{"id":5924,"date":"2017-05-03T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5924"},"modified":"2017-05-02T16:11:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T00:11:24","slug":"review-solid-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/review-solid-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u201cSolid State\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Darien Campo | Designer<\/pre>\n
\u201cDance like they are watching you – because they are watching you.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one of my favorite lines from Jonathan Coulton\u2019s brand new album, \u201cSolid State.\u201d The 17-track concept record tackles a story about the internet, trolls, artificial intelligence and how love and empathy will save humanity. It\u2019s a complex, gorgeous album and a huge step forward for the internet-based musician.<\/p>\n
In 2005, software developer Jonathan Coulton quit his job to pursue his dream of being a musician. He launched the \u201cThing-a-Week\u201d project wherein he wrote, recorded and released a brand-new song every week for a year straight. Using the internet and Creative Commons licensing as his tools, Coulton managed to completely circumvent the crumbling music industry and build his own rabid fan base by writing geek-rock songs like \u201cCode Monkey,\u201d \u201cRE: Your Brains\u201d and Portal\u2019s \u201cStill Alive.\u201d His 2011 album, \u201cArtificial Heart,\u201d broke away from the geek-focused storytelling of his previous music in favor of a more \u201celliptical\u201d rock album inspired by producer John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants.<\/p>\n
\u201cSolid State\u201d pushes Coulton even further from his monkey-and-zombie-song roots. While the album is a concept record, telling a very specific story, each track stands on its own without needing to be supported by the rest of the tracklist. Songs like \u201cBrave\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Feed the Trolls\u201d are very reminiscent of the \u201cArtificial Heart\u201d indie-pop-rock vibes and are very hard to not dance to, even if they are watching you. And then there are tracks like \u201cWake Up\u201d and \u201cAll to Myself\u201d that have a very droning, Beatles-esque feel to them. \u201cSolid State\u201d is a wonderful blend of Coulton\u2019s own soft-rock tendencies with a bit of synth-pop and psychedelic rock thrown in as well.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a challenging album, which is a wonderful surprise, but might be a bit off-putting to some returning fans. Coulton\u2019s previous work covered easy-to-follow, quirky narratives. Co-workers who have turned into zombies, mad scientists who fall in love with their captives \u2013 you know, the usual stuff. But \u201cSolid State\u201d tackles much more complex and difficult-to-parse ideas. The record follows a particular narrative, but each song\u2019s lyrics swing wildly around what they\u2019re trying to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my favorite songwriting trick,\u201d said Coulton in an interview with Paste Magazine, \u201cis to say a thing without saying it directly, to let something be revealed by what you\u2019re saying rather than saying it out loud. That\u2019s the kind of songwriting that has always delighted me, and the thing that I always aspire to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSolid State\u201d is released under SuperEgo records, Aimee Mann\u2019s label. Mann can be heard all throughout the album, providing backup vocals on songs like \u201cAll this Time.\u201d Coulton and Mann also collaborated on her most recent album, \u201cMental Illness.\u201d They are currently on tour together.<\/p>\n
For fans who want a little more, Coulton also offers a companion graphic novel on his website. The comic is 132 pages long, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys.<\/p>\n
\u201cSolid State\u201d a challenging album, and you may not like every song the first time you hear it, but this record is worth the relisten. You will find yourself discovering more and more things on every play. Coulton is ever-growing as a musician, and \u201cSolid State\u201d is easily his best work yet.<\/p>\n
Contact the author at dcampo13@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Darien Campo | Designer \u201cDance like they are watching you – because they are watching you.\u201d This is one of my favorite lines from Jonathan Coulton\u2019s brand new album, \u201cSolid State.\u201d The 17-track concept record tackles a story about the internet, trolls, artificial intelligence and how love and empathy will save humanity. It\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}