So, let's get started... (Start Something - Lostprophets)

Member Name: cream_cracker

Product:	Start Something - Lostprophets
Date:	24/05/04 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great songs, Different genres

Disadvantages: Those strange things on the end of songs, especially..., that pointless answerphone message at the end of track 9

As ever, first I must apologise for my utter lack of taste when it comes to titles for these things, they have a terrible effect on me.
Well here we are again, this review writing could well prove to be addictive. In case you have absolutely no idea what I?m waffling on about then don?t worry, I doubt you?re in the minority. Erm, the jist of that section was that this is my second review which in itself isn?t that interesting and so doesn?t really deserve to be mentioned but I was a little stuck for an opening sentence when inspiration struck me and I thought, ?why not make this into a way to get people to read your other reviews?? except I obviously didn?t call myself you because that would imply that I was crazy. Moving on.
I thought I?d review this CD because it had only one review and I felt sorry for it (it is a very good review, you know, but I feel that every CD deserves more than one). The fact that I have it and so can have a voice of authority on it is a marked bonus, especially for those poor dears who are actually relying on this review to be useful. Oh, the responsibility. Is it me or does that look like a Fisher Price advert ? ?Oh, the possibilities!? ? and, is it me or is that a totally useless comment. I see a trend forming.

However, the time has come to make a noise like a hoop and roll on towards the intended subject. This is one of the albums I bought on my spending spree in Russia where entire albums cost about £3 (I went crazy, there are 50 roubles to the pound so 1. I was practically a millionaire and 2. It feels like monopoly money, as it is physically impossible for me to have that much money). I have to say that it is unlikely that I would have bought it had it not been £3 as I am not what you would call a devoted fan. Although I did once see them in concert by acc
ident when I was at some other concert, that is no measure of how good they are musically as all you can hear is screaming, a lot of bass and the relics of a poor sound check. Was it worth buying the CD at all you cry? This is precisely what we are bound to find out. This is a voyage of discovery. Let us discover together.

1) We still kill the old way
As with most albums in my experience, the first track isn?t particularly good. Recently I discovered that an awful lot of albums have a good track at number 7, I think there is a sort of conspiracy making sure good tracks go in certain places. This first track is actually quite good; it grows on you, which I suppose is the point of it; to get your ears tuned for the rest of the album. It?s by no means bad song and the chorus is actually quite pleasant melodically (despite the rather scary title), the guitars are fast and sound a little furious as well. The song is well constructed and every part fits together. In fact by the end of it you become quite attached to it and are sorry to see it leave. Well, that could just be me.

2) To hell we ride
Another scary title. Perhaps they just wrote a list of words designed to provoke slight fear in the wimps among their fans and managed to fit them into songs. That theory aside, again this song isn?t too bad. I prefer the first song but then I have become attached to that personally for no fathomable reason. The guy yelling ?Ride! Ride! Ride!? can get a little irritating but the singing itself isn?t too bad. It is probably just me again but for some reason this doesn?t seem to fit as well as the first one, not in quality but the execution ? it seems he is putting on the ?attitude? to sound mean and fit with the title rather than really believing what he is singing at the start. This creates a bit of a nagging feeling in the back of
my head until about halfway through when he starts yelling and its hard to sound unconvinced of the words when you are screaming them at the top of your voice, or so I have found in my personal experience. After that point he just doesn?t look back and it?s all hunky dory.

3) Last train home
Ah, finally a title that doesn?t make me think of old men on motorbikes. I actually really like this song, the lyrics are quite pleasant if you like hearing about heartbreak and even if you don?t, they aren?t really stupid. The guitar introduction is kinda cute (I doubt they would appreciate me using that adjective for their music but its all quiet and rippled and makes me think of lakes with weeping willows) and then the bass crashes in but not with the devastating effect on my willow trees you might imagine, you can still hear the ripples over the crashes and these continue for a while into the song until they fade out and the vocals take over. The chorus is really easy to get singing along to and you can work up some feeling as you sing your little heart out along with him, and each one is followed by this bit which in the video he is doing this bobbing up and down thing (perhaps you have seen it and understand) which doesn?t look too stupid when he does it, but a word of warning; do not do this dance to it in public, you will look like a top class prat. It rounds itself up nicely with this piano sort of arpeggio thing, which is basically more ripples and is kinda cool of you like ripples as I do.

4) Make a move
I also like this song. It is easy to pick up in the extreme due to a lot of repetition, but it doesn?t suffer too much from these simple lyrics or even a simple tune because it gels together really nicely. I have noticed that some of these songs really seem to be perfect, I mean they may not be to my taste personally or whatever but for what they are aiming for they have totally
hit that target which I think deserves commendation. This is one of those songs and I do actually like it as a song as well.

5) Burn, Burn
Ah, back on the scary title store. What is this, some sort of arson advert? Actually the song isn?t bad, it was released as a single and I have vague recollections of hearing it on music channels and I?m pretty sure they played it when I saw them but obviously what I heard live is unrecognisable. Most of the vocals are actually spoken which I don?t really like that much, I don?t mean to say it?s a bad example of what it is, more that it just doesn?t do it for me. A lot of shouting and stuff but not that repetitive and I really couldn?t be bothered to learn how to speak along with it so now I skip it as I can?t sing along to it. This is a vicious circle and eventually I won?t listen to it at all, which is a shame as it?s quite a good song. I like the middle part when it actually gets quite tense the way he says stuff and it builds up?but I have to sit through half a song I don?t know to get to that part. Also the track seems to go on after the song has ended with all these random drumstick clicks and stuff, which frankly annoys me. I know this entire thing has been negative but don?t let me put you off, I can see other people really liking this one. It?s just me and my pickiness.

6) I don?t know
Perfectly acceptable song. The best way to describe it would be to say that I wouldn?t describe it as one of my favourites, but that I wouldn?t skip over it unless I was looking for a particular song. You can nod your head in a perfectly acceptable manner. Oh, but there is annoying bit after the song seems to have ended. These people seem to like the idea of ?born again? songs and so fit in other bits on the end of tracks. I suppose you could be happy that you
get more for your money, but bluntly I feel that these are just introductions that they liked but didn?t write songs for, which smacks of idleness. Not bad introductions though.

7) Hello again
I prefer this one, partly because it isn?t as loud and shouty but has a bit of a tune and so I really register it as a song. Also, I like the theme behind the song, this being that if you mess up in this relationship you can come back and say ?hello again?, which is quite a nice and friendly attitude to take, in my opinion. It has another one of those introduction graveyard sites on the end, but this one seems to fit with the song preceding it better so I don?t find it as aggravating.

8) Goodbye tonight
I like this one as well. In fact this is one of my preferred tracks. I like the backing, the song matter, the lyrics and the singing itself. Another one of those ones that really goes with itself, this time with the added bonus that I actually like the song. I would describe this as a power song in that it makes you feel kinda stronger at the end of it than you did at the beginning (I admit this is in all probability just me), and it is good to play and sing loud or it has that unfortunate tendency of loud songs to sound weak and stupid.

9) Start Something
The title track of the album, though I am not sure why. While I have no individual dislike to this song I don?t see what makes it stand out from all the other shouty songs you can hear by any artist. It also surrenders to the band?s affinity to put one of the reborn introductions at the end, which, weirdly enough I quite like and actually prefer to the song itself.

10) A million miles
This is more like it. From the introduction I feel happier in this one and that feeling remains all the way through. The tune exists, which is an improvement on ma
ny songs, and its quite pleasant on your poor little ears. The lyrics aren?t going to be troubling any ?cheerful songs of the century? competitions, but they are pretty good. To summarise, I just like the song and find it enjoyable to listen to. There are some sorts of synthesised string orchestra effects, which, oddly enough, don?t sound totally ludicrous and actually bring another dimension to the song. OK, that may be taking it a little far, but it does sound quite cool. At the end there is a slightly strange answer-phone message that I am afraid reminds me of that bit on the Britney album (?Oops?I did it again?, the introduction to ?Lucky? if I remember correctly) so I can?t take it seriously.

11) Last Summer
I also like this one. The chorus is exceptionally easy to pick up as you can sort of mumble the words and just come out loud and proud to repeat, ?Last summer, oh last summer? a lot. I find this song pretty energising and it makes me bob my head up and down however hard I try to resist, which is technically not a good thing because it makes me look like a half crazed pigeon (half crazed? Who am I kidding.), but it is quite enjoyable pastime. Try it.

12) We are Godzilla ? You are Japan
I like the introduction, it makes me continue with the whole head bobbing thing, but when the vocals come in I kinda stop with shock because they are all shouty and slightly unnerving. After you are used to them they aren?t too bad but this song is not one of my favourites because it after some nice singy songs and then suddenly we are thrown into this inferno of yelling. One thing that has to be said about it though is its brilliant ability to do away with all tension because you can get totally immersed in it and feel all shouty as well. The beat is quite cool and you can do a sort of interesting dance move to it, t
hough I still don?t see where the name came from as I can?t hear those words in the lyrics. Then again, I don?t really hear anything at all. Yet again, we have a strange thing on the end and this time it really is weird. It seems to involve the greater part of a brass band and, I?m sorry to say, doesn?t really fit in at all.

13) Sway
My CD case only mentions 12 tracks, and it took a little ingenuity to see what my computer called them to find what I had on the CD. The only way to describe this is a ballad, and it is by no means a bad attempt. The singing has taken on a softer edge and in my mind this adds greatly to the CD because it was in danger of becoming a one trick pony and being only good for one thing, that is, shouting in a hostile manner. There is still a feeling of, well, compunction, here ? but it seems much better embedded in the song itself. The backing is softer and the vocals are a little high for me in places, but who cares, you want to sing them anyway. Personally I feel this song stands up well on its own though I am not sure how well it would do as a single because it is so different to the other material and I cant see who it would be marketed to. However, this also makes one of my top few despite a strange thing at the end, because in this case fits quite well and is rather relaxing in its own little way.

And so, to sum up. This album has its high spots and its low spots (generally in those pointless things on the end of tracks). I may be biased because I already own it, but I am happy this is in my collection however negative I have sounded in places. More than half the album is songs I like in themselves and most of the rest are songs that I certainly do not dislike and who knows, with more listening I may even see their little nuances and add them to actively liked list. I wo
uld say that there are some gems on this album that deserve to be heard. A minority of the album could be passed as undistinguished, tolerable or mediocre but there are points when it really deserves exemplary or even prodigious. If you liked the last album, you should definitely get this because it shows a development and growth of the band in new directions as well as improvement upon old formulae. Enjoy!

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