Act Part Deux

I was about to put last night's topic to rest and just listen to the "So Little Time" track online when I accidentally clicked on the new album of Arkarna (new in the year 2000, haha!). Curiosity had me try listening to cuts of the songs to put closure on the why-did-they-not-have-a-follow-up-album-or-did-they question. I think I was right on the big bucks when I said their new album had to be heavy on both quality and promotions to top what their first album did. In my limited judgement and not-so-expert opinion, they failed on both. The Family Album has 10 new tracks covering, again, multiple genres. I have identified some to be ambient (End Rage), others house (Frontal Lobotomy, Skin), pop (Life is Free), rap (Somebody Else's Song), a hint of reggae (Rehab), and alternative pop-rock (Insecurity, Partners in Crime). Nothing could be more diverse than that!

It is hard enough to perfect or be good at a genre let alone try and tap almost every style in one blow. Let's face it, be it in art style or music, fashion, or literature, the artist or band or writer could only afford to stick to one look or sound or feel and hone it to perfection before venturing on yet another territory. Unless you already have epic status could you have the right to do experimental stuff, and even legends could fail without the right balance of quality and promotion in the unmapped and unstable. It almost always do not work the first time around. The outcome is often hit or miss (make it work and we'll call it a breakthrough). Yet again, it is a predominant style among artists in independent labels or production, come to think of it.

The band does well with the ambient and downtempo style tracks, in my opinion. Their tripped pop also does good with Ollie Jacobs' voice style. I am reminded of U2's earlier years, Massive Attack, (just a little sample of Dee'Lite,) and Gorillaz with some of their grooves. Nice and transcedental. Powerful but not quite.

The great aspect of the album remains to be the music behind the vocals. It has that well meshed feel which only comes when great effort is put into something. And the album covers are nicely done with a play on color saturation and a faint hint of noir.

Whew, I hope that's enough closure. Pseudo-writer's block is closing in on me fast. (There, it hit me just when I did the period.)

posted by Fritz @ 11:05 PM