The Samuel Jackson Five – Goodbye Melody Mountain

13 November 2008, Jessica @ 10:26 pm The Samuel Jackson Five Goodbye Melody Mountain

So, The Samuel Jackson Five’s highly anticipated album, Goodbye Melody Mountain, has been out a couple of days now and has been on repeat in my playlist since. A month ago, SJ5 actually announced the completion and provided us with some fun minor details about each track, but I still wasn’t sure what to expect from this album. It was mentioned that they wanted to incorporate some vocals into their repertoire; for me personally, it was hard to imagine it with their upbeat funk/jazz style. So yeah, I was half-expecting vocals, but wasn’t surprised when I didn’t hear any anyway (except for some non-lyrical vocals in “How to Evade Your Obsessive Shadow,” I guess).

Not much is different from SJ5’s previous albums; you can still hear that sound that is distinctly theirs: the use of guitar melodies and generally being very upbeat. The only change I can hear of is a lesser influence of jazz/funk. There is more of a concrete mainstream post-rock sound, defined by repetitive melodies, distortion, and on occasion the quiet-loud crescendo normally found in the genre. While there is a definite change in direction, it is still distinctively SJ5.

The album starts off with “Face the Fax,” which has a hard, distorted appeal to it. The melody is equally enticing, played by strings (and on occasion, even plucked) and guitar simultaneously. SJ5 have always been known to be able to kick it up a notch through their bubbly melodies, but I think this particular album shows it off more explicitly. The melodies are often played by the guitar, but they are also usually played with two entirely different instruments, whether it be strings and guitar, or piano and guitar.

“Hey Now, Who Really Cares” is the perfect example of how SJ5 really gets into the dynamics of their sound. The track starts of quite slow, and at about two minutes in, switches into an entirely different sequence. After about forty seconds of that, it retreats into the slow paced melody of guitar and piano. And then at the four-minute mark, switches back yet again to a harder, faster pace. And etc. All this without sounding totally inconsistent and annoying. This particular track proves that SJ5 really know how to experiment with processes of change.

The album is pretty consistent overall; you never really know when one track ends and another starts. It’s obvious the production and arrangement of the album has been thoroughly thought out. The instrumentation is pretty impressive; SJ5 incorporate all different kinds of instruments into their music, from sharp brass instruments to delicate strings. Being able to manipulate a variety of instruments into their music makes their sound all the more richer, I think. There aren’t many moments where I feel something is out of place or missing; in fact, I feel so over-saturated with their music I can hardly contain myself.

While I definitely liked the album overall, some tracks I just didn’t care for, especially the title track. In the two and a half minutes of its existence, it remains relatively constant in terms of melody. While this might seem normal for a post-rock album, for SJ5 it really isn’t. As said earlier, SJ5 is really all about their melody. For a song that has one unchanging riff, it becomes tedious to listen to–perhaps only because it’s taken into context (i.e. SJ5 = melodies). At the two-minute mark, a viola begins to play for about five seconds, but then the song closes in soon after. I expected a little more out of that particular aspect of the song, because it started to sound good for the five seconds it lasted. That’s too bad. I really wonder why that was chosen as the title track, because it really doesn’t prove the goodness that is SJ5 at all.

Otherwise, the rest of the album is fantastic. A definite recommendation to those who aren’t into the slower, more meticulous post-rock (although the album has a couple of slower-paced songs). Fans of SJ5 shouldn’t be disappointed with this album, since it falls in relatively the same line as the band’s previous albums. This album’s been anticipated for a couple of years now, and it surely doesn’t disappoint.

AWmusic