Blog Project #2-'Under Your Spell' By The Birthday Massacre
Topic #4 -- Media Product Review
Introduction
I
chose to do a review of the album ‘Under Your Spell’ by the band The Birthday
Massacre. I chose it because it just came out (on June 9th), they
crowd-sourced the funding for the album (which I thought was an interesting
distinction), and simply because I’m a fan of the band and really love their
music.
Description/Background
‘Under
Your Spell’ is The Birthday Massacre’s 7th studio album and was
funded by PledgeMusic, an online platform allowing fans to fund or pre-order
artists directly. They also used PledgeMusic to fund their 2011 album
‘Superstition’.’The PledgeMusic goal was opened on June 4th, 2016
and was reached later that day. According to the PledgeMusic page for the
album, 232% of the original goal was funded total. ‘Under Your Spell’ debuted
at the number 7 spot on Billboard’s Independent chart.
The
Birthday Massacre is a Canadian band, originally based in London, ON but
currently based in Toronto. The band, originally named Imagica, formed in 1999
when members Rainbow and Chibi met in college and started collaborating
musically, with Rainbow’s childhood friend Falcore joining. Other members
joined (and some left) and the current band lineup is Chibi (lead vocals),
Rainbow (rhythm guitar), Falcore (lead guitar), Rhim (drums), Owen (keyboard),
and Nate Manor (bass). As you might gather, most of the band members use
pseudonyms or mononyms as opposed to their birth names.
The
Birthday Massacre’s musical style is usually labeled as Goth rock, Darkwave, or
Electronica (on their YouTube channel, they label themselves as a “synthrock
band”).
The
band has used the Internet to get in touch with their fans and distribute their
music since the beginning and their use of the new crowdsourcing platforms the
Internet offers shows that they are still utilizing it as it evolves.
The
Birthday Massacre hasn’t found much mainstream success, but they are well-known
in the Goth subculture and have a devoted cult following.
The band and the band's logo-The Bunny.
Analysis
In
a way, ‘Under Your Spell’ is very similar in style to their previous albums,
it’s retained the ‘dreamy’ synth-driven sound and dark lyrics typical of The
Birthday Massacre. The title track ‘Under Your Spell’ would have fit right in
on one of their previous albums, such as 2004’s ‘Violet’ or 2010’s ‘Pins and
Needles’.
Conversely,
overall as an album ‘Under Your Spell’ is less ‘hard’ and has less of the metal
influence that has colored most of The Birthday Massacre’s music.
Chibi
also displays a lot less of her usual vocal range and only one song ‘No
Tomorrow’ utilizes her trademark growl.
Like
most Darkwave ‘Under Your Spell’ (and indeed, everything by The Birthday
Massacre) the heavy use of synthesizers and slick production is common, as is
the dark, sometimes morbid lyrics. VNV Nation’s music is very much alike The
Birthday Massacre’s in this way. However, The Birthday Massacre has always
stood out from other artists in the genre with their focus on the line between
the cute and the creepy, the innocent and the horrific. As Chibi said about the
band’s name: “It kind of works well for the music that we're making. Sort of
contrasty, you know? Birthday, and massacre. Light, and dark. Cute, and evil.”
Interpretation
While
I absolutely love this band and their music, including this album, and would
argue that most art is culturally important, I would say that it doesn’t
exactly “matter” in the grander sense of the word. Will I listen to these songs
while I create my own art, or to help me fall asleep, or to lift my mood on a
bad day? Absolutely. So, to me, this band and album, like many others, is
important. But not necessarily to society as a whole.
I
don’t know if it necessarily reflects a trend. Certainly myself and many of my
friends who have ‘goth inclinations’ are big fans of this music but Goths are a
multi-generational subculture at this point and aren’t really anything new.
As
far as target audience is concerned, the band themselves shy away from the
‘goth’ label as they feel that limits the audience that might enjoy them.
However, I’ve never heard The Birthday Massacre played in a club that DIDN’T
cater to the gothic subculture and in my social network, the Venn diagram of
‘people who are fans of The Birthday Massacre’ and ‘people who are goth (at
least on the weekends)’ is just a big circle. J
Stereotypes
and offensive messages are avoided in this album, largely because the songs are
mostly about feelings like loss and betrayal. While there’s a lot of flowery
imagery, most of the songs are about a love that’s gone bad, or a relationship
that wasn’t as fulfilling as hoped.
Evaluation
The
main strength of ‘Under Your Spell’ is that it shows the band in good form,
they haven’t lost what makes them interesting, enjoyable artists. The tracks
‘Under Your Spell’ and ‘All Of Nothing’ are beautiful and heartfelt, and make
me wish I lived closer to my old club so I could dance with my friends to them.
A
weakness of the album is the lack of range or variety between songs I mentioned
earlier. The album is slightly less dynamic than their earlier works and I
would argue that the best tracks on this album aren’t as good as the best
tracks off their previous ones.
I
still personally think this is a good album, just not as great as, say ‘Violet’
or 2013’s ‘Superstition.’
I
think, at least for fans of the band and people in the subculture, the songs on
this album will have a fairly long life (I mean, we’re still playing ‘Blue’ by
them in clubs and that song is 13 years old). It might not be the best by the band but it’s still The
Birthday Massacre and this album shows that that still means something.
That’s
my take, what do the professionals say? (please note that due to the band’s
more “underground” status, the album was mostly reviewed by subculture
publications)
David
Oberlin for Soundscape gives the album a 10 out of 10 and says:
“The
seventh album Under Your Spell is everything a [The] Birthday Massacre album
should be and delivers a highly polished and exuberant record teeming with
personality.”
and
“The
synth sounds spread from saccharine to struggling and their expression is
wondrous. When these voices intertwine with the natural and honest voice of
Chibi it becomes more than music, it becomes its own dimension of love,
heartbreak, honesty and death. The Birthday Massacres’ seventh album is a redeployment
of all the parts which make them stand out and above the rest.”
William
Nesbitt for Brutal Resonance seems to feel the same way I did about the album, giving it a 6.5 out of 10 and saying:
“One
of the drawbacks of putting out a string of great albums is that if the next
one isn’t as good, it may appear weaker than it actually is. There aren’t any tracks on Under Your
Spell that are horrible, but neither are there any that really stand out other
than album-opener 'One.'[…] The title track 'Under Your Spell' is solid, but I
am still waiting for a track that explodes. ”
and
“The
album never lets loose, goes sky high, or cuts bone deep. There is nothing as moving as 'In This
Moment,' as thrashy as 'Happy Birthday,' or as driving as 'Leaving Tonight.'”
I
definitely agree most with Nesbitt’s take-I don’t think there’s a single bad
song on the album but I know the band is capable of a bit more than they
achieve here.
Engagement
The
Birthday Massacre’s Facebook page has 264,322 ‘likes’ and 248,709 followers.
People are mostly complimenting the band on the new album and entreating them
to come to their hometowns on the latest tour.
I’m
lucky to have Amazon Prime Music, and the band’s entire discography is on
there, and I’ve been working my way through all of the albums for a couple of
weeks now. I would definitely buy any more albums they put out and I’d love to
see them live.
Many
of my friends have been urging me to listen to The Birthday Massacre for years
and years and I can definitely see why so many conversations about music have
ended with “But you HAVE to check out The Birthday Massacre!”
Summary
One
thing I’ve learned lately, on a personal note, is how many songs I grooved to
at my old haunt Vertex in Rochester, NY were [The] Birthday Massacre songs. That
was a little eye-opening. Another thing I learned doing this project is how
much the band has utilized the Internet since the early 2000s and continues to
utilize it.
My favorite song off of 'Under Your Spell'-'All Of Nothing'
If you've heard one song by The Birthday Massacre, it's probably 'Blue'...for good reason. (note: there is ONE vocalist on this song-it's all Chibi)
One of my absolute favorite songs by the band, Surrender (off of 'Superstition')
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