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re: Tyce: Hero - My full album review.

Posted by:
mickp 12:09 pm UTC 03/11/17
In reply to: Tyce: Hero - My full album review. - ashkent7 10:51 pm UTC 03/10/17

Impressions after a few listens. The Meat take of I'm gonna love her is in my top 3 or at most 5 Jim songs. I never thought it could or would be redone in a way I would like. They've done it though. Yes it's different but the key was it still had me singing along playing it in the car at full blast. Same with kill you, the bless all the girls bit is outstanding and I love the guitar. Best version of hero I've heard, not my top Jim song though. Left in dark is super as is objects and all coming back to me. Braver and total eclipse are very credible but need to grow on me. Braver is not one of my favourite Jim songs to be honest. Heaven can wait and all the acoustics highlight Tyce's vocals which are excellent

I agree there are transitions that feel a bit unusual and some aspects of the production are unexpected but I am sure they will have wanted it to be so, a different but respectful take on classic songs. This is Tyce's first album, he had to own in his own way not being a mere identical cover. It is most definitely a listener in my book and a very credible effort from all concerned

As someone says below it all has to be about the music, not everyone will like all or any of it but I do, particularly for the homage to Dead Ringer and for the originality ( and real instruments!). After a dearth for years, I take Braver by Meat, Hero by Tyce but most importantly the supremely brilliant Bat Musical as all being very welcome

> So having listened to the album twice to give it a good
> chance to shine, this is my review of it.
>
> First, i will say that just like Braver, people will like
> Hero and people will dislike it. Some will like bits of
> it. I think I'm in the latter category.
>
> Hero for me is an album of missed opportunities, musical
> over indulgence and I'm actually quite sorry to say tracks
> that just seem pointlessly redundant in the face of what
> has gone before. It is like the music industry equivalent
> of Hollywood remaking Japanese horror films - flashy and
> loud but missing the subtleties and nuances that make the
> originals so memorable and long standing.
>
> It is hard to single out the tracks as the main things
> that stopped me truly getting on board with the album is
> present throughout. I can't actually say it as well as Jim
> himself did ten years ago when talking about Bat 3 on his
> blog. It went a little something like this.
>
> "The only words that crossed my mind a lot during the CD
> were: DYNAMICS; HUMOR; SPOKEN WORD, PIANO THUNDER and
> OPERATIC POWER. I missed those, but I "like" the album."
>
> That leads back even further to the heading of a music
> magazine review of Couldn't Have Said It Better which was
> "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Jim".
>
> The song Couldn't Have Said It Better, was said by the
> magazine to be an attempt to imitate that almost worked
> but had some clumsy moments that gave it away, and in
> those three paragraphs is probably a better overview of
> Hero than i could put together. There are moments when it
> looks like something truly rooted in the magic on Steinman
> is about to appear ( for me the openings of Gonna Love Her
> For Both of Us and I'll Kill You If You Don't Come Back
> are the best things on the album, but only equate to
> around 30 seconds between them.) but then it becomes
> somehow lost in a niggling grind of background guitar
> noise and production so deep the voices are occasionally
> almost lost.
>
> At the other end of the production spectrum, Heaven Can
> Wait is like Vince Vaughn’s shot for shot Psycho remake
> with nothing new to add, and in my opinion nowhere near
> the emotion of Meat’s original vocal. Objects In The Rear
> View Mirror severely lacks in the ethereal background
> vocals that Jim’s production gave it on Bat, or the
> emotional resonance of the Tanz Der Vampire versions.
>
> Holding Out For A Hero and Total Eclipse of the Heart both
> start well, Total Eclipse in particular with a dark
> brooding edge, but then again something seems to change
> and to quote someone (I can’t recall whether it was Jim or
> in response to something Jim once said) who said it about
> Land of The Pigs on Bat 3, it is like no one can wait to
> blow their load in the first act leaving nothing to wait
> for. And that again is apparent time and time again.
> For me, to do Steinman properly you build it. There’s
> always something coming in his biggest songs and there is
> a constant melody even when there shouldn’t be. The guitar
> solo of Frying Pan and Objects on Bat 2, the transition
> into the coda of All Revved Up, the loop back to the first
> verse repear of Bad For Good, the piano/drum build into
> the Say a Prayer section of Going All The Way.
> This is partly why for me, Braver Than We Are on Hero will
> always be a step behind Going All The Way. The song, as it
> appears in Tanz, and on Braver, and in demos, is a
> building epic of movements with musically genius links and
> pay offs. On Braver each chorus arrives with a different
> gift to offer and the final segment is like everyone is
> racing towards that final moment. On Hero, it plays its
> hand early then at times feels rushed but without any
> drive behind it. It takes more inspiration from the
> theatrics of Tanz than anything else on occasion but
> doesn’t have the feeling Going All The Way injects with
> its nostalgic guitar sound and piano drive.
> There are guitar solos lifted direct from their
> predecessors (Gonna Love Her and Kill You most notably),
> and the others just kind of sound like most other rock
> music out there, which again raises the question of why if
> the originals can’t be bettered. There are clunky moments
> in some transitions when changes happen in tone or depth
> that just seem out of the blue rather than planned and
> flowing, and occasionally it sounds like every sound
> effect and hand held ringing item had to be used somewhere
> and has been.
> Tyce himself is a great singer, there’s no doubt of that.
> There are some times though he is so high, without much in
> the way of protection that good backing vocals would have
> helped out on, that it almost becomes screechy. His
> calibre is proven more, and this is a massive tell on the
> album as a whole, in the acoustic songs included as bonus
> material. It does seem odd that All Coming Back To Me Now
> is in the acoustic section as the main album version is
> barely more than that, but again, Tyce’s emotions, effort
> and abilities are must more apparent in raw acoustic
> version than the album take. Sometimes, it seems less is
> more and this is one of those times. For all it’s bells
> and whistles, there is something peculiarly hollow about
> the main album, while the supplementary add ons are
> actually what are worth a larger part of the cost of the
> album and to me would have made a better album on their
> own merits with minimal additional production. These
> versions lend something more to the honesty of the songs,
> and give a truly different perspective on some of them.
> The album will sit in nicely with the other Steinman
> featuring playlists for me, but even though I had really
> high expectations of this and will listen to it, it
> doesn’t knock out any of the versions of the songs that
> have gone before.
>
> BUT...that's my take. I fully expect there are those who
> will really like it, particularly those who couldn't
> accept Meat's vocals on Braver, and they are just as right
> in their eyes as I am in mine.
>


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Previous: Tyce: Hero - My full album review. - ashkent7 10:51 pm UTC 03/10/17
Next: TYCE - Braver Than We Are - Cool version - Daniel 08:56 am UTC 03/10/17

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