Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

When I listen to an album the first time around, I don’t pay much attention to lyrics. I try to take in the sound alone. So when I first listened to Liberation by AM Syndicate, I wasn’t very pleased. The first thing that came to mind was King Missile’s “Sensitive Artist,” and not in a good way (though it should also be noted that the “Doubt in Progress…” guitar part sounds a lot like King Missile’s “Heaven”). The music seemed like it was just happy hippy crap without substance. The vocals sounded like they came from some artsy wimp that took himself way too seriously. I was not looking forward to the second listen.

To my pleasant surprise, the lyrical content is a nice contrast to the sound of the music. The lyrics sound nice and are kind of funny. The chorus on Hang Your Fears at the Door and Join Your Future of “We the people must fight them,” stands in major contrast to the happy sound of the music. The music is very upbeat and reminds me of a lot of Simon and Garfunkle. It’s calm stuff that can help you relax at the bottom of the swimming pool on a hot summer day. There is definitely a late ‘60s feel to a lot of this album, but it works.

AM Syndicate also makes good use of synths in this work. By that I mean that they are not overused and obtrusive to the rest of the music. Their use fits the sound well and works along with the lyrics.

The lesson: Liberation is an album you might not like the first time around, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, I’ve found it to get better the more I listen to it.