A Music Review: "Is There Anybody Out There?" By A Great Big World
A review of A Great Big World’s Is There Anybody Out There?, released January 21, 2014.
The Artwork
An album’s artwork is the first impression that a band can give about their vision. Sadly, the computer-generated photo on A Great Big World’s Is Anybody Out There? conjures up memories of a PlayStation cut scene in the middle of a Final Fantasy game.
The Good
This part’s pretty easy. And by that, I mean there are only three songs really worth listening to on this record, so this’ll be short. “Say Something (feat. Christina Aguilera)” hardly needs to be discussed, as it’s already your mom’s favorite song and you’ve heard it in every drama on NBC for 11 months now, but it really is a beautifully harmonized and vulnerable little song (once you look past Christina’s forced wavering vocals). “Already Home” has a very comforting “I-think-I’ve-heard-this-somewhere-before” feeling to it while retaining a grooving, earnest honesty about love separated by miles. “I Don’t Wanna Love Somebody Else” is a left-field, all-acoustic guitar folk song sung completely by secondary singer Chad Vaccarino and it is wonderful. Cute and short, but chock full of original melodies and a confidant vocal, it is the need-to-hear song on the record.
The Ok
Here’s the bummer about this record. One can believe that albums can have good songs that succeed and terrible songs that fall flat but at least you can acknowledge that they tried. Is There Anybody Out There? is comprised almost entirely of “just ok” songs that literally sound like me rolling my eyes. “Rockstar,” “Land of Opportunity,” “I Really Want It,” “There Is An Answer,” and “This Is The New Year” all sound like Broadway musicals (think Rent, or every Disney movie ever written, ever) full of echoing drums and driving piano. This is where lead singer Ian Axel’s high voice will begin to be difficult to digest, hearing him sing seemingly the same song over and over. “Everyone is Gay” borders on being a good song because the message is something important, but the lyrics never cross into trying to solve the homophobia problems in today’s society, instead thinking the title will do all the heavy lifting.
The Terrible (Every album has at least one, don’t deny it)
Alright, this album may have some real lemons on it, but there’s no arguing that these guys know how to write a pretty strong melody. There are a few tunes on here, though, that made me want to sue Spotify, but I didn’t. All for you guys. “You’ll Be Ok” is a “gospel” song, in the way that the band heard one gospel song one time and just did everything they heard in that song in this song. “Cheer Up!” has some serious potential because it’s so odd and unique, but that circus-vibe just grates on your nerves pretty much right away. “Shorty Don’t Wait” is one of those pretentious new songs where someone tries to put a word like “shorty” into some genre where it doesn’t belong, but don’t try to put the word “shorty” into some genre where it doesn’t belong. And for some reason, a wholly unsatisfying version of “Say Something” without Christina Aguilera is on this record and it is painfully unenjoyable. It is the exact same song, just minus her, so when you expect some harmony to come in, it’s not there and it’s a real letdown. It should have just been left off once the new version had been recorded.
The Verdict
Unfortunately, 90s-style harmony, earnest delivery, and big, raucus drums can’t save a record from a case of writer’s block. So many songs here sound so similar that it’s hard to accept that the band ever believed they had any range. The songs where they DID step out of their box fall pretty flat, with the exception of “I Don’t Wanna Love Somebody Else,” the shining star of the record. A good call would be to save yourself some time and listen to Ben Folds or Five for Fighting because they did this first… and better.
The Final Rating: 4/10
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