you listen to it and think you like it.  But the question is, do you like it, or does it just seem so much better than the burning bag of dog feces that the left on your doorstep the last time that you think its good?

If you really like Coheed and Cambria and really didn't like the direction they went with Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 2: No blah blah blah blah, then I think its safe to say that you'll like this album.  It's a good effort, but not what I had come to expect from the promise set forth by their early works.  Though I don't know what they would do now that the story is technically finished I hope they release an album that includes the story and has the type of passion for the story that the first three had.  Then, after that they should retire and at least leave a nice solid album that the story deserves.  Or maybe just make a new band and start a new band entirely and come up with some other drugged out story.  Maybe about a subterranean group of mole people that try to take over the Earth with some kind of alien technology.  Well, I don't see you coming up with anything better.

(Andrew Wieler)

Danko Jones
Below The Belt
Aquarius Records

After 2008's disappointing Never Too Loud, many had written off the Mango Kid and his two musical cohorts as an overtly-ambitious band who tried cramming too many musical stylings into his songs, forgetting that a good hook and some decent licks was all you need for rocking times. His brand of throw-back garage rock got lost in the songwriting cycle, instead churching out an overtly-commercial and well-polished record. If Never Too Loud was its version of the Ramones' End Of The Century, then Below The Belt is its Subterranean Jungle, cutting back the bells, whistles, sound effects and stylistic changes that cluttered up the sonic palette and instead focus on getting back to the rock. Lead-off track "I Think Bad Thoughts" and first single "Full Of Regret" are definite stand-outs from a true return to form. Don't call it a comeback, just call it business as usual. 

(Brian Hastie)