Transplants - Haunted Cities
Album of the Week
Date - 2005-07-03 00:00:00
I wanted to write a one sentence review for this album, but I think I'll sort of delve into it. The Transplants were formed in 1999 and consist of one member of Rancid, one member of Blink-182, and a mutual friend. They had an album come out in 2002 that I do not think I've ever listened to, and their follow up, Haunted Cities took another 3 years to come out. Was it worth the wait? I don't really think so.
This album is a clusterfuck of multiple styles. There is evidence of the punk roots that Tim Armstrong (Rancid) and Travis Barker (Blink-182) bring to the table, and there is evidence that these two have spent countless hours listening to the Gorillaz for some unknown reason - sure, the Gorillaz were neat, but musically their stuff really does not stand up. Anyways, the third major influence that I detected was early 90's gangster rap, a la Tupac. Now, these influences are not hard to find in this music. Some tracks sound like the Clash. Others sound like Tupac. Most of the tracks sound like the Gorillaz. Nothing stands out, not even the uninspired single, "Gangsters and Thugs".
There are a few problems with this album. First of all, there is no real indication that this is an album and not a collection of random songs. There is a somewhat sporadic attempt at making a social statement about American society, but the Transplants do not focus on one particular aspect of America and end up with one disjointed theme that appears on about half the songs. The second issue is that the songs on this album fall into three clear categories - Gorillaz, Clash, Tupac, if you will - and the styles do not mesh well at all. Songs stick out left and right as awkward and unrelated to the surrounding music.
The third problem is the one I had the most problem with - while none of the songs stick out as particularly good, none of the songs are bad at all. I listened through the album with not even an urge to skip a track. How is that possible? I did not think anything worked particularly well, but I still thought overall it was listenable. Thus, either I just don't get it yet, or I am giving this band a bit too much benefit of the doubt. My guess is I don't get it ... yet.
This album gets a 5+/10, the + because it has clear potential to get better over time.
This album is a clusterfuck of multiple styles. There is evidence of the punk roots that Tim Armstrong (Rancid) and Travis Barker (Blink-182) bring to the table, and there is evidence that these two have spent countless hours listening to the Gorillaz for some unknown reason - sure, the Gorillaz were neat, but musically their stuff really does not stand up. Anyways, the third major influence that I detected was early 90's gangster rap, a la Tupac. Now, these influences are not hard to find in this music. Some tracks sound like the Clash. Others sound like Tupac. Most of the tracks sound like the Gorillaz. Nothing stands out, not even the uninspired single, "Gangsters and Thugs".
There are a few problems with this album. First of all, there is no real indication that this is an album and not a collection of random songs. There is a somewhat sporadic attempt at making a social statement about American society, but the Transplants do not focus on one particular aspect of America and end up with one disjointed theme that appears on about half the songs. The second issue is that the songs on this album fall into three clear categories - Gorillaz, Clash, Tupac, if you will - and the styles do not mesh well at all. Songs stick out left and right as awkward and unrelated to the surrounding music.
The third problem is the one I had the most problem with - while none of the songs stick out as particularly good, none of the songs are bad at all. I listened through the album with not even an urge to skip a track. How is that possible? I did not think anything worked particularly well, but I still thought overall it was listenable. Thus, either I just don't get it yet, or I am giving this band a bit too much benefit of the doubt. My guess is I don't get it ... yet.
This album gets a 5+/10, the + because it has clear potential to get better over time.
Ok, so this review is kind of rushed because I didn't get the cd until yesterday and only had a chance to listen through it twice just now. And I'm away next week, so now is the time to post my review.
The Transplants. Man, that is an appropriate name. It's like they took one piece of ten different genres of music and threw them in a blender, and when they poured it in a glass they ended up with this cd.
There's pretty much zero continuity from one song to another, which I've seen work before, but not so much here. I think they want to be sort of in that rock+rap mold, but it's like they themselves don't even believe that they can maintain that over 12 songs. So sometimes they move towards only the rock, sometimes they move towards only the rap, sometimes they try and be more punkish, in one song I think there's a keyboard... it's just a big disorganized melting pot, in my opinion.
Now... all that being said, it's not terrible music. The lead singer's voice is far from impressive, but it generally works, and the songs are generally catchy. The beats are interesting, and all the different sounds at least keep things fresh, if nothing else. I would have liked to give it a few more listens to strengthen my thoughts on some of the particular songs, but that's not happening this week.
So yeah, congested, disorganized, but catchy... you'll hear samples of this cd on commercials or movie trailers or tv shows or something, I'm quite sure of that.
The verdict: 6/10
The Transplants. Man, that is an appropriate name. It's like they took one piece of ten different genres of music and threw them in a blender, and when they poured it in a glass they ended up with this cd.
There's pretty much zero continuity from one song to another, which I've seen work before, but not so much here. I think they want to be sort of in that rock+rap mold, but it's like they themselves don't even believe that they can maintain that over 12 songs. So sometimes they move towards only the rock, sometimes they move towards only the rap, sometimes they try and be more punkish, in one song I think there's a keyboard... it's just a big disorganized melting pot, in my opinion.
Now... all that being said, it's not terrible music. The lead singer's voice is far from impressive, but it generally works, and the songs are generally catchy. The beats are interesting, and all the different sounds at least keep things fresh, if nothing else. I would have liked to give it a few more listens to strengthen my thoughts on some of the particular songs, but that's not happening this week.
So yeah, congested, disorganized, but catchy... you'll hear samples of this cd on commercials or movie trailers or tv shows or something, I'm quite sure of that.
The verdict: 6/10