Tomorrow will be July 15, which, by most standards would mark the midpoint of the summer. Overall I've enjoyed my summer vacation a great deal this year, but there's been one big thing missing: A new definitive summertime album.
This isn't to say there hasn't been any good music to come along this summer. Going back to the last week of school, I've added seven new albums to my music library:
"Simplicity" by Tesla -- overall it's a very good rock album and I like it a lot, but it still has the feel of a band putting out new music well beyond their heyday, which is exactly what this is. It's hard not to compare this to the better work they did... yeesh... 20 years ago. Fine, I admit it: I'm getting old.
"Great Western Valkryie" by Rival Sons -- I bought this after listening to a couple previews and reading reviews. A bluesy rock album, but way too one dimensional. It hasn't earned much playing time.
"The Hunting Party" by Linkin Park -- I bought this because I'm a big fan of the band and I'll be seeing them at the end of the summer. This is probably my favorite of the summer so far, but it's way too intense to reflect the lackadaisical feel needed for a definitive summertime album. (Although I have to say it's truly excellent workout music, especially when paired with their previous release "Living Things.")
"Burials" by AFI -- I bought this just because they're the opening act for the Linkin Park/30 Seconds to Mars tour. I figured since I like both of those bands, I'd probably like the one they hired as an opening act, and I do. But with song titles like "I Hope You Suffer," "A Deep Slow Panic," "No Resurrection," "Heart Stops," and "The Face Beneath the Waves," again -- considerably non-lackadaisical.
"Nothing More" -- A very good self-titled debut release I bought because I was curious and it was cheap. It has a lot of progressive-rock tendencies that remind me of bands like Fair to Midland and (yes, I'm invoking the name) Dream Theater, but that same complex nature makes it hard to find yourself with any of these songs stuck in your head.
"Famous Graves" by Cheap Girls -- I already gave this one enough blog space a few posts back.
"Redeemer of Souls" by Judas Priest -- First off, it's hard to get past the undeniable Spinal Tap quality of the title. Second, it's super long - probably would have been a double album back in the days of records, tapes, and CDs. Third, even though I like the music, its both very intense and complex.
So this has left me digging deeper into the library to find better fits for the summer. I've fallen back on a lot of Big Head Todd and the Monsters and The Hold Steady after seeing both acts live recently, and they've gotten the job done well so far. But I'm still hoping for something new to come along that will imprint the summer of 2014 for me. Being that it's a Monday means new releases will show up on the iTunes store tomorrow, and in fact if you play the time zones right, many will actually be for sale in the last hour or two of Monday. Does this mean I'll stumble upon that missing piece later tonight, and the second half of my summer will have slightly more emotional guidance than the first half has? I can only hope. If not, I'm open to suggestions....
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