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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius , January 12, 2007
About a month ago, after this album had been released for a while I attended a concert featuring the velvet teen. Spellbound by the genius and complexity of the music, i was having a hard time believing a mere trio could possible reproduce what was on the cd in a live concert. I was dead wrong. Then energy of the concert was like being in an outer-space arena of intense euphoric stimulus. The songs were perfectly reproduced and all the amazing genius of the bandmembers unfolded in my brain as i observed the best concert of my life. This mish mash of guitar, keyboard, programming and machine gun drumming comes together in perfect harmony like thick poetry. The music struck me like white light, and i think i even cried. All i have to say, the same thing i told the band when i ran into them after the show in the back-alley of the venue, I hope then never stop the music!!!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Velvet Teen Graduate with Honors, September 1, 2006
Nothing says "emo" like the sound of a high pitched croon, and Nagler's impassioned cries of anti-authoritarianism, skepticism, longing, and newfound love are no exception to the rule on The Velvet Teen's latest effort, "Cum Laude." The pun is appropriate and far from lost on those who listen closely to a record that really defies the rules.
The band undoubtedly "comes loud" this time out--a definite change in pace and practice from their two previous, perhaps more focused albums. With the welcome return of guitars and the replacement of piano with synthesizer, the band's style of Baroque pop-rock is exchanged for something more akin to the strum and drum-based sound of indie-rock with new wave sensibilities.
Casey Dietz's frenetic chop-work undergirds an album that is, as its name suggests, unruly yet honorable. Nagler's incoherent vocals amplified and made ironically more muffled by the use of a megaphone are layered on top of the seemingly cacaphonous ring of keyboards and space-age beeps and blips on various tracks (eg. album opener, "333"). Yet, as initially disjointed as the record sounds, the elements cancel each other out and blend into something that feels complete and ultimately well-balanced.
Occasionally cryptic lyrics cast a dark shadow upon the album despite the uplift felt from songs such as the straightforward and anthemic, "Spin the Wink." The song titles do little to decode the confusing and that may be intended on Nagler's part.
Regardless, I have found myself singing along happily to songs like the goose-bump worthy album closer, "Gyzmkid," in which the serious sounds just plain goofy: "if my mother had stayed away from my father/would she have been more happy/if they both had stayed in the ring/would they clown now/or find crowds less clappy." Follow that refrain with the chorus, "yeah, i try my best, but when i can't and i'm away, know you've all my love/in this sea turtle moment/to have and to hold/as our bodies burden/this retarded chorus." At least he can admit to the, shall we say, "awkardness" of the lyrical content.
But "awkward" is a fitting word for a venture into sonic territory that melds various landscapes into a composite whole--a picture that will make you question, but learn by doing so and ultimately make sense of the seemingly non-sensical. And just when you think you have the piece figured out, Nagler puts the question to you slyly, "when you've finally laid your claim/do you find that you just search all the more?"
"Cume Laude" is an album that does well to challenge its listeners and all Velvet Teen fans to readjust any previous claims they have made about a band that is too expiramental to pidgeon-hole into a specific genre.
My hope is that a year from now, "Cum Laude" will not sound suddenly forced or pretentious to a fan who is willing to accept change. If the "Radiapathy"-remniscient rocker, "Steadman Spray" is any indication of the band's philosophy (as I'm sure it is), I have nothing to worry about.
As far as I'm presently concerned, the effort is honest without sounding trite, and tinged with just enough irony to keep things interesting and forward-moving. To put it simply: it rocks and rolls.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best bands in America prove it again., August 23, 2006
Cum Laude continues the tradition of Elysium in the Velvet Teen trying something completely different. While Elysium explored Rufus Wainwright-like atmosphere with a punk undercurrent, Cum Laude cums at you like Squarepusher-cum-Shellac. It's a tremendously challenging listen - built on the amazing talents of their new drummer. Jazz-inflected, busy-body, amazingly proficient drumming unlike much I've heard since Dustin Donaldson's work in I Am Spoonbender or seek out his Horsepowered on Thought Industry's "Mods Carve the Pig: Assassins, Toads, & God's Flesh".
But back to Velvet Teen - the melodies are still here, the power of Judah's songwriting is just as evident as ever but be prepared to sink into a sonic stew - there's nothing easy or simple about Cum Laude but it's worth the trip. Maybe one of the best albums of the year so far but definitely one of the most important.
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by The Velvet Teen 
