Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Screaming with style..., April 1, 2005
This album is amazing. Absolutely amazing. When I looked up the Blood Brothers they were lumped into the screamo and hardcore genres, so I was wary when listening to this album. In my opinion, they don't fall into either of those genres, and it's sort of insulting that they would even be considered that. It's true they scream, but it's with style. And their music is far more interesting than all those bland, monotonous hardcore/screamo bands out there.
'Crimes' is an album that will make you dance. But not in the normal sense of dancing. Nothing that will make you "lean back" or "get jiggy wit it". The kind of dancing where you lose all control of your body and move it any way you can. Muscle spasms, shaking, kicking, etc.
Lyrically, the Blood Brothers paint morbidly beautiful images in your head. This is one of the main aspects of their music that sets them apart from the generic screamo/hardcore bands. If they do have a song about love, they shy away from using the disgustingly overused razorblade/roses metaphor. Songs like `Teen Heat' and `Live At The Apocalypse Cabaret' are exemplary for their creative and effective lyrics.
So don't let the genre fool you, the Blood Brothers are making music all their own. I strongly recommend this album for those who like Beep Beep.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gang of Four meets the Dillinger Escape Plan meets the Pixies meets the Mars Volta...with helium!, December 22, 2005
Hmmm...an interesting band, these Blood Brothers. Having listened to Crimes several times and read the reviews for their albums on Amazon, I've concluded that there are pretty much three competing evaluations of their music and them as a band:
1. Interesting novelty
2. Genuises and innovators
3. Ghastly, disgraceful noise merchants who should be disembowelled and/or drawn and quartered for even attmempting to impersonate a band
And honestly, there's plenty of evidence here to support all three conclusions. Even in its poppier moements, Crimes can be one noisy, messy, and difficult album. These guys throw tons of different sounds and ideas at you, evidently in an effort to ssee what will stick, and the result throws together so many different genres that it practically constitutes a new one of its own. You've got lilting, melodic pop; thrash metal; noisecore; screamo, and angular dance punk, all mixed together with some truly wacky song structures and a dual-vocalist approach that will leave your brain working overtime to decipher everything. That may well be the point of it all, as the Blood Brothers demonstrate a Fugazi-style knack for working over both the head and the gut at the same time (and no, I'm not comparing them to Fugazi, so save your "not helpful" votes).
On tracks like Feed Me to the Forest, My First Kiss at the Public Execution, and the incredible Peacock Skeleton With Crooked Feathers, the band shows a dynamic range that runs from loud and fast to louder and faster, topped off by vocals that switch frenetically back and forth (one vocalist has a sort of baritone; the other sounds like one of the chimpmunks with a squirrel stuck in his throat) and backed by the maniacally jumbled drumbeats of Mark Gajadhar. Elsewhere, the band offers its frightening take on speed metal with Beautiful Horses and segues into something vaguely resembling pure pop with the deliriously catchy Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck. Even better, they show a knack for real, actual songwriting in the album's (relatively) subdued moments; the title track and Live at the Apocalypse Cabaret showcase ear-catching melodies, surprisingly clean guitar tones, and all sorts of non-rocking instrumentation (check the liner notes to see who plays what and you'll get an idea of what I mean).
Ultimately, I wouldn't conclude that you have to be completely crazy to enjoy this album, but it might help to be at least a bit odd. Familiarity with, and enjoyment of, other prominent recent entries in the noise-rock field (Lightning Bolt, Death From Above 1979, the dearly departed McLusky, etc.) is also a plus. And if you like what currently occupies the musical mainstream, stay far, far away. Of course, if you're into mainstream music, you're probably not reading this review anyway. For everyone else, you never know.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is anybody listening?, October 14, 2004
Ok, so I've been listening to this album for two months...ever since they released it on that E-card. At a show a year and a half ago they played Trash Flavored Trash and this summer they played Beautiful Horses, Peacock, Crimes, and Teen Heat. While Peackock and Beautiful horses got a great response from the crowd...Crimes and Trash left many of the concert goers befuddled. This wasn't your typical Blood Brothers. Anyways...after a few hundred listens to this album...I've deduced that it is an excellent piece of work. The lyrics in particular are some of the Blood Brothers best. Mark the drummer did exceptionally well when considering all the weird styles of music they were throwing at him. Jordan is the same as he ever was and ever will be. Morgan seems to pick up the loose ends with his bass and keyboards a little more than in the past. They explore styles of music that they have never dwelved in before. There are a few real solid songs that I am completely in love with. Now...lets get to why I only gave this 4 stars........
1. Lack of energy: Don't get me wrong...this has tons of energy, after all...it is the Blood Brothers. It just doesn't seem to be on par with the other Lp's in terms of intensity. There's less screaming and nothing's quite as fast. This album does seem to be a bit more epic than previous works.
2. Johnny Whitney sings higher than Mariah Carrey: After a few listens I desenitized to this somewhat. It's weird how he's almost 23 and he sings way higher than when he was 18. This factor doesn't really bother me all that much....not like my next point..
3. Cody?! What happened?!: His guitar work on all three Lps was amazing. Some of the most inovative and original guitar work of our time. It was chaotic and complex. The guitar on this is simple and straight foward. He rarely uses those nasty chords that he once was so obsessed with. Its like he got lazy. He uses effects and noises that remind me of effects and noises used by tool and the like. I know this sounds harsh...but I was really let down by this. I hope he's just going through a phase or something. Maybe he needs this album to grow with his style. I just hope that he'll try harder next time.
4. The new art theme:I liked the Piano Island art on the Cd and website better....what's with all the diamonds?
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So in conclusion...this is better than anything else released as of this year. I await to see them next week in Chicago...maybe they'll play some different tunes from Crimes than they played last time. I understand that they don't want to do the same thing album after album and I hope this helps them grow into something more amazing than the brilliant musicians that created Burn Piano Island Burn. Even though this is my least favorite LP....I love it. And like a skull shaped baloon....I believe in the Blood Brothers.
(UPDATE)So I just saw them again after they released Crimes. As always...totally amazing. They played a song that's not on any of their albums....a cover of the Doors song 5 to 1. It was incredible. After hearing them play 8 songs from crimes...I'd now rate this at 5 stars. The Blood Brothers are amazing.
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