Archive for the ‘My Education’ Category
My Education – Bad Vibrations
My Education hails from Texas, having released their newest album, Bad Vibrations last month. They are doing extensive touring for the month of July to promote the new album—their fourth since 1999. (Cool note: according to their Myspace page, they are doing their last show for the summer with Yndi Halda in Texas—oh em gee!) Anyway, that aside, I really enjoyed this album. It’s another one of those albums where it was really hard to critique because I couldn’t seem to disconnect from the music itself. Bad Vibrations is the first My Education album I’ve heard thus far, and I’m definitely going to look into more of their stuff.
I actually was taken aback (in a good way) when I heard “This Old House” and “Bad Vibrations.” There’s use of acoustic guitar riffs/melody, which I think is quite unheard of in the post-rock genre, but me likesies. The fact that it’s barely ever used makes it sound too out of the ordinary, but in this case, it really brings out the songs. A lot of reviewers have praised “Britches Blanket,” and I can see why. It’s an absolutely amazing, heartfelt soundscape; the rhythmic transition in the song is pretty stunning. “Sluts & Maniacs” has a very good upbeat feel to it. It actually reminds me of some Samuel Jackson Five tunes, with its rhythmic pace and funk concepts.
Overall, I found this album to be very consistent—I suppose that’s easy to say for any ambient/post-rock album…but honestly, the instrumentation was thought out quite nicely because you don’t really know when a song begins or ends, and yet it’s distinct enough for you to figure out whether or not it’s just merely a rhythmic shift or a whole new track. This is a very mellow album that fits under the post-rock rudiments in my opinion, but has its own zing to it. Sometimse the crescendo-decrescendo concept is used, but for a couple of songs (“Britches Blanket” and “Sluts & Maniacs,” for example), the band manages to switch the rhythm altogether, like a surprise counterattack, just when you thought you had them figured out. The instruments used on this album itself is pretty great; I love the consistent use of viola and synths. Even heard some pedal steels on some tracks (I love me some pedal steels). My Education sure knows how to give ambience its definition, as the instrumentation is more like a mesh of lovely goodies, rather than a backdrop for one single instrument in itself.
So yeah, pretty good album. Have a listen plz:
My Education – Britches Blanket
My Education – Sluts & Maniacs
