A promising but unfocused effort from Guaili (有希望，但是不是很集中的一张专辑)
On their debut album, Beijing's rock veteran Guaili delivers a set of diverse and somewhat unfocused songs. Although this is Guaili's first album, the band has already played countless gigs in China and has even opened for Montreal's the Handsome Furs.
Prior to the album release, the band's label (Maybe Mars) issued a statement claiming that “in terms of musicality and the concept, this album is going to beat the shit out of all recently released Chinese albums”. The label even held a contest, releasing an advance copy of the album to 10 lucky “fans”, encouraging them to write reviews for the album prior to the official release. A similar promotional strategy has been used before Greenday's 1997 release “Nimrod”, as the band proudly declared “anybody who bought the album and doesn't like it can get their money back”. Whether this is the band and label being confident about their fruit of labour or just a merely promotional strategy, it is for the listeners to decide. However, since that they seem to welcome criticism, I decided to be a little strict with my review.
The album, entitled “妄游记”, blasts off with two of its more rocking tracks, hospital and 妄游记 (the title track), where the band quickly establishes themselves as sort of Sleatter Kinney meets an angry Erase Errata. Lead singer 文隽's shrieking and overdramatic vocal works very well with the moody guitar as she screams “here comes the monster...”, very effective and energetic indeed.
However, after the two uptempo tracks the album quickly slows down and gets into a set of confusing mid-tempo songs (midnight hole, Guai Li, and the model) where the band starts to expose some of their shortcomings. In particular, these songs don't really rely on the typical song structure. Instead, the band focuses on playing one guitar riff or one melody over and over again for about 5 to 6 minutes without any sort of payoff for the listeners (this is especially true in songs such as “the model”, as the band plays one single guitar riff for about 5 minutes). On these songs, lead singer 文隽's vocal sounds like some sort of psycho babble as it fades into the background. These songs often offer nothing for the listeners to grab onto and tend to zoom by without leaving much of an impression.
I think I do understand what the band is trying to achieve with these three mid-tempo tracks, as similar sound has been established by bands such as Modest Mouse, Sunset Rubdown, Frogeyes, and Califone. However, the mentioned bands have much more complicated structures in their songs and utilize a wide range of instruments . They also tend to write thought provoking lyrics regarding religion, politics and spirituality. Some spend an entire album slowly crafting a certain strange feeling, or a meditative atmosphere. It is a very difficult task. Guaili in this case, tries to achieve this task by writing guitar jams that repeat itself for way too long, and they fall short.
The last section of the album focuses on something entirely different, as songs such as be cool and devil rabbit take on a C86 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_(album)) influence. These songs have the classic pop structure with a healthy dose of guitar noise added in for kicks. These songs have a similar sound and feel as the songs from Manhattan Love Suicides and the Flatmates. What's more, even the video for “devil rabbit” is similar to Manhattan Love Suicides's video for “Clusterfuck”.
Overall, a bit of a message to Chinese bands in general. When I was a young kid in China, I often hear that artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China promoting their new album as “oh there is a little bit of everything in this album, rock, R&B, techno, electronic....” as if it is a good thing. As I grow up and listen to more and more albums, I start to realize that being so diverse on one album is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it often means that you are unsure about your sound. On your debut album, you want to deliver a precise statement about who you are, what you offer and even what your influences are.
To the credit of the producer (although I'm not really familiar with the work of this Taiwanese producer, he is apparently some sort of indie big shot), the songs are arranged to have some sort of a flow, as all the rocking tracks are put to the front, all mid-tempo tracks are in the middle, and all poppy tracks are at the back. The album takes on a theme of “a journey”. The flaw of being unfocused is somewhat cleverly masked by the production. However, just like a journey, although the traveler (the listeners in this case) might encounter interesting things, a castle, an oasis, a mirage...... a huge part of a journey is just walking, wondering around aimlessly, and that could be very boring to a lot of people.
***********************************************************************************
有希望，但是不是很集中的一张专辑 （以下是我的英文乐评的翻译，我中文不是很好，大家了解那个意思就好了）
怪力带给大家一张不是很集中的新专辑。虽然这是怪力的第一张专辑，他们已经在北京算是大家耳熟能详的地下乐团了。他们演出过很多现场，还给满地克的 Handsome Furs 唱过开场。
在专辑发行之前，乐团的唱片公司兵马司在网上发表了这样的声明 “狂妄些讲，这张专辑从音乐性和概念性上可以秒杀近期本土乐坛里所有的发片！” 兵马司还在网上发起了 “怪力专辑抢先听，抢先评” 的活动，送给 10 个歌迷抢先听专辑和评论的机会。类似的宣传手段美国的乐团也用过。在 Greenday 发行他们 1997 年的专辑 “Nimrod” 之前，乐队就大势宣扬 “我们这张专辑绝对是今年最好的，如果你买了而不喜欢，我们愿意把钱退还给你”。 这究竟是乐团和唱片公司对这张唱片的信心呢？ 还是只是宣传手段呢？这是由歌迷来决定的。但是，既然兵马司已经说了他们欢迎评论，我也不客气的会对这张专辑比较严苛点。
专辑以两首摇滚的快歌， hospital 和 妄游记， 作为开始。在这两首歌里，乐团有点像 Sleatter Kinney 加上 Erase Errata。 主唱 文隽的歌声很戏剧化，有时还带点疯狂。这个声音与歌曲里的吉他非常的合。这两首歌成功的达到了目的。
但是，过了这两首歌，专辑转到三首稍微慢一点的歌曲 (midnight hole, Guai Li, 和 the model)，问题也就来了。因为，在这三首歌里，乐团没有采用一般常见的歌曲的架构。 反而，乐团每一首歌都以一小段吉他或是一小段旋律为基础，然后反反复复的弹上5， 6 分钟。。这些歌好像都没有什麽可以值得听众兴奋的点，而是就平平的这样过去。我听完了这三首歌对他们都没有什麽印象。还有，因为这三首歌太平太长，重复的太多了，主唱文隽的歌声变成好像自己和自己在说话， 也很容易消失在歌里。
我觉得我大概明白乐团想用这三首歌表达什麽，就是一种奇怪的，梦一般的感觉。这种音乐一般着重与感觉，而不是歌曲。像 Modest Mouse，Sunset Rubdown，Frogeyes， Califone 都是这方面很出色的乐团。但是，这些乐团 1）他们用的音乐架构很丰富，绝对不是一段旋律一直重复五六分钟而已 2）他们用的乐器也很丰富 3） 他们一般都会在歌词里评论社会，政治，宗教， 思想非常丰富。大多数这样的乐队都会用一整张专辑的时间慢慢打造这样奇怪的气氛。要把这种风格做的有趣，可听而不沉闷是件很不容易的事。怪力在这里想用三首歌，很重复的方式营造这样的气氛是不太可能的事。我觉得，下次要是在想再尝试请想清楚可听的点在哪里。要不听众花好多时间慢慢磨一首歌，听完了也没什麽印象。
专辑的最后几首歌 （laughing gas，be cool 和devil rabbit）给听众的感觉又不太一样，有一种 C86 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_(album) 的感觉。简单的来说就是 pop 流行音乐的架构，加上吉他的噪音。这些歌曲和 一些 C86 的乐团像 Manhattan Love Suicide 或是 The Flatmates 做的歌曲有相似之处。还有怪力给歌曲 devil rabbit 做的MV，和 Manhattan Love Suicide 给 Cluster Fuck 做的 MV 也有相似的地方。
总的来说，我一直就想给中国的乐团说这件事了。就是，小时候听台湾，香港，的流行音乐时，总是听到例如刘德华说 “我的这张专辑有很多曲风，有 rock， R&B, Electronic, hip hop等等。。大家都可以听” 好像这是件好事。但是长大了，国外的独立专辑听多了，才发现一个乐队，特别是第一张专辑，要给大家一个很统一的概念，你的曲风，写作方式，甚至影响你写这张专辑的乐团等等都要很专一。这是你向大家介绍自己的第一张专辑。 专辑的曲风不集中会让大家对你有一种 “你还不知道你是谁” 的感觉。
专辑的制作有试图把音乐不专一这个缺点挡一下 （虽然我对这个台湾的制作人不太清楚，但是听说他有点大牌）。所有的快歌放在前面，慢歌放在中间，C86 的歌曲放在后面，以至专辑有一定的流畅度。还有这张专辑特别用了旅行作为主要概念。我很同意，这张专辑就像一个旅行一样。 但是，虽然一个人在旅行的过程中会看到很有趣的东西：沙漠，绿洲, 海市蜃楼。。。旅行的很大一部分就只是没有方向的走来走去而已，就像这张专辑一样，而这对一些人来说是很沉闷的一件事情。
Prior to the album release, the band's label (Maybe Mars) issued a statement claiming that “in terms of musicality and the concept, this album is going to beat the shit out of all recently released Chinese albums”. The label even held a contest, releasing an advance copy of the album to 10 lucky “fans”, encouraging them to write reviews for the album prior to the official release. A similar promotional strategy has been used before Greenday's 1997 release “Nimrod”, as the band proudly declared “anybody who bought the album and doesn't like it can get their money back”. Whether this is the band and label being confident about their fruit of labour or just a merely promotional strategy, it is for the listeners to decide. However, since that they seem to welcome criticism, I decided to be a little strict with my review.
The album, entitled “妄游记”, blasts off with two of its more rocking tracks, hospital and 妄游记 (the title track), where the band quickly establishes themselves as sort of Sleatter Kinney meets an angry Erase Errata. Lead singer 文隽's shrieking and overdramatic vocal works very well with the moody guitar as she screams “here comes the monster...”, very effective and energetic indeed.
However, after the two uptempo tracks the album quickly slows down and gets into a set of confusing mid-tempo songs (midnight hole, Guai Li, and the model) where the band starts to expose some of their shortcomings. In particular, these songs don't really rely on the typical song structure. Instead, the band focuses on playing one guitar riff or one melody over and over again for about 5 to 6 minutes without any sort of payoff for the listeners (this is especially true in songs such as “the model”, as the band plays one single guitar riff for about 5 minutes). On these songs, lead singer 文隽's vocal sounds like some sort of psycho babble as it fades into the background. These songs often offer nothing for the listeners to grab onto and tend to zoom by without leaving much of an impression.
I think I do understand what the band is trying to achieve with these three mid-tempo tracks, as similar sound has been established by bands such as Modest Mouse, Sunset Rubdown, Frogeyes, and Califone. However, the mentioned bands have much more complicated structures in their songs and utilize a wide range of instruments . They also tend to write thought provoking lyrics regarding religion, politics and spirituality. Some spend an entire album slowly crafting a certain strange feeling, or a meditative atmosphere. It is a very difficult task. Guaili in this case, tries to achieve this task by writing guitar jams that repeat itself for way too long, and they fall short.
The last section of the album focuses on something entirely different, as songs such as be cool and devil rabbit take on a C86 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_(album)) influence. These songs have the classic pop structure with a healthy dose of guitar noise added in for kicks. These songs have a similar sound and feel as the songs from Manhattan Love Suicides and the Flatmates. What's more, even the video for “devil rabbit” is similar to Manhattan Love Suicides's video for “Clusterfuck”.
Overall, a bit of a message to Chinese bands in general. When I was a young kid in China, I often hear that artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China promoting their new album as “oh there is a little bit of everything in this album, rock, R&B, techno, electronic....” as if it is a good thing. As I grow up and listen to more and more albums, I start to realize that being so diverse on one album is not necessarily a good thing. In fact, it often means that you are unsure about your sound. On your debut album, you want to deliver a precise statement about who you are, what you offer and even what your influences are.
To the credit of the producer (although I'm not really familiar with the work of this Taiwanese producer, he is apparently some sort of indie big shot), the songs are arranged to have some sort of a flow, as all the rocking tracks are put to the front, all mid-tempo tracks are in the middle, and all poppy tracks are at the back. The album takes on a theme of “a journey”. The flaw of being unfocused is somewhat cleverly masked by the production. However, just like a journey, although the traveler (the listeners in this case) might encounter interesting things, a castle, an oasis, a mirage...... a huge part of a journey is just walking, wondering around aimlessly, and that could be very boring to a lot of people.
***********************************************************************************
有希望，但是不是很集中的一张专辑 （以下是我的英文乐评的翻译，我中文不是很好，大家了解那个意思就好了）
怪力带给大家一张不是很集中的新专辑。虽然这是怪力的第一张专辑，他们已经在北京算是大家耳熟能详的地下乐团了。他们演出过很多现场，还给满地克的 Handsome Furs 唱过开场。
在专辑发行之前，乐团的唱片公司兵马司在网上发表了这样的声明 “狂妄些讲，这张专辑从音乐性和概念性上可以秒杀近期本土乐坛里所有的发片！” 兵马司还在网上发起了 “怪力专辑抢先听，抢先评” 的活动，送给 10 个歌迷抢先听专辑和评论的机会。类似的宣传手段美国的乐团也用过。在 Greenday 发行他们 1997 年的专辑 “Nimrod” 之前，乐队就大势宣扬 “我们这张专辑绝对是今年最好的，如果你买了而不喜欢，我们愿意把钱退还给你”。 这究竟是乐团和唱片公司对这张唱片的信心呢？ 还是只是宣传手段呢？这是由歌迷来决定的。但是，既然兵马司已经说了他们欢迎评论，我也不客气的会对这张专辑比较严苛点。
专辑以两首摇滚的快歌， hospital 和 妄游记， 作为开始。在这两首歌里，乐团有点像 Sleatter Kinney 加上 Erase Errata。 主唱 文隽的歌声很戏剧化，有时还带点疯狂。这个声音与歌曲里的吉他非常的合。这两首歌成功的达到了目的。
但是，过了这两首歌，专辑转到三首稍微慢一点的歌曲 (midnight hole, Guai Li, 和 the model)，问题也就来了。因为，在这三首歌里，乐团没有采用一般常见的歌曲的架构。 反而，乐团每一首歌都以一小段吉他或是一小段旋律为基础，然后反反复复的弹上5， 6 分钟。。这些歌好像都没有什麽可以值得听众兴奋的点，而是就平平的这样过去。我听完了这三首歌对他们都没有什麽印象。还有，因为这三首歌太平太长，重复的太多了，主唱文隽的歌声变成好像自己和自己在说话， 也很容易消失在歌里。
我觉得我大概明白乐团想用这三首歌表达什麽，就是一种奇怪的，梦一般的感觉。这种音乐一般着重与感觉，而不是歌曲。像 Modest Mouse，Sunset Rubdown，Frogeyes， Califone 都是这方面很出色的乐团。但是，这些乐团 1）他们用的音乐架构很丰富，绝对不是一段旋律一直重复五六分钟而已 2）他们用的乐器也很丰富 3） 他们一般都会在歌词里评论社会，政治，宗教， 思想非常丰富。大多数这样的乐队都会用一整张专辑的时间慢慢打造这样奇怪的气氛。要把这种风格做的有趣，可听而不沉闷是件很不容易的事。怪力在这里想用三首歌，很重复的方式营造这样的气氛是不太可能的事。我觉得，下次要是在想再尝试请想清楚可听的点在哪里。要不听众花好多时间慢慢磨一首歌，听完了也没什麽印象。
专辑的最后几首歌 （laughing gas，be cool 和devil rabbit）给听众的感觉又不太一样，有一种 C86 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_(album) 的感觉。简单的来说就是 pop 流行音乐的架构，加上吉他的噪音。这些歌曲和 一些 C86 的乐团像 Manhattan Love Suicide 或是 The Flatmates 做的歌曲有相似之处。还有怪力给歌曲 devil rabbit 做的MV，和 Manhattan Love Suicide 给 Cluster Fuck 做的 MV 也有相似的地方。
总的来说，我一直就想给中国的乐团说这件事了。就是，小时候听台湾，香港，的流行音乐时，总是听到例如刘德华说 “我的这张专辑有很多曲风，有 rock， R&B, Electronic, hip hop等等。。大家都可以听” 好像这是件好事。但是长大了，国外的独立专辑听多了，才发现一个乐队，特别是第一张专辑，要给大家一个很统一的概念，你的曲风，写作方式，甚至影响你写这张专辑的乐团等等都要很专一。这是你向大家介绍自己的第一张专辑。 专辑的曲风不集中会让大家对你有一种 “你还不知道你是谁” 的感觉。
专辑的制作有试图把音乐不专一这个缺点挡一下 （虽然我对这个台湾的制作人不太清楚，但是听说他有点大牌）。所有的快歌放在前面，慢歌放在中间，C86 的歌曲放在后面，以至专辑有一定的流畅度。还有这张专辑特别用了旅行作为主要概念。我很同意，这张专辑就像一个旅行一样。 但是，虽然一个人在旅行的过程中会看到很有趣的东西：沙漠，绿洲, 海市蜃楼。。。旅行的很大一部分就只是没有方向的走来走去而已，就像这张专辑一样，而这对一些人来说是很沉闷的一件事情。
