Dear Dad, I'm having trouble feeling sad.
Jun. 1st, 2008 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urgencytobleedThe Anniversary
My latest obsession, further cementing the fact that I can't seem to listen to anything except bands that take advantage of both male and female vocals these days. I've tried to get into them on about three separate occasions over the past year or two. The first time I hated them, the second time I was a bit more accepting but overall wondered what was so great, the third time about a week ago I thought it was actually quite awesome. Which all leads up to where I am now: not completely obsessed but pretty close.
Their first album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, is fucking awesome and extremely close to perfect. It kind of reminds me of early Rainer Maria, with the addition of catchy-as-hell synth and keyboard lines and better harmonization vocal-wise. I think I've mentioned before that I don't really care for early Rainer Maria, but if it sounded like this, I imagine I would love it - it's like all of the good parts magnified with all of the bad parts removed. As far as their second album, Your Majesty, goes, I haven't completely decided yet; it's so completely different and sometimes comes across as really forced and contrived but it also has a few brilliant moments. And anyway, I'm totally in love with Adrianne Verhoeven's voice, which I already knew from other projects she's involved with that I like (Art in Manila, Fourth of July), so listening to her almost makes up for anything lacking in the actual music.
The band broke up in 2004 but there is actually a 2-disc collection of rarities and unreleased tracks being released this summer, so look out for that. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite songs from both albums. (The first two songs are especially recommended, sooo catchy.)
Designing a Nervous Breakdown:
Your Majesty:
Their first album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown, is fucking awesome and extremely close to perfect. It kind of reminds me of early Rainer Maria, with the addition of catchy-as-hell synth and keyboard lines and better harmonization vocal-wise. I think I've mentioned before that I don't really care for early Rainer Maria, but if it sounded like this, I imagine I would love it - it's like all of the good parts magnified with all of the bad parts removed. As far as their second album, Your Majesty, goes, I haven't completely decided yet; it's so completely different and sometimes comes across as really forced and contrived but it also has a few brilliant moments. And anyway, I'm totally in love with Adrianne Verhoeven's voice, which I already knew from other projects she's involved with that I like (Art in Manila, Fourth of July), so listening to her almost makes up for anything lacking in the actual music.
The band broke up in 2004 but there is actually a 2-disc collection of rarities and unreleased tracks being released this summer, so look out for that. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite songs from both albums. (The first two songs are especially recommended, sooo catchy.)
Designing a Nervous Breakdown:
Your Majesty:
