‘Annie You Save Me’ beats ‘Strange Game’

Reviewing two albums at once … is a first.

But these albums are perfectly comparable. Their flaws and successes compliment one another like Crown Royal and depression.

The Genius Lovers’ album, Strange Game fits into the futuristic electronica category. Strange Game’s instrumentals are complex, alluring and straight-up brilliant. Even a concert musician would give full attention to the album’s intricate sounds.

Graffiti6 resides in the pop-folk genre. In one of their songs, titled “Free,” the guitarist strums a single chord for more than 10 seconds. Instrumentally, their music is simple (as simple as it gets). Yet Graffiti6 is more memorable than Genius Lovers.

The chorus ruins everything in Genius Lovers’ opening song, “Strange Game.” The chords are weak. Zero lyrics get stuck in your head.  For 55 seconds of Strange Game’s opening, the listener is given a foreshadow into the rest of the album’s destruction.

Graffiti6 does not create complex instrumentals. “Free” is an acoustic track featuring the lead vocalist and a single guitar. But “Free” is still phenomenal (and I mean fucking phenomenal). It gets stuck in your head like no song in the Genius Lovers’ album can. And if you consider that the Graffiti6 EP has four songs and the Genius Lovers’ album has 13 – this says a lot.

For one, the Graffiti6 vocalist, Jamie Scott has a mind-blowing voice. But most importantly, his vocal melodies stand apart from the guitarist’s instrumentals.

When I was little, I remember playing a song for an old man. It was my first favorite song. But he hated it instantly. The old man stopped the song mid-chorus with disgust on his face. And what he said about it stuck with me to this day (probably because I’m scarred from it).

He said, “If I can’t whistle to it, then I won’t listen to it!”

“Then you’d better learn how to whistle, old man,” I said … or at least would have said if I had been older and had developed comebacks.

Today, I can whistle to that song. I love it because it gets stuck in my head. The old man was just bitter (he listened to big band music). But there is something in his statement that is fundamental to what we define as “good music.”

Katy Perry’s music is a perfect example. I hate Katy Perry. Her music has no substance. But it is played on the radio. And it is played on the radio because it is catchy. And it is catchy because Perry is the queen of killer choruses. She defines her powerful vocal melodies from her simple instrumental melodies. This single tactic, combined with Perry’s repetitive lyrics (“Kiss me, k-k-kiss me … ”) and a few slamming chords makes Perry the pop queen that she is today (along with her massive tits).

Her vocal melodies are what we end up humming – or whistling to.

Graffiti6 songs have vocal melodies you can whistle to. Genius Lovers’ songs do not. This is the bottom line with pop. If you can’t whistle to it, then you won’t listen to it.

(I’ll tell you the song I played for the old man – But you can’t laugh. It was, “I Saw The Sign” by Ace Of Base).

Rating for Strange Game: B-
Rating for Annie You Save Me: A+