Customer Reviews

Modern Love & Death

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

 

 

One of the best cd's I've ever heard...
Not one even song it's bad.

Fun, enjoyable pop music that implements a variety of engaging synth-pop and post-punk techniques. A step-up from an enjoyable but rather repetitive debut album. Songs like "Annabelle" and "Heaven" certainly make this one worth the buy.

I primarily felt like writing this bit to boost the score a bit. The other critic who compared it to an ABBA cover... well, I'll just say I disagree wholeheartedly.

What is this Im listening to? It's like an ABBA cover album. Very soft, very lame. Keyboards where guitars should be. Cheezy choruses!! Several good songs, many that are just laughable. 1st album rocked and this one is a joke. Why didn't someone step up and say "hey, we can't put this tripe out there!". ???

The Philadelphia-based band, Hail Social, has tried, yet again, to capitalize on the dance-rock craze that has made bands like Hot Chip and Franz Ferdinand pop stars and indie rock heroes. Unfortunately, the band's attempts at hot beats fizzle before they fail to heat up, and Modern Love and Death is a painful trip back to the 1980s.

Beginning with first track "Annabelle," there's a Bee Gees sensibility where the `70s disco and the singer's (Dayve Hawke) falsetto seem like it might be impressive. The song is about Annabelle, the bad girl in town who stirs up trouble: "You will never know all the trouble you caused/After you the neighborhood drew up a book of laws." He's in love with the girl, and the song comes off cheeky and sentimental -- the best of the album, which means it can only go downhill from there.

From track 2 ("Heaven") on, it's a bizarre mix of Hall and Oates synth rhythms and lyrics that don't exactly convey one singular thought throughout. But on tracks like "Heaven," some self-righteousness slips out: "I'll bet every night I'm on your mind."

The cheese factor really kicks in on "All Night," when Hawk croons: "All night we can listen to the radio!" Even the lyrics are a throwback to a long time ago, when the singer was most likely a kid without an iPod, which is why the album's title track seems so bizarre in following.

"I am a modern man and I need a modern girl who will understand," goes "Modern Love and Death." But if he's anything like the songs he writes, it will certainly be a challenge to pin down if Hawk has any originality or anything contemporary about him. It's an ironic title for a song and album that is a rehashing of the 1980s in a way more akin to Olivia Newton John than The Cure.

Have to agree with the majority of other reviewers on here. I pre-ordered this album on the strength of their first. It was on ebay within a week. All the originality and great tunes of the first album have vanished to be replaced with dodgy disco cheese. Don't be tempted, this really is terrible.

one of the best cds i've owned this year..............

that being said, i like every track but the title track, "modern life and death"!!!

When I read the first review of this album equating it with ABBA I was sure the reviewer was just being a jerk. Well, they were actually being kind. I really liked much of Hail Social's first release, nothing spectacular but some really nice tunes. I can't even imagine the circumstances that took place for the band to produce Modern Love & Death. From start to finish it is nothing but sappy cheese laden nonsense. The sound is so much different from their first release which isn't always a bad thing but in this case the new direction is so far from anything cool not even crappy radio stations should be playing this stuff. I am so disheartened by this album because Hail Social is one of those bands that I was expecting to see evolve and create some really interesting music. What a let down.