Posted by Jason in Album Review | 0 Comments
357 Lover – Diorama of the Golden Lion Album Review
I think we can all agree that music is cyclical. As one style wanes, another comes in to take its place; 357 Lover‘s Diorama of the Golden Lion is jumping the gun a bit on this one. If bombastic falsetto and quarter note plinks are something that gets your engine going then, yes, these guys might be of interest. For me, and the rest of the people who don’t live in the 70’s, I think I only have enough room in my record collection for one Queen – and certainly I’m pushing it even by owning a album by Meatloaf.
They’d like to be grouped with these theatrical rock bands, and musically, the sound is uncanny. Real rock guitar solos (commendable), driving drums, and angelic harmonies all combine together like a musical pine tree: cumbersome and irritatingly huge. This is exactly what you get when kids who grew up on guitar hero learn how to play the real thing. Lyrically, these guys might as well be reciting children’s books. They bless us with gems such as “junior high was a very good time, dirty phrases and dirty rhymes, junior high was a very good time” – sung in a countrified, bar band style that makes me embarrassed for the singer. I’m all for the fun pop song, but really, if you feel the need to be nostalgic, could you do with without singing like a bad 80’s cover band? And I don’t know, maybe be nostalgic about something besides fart jokes and getting spit on? Eight songs in and I think this album would be more aptly called Diarrhea of the Mouth.
These upbeat, piano based major chord loving guys have it all together musically, and the production is bar to none, but more often than not, they end up on the wrong side of parody – sounding like Tenacious D singing about Dio – but they don’t have the acumen to realize the irony, or the restraint to realize they are a rock band and not a backing band for the next production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I had sincerely high hopes for these guys, and I can tell by their webpage they definitely have a sense of humor – they should be able to show it through their music. In their defense, I have heard the live show is an unbelievable spectacle, which I do not doubt; the showmanship is more than obvious– but I like my rock dark, my lyrics serious, and my vocals with a little less bombast.
mp3 – .357 Lover – Time Cop
