The beginnings of albums are like all first impressions. That's why another long intro or some spoken word shit is going to make me lose it. Luckily, I can just pop in Malegoat and forget everything. A smile on my face within 5 seconds always speaks highly of a band, in my opinion, and I think Malegoat got a smile in 3. That's gotta mean something, right?
So, I'm going to organize this little talk-about (I don't want to call it a review, cause that requires me to write a certain way) into maybe three main points, the first already being said. The second point is about Japanese bands singing in English. It can ruin a band sometimes. I usually just tune it out when Husking Bee or Staple start trying to pronounce some sort of mangled lyric. I believe in singing in your own language (even though I totally break that and try to do vocals in different languages myself). But Malegoat may pass my silly barrier keeping the non-English speakers from singing in English. It just wouldn't be the same if they didn't. The pronunciation is almost perfect, but the phrasing IS perfect. The vocals are really one of the best things about this. So often with jangly emo bands like this, the vocals are not quite on key, and it just ruins the experience for me. Malegoat's vocals are always on point and go with the music perfectly. You have my permission.
Finally, nothing will stop me in my tracks like a trumpet in an emo song. Halfway through this album, they throw in an instrumental track and lace it with soothing trumpet. It just feels so American Football that they get a free pass to finish the album with some white-boy juggalo trash. For a period of two years, I went to bed with American Football every single night. Their sound has totally brainwashed me. I remember when I was listening to this album for the first time. I was paying attention to something else, but when that trumpet sounded, it was like a dinner bell. It totally soothed me, reminding me of high school. And that's what this music is about for me. It's the sound that I remember from high school, updated to be fresh and awesome.
That's about it. I love this. Keep It Together Records released the cassette in the States, so frickin' get it!
1. Matured Sense
2. Change With Our Time
3. Expression
4. Your Lie
5. Ignore
6. Time Passes
7. Tidying
8. My Blues
finally i've found the cover art, thanks!
ReplyDeletedunno what the above is but the album was originally released in 2010 by stiff slack
Deleteactual cover art looks like this:
http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/61WcAKDnUPL.jpg
The above artwork is from the Keep It Together cassette release in 2011.
Delete