Cosmos Music Group, 2012
Three stars
Sometimes epic, overwrought production can serve bands incredibly
well:
U2 almost defined the idea of arena rock in the late '80s and early '90s, not only by delivering towering choruses and heartfelt
lyrics, but also by hiring guys like Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to man
the boards, guys whose knack for taking songs to the rafters (and
beyond) are unparalleled. Coldplay has built a massively successful
career out of channeling that tendency, packing their arrangements with
such a vast array of sounds and musical ideas that they have to play
live shows to a backing track. And meanwhile, there's The Killers, who
burst onto this scene last decade by taking the influence of '80s
new-wave and synth pop and merging it with the skyscraping hooks and
production values of
Morning Glory-era Oasis (or, on
Sam's Town,
Born to Run-era Springsteen). Needless to say, bigger has proved
better for more than a few acts in modern music, and one need look no
further than the tour receipts or album sales for the aforementioned
acts to see that a massive sound is more likely to lure in large
audiences than, say, a lone troubadour with raw production and an
acoustic guitar.
But arena-sized ambition can derail bands as well: Tom DeLonge
gave up blink-182 for a solid decade, making three oversized records
with his side project Angels and Airwaves, a band whose depth of musical
ideas never even approached the scope of their production. A similar
thing happens to Swedish rock act Molotov Jive on their third
full-length, titled
STORM, an almost absurdly overblow spectacle of a
record that constantly tries to sound huge...whether or not it has the
melodies to make that sound work. But that's not to say that Molotov
Jive isn't a talented band, that
STORM isn't a solid album, or even
that the production is a complete blunder: indeed, when the sound works,
the songs are undeniable, like with the towering
should-have-been-opener "Run," which possesses a shout along chorus, a
wall of guitars (a la
The Dangerous Summer), and a flourish of synth
melodies that recall both '80s bands (the record is evocative of Depeche
Mode throughout) and the post-millenial new wave revival (yes, The
Killers) to pleasing effect. But just as often, that spacious, echoing
production is shackled to songs that don't go anywhere, compositions
that meander and search for melodies or hooks ("Take Me In Your Arms")
or stumble upon grating ones ("Manhattan").
More frustrating is the vocal production, which surrounds singer
and songwriter' Anton Annersand's voice in an almost comical amount of
reverb, causing his every word not only to ring, but to actually echo
for a few moments after he sings them. The effect is doubtlessly aimed
at giving the band a bigger sound, but the actual result is almost
aggravatingly distracting, and, for me at least, was almost impossible
to get past. It doesn't help that Annersand's default setting as a
singer is desperate earnestness, causing him to shriek, inhale, and
almost cry out every note in order to heighten the emotional texture of
the song at hand. I'm all for emotional connection, but Annersand's
overwrought delivery is almost always aimed at breaking-point intensity,
and as good as he can sound in that vein (the radio-ready "Friendship"
is a good example of what happens when it works), it becomes exhausting
over the course of the record. That said, when the band drops the tempo
and Annersand sings the songs straight (and in a lower register) like on
the climactic finale that is "Sleep Safe," or on the gorgeously
resigned and electronic-influenced "Just Leave," the results are
stunning. He has a unique instrument, giving the band an instantly
distinctive sound (despite their obvious collection of influences), but
he just needs to learn to save his emotional intensity for the
appropriate moments.
It's almost not fair that Molotov Jive will instantly be compared
to some of the biggest acts in modern pop and rock music, but that
association also has its perks. At its best,
STORM sounds like a
welcoming bell, an announcement to herald an act with the talent and the
scope to play in the big leagues; at its worst, it comes across as pale
imitation of that scene. The songs the band has written here do
generally merit the size and scope of production they attempt, so it's a
shame that the finished product is a bit shoddy and mismanaged. With a
giant like Brian Eno or Daniel Lanois behind the boards, these guys
could have been filling stadiums; by all rights, the same thing should
have happened with Sylvia Massy (whose resume includes work with
Aerosmith, Prince, and Red Hot Chili Peppers), but the result is almost
stifling instead. Still, these guys have a gift for the grandiose and
the subdued alike, and while
STORM only rarely reaches its high level
of potential, with the right person behind the boards, they could go
global.
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