2014-03-10 4:01:00 ¶ ●

RATING: 12 / 13 – 4 W4RM 4ND COMFY B4THROB3 M4D3 OF FL4VOR 4ND M3LODY

This is another one of the albums that I happened to buy later than most. There’s not really any Flash tunes on it, and, being unfamiliar with the catalog, I had naturally gravitated towards stuff I recognized at first.

I had no particular expectations, good or bad, with regards to this album. Because of this, my first listen-through of the album, months ago, was all the more gratifying.

Most of the songs on this album feature just a handful of instruments. But there’s a deceptive complexity to the music, and layers of counter-melody are scattered throughout. The interplay between the synth lead and the strings in Sunrise… the skittery piano set against natural woodwinds in Firefly Cloud… it’s taken to an extreme in The Scratch with improvisational piano and sampled musique-concrete. The simplicity of the orchestration only serves to highlight the quality of the melodies.

This is my favorite of all the solo albums (and there have been some excellent solo albums). Erik Scheele has a very significant talent for songwriting.

Click here for individual song reviews for One Year Older.

2014-03-24 3:02:00 ¶ ●

RATING: 6 / 13 – IM MAX OVERJOYED ABOUT STUFF

Whoa… whew. Came down off that Trickster Mode high just in time for a fair and honest review. Whoa.

It speaks to the power of the comic that an entire, professional album was written for a meta-fictional children’s show that exists within the world of Homestuck. There’s plenty of real children’s shows that don’t have a soundtrack as extensive as has been established for the Squiddles.

So, on to the album. It’s silly, it’s saccharine… it’s the sort of thing that’s just so far outside of my normal musical tastes, I have a hard time being fair to it. But knowing that this album was written with a really specific purpose in mind, I think I’ll look at it through that particular lens.

The music’s up to the same professional standard as one might expect from the team: this could support a TV special, I have no doubt. There’s two aspects I particularly like: the wry, self-aware humor (see Mister Bowman or Catchyegrabber), and the dark undertones (Squiddles the Movie Trailer, Let the Squiddles Sleep). It’s a bit of a wink and a nod in a sea of high-pitched squeaks and accordion.

Click here for individual song reviews for Squiddles!