 It’s been a few years since The Spectaculars dropped their thirteen track debut LP ‘Have You Heard things’. I felt the need to jibber about these tunes considering the band’s latest has yet to pop out! “You Can Look Up Now” is set to be released soon but was due to drop late last year. The band is from Minneapolis Minnesota and they are Thomas Edwards - Lead Vocals, Joel Saint John - Keys, Rhodes, Synths, and Vox, Dahniel Knight – Guitar/Vox, Collis Barber – Flavor additive (according to their website), James Towns – Bass/Vox and Brandon "Buz" Donald busting up those Drums.
The band has been getting some buzz, most recently they accomplished landing a Semi-Finalist nomination in the 2008 UK Songwriting Contest, nominated for the 2008 Independent Singer-Songwriter Awards and the first tune of the LP "Mista Ambarosia," landed in the Sony Pictures film, "Center Stage 2: Turn It Up" which was aired Nov.1st 2008 on Oxygen in the US and will be available on DVD Jan 2009.
Immediately when I hear “Mista Ambrosia” I think of Outkast. Trying to get their music out of my head and focus on this band is hard especially when it’s so similar. The track starts in with keys and a drumline for twenty seconds then drops into the chorus/hook. Vocals are alright, there is something about the tone of the vocals that I am not vibing. I really think this whole song bothers me because it’s far too close to Outkast’s sound. People need to be much more original, the only part of this song that is remotely unique is the instrumental break near the end of the track.
Tune two ‘The Save’ has the same vocal styling's as the first track, at times I don’t even take them seriously as vocalists! After the first verse I had to skip to the next, could not listen to the rest of the tune the vocals were killing me. The music was decent instruments sounded tight but unfortunately for them I can’t even focus on the lyrics, the vocals ruined the whole tune! There is no way I can listen to the full length of the track, it does not matter how hard I try to tune the vocals out, they over power everything. The band probably assumes they are being inventive with the vocal arrangements. News flash! It has already been done and I didn’t like it the first time, it just sounds ‘Wackabee try hard’ like those people who try so very hard to be different just to get some attention, some folk are just not blessed with the natural ability to be unique.
The track after the ugly was ‘You On Me’ starting in with guitars and drums for twenty two seconds transitioning into a faster rhythm with only guitars, soon dropping into the first verse with the rest of the instruments. The melody sounds so familiar I swear I’ve hear it before, I know it but I can’t put my finger on what song. It is an extreme difference from the first few tracks a good thing because I am actually digging this tune. The vocals are better than the first two tracks especially in the chorus, the track is not over done and the tone is chill. It kind of reminds me of Lenny Kravitz (Lenny Krapitz I call him because I don’t like his ego!) they need to tighten the backup vocals they sound messy and the timing is off at some parts in the track. The next track is a weird napper I was off it!
Come to think of it I am not feeling this record period, the music is good...But what they did with the music is not right! I know of so many other bands and artists that would have done so much more with these tunes and far better than these guys. Even these dudes I’m sure could have done better than this, if they are meant to do this as a profession they need to push themselves creatively a lot harder. There is only one track on this LP that is poppin; most tracks have no depth with rerun topics. The Spectaculars have nothing spectacular about them at this moment. ©FRIDAE2009™ http://www.myspace.com/thespectaculars The Spectaculars
Last edited by Heron : January 22, 2009 at 11:14 PM.
Reason: Album title and identifier added
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| | | | Overall Rating | | 4 | | Vocals / Lyrics | | 3 | | Musicianship | | 7 | | Production | | 7 | | Creativity | | 2 | | Lastability | | 4 | | Reviewers Tilt | | 0 |
39% | |
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