I recently acquired a copy of The Rising Tide, and let me say that it is absolutely
beautifull. I can say right now that there's gonna be lots of closed minded sdre fans
who will be really pissed off. Oh well, sucks for them. Everyone who has a true
appreciation for the band's music as opposed to a blind allegiance to a particular
musical style will absolutely adore this release. If you don't like it at first,
listen to it a few more times. It actually took me about 3 listens to get into it, but
once you understand the album it just keeps growing on you. Here's the lowdown:
Will's drums build into the intro track "Killed by an Angel". It explodes with thick
guitar parts being accented perfectly by intense cracks of the snare drum. The verse
and chorus vocal melody of the song is kind of more on the eerie tip than pretty or
emotional. Particularly the verse. It goes into a bridge that changes the vibe of the
song for a while, only to drop back into it's darkness once again. It ends (like many
songs on this album) with the final note ringing out w/ feedback, kind of like the way
"sometimes" ends.
The next song "one" picks up the beat to the album. Lots of you have probablly already
heard this song. I think it's great. Lots of interesting musical movements, and a
great vibe.
"Rain Song" is a bittersweet acoustic/orchestral song that contrasts the happiness of
the verse with a flowing transition into a more emotional melody in the chorus. Very
pretty acoustic guitars and a great piano part comes in at the end and fades out with
the rest of the song.
"Disappear" starts out with a drum part that's very similar to the section of "the
prohpet" where jeremy sings "will you carry me accross the sea". He's doing rolls on
the floor tom with a constant bass drum beat. A guitar comes in that sounds almost
exactly like Dan's guitar in "pillars". But then the similarities stop. It is
reminiscant of early U2 stuff, Joshua tree era. It is dark and eerie, with a driving
beat and soaring vocals like only jeremy can do. Complex melodies, parts, and
changes.
"Disappear" ends and goes right into track 5, "Snibe", which starts with a slightly
distorted bass line thumping out quarter notes that's quickly joined with a driving
beat from william and a dark guitar part. The song builds up to the chorus which
sounds like some kind of insane war chant. The song is powerfull, but not in the
typical sunny day sense, it's weird. This one will be great at shows. It has a bridge
with a piano and what sounds like jeremy whispering something through a vocoder. It
sounds really cool.
Track 6 is the ocean, you've all heard that. But it does make alot more sense in the
context with all these other songs. And is a little different.
Track 7 is one of my favorites on the album. "Fool in the Photograph" has a dark,
indian/eastern sounding melody. It reminds me alot of some beatles stuff, particularly
the melody for "Within you Without you" of sgt. peppers if your familiar. It bursts
into a loud chorus, and flows back into the main part. The bridge of this song is one
of the high points of the album, very emotional and beautiful. It ends with mellow
strumming of the guitar and humming from jeremy.
"Tearing in my Heart" opens with a sample of some little kids talking. Then it goes
into the mellow, beatiful main part. Will is playing with some brushes it sounds like,
and jeremy's vocals are soft, quiet, and high. Plucking guitars. There are some
strings in this one too. The song ends slowly and quietly.
"Television" is my pick for THE song that all the dumb asses will hate the most. It'll
be this album's "two promises" or "100 million". It opens with some electronic
synthesizer droning and computer sound bleeps and bloops. Then it kicks in with this
bouncy, happy go lucky sounding melody. It grows into a driving part in the middle
with jeremy sonically wailing. Near the end everything drops out and there is a great
sounding piano solo section, jeremy's voice fades in and then the rest of the band
comes back in all at once. It ends the same way I talked about before w/ "killed by an
angel". Lots of people are gonna dislike this song, I can tell. They'll say it's too
damn happy. I like it, though.
"Faces in Disguise" is another one of my favorites on the album. It is very gentle
with a synthesizer progression and some wattery effects on the guitar. Jeremy sings
very soft, like the way he sings "days were golden" live. The second time they get to
the part where jeremy sings "faces in disguise" it gets more intense, and then they
blast into a loud part with jeremy singing high along with some strings. Then they go
through the whole progression again. Growing more intense towards that loud part. You
can't really label the parts of this song (and lots of the songs on this album) with
just verse, chorus, bridge, etc. So it's kind of hard to explain them. This one has
another great fade-out.
the closing song "The Rising Tide" is thick, lucious, and dreamy. This is a VERY well
written song, with lots of different parts and melodies that all flow together
beautifully. That's the way lots of these songs are structured. Complex and flowing.
Near the end the song busts into an interesting groove with william playing triplets
on the high hat, then it flows into the main slow and heavy groove, then it flows back
to the main melodies. The songs just flow like that. "The Rising Tide" ends with some
typical jeremy vocal stylings (like he would do live at the end of days were golden)
then it goes into this ambient synthesizer stuff with some hypnotic filters and delay.
Then it just goes away and the album is over.
Overall I am very impressed. I mean, wow. Never before has diary seemed so much like
sdre's *first* album. Don't get me wrong, I love all those songs to death, but this
stuff is really just way more advanced. In another league of musicianship. A much
darker album than How it Feels, which is probablly why there was so much talk about it
having a feel similar to diary. I think seeing this stuff live will bring it to an
entirely new level, too. So I'm really excited for that. Well, I hoped this helped to
quench the thirst of those of you who haven't heard it yet.
-matt C.
Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
