Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Record Review-- Mando Diao "Ode to Ochrasy"
[PLEASE NOTE, THE ABOVE SONG IS OFF THEIR STELLAR ALBUM HURRICANE BAR, NOT THE ALBUM BEING REVIEWED HERE, WHICH SUCKS!!!]
Mando Diao's 2004 release, Hurricane Bar was a triumph of garage rock. Combining the jagged guitars and ramshackle drumming of the lyrics with emotional and raw lyrics about love and desire, Hurricane Bar was an emo album for the garage set. It contained one of my favorite songs of, You Can't Steal My Love, which is a love song about the lead singer meeting his wife for the first time at a library and features the following wonderful lyric being screamed at the end of the song, "Honey, I love you/ Like the summer falls/ And the winter crawls/ You're above and beyond me." Its a fucking great track! I was really looking forward to this year's follow-up, Ode to Ochrasy.
My hopes were not well placed. This is the most disappointing album of the year. Released in Europe in 2006, the album hit stateside in early 2007. I was expecting something like Hurricane Bar, but what I got was a bluesy stones ripoff with little melody or harmonies. Gone are the sweeping chrouses, the jagged guitars, and the poly-rhythmic drumming. Their sound has been stripped. Instead of sounding like a band that should be sharpening their skills, they sound like an untalented bar band.
The only songs worth listening to again are Morning Paper Dirt and Song for Aberdeen. Other than that, people should stay away from this album. The lads need to get back in the studio and work on their craft.
FINAL SCORE-- 1.5
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1 comment:
I have to disagree with Libertine on this one. I think Mando was a great album, in fact one of the best. The bass guitar, and celestial rhythyms really make this one of the best albums of the year. I think libertines view may be a little bias. He has a tendency to latch onto one band, and since he listens to that band so much, he loses his ability to gauge other music.
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