Batman: Arkham City - The Album

Batman: Arkham City – The Album
2011, Watertower Music

On October 18, 2011, Warner Bros. Interactive releases the video game Batman: Arkham City.  The follow-up to Arkham Asylum features many of the same gaming attributes, but enhances features, weapons and tools in an open world environment.  The soundtrack, Batman: Arkham City – The Album, drops on October 4, 2011, and includes some big names in active rock.

Panic! At The Disco kick starts things with “Mercenary”, an incredibly catchy rocker that’s certain to make room for itself on the Billboard charts.  It’s a perfect introduction; the sort of song that pervades your consciousness and refuses to let you go.  It’s the best blend of alternative/heavy rock and pop sensibilities on the collection.  Coheed And Cambria “Deranged” and The Duke Spirit “Creature” offer up solid if not terribly memorable tracks, while Black Rebel Motorcycle Club gets overtly ethereal on the dream-rock number “Shadow On The Run”.  Blacq Audio seem to be channeling 80s rockers such as the Thompson Twins on “Afterdark”, a solid enough track that thoroughly fails to fit in with the other tracks offered here.

Raveonettes make up for a lack of substance with lots of fuzz and buzz on “Oh, Stranger”, paving the way for ††† (Crosses) and their tortured, post-Smiths self-immolation, wrapped in dark commercial medal forms.  The Damned Things make a fine impression with “Trophy Widow”, dropping a tremendous chorus on listeners.  The blend of pop and metal sensibilities here is intriguing and unique, although the screamed verses are more of a contrast to the chorus than a complement.  Daughtry hits all the right notes on “Drown In You”.  The song is well-written, the arrangement tight, and the chorus sets up shop in your forebrain and declares its intent to stick around for a while.  The Boxer Rebellion offers up a solid effort in “Losing You”, but it’s Serj Tankian who steals the show with the closing track, “Total Paranoia”.  If you’ve never heard him before, Tankian has an eclectic and unusual voice that’s almost counterintuitive to this environment on first listen, but he grows on you like dark thoughts in the night.  “Total Paranoia” is an exceedingly pleasant surprise, and an example of how a music director, thinking outside the box on a project such as this, occasionally strikes gold.

There’s no doubt that Batman: Arkham City – The Album will turn out to provide far accompaniment to the game itself, but as an album it has little sense of flow; the songs here don’t have a common theme or driving factor other than the overly complex apocrypha of Batman storylines and legends.  Batman: Arkham City – The Album was put together with an eye toward download sales of single tracks rather than an attempt to build a cohesive theme, and it shows.  On the left, it’s difficult to build this sort of cohesion in a soundtrack collection featuring eleven different artists, which is why being the music director for this sort of project is a thankless exposition.  In any case, this is a time to pick and choose the tracks you want and download accordingly.  There are some real gems here.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Batman: Arkham City at www.batmanarkhamcity.org. 

         CD                          MP3                    MP3 + Score

     iTunes.

And if you're interested in pre-ordering the game, here are the links!

        X-Box 360           X-Box 360                PS3
                                 Special Edition                            


          PS3                   Windows
   Special Edition            Live


Please note that the Amazon.com prices listed above are as of the posting date, and may have changed. Wildy's World is not responsible for price changes instituted by Amazon.com.

Legend Has It - Driven

Legend Has It - Driven

2010, Legend Has It

Atlanta rockers Legend Has It spent a number of years as a cover band, learning the subtleties performance from the artists they covered while developing their own imprints on the songs.  Making the jump to original material wasn’t hard, as in this fashion Legend Has It had some of the best teachers in rock and pop music.  Already a big draw in Atlanta, Legend Has It looks to spread their wings in 2011 throughout the Southeast US and beyond with Driven, an album of quality rock tunes and a dynamic live show.

Driven opens with "Anything You Want To Sing, a healthy dose of heavy rock with pop finesse and big hooks.  It's a catchy and memorable opening track built around bruising guitar riffs that are head bang worthy.  Vocalist Derek Walton stands out.  A singer rather than a screamer, Walton crafts his vocal lines like with pizzazz of a theatrical performer.  "Simple Changes" has that catchy, big rock feel, and nurtures a lyric melodicism that smoothes the rough edges.  The lyrics aren't quite up to the level of the music, but the gap is sufficiently small as to not matter to most listeners.  "After The Fall" keeps the big guitar presence and works in the sort of big vocal harmonies that dominated 1970's/1980's rock. 

"Into Reality" is a catchy, likeable track, a likely single.  You'll find the urge to dance to this one hard to resist.  "Given The Chance" is a vibrant rocker built on dynamic guitar riffs and a huge, hook-filled chorus.  Another likely single, "Given The Chance" seems like the most likely track to break out for Legend Has It.  "Close Enough To Touch" is all about taking the leap of faith into the relationship, topped off with the sort of chorus you walk away humming or singing.  Legend Has It says goodnight with "Work In Progress", a solid closer that serves as a sufficient bookend to Driven but may have been more properly designated as an album track somewhere in the middle. 

Legend Has It certainly has the touch for the big chorus in particular, and catchy rock tunes that play well to mass media without sounding like they were crafted for such.  It wouldn't be surprising to learn that Legend Has It is a lion on stage.  The energy focused into the constrained format of recorded media is distinctive, and may be just a drop in the bucket.  Either way, Driven is very much worth the attention of rock fans.  Even with one or two slow moments along the way, Legend Has It delivers consistent quality punctuated by killer choruses, big guitars and a pop finesse that's all been forgotten in the mainstream.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Legend Has It at http://www.legendhasit.net/ or www.myspace.com/legendhasitrocks.  Driven is available from Amazon.com as a CD or Download.  The album is also available via iTunes. 

Review: Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise

Circa Survive - Blue Sky Noise
2010, Atlantic Records

Doylestown, Pennsylvania’s Circa Survive have made the jump to a major label, but still bring a strong DIY effort to their third album, Blue Sky Noise. Working with producer David Bottrill (King Crimson, Tool, Muse), Circa Survive have crafted their most commercial album to date. Armed with a new perspective (particularly vocalist Anthony Green, who took some time out after a mental breakdown to get back to himself and gain new perspective on the world, Circa Survive look to make 2010 their best year to date.

Blue Sky Noise opens with “Strange Terrain”; a driven tune that is an average opening tune but features an outstanding vocal from Green. “Get Out” is, plainly said, a self-referential temper tantrum in song; encompassing an “I’m So Misunderstood” mind with insular thoughts. The song is powerful, angry and whiny all at once; and will sound very familiar to parents of a teenager or anyone who actually remembers what it was like to be a teenager. “Glass Arrows” is a pro-forma big rock tune, infusing just the right amount of anger to sound legit but not enough to be over-the-top.

“I Felt Free” is a bland and pretentious power ballad that doesn’t do much to stand out from the crowded power ballad field. Likewise, “Imaginary Enemy” has a cookie-cutter alt-rock feel. It’s a dysfunctional relationship song where the dysfunction of one member of a relationship is topped only by the partner who bends themselves every which way to satisfy that dysfunction. “Through The Desert Alone” is a step in the right direction, taking more of an art-rock approach by paying attention to musical details rather than a strict commercial sound. The rest of the album is a series of hits (“Fever Dreams”, “The Longest Mile”, and “Compendium”) and misses (“Frozen Creek”, Spirit Of The Stairwell”, “Dyed In The Wool”).

After strong Indie efforts Juturna and On Letting Go, it seemed likely that making the jump to the majors would not be likely to affect Circa Survive’s songwriting. But something has happened along the way. The songwriting on Blue Sky Noise is very uneven, and there seems to be a distinct struggle here between commercialism and art. More often than not commercialism seems to win on Blue Sky Noise, but its impact has been greatly diluted by the struggle, leaving Circa Survive with a less than optimal album that is not truly representative of their talent or work ethic. The reasons for this are unclear, but hopefully Circa Survive will get these kinks worked out before the next album.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Circa Survive at http://www.circasurvive.com/ or www.myspace.com/circasurvive. Blue Sky Noise is available as a CD, LP or Download through Amazon.com. Special bundles are also available through the band's web site for hard core fans.

Review: Vans Warped Tour '07 DVD

Various Artists - Vans Warped Tour '07: 2007 Tour Compilation
2008, Image Entertainment

One has to question why it took so long to get this particular compilation to market. The Vans Warped Tour for 2008 has already concluded, and it seems unlikely there would be a significant market for a DVD of selections from the 2007 tour at this late date. Nevertheless, Image Entertainment has Vans Warped Tour '07 out in time for the 2008 Holiday season.

Vans Warped Tour is the longest running punk rock tour in the US, and fans tend to be pretty hardcore. The eleven artists here aren't so much significant for who was included as who wasn't. Performances from Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion, Chiodos, Circa Survive, Coheed & Cambria, Killswitch Engage, Fishbone, Pennywise, Pepper, The Starting Line & Sum 41 are all well and good (although the performances of Chiodos and Fishbone were lukewarm at best), but why include interviews from artists like Paramore or Alkaline Trio without a live performance? There are other interviews here from The Almost, Coheed & Cambria and Killswitch Engage, among others. Ultimately, at just an hour running time, this set is light on substance.

Vans Warped Tour '07 appears to be a quickly put together release to make some dough in the holiday season. Fans of the tour undoubtedly have countless bootlegs available to them through tape trading, etc. where more complete sets are available. The official release amounts to a slick sampler platter that is designed to please everyone and likely to please very few in fact. More highlights, more bonus tracks, and longer sets from some of the bigger names are all options that might have made this more marketable. A longer running time (perhaps two hours instead of one) would also have made this more worthwhile.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

To learn more about the Vans Warped Tour, check out http://www.warpedtour.com/. You can pick up a copy of Vans Warped Tour ’07 at Amazon.com.