The weekend has arrived, and I am ready for a good one filled with good times, good friends and lots and lots of music.
Disc 1766 is…Vicious
Artist: Halestorm
Year of Release: 2018
What’s up with the Cover? This cover takes a real “hands on” approach. Some of these hands seem interested in Lzzy Hale’s necklace, others her jacket. Whatever the case…rude.
Also of note, according to that watch in the upper right it is 5:20, in the time zone west of wherever this hand attack is taking place, it is 4:20. I like to think it is Mountain Time, making it a mountain high.
How I Came To Know It: As I noted when I reviewed “Back from the Dead” at Disc 1747, I found the whole Halestorm collection in a store at…the mall. Weird, but fortuitous.
How It Stacks Up: I have five Halestorm albums. “Vicious” falls in the middle of the collection, third best.
Ratings: 4 stars
Visceral power. That is what you can expect on any Halestorm record, and while “Vicious” may have some disgruntled metal heads say it isn’t “metal enough,” it makes up for that with some solid songwriting and, of course, the ever-present revelation of Lzzy Hale’s vocals.
More on that later, but let’s start with the musicianship this record delivers. Halestorm plays a kind of music that can sound very by-the-numbers done wrong in one direction, and very muddy done wrong in the other. To play this tightly timed anthemic style of hard rock you need to be very precise, but you also have to sound emotionally engaged. The guitars have to snarl. The drums have to snap. Because of the overshadowing effect of Lzzy Hale’s vocal talents, the band doesn’t get enough credit for holding up the back end.
The crunch on the record is there, but it comes and goes. It is a deliberate effect of the arrangement to lay off a bit, letting Hale belt it out, and then coming back in hard for the chorus. It is a very old trick of arrangement and production that is found most commonly in pop music. It lends itself to repeat listens, because the more you anticipate the cues of where the song will jump in or out of the full crunch, the better your air-guitar and perfectly timed horn throwing becomes. In short, you feel clever, knowing what’s going to happen.
That production strays close to a Nu Metal “over loud” sound in places, but just enough to make me notice the similarities, not enough to ruin it. If you ever wonder what a loudly produced record would sound like when done well, then this is it.
Thematically, these songs are straight ahead, no chaser. Lzzy Hale likes to rock out, she likes to rebel, and she likes to get a little nasty. She is not embarrassed to sing about any of this. The result is a mix of anthems, calls to action, and booty calls. Expect lots of songs encouraging the listener to feel their own power, and not let the world bow you down, never not ever. It feels pretty good, and on every listen I found myself filled with energy and determination to soldier on.
The sexy songs are quite sexy, notably “Do Not Disturb” and “Conflicted”. “Do Not Disturb” is a late-night booty call in a hotel before our narrator jets off to a new city. The lyrics are not for misinterpretation:
“I'm on the very top floor room 1334
There's a king size bed but we can do it on the floor
Turn your cellphone off, leave a sign on the door
That says "Do not disturb"
Ever walk past a hotel door and hear something sexy happening on the other side? Don’t lie, we’ve all experienced this (n.b. when this happens don’t be creepy – keep walking). Well, “Do Not Disturb” is here to confirm that whatever the best thing you can imagine is going on in there, is going on in there. “Do Not Disturb” has a great song structure as well, filled with a churning energy and an invitation to sing along. Which is fitting, given the invitational nature of the lyrics (other great line “bring your girlfriend too/Two is better than one, three is better than two”).
If “Do Not Disturb” is about a woman making her desires plain, then its flip side is “Conflicted,” where she is calling on her paramour to take the initiative. She’s conflicted, but not really, and the song is saying “come on over and stop waiting for an invitation.”
Feeling uncomfortable with all this unabashed sexuality? Well, on “Uncomfortable” Hale lets you know that’s her intent. Don’t worry, though. Uncomfortable is a good place to be when experiencing art.
I mentioned at the top that the star of Halestorm is Lzzy Hale’s vocal prowess. Every song discussed above is elevated several steps because of her power. Never is it more true than on the record’s last song, “The Silence”.
“The Silence” is a song about enduring love, a commitment to your partner through thick and thin, frost and fire. The arrangement is just Hale and an acoustic guitar but it fills the room more completely than any of the more rock-arranged songs prior. When she hits full throat on this song you will stop what you are doing. You will shut up, you will lay back and you will suffer that voice to fill every corner of your soul. You won’t have a choice in this matter but don’t worry - it will feel fucking great.
Best tracks: Black Vultures, Do Not Disturb, Conflicted, White Dress, The Silence
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