Travis Parno
12/05/08, 01:42 PM
Kyle Andrews – Real Blasty
Record Label: Elephant Lady Records
Release Date: August 12, 2008
You enter your bedroom and sit down at your desk. The glow of the computer screen is pale, casting a sickly white pallor over your forearms and face. The track list of Kyle Andrews’ latest release, Real Blasty, waits patiently in front you. What will you do?
a) If you’d like to find out what would happen if Ben Kweller picked up a Moog, turn to track 2, “Naked in New York.”
b) If you’re one in a long line of recovering Pete Yorn addicts, turn to track 4, “Call and Fade.”
c) If you wish Her Space Holiday would take a cue from I Married My Highschool Sweetheart and finally get happy, turn to track 8, “Blow It Out.”
d) If you didn’t completely hate Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, turn to track 10, “I Want To Paint A Rainbow.”
e) If you’re tired of the Choose Your Own Adventure trope, continue on to the next paragraph.
Armed with an arsenal of electronic-infused piano, percussion, and pep, Kyle Andrews is the consummate adventurer. He’s got the swagger, the soul, the charm, and the wit to shine in any situation. Although Andrews holds a cool command over the digital aspects of songwriting, he has enough tact to deploy them in varied and creative ways, sprinkling beats and blips throughout his second full-length effort, Real Blasty. The album is Introspective v2.0, offering songs of love, loss, joy, and isolation set firmly in a world full to the brim with technology and innovation. Classic lines, such as those in “Put Your Hands Up” (“Do you need somebody to hold you?/ Of course you do/ Everybody wants to love”), flow alongside beautifully modern phrasing, like that plugged into “Blow It Out” (“All my kindling burns a fireburst inside my head/ And all the wires tangle like the climbing ivy wall”). It’s all the quirky, bashful honesty of plastic rimmed glasses and piano rock, doused in neon and filled with sizzling current.
Of course, Real Blasty isn’t technically a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, but it certainly has all the fun of diversity and exploration. So many musicians give into the allure of creating gloomy, angsty music because it’s often much easier than writing happiness without campiness. Andrews manages to hit both the lighter and darker sides of life while avoiding the common pitfalls of each. For all of its positive energy and electric appeal, Real Blasty is a successfully sunny slice of digital modernism.
You finish reading the review with a contented sigh. What will you do?
a) If you’d like to head to Myspace to check out Kyle Andrews for yourself, click here (http://www.myspace.com/kyleandrews).
b) If you’d like to visit iTunes or Amazon to purchase Real Blasty, click here (http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F% 252Fax.itunes.apple.com%252FWebObje cts%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252Fview Album%253Fid%253D285707804%2526s%25 3D143441) or here (http://www.amazon.com/Real-Blasty/dp/B001D57BG2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1228512578&sr=8-1).
c) If you’d like to continue surfing the wide world of music, click here (http://www.absolutepunk.net/).
d) If you’d like to leave a nasty comment for the reviewer, close your browser and punch yourself repeatedly in the face.
1. Sushi
2. Naked in New York
3. Polar Bear
4. Call and Fade
5. Tennessee Torture Dreams
6. Put Your Hands Up
7. A Constant Wavering Between the Real and the Abstract
8. Blow It Out
9. Take It to Heart
10. I Wanted to Paint a Rainbow
11. Cut and Paste
12. Bus
Ben Kweller; Pete Yorn; I Married My Highschool Sweetheart
Official Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/kyleandrews) | Official Website (http://www.kyleandrews.com/)
Record Label: Elephant Lady Records
Release Date: August 12, 2008
You enter your bedroom and sit down at your desk. The glow of the computer screen is pale, casting a sickly white pallor over your forearms and face. The track list of Kyle Andrews’ latest release, Real Blasty, waits patiently in front you. What will you do?
a) If you’d like to find out what would happen if Ben Kweller picked up a Moog, turn to track 2, “Naked in New York.”
b) If you’re one in a long line of recovering Pete Yorn addicts, turn to track 4, “Call and Fade.”
c) If you wish Her Space Holiday would take a cue from I Married My Highschool Sweetheart and finally get happy, turn to track 8, “Blow It Out.”
d) If you didn’t completely hate Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, turn to track 10, “I Want To Paint A Rainbow.”
e) If you’re tired of the Choose Your Own Adventure trope, continue on to the next paragraph.
Armed with an arsenal of electronic-infused piano, percussion, and pep, Kyle Andrews is the consummate adventurer. He’s got the swagger, the soul, the charm, and the wit to shine in any situation. Although Andrews holds a cool command over the digital aspects of songwriting, he has enough tact to deploy them in varied and creative ways, sprinkling beats and blips throughout his second full-length effort, Real Blasty. The album is Introspective v2.0, offering songs of love, loss, joy, and isolation set firmly in a world full to the brim with technology and innovation. Classic lines, such as those in “Put Your Hands Up” (“Do you need somebody to hold you?/ Of course you do/ Everybody wants to love”), flow alongside beautifully modern phrasing, like that plugged into “Blow It Out” (“All my kindling burns a fireburst inside my head/ And all the wires tangle like the climbing ivy wall”). It’s all the quirky, bashful honesty of plastic rimmed glasses and piano rock, doused in neon and filled with sizzling current.
Of course, Real Blasty isn’t technically a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, but it certainly has all the fun of diversity and exploration. So many musicians give into the allure of creating gloomy, angsty music because it’s often much easier than writing happiness without campiness. Andrews manages to hit both the lighter and darker sides of life while avoiding the common pitfalls of each. For all of its positive energy and electric appeal, Real Blasty is a successfully sunny slice of digital modernism.
You finish reading the review with a contented sigh. What will you do?
a) If you’d like to head to Myspace to check out Kyle Andrews for yourself, click here (http://www.myspace.com/kyleandrews).
b) If you’d like to visit iTunes or Amazon to purchase Real Blasty, click here (http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F% 252Fax.itunes.apple.com%252FWebObje cts%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252Fview Album%253Fid%253D285707804%2526s%25 3D143441) or here (http://www.amazon.com/Real-Blasty/dp/B001D57BG2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1228512578&sr=8-1).
c) If you’d like to continue surfing the wide world of music, click here (http://www.absolutepunk.net/).
d) If you’d like to leave a nasty comment for the reviewer, close your browser and punch yourself repeatedly in the face.
1. Sushi
2. Naked in New York
3. Polar Bear
4. Call and Fade
5. Tennessee Torture Dreams
6. Put Your Hands Up
7. A Constant Wavering Between the Real and the Abstract
8. Blow It Out
9. Take It to Heart
10. I Wanted to Paint a Rainbow
11. Cut and Paste
12. Bus
Ben Kweller; Pete Yorn; I Married My Highschool Sweetheart
Official Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/kyleandrews) | Official Website (http://www.kyleandrews.com/)