Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Review of Logan Greene and the Bricks, Soylent Greene

I am unsure whether I have ever perceived the identity of a person as clearly through listening to their music as I have while listening to Logan Greene and the Bricks' most polished recording, Soylent Greene. The album is fun, funny, vital, and surprisingly unique for a country-influenced album consisting mostly of love-songs.

Throughout the album Logan and his 'mates craft a very pleasing blend of pop-punk and country which would absolutely please fans of either. The country sound that bleeds onto every track the Bricks offer up has more in common with Patsy Cline and Hank Williams Sr. than it does with the auto-tuned, right-wing, par for the course, boring as hell pop-country you'd hear on the radio. The album isn't as plodding or mopey as a lot of country can be though. This album has a pulse! So much so that it's clear the songs were not intended to be played at the tempo they are played here. This strange little aspect is probably my favorite characteristic of this album, as it really makes it stand out, not just in its genre, but in my entire music collection. The vocal parts on many of the songs were clearly written with a milder BPM in mind but the rushed tempos really give the album a distinct energetic feel. It brings it beyond country. It makes it fun and vigorous. It makes it punk. I fucking love it.

The album gifts the listener with things that are both expected (and very enjoyable) alongside a few surprises in which Logan almost seems to have used the presumption of the listener of the straightforwardness of his love-songs to sneak in some unusual treasures. Upon first listen, the second track "Your Love for Me" doesn't really stand out thematically from any other love-song.  A few months after the first time I had heard it I was riding in a car with Troy (the vocalist of The Hunger Artists) and he shared with me that he believed that the song was about Logan's mother.  When I heard that my head completely exploded.  I believe that interpretation to be dead on, and it makes this song one of the best and most unusual tracks on the album. 

Another stand-out track on this album to me is "Hold Me Close". There is a Dr. Dinosaur version of this song which I dearly loved during many late-night runs, and was at first turned off by this version of the song.  It has really grown on me though, and sets a more appropriate mood for the tune than the other version.  Logan sounds like he's singing from the cavernous depths of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine while bleeding out from a dusty gun-shot wound in his chest on this one.  It's pretty great.

For a country album, it's fast paced, light-handed, subtly seditious, and existentially joyous.  For a pop-punk album it's rather genuine, tender, differentiated from track to track, and well composed.  Give Logan and his talented 'mates a chance!

Listen here: http://logangreeneandthebricks.bandcamp.com/

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