This is a Revolver – Sorry Entertainer
Genre: Alternative Rock
Since the MTV Unplugged television show won Grammy Award for rock artists, the cliche has been that a great song played with electric guitars should pass the test of being played on acoustic instruments. But shouldn’t the opposite be true as well? Shouldn’t gentle folk songs, if they’re any be good, maintain their qualities when blasted through Marshall Amps turned to 11?
Of course, the truth is that it’s all up to the artists covering the songs to make clever choices. Traditional heavy metal bands, for example, like to take Christmas carrolls of famous pieces of classical music and inject a bit of fretboard mastery and high-pitched screams. Those are routinely terrible and a great lesson on what not to do in these situations.
Daniel Johnston’s appeal grows each year. That’s odd, but then so again was the man’s music. While leftfield playing and earnest writing are his calling cards, the punk-inspired alt-rock band This is a Revolver believes that Johnston would’ve craved some high-energy rock moving his compositions. It’s a gamble that works very well. Not only does “Sorry Entertainer” work as a punk song, but This is a Revolver prove that their vision for this music is just as odd as Johnston’s.
daniel davies – Ghost Of The Heart
Similar artists: Daniel Davies, John Carpenter, Harry Manfredini, John Harrison
Genre: Alternative Rock
It was easy to portray the original “alternative pop” artists as extremists. In fact, if you were a magazine writing about any of those musicians, doing so was a clever strategy to create a bit of contrast with the bland pop stars of the day. And while a similar dynamic exists today, when you examine the proof closely, most of the “alternative artists” really just want to have pop hooks… their way.
daniel davies takes a good deal of inspiration from the composers of 80s horror movie soundtracks, but those were memorable scores whose themes audiences will still know today. There’s also the influence of 90s alternative-rock artists, folks who took their rage and distorsion pedals and achieved hit singles that conquered the global charts.
In fact, the peculiar, avant-garde musical elements are just the coating of daniel davies’ “Ghost of the Heart.” This is a pop single through and through. However, the artist is clever to dress it up in dark, unusual clothing. There are production choices that recall davies’ horror soundtrack influences and dynamics that bring to mind grunge singles. But, where there’s a hook, there’s a way, and “Ghost of the Heart” leaves you with something you can hum.
