Customer Reviews

XOXO, Panda And The New Kid Revival

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

 

 

This ridiculously exciting, sing-along/clap-along album was one of my biggest surprises this year. After hearing a small clip of one of the songs (of which I don't remember now) I made a practically blind purchase and couldn't be happier. XOXO Panda is an amazingly constructed album with some of the best lyrics I've heard in a long time, and I'm usually not a lyric guy. While hints of Modest Mouse and even a little Weezer shine through now and then, all of the songs are incredibly fresh and have their own quirky originality. Fun vocals, awesome arrangements of different instruments, and overall tunes that just make you feel good. I can't recommend this album enough.

Favorite tracks:
The Truth Hurts So This Should Be Painless
The Heartbreak Moment
Sleepy Tigers
The World Will Deem Us Dangerous

This is the best HSH album in years. Very catchy songs. I really appreciate how they can reinvent their sound.

This is a great departure from what the band has done in the past. There are lots of folk and alt country sounds. I had to check the title again to make sure this was Her Space Holiday. I have never heard anything like this before from them. The opening guitars of Sleepy Tigers reminds me more of Bright Eyes or some other Alt Country band. Usually they are verging on ambient dance, but this opened my eyes to what they can do. These guys can actually write songs too.

I left a rather negative review of HSH's "The Past Presents the Future" due to the fact that Mr. Marc Bianchi had completely fallen off the tall pedestal I had placed him on. Not to beat a dead horse again, but "Manic Expressive" is his greatest piece of work and since then, he's done nothing but abandon his lo-fi bedroom wizardry and take up bland, repetitive indie pop-rock suitable for ditzy teenage girls and their idiot boyfriends. Seriously.

So, in the few years since then, Marc's released "Xoxo, blah-blah-blah" and I finally got enough gumption to buy the album and give it a shot. I knew exactly what I was going to hear, but as usual, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt (as I still do respect him as an artist for what he HAS accomplished that I enjoy...). Within a few short moments of hearing this album, I was filled with enough rage and distaste that I felt that I didn't need to hear the rest of the album to get the whole "feel" and sound of it.

Of course, I was right. As of this very moment, I've suffered through eight tracks and I am done. "Xoxo Panda and the New Kid Revival" is one of the worst albums I've heard from an artist I enjoy. Not only has HSH's sound changed drastically in the past handful of years, but Marc's voice alone has become sharp, nasal and downright annoying. He sounds like the kind of guy you'd meet at a coffeehouse who isn't necessarily bad, but you still want to knock him out because he comes across as a dipstick.

Back on the music, it's traditional indie pop-rock. Nothing outstanding or different than anything any other sub-mainstream "underground" group/band/one-man-band has done before when looking to increase their pop credibility. In fact, I mentioned that in my previous review. Marc's obviously trying to get "popular" by dumbing down his sound, making it accessible to all the moronic teens and unknowing twentysomethings out there who just don't know any better. This album is just that bad. I shouldn't feel to surprised, I suppose, as I wrote a similar review for TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain." They're another act that went from being intriguing and fresh to unbelievably full of themselves and even moreso, BORING and TYPICAL.

Do not be fooled by the other reviews here. Listen to Marc's previous work, starting with "Home is Where You Hang Yourself" (a suitable beginning), then progress to this album. If you can't hear a definite difference in sound, approach, mood and sheer talent, then you're deaf or just unable to give proper feedback when absolutely needed.

Marc has officially fallen off my favorites list thanks to his mess up last album and now this steaming pile of garbage. It gets two stars out of pity and nothing else.

By the way, I realize that I've only listened to a little over half the album, but don't even attempt to tell me that I need to hear the rest. I began hating HSH years ago and you're going to tell me he "comes around" at track nine or ten? Not going to happen.

Rest in peace, Her Space Holiday. I'll always love "Manic" and like "The Young Machines." ...but you're dead to me now.