Customer Reviews

Bushido Karaoke

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There's always been something about Ted Stevens' aesthetic that's kept me faithful to him (since Lullaby for the Working Class's album, Song) despite his never having released anything exactly mind-blowing. The latest Mayday release sees the band finally congealing into a modest, but solid band. There is no lack of quality on this album, although on first listen it sounds just like the previous two, both of which I failed to get much mileage out of. After listening to Bushido Kareoke a couple of times, I found myself wanting to hear more and more. If there's still some interested Mayday or Lullaby fans out there anywhere, then BUY THIS!

If you've never heard Mayday before, they've got a darker, traditional sound. I would actually liken this album to the Angels of Light's amazing new album 'Sing Other People,' in some abstract way. Both have similar textures and consistency, although Mayday's more uptempo. If you're a serious music fan, I'd definitely recommend adding it to your collection.

Mayday's "Bushido Karaoke" is made up of various Saddle Creek Records artists including members of Azure Ray, Bright Eyes, Cursive and Now It's Overhead. Unfortunately this pool of talent didn't really churn out a great album. "Bushido Karaoke" is a sadcore indie rock album at heart, and although it has its fair share of catchy tunes, most of it isn't great. There are no "bad" songs here, but they all still manage to sound cheesy and uninspired (partly due to the singer and how hard it is to make out some of the lyrics). The album sifts through several different moods - it'll be slow and emotional at one moment and fast and relatively energetic in the next. It's kind of interesting musically, but you won't really care enough about the songs to really study them. It's a good album, for all its flaws - its saving grace is that every song is at least kind've interesting and catchy. They aren't great songs though - they somehow lack that charm that gives, say, Franz Ferdinand or The Killers such great appeal (I gave both of those 4 stars each, too). For this reason alone I give it a "4" (you won't really care if you have these songs or not). Slightly recommended for indie rock and Saddle Creek Records fans.

Highlights include:
the entire album is decent-to-good

Mayday's third release is the best thing to happen to Mayday since their sophomore release, "I Know Your Troubles Been Long", which was the best thing to happen to Mayday since their freshman release, "Old Blood", which was simply the best thing to happen to Mayday, at that time.

All three were real bright spots in my life.

Their junior release (that's right, junior release) is fantastic - a veritable orgy of mellow that engulfs you from the bouncing piano of "Pelf Help" to the lilting banjo of the romantic ode to capital punishment "Song of the Scaffold".

Are you still reading this?

Bushido Karaoke is easily Mayday's most straightforward release, with the songs being uniformly short, and generally catchy. Unfortunately, this means that the album has none of the slow-burning, sometimes-experimental songs that highlighted their previous work. But luckily, that's a small disappointment - there's still plenty to love here.

A few songs immediately stand out as some of the band's best to date. Particularly wonderful are the infectious, wistful-but-humorous "Pelf-Help" and the samurai death waltz "Hidden Leaves." And after a few listens to familiarize yourself with them, the rest of the songs grow just as appealing: "Exquisite Corpse" laughs exuberantly in the face of death, "Song of the Scaffold" is a refreshingly clever declaration of love, etc. These tunes are brief and simple in structure, but the instrumental arrangements are subtle enough to keep things quite interesting - horns, violins, banjos, etc. are constantly popping up in just the right place.

Essentially, what Bushido Karaoke lacks in adventerousness, it makes up for with consistency. It may not have anything as inventive as the suites on Old Blood, but there's not a single dud among these songs, and that's no small feat.

Review by Kyle Crawford:

Ted Stevens' main project Mayday may quite possibly be the most boring, mediocre Saddle Creek release to date. A heavy weight of sorts in the Omaha indie scene, Stevens fails to keep up to par with the likes of his friends and label mates such as, Tim Kasher's Cursive and The Good Life, and even the love him or hate him Conor Oberst.

Mayday's brand of music can be stripped down to a watered down version of Morrissey's vocals overtop an uninspired country-rock band with no direction. One of the things that captivate listeners of many Saddle Creek artists is the thoughtful lyrical format most of the bands seem to follow. While listening to Mayday's latest release, however, the listener may feel almost cheated as no cohesive element can be found throughout the entirety of the album.

What Mayday may indeed be, is the result of knowing and befriending the right people. All of Ted Stevens' closest friends are some of Saddle Creek's biggest stars, so it would just seem natural for him to be a star as well; unfortunately for all of us, he is not.