Customer Reviews

Armed to the Teeth

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

1. "Lethal Killers" - This is a pretty good song, but very weak as an intro. It would be a lot better if it wasn't the first song on the disk. It has a very haunting, placebo-like feel to it. 7/10

2. "Rabble" - I'm still questioning this songs potential, it starts off pretty good, and gets even better from the middle to the end of the song. He really sings his heart out and it's just another one of the so called love songs youll hear on armed to the teeth. 8/10

3. "The Catalyst" - This is where I Feel the album really kicks in and gets to the good stuff. Another heartbroken love song from Tommy, he sings "I wish i could say something beautifull, to make you fall in love again, but love has slowly faded away like spotlights shining in to space". It's not what's sung, its how he sings it that makes it so good. Very nice and Refreshing song. 9.5/10

4. "Tighter Noose" - Ahhhhh I love this song. There are actually two versions of it. One of them was on the bands website for a long time. Both have parts better than the other, but if i had to pick one of them to be a keeper, it's deffinatly the album version. There are beautifull violins? in this one. Very very good, a standout track for sure. Much different than anything the band has ever done. 10/10

5. "Waiting To Panic" - Another great song again. Very Catchy in fact. There's not too much to say about it. Listen for yourself. 9/10

6. "Hunting (The Unvierse Breaks My Heart)" - Another amazing song. Like nothing the band has done before. The Chorus has a very good feeling sound to it, with thought provoking lyrics. But I'm not giving them away. 10/10

7. "Armed To The Teeth" - The title track. " I am armed to the teeth, you can't hold me down, I turn teething in to a hobby". Not sure what he's talking about yet, but this song works very well. All the instruments work very well together and I'm pretty sure it's the first single. 9/10

8. "Sooner or Later" - This is a decent song, I'm just not feeling the verses or the buildup to the good parts at all. It gets good towards the middle though. 7/10

9. "Sailing Seas" - Another very nice gem on this disk. Sailing seas has a great beat, it's very catchy and the lyrics are great. Couldn't ask for too much more from an AP song. 9.5/10

10. "Renegade" - I Feel like I'm on a pirate ship under a stary night sky when i hear this song. Not Sure Why. But then the chorus kicks in and speeds it up alot and seems like mabye another placebo-like song. I love it. 9/10

11. "Mabye Then Someday" - When you hit track 11, I think you should know that the last two songs are very powerfull love songs with pianos, violins and great melodies. " I will pull apart my bones, to fuel the fire to keep you warm, and if that's not enough, well then that's ok." Great Great Great song. 11/10

12. "Goodbye Song" - This one breaks my heart. Just as good as Mabye Then Someday. "If this is the end of us, I'll sing you this goodbye song, If your a lonely girl, you might as well come on home." There are violins, breakdowns and amazing vocals.And the song clocks in at a 6:30. 11/10

Overall Armed To The Teeth is an album fans of old and new AP will enjoy if not more than humanistic. Deffinatly pick it up.

Overall rating 9/10....and i don't rate easily.

Good music is not dead just hard to find, like this gem from Abandoned Pools. I really enjoyed their last album Humanistic and this one takes there interesting sound to the next level. This is how modern music should sound.

Sounds Like:
Smashing Pumpkins
Garbage
Muse

i usually don't write on these things (im actually against it b/c who cares what other people think as long as you connect w/ it) but i thought i would write one about this cd just in case people were on the fence about it.

Aside from the lyrics, the best thing about this album is that it really is an album; it doesn't have one song that stands out above the rest; they are all equally good and as a result it makes for a great listen start to finish. So basically, if you don't consider yourself a "singles only" kind of person, this is the one for you. what else can i say except sample all the songs...you might like them all.

Humanistic was an interesting album in that half the songs were hard-edged rockers and the other half light-hearted pop numbers. Every song was pretty much the same, structurally; but it was still light years ahead of any other mainstream release for its time. Several years later, Tommy gives us something new: the Reverb EP and Armed to the Teeth LP. The new stuff is different than Humanistic, still I don't see how a fan of one album can dislike the other.

Whereas Humanistic contained two radically different styles of music (listen to Ruin Your Life immediately after LVBD), Armed to the Teeth is a product of mixing both styles into one. A bad thing? Certainly not...I believe the album deserves four solid stars.

The most important quality of the album though, is varying song structures. You'll still sense the occassional pop-like structure in the songs, but Tommy has made a giant leap in terms of songwriting. The album doesn't grow old on me the way Humanistic does.

Bad points of the album? Josh Freese is gone (not that Tommy's new drummer is bad...but c'mon, Josh is one of the best in the business). And the new version of Tighter Noose is about half as good as the one we downloaded years ago.

My favorite song: Sooner or Later. I love the structural progression and long(ish) instrumental segments scattered throughout. This song is a great example of Tommy's growth as a songwriter and musician, it's not just verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, as is the case for every song on Humanistic.

It's an extremely high-quality album, an incredible sophomore effort. It comes VERY close to a five-star rating, and possibly deserves one, but I like to save that rating for truly special albums.

Amazing album! A clear, shining treasure.
Fantastic start with 'LETHAL KILLERS' that has the rhythm and melody to stick in your head and heart right after first hearing.
'RABBLE' and 'THE CATALYST' set a wondeful mood with open minded lyrics and open-air music.
I was waiting to hear an album version of the song 'TIGHTER NOOSE', and I'm not disappointed at all. Breathtaking how all the instruments come together in this one, making the darkest and coldest song of the album.
I can't stop listening to 'SAILING SEAS' over and over... at first it sounds like it was a happy tune with bouncy bass, but the lyrics and the lead guitar's reverbing (almost crying at the end) sound makes it sad and thought-provoking.
'RENEGADE' is surreal and dark with a bit angry chorus but still, makes a harmonic and sweet song before the album's last chapter:
'MAYBE THEN SOMEDAY' is a peaceful, bright but sad love song with brilliant emotional, and a bit painful lyrics about caring, love and uncertainty.
The album ends with the saddest love song I've ever heard, 'GOODBYE SONG'. Right from the start its melody touches heart, and as it floats, the lyrics seem to lose all hope and fall into despair. The ending vocals of the song are heartbraking:
"I'm busting at the seams,
to tell you everything..,
and it's scary because
nothing's sure and nothing makes sense anymore..."

Tommy Walter's vocals are perfectly clear, reverbing guitar sounds, lovely strings and chorus parts come together very well, making the album of the year! Masterpiece. Recommended to all emo indie and alternative lovers!

The prior reviewer was right on the money- I can still not stop playing Humanistic on my iPod and home stereo, and it came out a few years ago, and this effort by Tommy Walter and Co. is already continuing the trend...

As for Armed to the Teeth, the important thing to note is that though a few songs may be a bit unexpectedly different at first (another reviewer said that there were actually bad musical choices and mistakes made, but I'm gonna put it out there that Tommy Walter probably knows more about making good music than most of us), THIS ALBUM REQUIRES MORE THAN A CURSORY LISTEN. If you don't have the patience or attention span to go deeper, then this band is too smart for you anyway- go listen to the Black Eyed Peas and glory in your mediocrity. However, if you have a good ear for amazing bands that simply do not sound like anyone else, you will listen closely and connect with this one.

Humanistic was life-changing for me and expanded my musical borders. The new album wrecks them again. The lyrics have a slightly jarring blend of cynicism, sarcasm, hope, joy, and a good chunk of smart-ass wit, and the music has so many layers that I'm still sorting through them as we speak. Guys like Tommy Walter don't often end up with a Grammy, but songs like "Tighter Noose" make me want to cry because I didn't write them. I'm going to enjoy the next two years with this music.

The album 'Humanistic' became like a sound track for 2 years of my life. And I still think its one of these most perfect CDs from start to finish I ever heard. It has everything. I am happy to say the follow up - while not quite as great - does not disapoint. It does however get off to a bad start in my opinion. Track 1 is decent and interesting, but tracks 2 and 3 literally almost made me take the CD out. These 2 tracks have so much skittering off-beat bits that it almost sounds like the song is going to fall apart. Paticulary the syncopated keyboards on both tracks which to a casual listener just sound like they are being played at random with no rhythm whatsoever. But after these 2 tracks...the rest is gold. I think Tighter Noose and Hunting are two of my favorites, but I wasnt really disapointed with anything else on the CD. And much like Humanistic the final track stands out the most of the entire CD. If you liked Humanistic you will like this one, you just might want to skip over 2 and 3 if you are like me :)

This band is something I have been listening to since Humanistic came out and "remedy" was on the radio. If you are looking at this CD and don't know much of the band, I declare to purchase it as soon as you can. "Armed to the teeth" is such an improvement from "Humanistic" Any real or new fan has to buy this CD. Tommy you have gone far and back in 4 years. Missed ya buddy.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Humanistic from the second I heard it. Tommy Walter, whilst not quite being a lyrical mastermind, had produced a well composed, interesting, creative, united album. The great thing about Humanistic is how natural everything sounds together - all of the songs complemented each other.

But with Armed to the Teeth, I feel like Tommy had a couple of dead on hits, maintaining a steady Abandoned Pools sound, whilst moving forward at the same time. And then there was everything else. Tighter Noose is the greatest example: the original version, released on the AP website some time ago, blew me away. I was very excited for the new album, but when I got to it, it spit out some overworked version of the song. In addition to making the rhythm slightly more ambiguous, Tommy changed the vocals to be more soft where they needed to be sharp, and turned to falsetto where it just wasn't needed. I think he tried to be a perfectionist with it, and ended up making things more complicated than they needed to be. Tighter Noose on the album just doesn't sound natural the way the old version did.

It wasn't just Tighter Noose though. There were a lot of things. Often the drums seemed a bit unnatural - they were too intense at the wrong moments, such as in Waiting to Panic, and Renegade. And in renegade, at the moment of explosion in the chorus, it really just seems like he was trying TOO hard... Often times it melds in with bits and pieces of, for lack of a better word, "cliches" in rock music.

I do take to the fact that Tommy tried to vary his vocals a little more on this record - a little more falsetto, in addition to other changes. But I think that Armed to the Teeth is a perfect example of individual limitation. Sure, it would've sounded great if he'd done it perfectly. But, either they didn't bother putting the time in to do so, or he just can't do it. I'd like to think that he can, and it certainly sounds like nobody bothered to make Tommy totally nail his vocal parts. If you don't believe me, listen closely to where he first enters in for Tighter Noose (very awkward sound that he makes). In addition to this, there are many other slip-ups including with actual intonation, and there is an example of that in Hunting (The Universe Breaks My Heart).

"But Nick, where are the positive remarks?" Well, believe it or not, I do have quite a few. I'll note that, despite its one little vocal flaw, Hunting (The Universe Breaks My Heart) is a great song, and well outside of old AP territory. Also, Lethal Killers and Armed to the Teeth are both great songs, even if they do lend themselves to old AP just a little. Rabble and The Catalyst, though, carry on their new sound much more, and, most importantly, connect Humanistic with Armed to the Teeth. Those are the [mostly] perfect, most natural sounding and unifying songs of the album. Everything else makes me question dear Mr. Tommy Walter, though, and I don't want to keep doing that.

And let me say that I too write music, and I know what it's like to overdo something, to under-work it in recording, and to generally make mistakes that threaten a song's integrity. And I think that that's partially where my dissatisfaction with Armed to the Teeth comes from - it's frustrating to hear an idol, someone I think of as one of those few masterful musicians, making the same mistakes as me.

Still a lot of great songs, but some of them just lazily drift along amidst the softly strummed guitars and lukewarm singing from Walter. I'd recommend this to fans of the first record who enjoyed the softer work.