Anthony Green – Beautiful Things
Album Review by Brian Sykes
If you don’t know who Anthony Green is by now then you should close this window right now and go download the entire Circa Survive discography, shut yourself in a room, and just listen. If you’re like the other 99 percent of us who do (#occupyanthonygreen) then you were probably really looking forward to the release of his latest album “Beautiful Things”, and let me tell you, it was well worth the wait.
Green started his solo career with his first album “Avalon”, a more clean, acoustic guitar driven, lyrical album. While this album was really great it always felt to me like he kept trying to go in a slightly more aggressive direction. With that being said, that’s EXACTLY what happened with “Beautiful Things,” yes while this album does have its slower points, the production of the album really did a great job in giving Beautiful Things that raw aggressive feel that Green seemed to have been looking for.
All in all Beautiful Things is a really great album. It’s really diverse and seems to not take itself too seriously, which can be a really great thing and in some points could be a not-so-great thing. That being said you can probably guess that I do have a couple problems with this album, BUT don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying that this is a terrible album, even Abbey Road had “Maxwells Hammer,” i’m just saying that you shouldn’t expect every song to be a banger. Everything under consideration though, I do think this is a really solid album and a definite purchase for old Green fans and new Green fans alike.
Track By Track:
1. If I Don’t Sing- This is a really great opener to this album. It starts everything off real nice and gritty and it does a solid job of refreshing the pallet of what Anthony Green has to offer with his solo projects. ‘If I Don’t Sing’ also brings out a side of Green that we’ve never seen before, a bit of southern sound. Using Pentatonic and blues scales to bring out what i like to call a “Dry Heat” in the song Green really hits it home with this opener.
2. Do it right- Okay, first problem. This song is honestly just 2 minutes and 15 seconds of Green singing the same thing over and over on top of some friends singing some harmonies. Now I get why he did it, it could be a nice little transition in between songs. But something like this should be tacked on to the end of the song you want to transition out of, don’t give it a whole track by itself! Also, this song is about a minute and 40 seconds too long, something like this shouldn’t ever be over 35 seconds and thats not a rule of music or anything, thats just common courtesy to the listener.
3. Moon Song- This song is such a breath of fresh air after the last track. Listening to the song it even SOUNDS like fresh air. The choice of instrument gives it a crisp clean feel and even an island vibe, which is very different for Mr. Green. That being said this song definitely is a step in a new direction and I like it. With heavy use of the ukulele and hand drums he gives the listener a new side of himself, but while listening to the song one doesn’t realize that all this crisp clean air coming from the speakers is starting to churn. Green does something really cool by subtly building up the song over the course of itself and dropping everything out at the two and a half minute mark which brings in Greens distorted voice singing “The storm isn’t over”, over and over, and over satisfyingly turns the song on its ear and brings in a fully functional electric band set-up to finish off the song on a very powerful high note.
4. Get Your While You Can- Theres a very very cool vibe to this song. It’s almost like a song someone would hear if they wandered into a bar in the back streets of some spanish town it really shows the grit that Green is going for in this new album. I’m also really starting to dig the use of constant acoustic AND electric guitar, which is not new to music in any sense, but the way Green does it gives these songs a nice gripping feel. Unfortunately, I do have a problem with this song, it fades out. Which I still think is a cheap shot. All in all though this is a really great cut off this record.
5. When I’m On Pills- Although this song has very serious lyrics, it seems to almost make fun of itself. Singing about what I assume to be Greens struggle with drugs in the past, he gives the song a sound that seems to pull from old reggae bands. Which makes sense because if you’re singing about drugs you should make it sound like drug music. Like I said though, he’s doing all this while still keeping a very serious lyrical content, saying positive things and then following them up with the line “When I’m on pills,” in example “I love you, when I’m on pills.”
6. Cant Have It All At Once- Yeah! This song seriously brings up the tone of the record. The first thing I noticed about this track is that it definitely tips it’s hat to the punk bands that Green listened to while growing up. With fast guitar, pounding drums and a constant stream of abrasive lyrics you start to get that feel and on tour Anthony Green fashion, he brings it all down at the end of the verses to give it a smoother melodic feel, but constantly going back to the punk-y vibe from the opening of the song. At the end of the track, everything comes together and mixes the hardness and the melodic tone into one huge, upbeat end-chorus. Very nice track.
7. Big Mistake- To be blunt, I’m not a fan of this track. For the slower more flawy songs on this album, this song is definitely bottom rung filler. Yes, some cool things are done with the instruments, but not enough to be able to save the song from its obvious demise. As a 13 song album this track could have been left off and no one would have noticed. Also, Green aims for the “Dry Heat” sound in this song again and falls very short, where “If I Don’t Sing” really pulled it off, “Big Mistake” just starts to sound like a B-List Country song. Maybe skip this one.
8. Love You No Matter What- Thankfully this song redeems the album for what happened with the last song. Written for Greens son, ‘Love You No Matter What’ takes a dive into the serious side of things singing about worst case scenarios ( I caught something about “Even if you were shitting spiders all over the place”) he joyfully brings it back into the chorus reassuring his son that he will “Love You No Matter What”.
9. How it goes- Uh oh, it seems i’ve come across another song on this album I’m not to fond of. This song just seems very thrown together, what some would call “filler” or a “placeholder.” I hate to say it but honestly couldn’t find much to praise about this song, even the lyrics are pretty so-so. Ending the song with a pretty unnecessary minute long guitar solo, this track could have been left on the cutting room floor and it probably would have done better down there. Once again, on a 13 song album a lot of the time it’s probably best to just leave songs like these out of it.
10. Just To Feel Alive- This song is much much better. It brings back the very upbeat vibe of some of the earlier songs in the record and still adds a very serious lyrical content. To the best of my knowledge “Just To Feel Alive” is most likely about drug use. Such a somber topic gives real contrast to the happier melodies of this song, which is something Green is very good at doing.
11. James’ Song- Very obviously another song written for Green’s son James, this song is very short but very good. Green seems to completely forget about the listener at home. You almost feel like you’re sneaking a peak at a very heartfelt song that green is singing to his baby boy one on one. The lyrics are perfect. Completely describing (what I could imagine to be) a relationship between an infant and his father.
12. Blood Song- Now, I seriously enjoyed this song. This is another one of those tracks that had the feel of not taking itself too seriously but still having a very serious lyrical content. On top of all that, the story of this song seems to not only tell one story, but each verse seems to tell multiple different stories from multiple different points of view. Only a handful of people would be able to pull something like this off and as an amazing Lyricist as Green is he definitely did.
13. Lullaby- Start it off on an aggressive high note with “If I Don’t Sing,” and end it on a really low and laid back note with this song. Once again, this song has great lyrics, actually we find out how the album was named during the chorus. Also, listening to the music you will find that this song is very appropriately named, great way to end a solid album.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/anthonygreen
