Review Summary: Norma Jean redefines the word 'fury' in this huge classic.
Ah, Norma Jean…Before I heard this CD, I didn’t understand why people liked them. Then, the first song came out and hit me in the face like a ton of bricks.
I’ll try not to do a track-by-track review, but there are definitely a few songs that deserve special mention at least.
The first is the opener, A Grand Scene for a Color Film. This song is bouncy, crazy and ferocious. You could head-bang your head off with this song alone. The structure is sound, the *chorus* is really cool, and it contains the instantly classic line, “Let’s break out the shotguns, we’re going to town!”
The second is the single, Blueprints for Future Homes. I remember reading somebody who thought this song sounded almost exactly like Bayonetwork, or at least close to it. WRONG! As far as I can tell, only the opening sounds remotely like it. This song is different enough from the first one to keep you going and like it enough to provide for the catchiest definition of hardcore you can find.
The third is A Small Spark Vs. a Great Forest (these three go in order, by the way). This song is even more furious than the first two, possibly more so than any other song on the album. It’s a little bit slower, I guess, but the structure is really, really awesome, and a touch like the structure of A Grand Scene for a Color Film.
So, those three songs kick off the album in the best way possible, and leave you bloodthirsty. If this is your first time listening to Norma Jean, you’ll realize very quickly that they like to repeat certain catch phrases. As I mentioned earlier, this provides for a strangely catchy sound to hardcore, even though there‘s only one song that has real singing on it. This is truly original stuff. At a glance, it doesn’t make sense. But after getting to know it, this CD grows on you like no other.
As a matter of fact, after giving this a few listen-throughs, I honestly can’t say there’s a bad song on here. There a few that are slow, or that have some unnecessary parts, but even the weird-as-hell closer, No Passenger: No Parasite isn’t bad.
At times, this album really surprises you. For instance, the opener to A Temperamental Widower almost sounds like a punk song. No Passenger: No Parasite is really slow, and only contains two lines of lyrics:
Wake up. No passenger, no parasite.
Let’s take a look at individual sections:
Vocals: Vocals are divided up into three categories (singing, yelling, and screaming). Singing only happens very briefly. Yelling is best exemplified on tracks like Amnesty Please, Songs Sound Much Sadder and Cemetery Like a Stage. Screaming is the most common tool, and it stays around a medium, not too high-not too low sort of range. Sometimes it gets lower for true fury, like in A Temperamental Widower and Like Swimming Circles. Vocals are pretty much awesome.
Guitars: Has many ‘normal’ chords, but much of the guitar on this album is made of short little high-pitched notes. Guitars set a really good tone for this, and it just wouldn’t be the same without them.
Bass: Hardly noticeable. The bass doesn’t really play a prominent role in this album, but it does add that little bit of extra in the background…
Drums: The drums are fairly complex for certain parts of the album, but the purpose of the drums on this album are almost equal to the guitars. They complement the guitars, too, and vice versa. The drums, of course, set the beat and are thus the best tool Norma Jean has for tempo and style changes, which they use quite a bit.
Overall, a really, really good album, especially for Norma Jean. Even if you’re completely turned off by screaming/hardcore, there are certain tracks on here you’ll be bound to like, of only the tiniest bit.
Recommended Tracks: A Grand Scene for a Color Film, Blueprints for Future Homes, A Small Spark Vs. a Great Forest, Songs Sound Much Sadder, and Amnesty Please.
Best Catch Phrases: “Let’s break out the shotguns, we’re going to town.”
“Yeah?! Well that’s what I say!!!”
“Fight fair!”
“We’ll run straight to the murder.”
“We’re broken here, we’re ruined here.”
Track-by-track: A Grand Scene for a Color Film: 4.5/5
Blueprints for Future Homes: 4/5
A Small Spark Vs. a Great Forest: 5/5
A Temperamental Widower: 4/5
The End of All Things Will Be Televised: 4/5
Songs Sound Much Sadder: 4.5/5
The Longest Lasting Statement: 4/5
Amnesty Please: 4.5/5
Like Swimming Circles: 4/5
Cemetery Like a Stage: 4/5
No Passenger: No Parasite: 3/5
Pros: Catchy
You can listen to it all the way through easily if you don't have A.D.D.
Cons: Repetitive
Not listener-friendly
