Theo
Active Member
I pains me to post this, but there's so much hype flying around from Alain's groupies that it needs to be said. Red Lightning's "L.A. Crash Landing" EP is 10th rate 1980s crap. I heard more interesting music at Cleveland's last high school battle of the bands competition, and that was 15 year olds trying to sound like Good Charlotte.....
The best song is "Crushed," if you'd get excited by a Modern English or Flesh For Lulu B-side w/ a poor man's Ian McCulloch on vocals. That's the only song that might make me pause before thowing the CD out with the rubbish come Tuesday...although out with the rubbish it'll likely go.
The rest...it's almost shocking how weak it is, considering this guy's written many good songs for Morrissey. It makes me wonder how much Morrissey's various producers had to do with the quality of the music on Morrissey albums. I understand it's intending to be a stripped-down sound, but stripped-down doesn't have to mean generic and boringly mediocre. The most memorable musical moment is the opening of "I Miss You," but it's only memorable because it's lifting "Everyday Is Like Sunday." I'm sure Alain's alluding to "Sunday" on purpose, but to hear that intro followed by a crap song with crap lyrics and crap vocals is just sad.
Alain's voice is not very interesting and shouldn't be fronting a band. His lyrics are even less interesting. Here's an example of Alain getting deep: "Don't lose sight of who you are/it's not important to be a star/just be who you are," and, "Gotta wake up and embrace the day/take whatever life throws your way." Dial-a-cliche......
When Alain's trying to be clever he comes up with: "I like suits but I don't like ties/and this applies to life." Yeah...whatever. That comes late in the CD when you're already wondering why you're even trying to pay attention to the lyrics of an airhead.
Sorry, folks. Red Lightning thus far has little to offer. I post this so you're not as fooled as I was by the glowing reviews at CDBaby. Those reviews were posted by people with heavy crushes on Alain. They claim there's "amazing guitars," that you should buy "more than one copy" because it's a "brilliant album." They compare it with The Jam, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Clash, and promise Red Lightning will make you cry and "penetrate not only your heart but your soul." Yeah...sure.
No surprise Red Lightning are not invited to open for Morrissey and that he's not name-dropped them a single time.
The best song is "Crushed," if you'd get excited by a Modern English or Flesh For Lulu B-side w/ a poor man's Ian McCulloch on vocals. That's the only song that might make me pause before thowing the CD out with the rubbish come Tuesday...although out with the rubbish it'll likely go.
The rest...it's almost shocking how weak it is, considering this guy's written many good songs for Morrissey. It makes me wonder how much Morrissey's various producers had to do with the quality of the music on Morrissey albums. I understand it's intending to be a stripped-down sound, but stripped-down doesn't have to mean generic and boringly mediocre. The most memorable musical moment is the opening of "I Miss You," but it's only memorable because it's lifting "Everyday Is Like Sunday." I'm sure Alain's alluding to "Sunday" on purpose, but to hear that intro followed by a crap song with crap lyrics and crap vocals is just sad.
Alain's voice is not very interesting and shouldn't be fronting a band. His lyrics are even less interesting. Here's an example of Alain getting deep: "Don't lose sight of who you are/it's not important to be a star/just be who you are," and, "Gotta wake up and embrace the day/take whatever life throws your way." Dial-a-cliche......
When Alain's trying to be clever he comes up with: "I like suits but I don't like ties/and this applies to life." Yeah...whatever. That comes late in the CD when you're already wondering why you're even trying to pay attention to the lyrics of an airhead.
Sorry, folks. Red Lightning thus far has little to offer. I post this so you're not as fooled as I was by the glowing reviews at CDBaby. Those reviews were posted by people with heavy crushes on Alain. They claim there's "amazing guitars," that you should buy "more than one copy" because it's a "brilliant album." They compare it with The Jam, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Clash, and promise Red Lightning will make you cry and "penetrate not only your heart but your soul." Yeah...sure.
No surprise Red Lightning are not invited to open for Morrissey and that he's not name-dropped them a single time.
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