A wonderful new album release from Uh Oh brings together some of the best parts of a rock oriented but pop laced sounds game that comes through incredibly personal at times with blistering honesty and vivid picturesque lyrical content that gets so descriptive you can taste it, and this character that you become attached to very quickly.
The Cicada Songs album brings to mind underground '90s alternative and indie rock sounds with this certain sort of attitude and tonality to everything.
This aesthetic that they boast is so perfectly done that it quickly becomes almost nostalgic for me and the thing about this record is no matter who you are where you come from this record can actually have the same effect because these songs play out almost like they could have been the soundtrack to different chapters of your own life.
It's rare that I come across a record that has that much connectivity so quickly and when I listen to the whole thing all the way through, I get the sense that this is almost like a concept record because the songs have such outstanding ways of intertwining and connecting with each other.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about this record is the energy level on it because it's not over the top, as a matter of fact, it's perfectly balanced dynamically so you can feel the players feeding off of each other's energies the entire time almost as if the songs will record it live on the floor.
Of course, I could be completely wrong about the whole live on the floor thing, but it still makes you want to see these guys live just because that energy is captured so well on the record itself.
This is the kind of record that's got some layers that can be peeled back and a few surprises around the corners and although there were a few singles that really stood out to me, listening to the record from beginning to end is really the way to go here because I feel like this was the way it was meant to be soaked in.
This is an aspect I've missed for a long time and music in general from all different genres because we live in such a single-based society that I think people forget about releasing full albums or even listening to them.
This is why I missed the physical aspect of Music collecting and I'm not such a big fan of the digital one.
When you go and pay for a vinyl record, a CD, a cassette tape, or whatever it is, you're going to listen to the whole damn album, and this is important because the band put out a whole album.
The band wants you to listen to the whole album.
Either way, these tracks have elements of brightness, darkness, honesty, fantastical undertone, live performance, electricity, and just a certain kind of warmth that feels like home in a strange way.
You can hear that some of the stuff is inspired by classic rock or even some of the rock I mentioned earlier of the late 90s early 2000s even.
Record boasts a lot of persona, and that's the part of it that gives it so much heart.
In the end you feel like some of these songs were even for you even though you know they weren't.
It's fun to be able to connect with songs and have them have different meaning from the artist to the listener but I think music like this is meant to be taken however you want it.
No matter what, it makes you think, it makes you feel, and it's the kind of music we need more of right now in the world.
A lot of this was really well thought out and there was a lot of attention to detail during the creation of this record, but it never loses that heart or soul the entire time.
This is a really well woven record and I'm going to give him an 8 out of 10 hands down.