In the past year and a half. Ripoll has released a slew of material. Two folk albums and quite a few glitchy, noisey, electronic albums. His album “disorient” got rave reviews from retrolofi.com
But Spawning is Patrick ripolls third folk album. With this Patrick grows as a song writer leaps and bounds. He capitalized on his strengths from “PRAISE THE LORD” and left all the filler out. Everything from song structure to singing styles to the chord progressions reeks of Patrick Ripoll.
Album opener “spawning” slowness is a good start for such a desperate sounding album. The opener reminds me of the tv show “The Angry Beavers.” One of the tv shows episodes is called "Spawning" and the beavers freak out about the salmon being pissed off at them. The Tv show and the album have nothing in common besides the titles.
The track “Smile” reminds me the most of “Praise the Lord” The song is about Patrick’s feelings for an underage girl. Normally the song would make chuckle a little bit, but Patrick’s honesty on this track, as well as the rest of the album, is what rounds the songs, and over feeling of the album.
“so if you're game, than so am I
lets see how far this thing can fly
before we have to crash or land into the Baltic Sea
Cuz a successful pilot I am not
but I got faith and that's a lot
I'm sure Amelia Earnhardt would agree with me”
Ripoll’s lyrics on this album come with imagery that paints the Mona Lisa in your mind. So vivid and detailed. It is one of the albums strong points. Songs like “except you” “Another Fucking Titanic Song” and “Jason Voorhees, Working Class Hero”
The song “The Coward” reminds me of every low point in my life with lyrics like
“Rotten with excuse
I tie my own nooses
You know what abuse is
this abuse is what I love best”
But the infectious chorus at the end gives me hope that life will be ok again thanks to a wonderful friend.
“Nervous Laughter” is just another combination of Patrick’s lovely imagery and catchy infectious singing.
The electric guitar on “Spawning (Reprise)” in my opinion takes away from the songs great lyrical imagery. It’s a strong song, but the electric guitar doesn’t work well admits the rest of the album.
The albums short closer “Jenny” was a last minute addition to the album according to Ripoll. I think it’s the perfect closer. It shows Patrick at his most vulnerable, well the whole album shows him at his most vulnerable while still striving to mature in his song writing with the structure of the song.
Spawning remind me of the desperate moments in life where things could go horribly wrong, or completely work out at any moments notice. Amidst the fragility of life, Patrick Ripoll gives us reason to hope.
Listen to and download "Spawning"
Patrick Ripolls myspace
3 comments:
Nice Rusty, pretty good for your first review. A bit choppy but it has a form and a shape. You made me like "Smile" more than I thought I did. Patrick really has grown as a songwriter. I like that you include lyrical analysis too. =D
well thanks steven. I am relatively new to this whole "lets review albums" thing. but i'm working on it. i'm glad you liked it.
I think you have to include lyrical analysis in reviews. Its like reviewing a basketball game your team just played but only looking at the defense. You need to look at the offense too. So thats i think its good to include something about the lyrics as well.
I hope that made sense.
Very good review, Rusty. Hope to read more in the future! I wish I could keep up on all my many thoughts/blogs/ideas/websites/podcasts too :) We could always use more music writers out there.
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