Altsounds - Adrian Killens - Selected Demos 2002-2009 [Album]

The music is nice and sweet, the vocals are nice and sweet but the lyrics are filled with disappointment and bitterness and I love it.
Halfway between Eels and Randy Newman, Adrian Killens takes the soft music style and layers it with an uncharacteristic anger that creates a juxtaposition of style and content to create a collection of songs that are endearing, funny and thought provoking.

Lyrics such as "I call you prettyish 'cause pretty's such a strong word in case you turned your back on me and all your friends would have heard" really show that mixture of emotion in the song, between being a bit of a dick and saying that this girl is pretty-ish and hedging his bets whilst not wanting to take a risk by being too honest. It is really what makes this album appealing to me. The pleasantness of the music and the harsh realities in the lyrics continue throughout the album, scrutinizing various situations and being very honest about the way they make him feel which leaves no bad taste in my mouth.

Some of the subjects in the songs are very trivial which I also enjpy. Killens dedicates a whole song to being bored at work during the week and instead of going on and on about how drunk he's going to get at the weekend, there's one line that states he's going to drink to forget, while the rest of the song goes on at length about the boring week. It's this base of reality that I find so refreshing.

There are going to be people that don't get the irony in the songs, and taking them at face value. These people may miss the treasure that I found laying under the surface. It's here where I get my comparison with Randy Newman, as this sideways look at what's straight in front of him is something that I find very amusing and very appealing.

Quote:

"From what I can tell the lyrics are about setting your aims/goals so low, you avoid disappointment. Perhaps this is tongue in cheek or perhaps it’s a reality for Aidy, hope its tongue in cheek but for me its all so very predictable."

thebeatsurrender.co.uk

This is one example of someone who just didn't get it. I bet this reviewer thinks that Randy Newman really did love LA.

The style of rock on this album is one that I'm not sure of the technical name for the subgenre. But it is one that would cover bands such as Eels, Cake, Beck, Weezer etc and is lo-fi, simple and very light and bright. If someone can educate me on what this sub genre may be called I'd be grateful as it's a genre that I had dismissed until very recently, but now that I've discovered it, I've found that I love it.

Adrian Killens seems like a funny guy, not only are his songs peppered with humour, his website had funny self-aggrandizing sections and over pompous comments that can only be construed as sarcasm and thus funny. Think Ricky Gervais before he became shit.

“Check out this stylish black and white picture of me, I look fucking great don’t I!! Yeah, I do!! That’s a Fender Jagstang I’m playing, possibly the coolest looking guitar in the world, it was designed by Kurt Cobain, and that means that I am as cool as Kurt, but he shot himself when he was 27, and I didn’t.

Adrian Killens has also released his entire collection of songs on his site as mp3s, which is really cool, as there's a load of content there, and I've already downloaded it all.

[http://www.aidy.com/music.asp]

I really think he deserves some money for his efforts, so should I get the chance, I'm going to go and see him live. He has no upcoming gigs on his site, but seems to gig fairly regularly in Cambridge, so next time I'm over that way, I'll hopefully be able to check him out.

On his website I see the following:

Quote:

"Imagine how happy I was after spending all my spare time and hard earned money recording, duplicating, and posting it out to reviewers, only to be presented with 1 out of a possible 5, and phrases such as 'so very predictable' and 'a bit lame'. Well, I can tell you, I wasn't very happy at all! In fact it made me sad, but upon reflection things could be far worse..."

How can you dislike someone who makes those kind of comments? Well, here you go, Adrian, a very good review and recommendation for you. Screw the other motherfuckers!