Review: Kill Paradise - The Second Effect

Kill Paradise - The Second Effect
2009, BreakSilence Records

Denver, Colorado's Kill Paradise has generated pretty significant buzz online, with over nine million plays on MySpace alone. The Electropop duo features Nick Cocozzella and Bryce Hoops, and a sound that got them signed to BreakSilence Records (and may have had a hand in getting Breathe Carolina signed to Rise Records as well). Kill Paradise's debut album, The Second Effect was released exclusively through Hot Topic stores in November of 2009. The songs have been or will be featured in MTV series' "True Life: I'm Coming Home From Iraq" and Paris Hilton's My New BFF.

The Second Effect is good as long as you know what you're getting yourself into. Sugary dance pop with catchy hooks, overproduced and electronically sanitized vocals and a young, simplistic writing style are the order of the day. Cocozzella and Hoops may well have great voices, but there's no way to know as both are so altered it's hard to know what's live and what's vocoder. The opening track, Oh Lexi, is a catchy number with a solid dance beat that won't crowd the National Poetry Award field with lines like "Oh Lexi, you're just so sexy won't you take me away / Oh baby, oh Lexi, you're just the way I wanted you". It's not substantive or even necessarily particularly good, but it's just the sort of ear candy that dances its way to the top of the pop charts. Fall From A Star is built around an interesting keyboard riff that mutates from key to key and runs through much of the song. It's pure Dance/Pop that makes you want to move.

Just Friends? sounds like a junior high lunchroom discussion set to music, complete with cheesy Casio-style synth work and a slick dance beat. The vocals haven't improved thus far, still buried in sickly sweet electronic effects that render the original voices practically unrecognizable. Punch! and Miracle follow a similar catchy-yet-mundane path before Breathe Carolina sits in on All For You. This tune has a bit more oomph to it than anything that's come before, although that may just be an accident of the Rock beat laid down by the programmer. The first real musical sidebar of the album is Katie & I. The style hasn't changed much, but the electronics have mostly gone away. Acoustic piano is the base instrument, and the vocals sound relatively untouched. The voices are decent enough, although the vocal effects seem to creep back in as the song progresses. Radio Arcade finds Kill Paradise returning to their electronic forte, ripping off a mid-tempo ballad over a lively dance beat. The duo closes out with Candyland Wedding, set to a Hip-Hop beat and a sparse electronic arrangement.

Kill Paradise is a band for fans of Boy Band Bubblegum Pop. The Second Effect is fairly representative of the genre, not offering much that's original or intriguing in the mix. In all likelihood, the combination of exposure, placement and the catchy nature of the tunes will yield a lot of commercial success for The Second Effect, but this is the sort of music that once it disappears from the radio it also tends to disappear from consciousness. The lyrics are less than impressive and the music is simplistic, but Kill Paradise captures the sound du jour perfectly.

Rating: 2.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Kill Paradise at www.myspace.com/killparadise. You can order a copy of The Second Effect directly from BreakSilence Records or by stopping by any Hot Topic store. The album is also available as a download through iTunes.

Review: Jeffree Star - Beauty Killer

Jeffree Star - Beauty Killer
2009, Popsicle Records

Jeffree Star started out as a model and makeup artist with an obsessive love of music. His early attempts at songwriting were more of an offhand experimentation than a serious attempt at song craft, but Star has a certain flair for the dramatic that comes through in his music. Working with various Los Angeles producers, including Lester Mendez (Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Nelly Furtado) and Luke Walker (Alkaline Trio, Elliott Yamin); Jeffree Star has created Beauty Killer; a collection of twelve highly danceable songs full of pathos and promise.

Beauty Killer opens with Get Away With Murder, a musical promise or threat from a narrator who is imbalanced and pathologically unable to maintain relationships. Set to a killer dance beat, I suspect this tune will be huge on the club scene. The first single, Prisoner, received upwards of 500,000 streams its first weekend on MySpace and seems certain to propel the initial sales of Beauty Killer to stratospheric heights. It's heavy Rock/Electronica that's certain to make an impact on the dance charts and in the clubs. Louis Vuitton Body Bag features Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba helping out on vocals, and stands out as perhaps the best dance track on the album in spite of the dark content. Electric Sugar Pop slows the tempo down a bit but not the infectious nature of the song. This is bubblegum pop for the electronic music age, but it's very good by both accounts and may have the biggest potential as a Pop single of anything on the disc.

B!tch, Please is one of those songs where fame or infamy is the ultimate question (and ultimately, are they different?). Pat Robertson had a tremor when this song was first written and had no idea why. Lollipop Luxury (with Nicki Manaj) and Get Physical stay on pretty much the same course, whereas Fame & Riches, Rehab B!tches brings a little bit of emo/hardcore scream into the dance realm and features Breathe Carolina. Star closes out Beauty Killer with a pair of add-on tracks, Fresh Meat and Queen Of The Club Scene. Both have the feel of filler as they lack the intensity of much of the album.

Jeffree Star's Beauty Killer will be a big winner on the club scene; likely to be more popular in Europe than in the US. The material is somewhat one dimensional like a lot of pure Dance/Pop, but will score points for shock value on some songs for folks who prize that sort of thing in their music. I thought it was a decent listen; not something I'd feel compelled to spin again personally, but I can see the draw for the clubbers.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Jeffree Star at www.myspace.com/jeffreestar. You can purchase Beauty Killer at Star’s web store, or you can download it through iTunes. If you purchase the CD, you’ll get a signed poster from Star while supplies last.