Complain, Complain, Complain

I do a lot of praising here in this column, but I'm not usually quick to say I dislike an album. I don't know why that is, really. I guess I just feel more moved to write about something if it affects me in a positive way. If I don't like a record, I usually just toss it to the side and refrain from thinking about it anymore. But there are a few albums that have come out recently that have just rubbed me the wrong way so I'm going to do what everyone else does and type out a long form complaint for other nerds to fight about.

The most annoying kind of music fan is the "everything since the first album sucks" kid. This campus is littered with them. Have you ever gone out on the weekend and tried to have an intelligent conversation about music? It's tough. Comedian Aziz Ansari has a bit about Kanye West where he's talking about how his cousin loves him and he says something along the lines of "My cousin is 18 so he just started listening to music." That line gets me every time. For some reason, when kids get to college, all of a sudden they are music experts. They like to have a couple PBR's and wax intellectual about albums that came out when they were six and how they "changed their lives" or about how they sucked. Either/Or. I'm not saying an album that came out before your time can't change you. Hell, my life would be VERY different if it weren't for Born to Run and Viva Hate, but I also understand I can't intelligently converse about the social impacts of those albums in 1975 or 1988 because I was not alive in one case and a fetus in the other. One of the other prime claims people make when they're trying to sound deep or intelligent is that a band's first album was their best. In some cases, I totally agree. There is something about a band's first record; the growing pains, the poor production, that rushed and youthful feel you can really only capture once without sounding contrived. But come on, most of the time, bands only get better with age. It's only natural; the more you do something, the better you get at it. Bands get signed, they get an actual budget, they get some touring behind them and more experience with their instruments, and a lot of the time they put out a better product the further they go on down the line. Aging gracefully is a lot harder than starting strong, but I hope we can all agree that those "first album" people are really, really annoying.

That being said, the new albums from Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes and Four Year Strong have left a bad taste in my mouth. In the case of Cobra Starship, I am a longtime Midtown and Gabe Saporta supporter, and I was so excited in high school when Cobra put out their first album, which I loved. Cobra really hit their stride on their second album, Guilty Pleasure. As far as emo-charged party pop goes, there really is no close second to this album. They started to lose me a little bit on 2009's aptly titled Hot Mess, but the good still outweighed the bad. Now they give us Nightshades: a poorly executed, thrown together bucket of shlock featuring hip hop hack Mac Miller and a slew of autotune. Gone are the neon clad sing alongs of old, and thusly my fangs are up no more. Several thumbs down.

I have very similar feeling towards Gym Class Heroes' newest travesty, The Papercut Chronicles II. Named as a sequel to GCH's first album, I was excited to see if PCCII was indeed an indie-tinged cerebral hip hop follow up to its' predecessor. It's not. It's an ego stretching exercise for Travie McCoy. You'd think he would have gotten that out of the way on his laughable solo venture, Lazarus, but it's just not the case. Bring me As Cruel As School Children Part 2 and we'll talk. For now, no thanks to what was once my favorite Hall & Oates loving rap group.

Lastly, Four Year Strong, shame on you. As stated above, I am all for bands expanding their sound and progressing throughout their career. Bayside and Silverstein, in my opinion, are two acts from the Golden Dawn of emo tinged rock n' roll that have aged well and gracefully; each album is better than the one that came before it. So it was with open arms that I embraced FYS's claim to be crafting a more mainstream rock record with their newest effort, In Some Way, Shape or Form. They name checked the Foo Fighters when they were talking about making this thing. I'm just saying; if you openly say you're emulating King Grohl and company with your upcoming release, you better bring the thunder. FYS didn't. "Stuck in the Middle" is a pretty good mid paced Foo-ish rocker, but the rest of the album completely went limp in my arms, and (I never say this) I wish they had just taken the easy route and written "Wasting Time (Again)."

So there you have it, bands whose earlier work I genuinely enjoy more than their more recent output, without saying it to sound snarky or holier-than-thou. Opinions are rad, and we all need to have them. Just make sure you have them to express them genuinely and not to impress those around you. Because believe me, we're not impressed. I realize this week's column is more of a long form rant covering a broad, disconnected spectrum of topics than an actual sensible piece with a clear thesis, body and conclusion, and for that I apologize. The first column I ever wrote was the best one anyway.