"After the release of “Greatest Failures” Baby Scream primary songwriter Juan Pablo Mazzola decided to record as many songs as he possibly could, so got together with his good friend Nick Schinder at his home studio.
With around 200 unrecorded songs Juan chose some of his favourites and set about a mammoth recording session.
After two years of recording and when tiredness set in, they decided that they had enough for not one, but two albums.
A lot of these songs were written whilst Juan was living in Germany, many of them pre date his life in Europe but still felt relevant and worth pulling out for the world to hear. After the epic recording sessions, Juan didn't really know what to do, the idea of releasing a double album didn’t make a lot sense, especially in 2014 when everybody was basically releasing singles or eps. After a while the idea of releasing 2 separate albums seemed to be the way to move things forward for Baby Scream.
Fan, Fan, Fan consists of 12 new originals, you will notice that the sounds here vary from each other (from Power Pop to Classic Rock and Roll to some kind of 2000’s ballads.)
The Worst Of….consists of 22 new originals + 5 covers (including all the songs the band had recorded for Time Lord Records, a label from Argentina that released a series of compilations based on TV shows, cartoons and movies)
This is the first collection of new songs since 2011’s “Secret Place” also, these are the first albums the band have released with no labels involved. - Wayne Lundqvist Ford (Ice Cream Man, Power Pop And More - Sweden)"
So after a four year wait we get two brand spanking new albums, over 103 minutes of power pop perfection in the for of 39 new tracks!
So here we go, first up we have Fan, Fan, Fan
Genre - Power-pop
Label - Self Released
Track listing:
01 - Everybody Sucks
02 - Back To Douche
03 - Loner
04 - Cheap Perfume
05 - A Human Being On Mars
06 - Captain Hook
07 - Haters Will Hate
08 - Just For A While
09 - The Girl Next Door
10 - The Kitty Song
11 - I Don't Wanna Wake Up From This Dream
12 - Blue In Berlin
The album opens with a short but sweet track in the form of Everybody Sucks, an up-tempo pure power-pop classic with a punk feel to it, great start!
Next up we have Back To Douche, here the tempo slows down considerably, with a slow Americana feel. This song is brilliant, kin of crawling along, but fed to the brim with emotion. The lyrics seem to be a little autobiographical but not in a negative sense.
Loner follows, picking up the tempo again. This tracks seems lie a really fun track, and I imagine that it will be a blast in a live environment. Cheap Perfume quickly follows, maintaining the tempo and energy of its predecessor, with a change in arrangements and instrumentation, here the piano driving the song along. Another great song!
A Human Being On Mars is up next, again mainly acoustic guitar and piano led. Another great song the slows the feel and tempo a little, this track is one of my favourites on the album!
Captain Hook is a fun song that once again picks up the tempo, whilst Haters Will Hate once again slows things down a little, with a dark and moody feel. A truly great song!
Just For A While is another mid-temp song that just seems to hit all the right spots if you know what I mean, another personal favourite for me. The Girl Next Door follows, which is a rather nice tune. The Kitty Song is one of this albums penultimate tracks, with a really jazzy feel that proves to be a really fun song that truly captures that certain arrogance of out feline companions.
Next up is I Don't Wanna Wake Up From This Dream, a real gem of the song that really showcases Juan's song writing perfectly
Fan, Fan, Fan closes out with Blue In Berlin, another short and sweet song that reflects up on Juan's time spent living in Germany.
Fan, Fan, Fan is a great album and a welcome addition to the Baby Scream catalogue!
Highly recommended!
Rating - 10/10
Genre - Power-pop
Label - Self Released
Track listing:
01 - Mistake
02 - Pieces Of Me
03 - Unicorns
04 - As Long As It Hurts (I'm Fine)
05 - Shooting Stars
06 - My Very Last Mistake
07 - This Fucked Up World
08 - Overdosed
09 - Car (Upon The Stars)
10 - Politicians R Bullies
11 - In A Picture
12 - Wake Up Call
13 - The Sound Of Clacks
14 - Tear After Tear
15 - Words Like Knives
16 - Sparks
17 - Sparks (Acoustic)
18 - My New Dope
19 - Beers And Public Buildings
20 - Xmas Tree (All The Pain Is Left Behind)
21 - Ice Cream Man Theme Song
22 - Flirting With Disaster / Beatles Medley
23 - 20th Century Boy (T-Rex Cover)
24 - The Concept (Teenage Fanclub Cover)
25 - I'll Be There For You (The Rembrandts Cover and Theme To Friends)
26 - Cruella de Vil (From the motion picture "101 Dalmatians")
27 - Scooby Doo Theme Song (From Tv Series Scooby Doo Where Are You?)
Now this album really is an eclectic mix of songs. It has everything from the extremely short (Opener Mistake is just a single word song with Juan singing the word mistake), to the punkish Overdosed, to the chilled out sublime Car (upon the stars), to the beautiful In A Picture, it really does have everything. Yet don't make the mistake of thinking that this album is just filled with the left over substandard tracks that didn't make Fan, Fan, Fan. To be honest many of the tracks here are quite brilliant, Sparks, In A Picture, Pieces Of Me, My Very Last Mistake, Beers And Public Buildings, Flirting With Disaster, Words Like Knives, and Wake Up Call are amongst the best songs every Juan has ever written!
The five covers featured on this release are all excellent, from faithful renditions of 20the Century Boy, The Concept and the awesome I'll Be There For You, to the fun and quirky covers of Scooby Doo and Cruella de Vil.
this is a great album even if it is rather eclectic, but well worth investing both your time and money in!
Highly Recommended
Rating 10/10
Baby Scream - Fan, Fan, Fan available here
Baby Scream - The Worst Of... available here
No comments:
Post a Comment