Pros: Fun to listen to. Amazing lyrics and beats.
Cons: May be a little too slow for some listeners. The Bottom Line I was suprised about how good this album was.
Recommended: Yes
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A few years after their album “Feeling Strangely Fine”, a new album was released by Semisonic. Feeling Strangely Fine was their album that included such tracks as the popular ”Closing Time” and the lesser-known “Secret Smile”. I know about this band through my sister. Her and her friends are Semisonic fanatics. They see them in concert every time they are near and they buy their t-shirts, listen to their music, promote them, analyze their lyrics, and worst of all, bug me about them until I finally agree to listen to their new album. I thought to myself that my sister listens to completely different music than I do so why would I like this? I was expecting a snore fest of boring music and terrible lyrics. What I found was not the best band in the world, but certainly one that deserved more recognition that it didn’t have. Boy was I surprised.
Semisonic: All About Chemistry
Each album that I review is different. This is because I fee that they each have their own way to be presented. In this albums case, I figured that it would be better if I told you about key songs on this album. I will not go over each song like some of my other music reviews in the past.
The first single off this new album was a song called “Chemistry”. I will admit that this is in no way the best song on the album. In fact, this song is just a bunch of hollow lyrics mixed in with a catchy beat. I do see how they would make this the first single off of the new album though.
Skipping track two, we come to a song called “Act Naturally”. This song is not the catchiest of songs, but it does have amazing lyrics, as do many other songs on this album. The piano/drum mist played by Jacob Slichter does a great job to make this song special in far as music goes. As always, the lead singer Dan Wilson does a great job with vocals.
One of the best songs on this album by far is a song called “She’s Got My Number”. It opens with a distorted sound but then it is brought up with an amazing piano tempo along with great lyrics once again by Dan Wilson. The lyrics are great.
“She’s got my number she always did, she can always see where my secrets hid, everything about me is hers to tell, she’s got my number, she always will.”
It sounds so much better when you listen to it while the music and lyrics come to together. If you skip the song after that called “Follow”, you will hear a guitar sound and a catchy beat starting. This is a song called “Sunshine and Chocolate”. This is one of the faster songs on the album. It has cool lyrics and a nice beat. It is one of my favorites.
I did fail to mention a crucial part of the Semisonic band. His name is John Munson. He plays great guitar. My sister said that when she met the band, he was shy but he a heck of a job making these guitar beats and backgrounds. He did however; get a lyrical opportunity on this album. In the song “Who’s Stopping You?”, he wrote the lyrics, and the music for the song. What a great job he did because it is a catchy song that has some good lyrics in it. He has a different voice than Dan Wilson. It almost doesn’t sound like Semisonic but nevertheless good music:
“Life is uncertain, look at all the hurtin’ that we’ve done. You said you had somebody better to become…. How’s stopping you?”
“I Wish” is an amazing song in terms of lyrics. The song is good too. The lyrics are simply amazing and go great with the song.
“I wish I could do anything, but the things I always do. No matter how I try to sing along something is always wrong, what I wish I knew…”
Along with the music, it all comes together beautifully. I really give Semisonic a hand at putting this song of love and heartbreak together. Be careful though, this song is close to 8 minutes long.
Another song called “Get a Grip” has got to be one of the best songs on the album. It is fast paced and has a fun and cool chorus not to mention the lyrics again. The best is memorizing. This song reminds me of hanging out with my friends. It is fun to listen to and I loved it the first time that I heard it.
The last song of the album is kind of like a good bye for the listener and it makes them think about everything that they just heard. To me, the last song is just as important as the first. It will give you the last impression and leave an impact of how you like the album. The song is called “El Matador”. No this song is not in Spanish but it is a slow moving song. The lyrics are some of the best that I have ever heard from any musician. I will not disclose any because it is one of those things that you must hear for yourself in order to like it. This slow moving song successfully pulls off being a great song. It makes you like the album even more for its originality and their style of music.
Favorite Tracks
1-) “Get a Grip”- This song is fast paced and fun to listen to. This song is great for when you are hanging out with your friends.
2-) “She’s Got My Number”- With the great vocals aside, this song features absolutely amazing lyrics along with a great piano tempo. The chorus is simply wonderful.
3-) “El Matador”- The last song on the album is soft like a lamb, but it allows the album to end like a lion. This song is simply and makes it great to listen to. It is very rare when we hear a slow song that we like from a band that does not usually do slow songs.
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So how did Semisonic: All About Chemistry stack up? And how did it compare or differ to the last album? Ratings are from one to five stars.
Here’s The Breakdown
Lyrics
*****
If you heard these lyrics within the songs, you will wonder why this band is not on the top of the charts. They sold 3 million copies worldwide for “Feeling Strangely Fine” but it looks like this album will fall way short of those numbers. It’s a shame though because this album has some of the best lyrics that I have ever heard on a CD.
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Songs
****
This is also about the beats incorporated into the songs. I found this album to bring good, steady tempos onto my CD player and into my ears. It makes you wonder why this band is not selling albums. Some songs are faster than others and the album can sound somewhat un-proportioned, but overall, the song are pretty good. Some songs are of course not as good as others.
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Overall
****
I can’t count how many times that I have made fun of this band while my sister listened to it. I said that their music was terrible and they were bad musicians. Boy am I eating my words on this one. I found this album to be surprisingly good and I would love to get started on listening to some of their older work. I urge anyone that has counted this band out to please give them a chance. You might end up liking them and start thinking twice before you judge a band based on who likes them.
"Lyrics are from Dan Wilson, John Munson. All About Chemistry. Words and music by Dan Wilson, John Munson, and Jacob Slicther. Copyright © 2001, MCA Records. All rights reserved.
Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House
