Review of Saint Motel's New Album "Voyeur"

Band: Saint Motel
Album Name: Voyeur
Release Date: July 10th, 2012

Track listing

1.  Feed  Me Now
2.  Benny Goodman
3.  Puzzle Pieces
4.  Daydream / Wetdream / Nightmare
5.  1997
6.  Honest Feedback
7.  At Least I Have Nothing
8.  You Do it Well
9.  Hands Up Robert
10.  Stories
11.  Balsa Wood Bones

        
           I sincerely apologize for the delay. I said that my review would be out in a few days and it has turned out to be the better part of a month. Life tends to get in the way of projects like this and that was the case for me. The album I will be reviewing is by no means new at this point, but I have had this review planned for awhile and I still would really like to go through with it. So let us begin as if it were just a few days after my introduction post and get this blog in motion. If you have not heard of the band Saint Motel, do not feel bad as not too many people outside of the local Californian music scene do. I found these guys quite a few years back on the indie music website Purevolume. They had just come out with their first EP "Foreplay" and for me it was love at first listen. The sound was fresh and new and I was a big fan of it. For a few years after that I had to settle for just the EP as there was no new music on the horizon for the band. So when the band announced that they were releasing their first full length album I was ecstatic. When the album came out back on July 10th of this year I picked it up as soon as it was available to me.
          The album starts out incredibly strong with a three song string that truly exemplifies the Saint Motel sound. Feed Me Now is an incredibly catchy and poppy song with Saint Motel's typically sexually playful lyrics lyrics. Playful piano and guitar along with the fun lyrics make Feed Me Now an incredibly fun song to listen to and a great way to lead people into their album. Directly after this it transitions into the song "Benny Goodman". This song, as the name would suggest, makes frequent references to famous swing musician Benny Goodman and uses slightly different, yet still exciting music. The song is still poppy, yet takes it in a different direction than "Feed Me Now". It, as one would expect, tries to sound somewhat more classical. More like music that would have been around during the time of Benny Goodman. I am not saying that the song is swing in any way. It sounds like Saint Motel from the past is the best way that I can describe it. They make their highly modern sound sound more dated and antiquated. After this song the album continues on to my personal favorite song and the most exciting song on the album, "Puzzle Pieces". "Puzzle Pieces" is an incredibly energetic piano heavy pop song that the listener cannot help but get excited listening to. These first three songs are incredibly well written and exciting songs, yet sadly for the band the energy created by these three songs is not kept up through the entire album. Don't think that the album goes substantially downhill at this point. It is just that the first three songs set the bar a little too high for the band and they had difficulty reaching that high point again on the album. The next song "Daydream / Wetdream / Nightmare" for me is almost completely forgettable. It is not a terrible song by any means, yet it is so painfully average that it really does not leave much of an impression on the listener's mind. The album then goes back to a higher point with the song "1997" . "1997" goes back to the exciting piano pop of the first three songs and again does wonders for the listener's energy levels. The song elevates the listener's mood and brings the album close to the bar that it set in the beginning. Sadly after this point a lot of the songs on the album begin to blend together. The next three songs on the album are by no means bad or terrible. They just don't stand out as well as they could. They are enjoyable to listen to it is just hard to tell where you are on the album at this point. The three songs are hard to distinguish between and because of this these songs sometimes seem like one big one to me. This rut is broken by the song  "Hands Up Robert". "Hands Up Robert" is another high energy song, yet instead of utilizing high energy lyrics and piano they instead utilize a great deal of repetition. Repetition is a risky technique to use as if you use it poorly your song will merely sound repetitive and will just be irritating to listen to. Saint Motel manage to avoid this problem though as the repetition used in "Hands Up Robert" greatly benefits the song and keeps the energy of the song high. The tone of the last two songs at first seems like a strange decision by the band. Rather than making a really energetic and exciting ending to the album, they instead chose a more somber and emotional end. The last two songs "Stories" and "Balsa Wood Bones" are a stark contrast to the first three tracks of the album, yet they still have a distinct Saint Motel feel to them.
          Although at first it may seems strange to end such a high energy album like this on a somber note, yet if you look at the album as a whole you see that it considerably helped the overall flow of the album. Rather than the album being a massive build up to an explosive end it is a massive beginning slowly cooling down as it progresses. They start they album out with an incredible amount of energy and as they progress they slowly calm down until they reach the somber ending tracks when they have completely cooled down. It is an interesting and unique approach that I feel works out for the album and for the band. It gives the album a unique overall feel and helps it stand out from the crowd. This is an album that you need to listen to multiple times in order to appreciate everything that it has to offer. You may listen to it once and leave disappointed accept for maybe the first three songs of the album. I urge you not to put the album down at this point however, as it really does deserve a few more play through. If you have heard Saint Motel's music in the past than this album is a must have for you as it is a brilliant evolution of their past sound. If you have never heard of the band I still urge you to give this album a few listens. It is unique and fun and easily stands above a lot of other music that I have heard lately.

Verdict: Definite Recommendation

Please as this is my first review if you have any constructive feedback at all please comment. At this point I really don't know what works and what doesn't work about my reviews and I would really like to hear from people who read this. I thank you all for any support you may be able to give.

J.M.Crocker