Week 4 of 52 albums for a year
Spencer Sutherland - The Drama
Hello everyone. This week I listened to an album suggested by a friend Fergerdergerson* called The Drama by Spencer Sutherland.
This was an album that was not my usual, but I quite enjoyed it. Initially a few moments caught me rather than songs in particular, lines like I like the look of a cigarette but I hate the way it tastes or I swear I would die, I would die to feel that alive or even something sad like cheers to tequila for treating me well, it never cheated as far as I can tell. These snippets grabbed my ears, even if my initial reaction to the overall sound wasn't one of enthusiasm. It sounded initially like a Queen album, it's very theatrical and not what I'd normally listen to but I grew to enjoy it over time.
This week I did a lot of listening in the gym, and in some ways it meant the album ran in the background for a few goes through until I got around to going for some walks and really focusing on the lyrics a bit more. I'm not sure how many listens it took, but I found myself looking forward to putting on the album, and was humming Welcome to the Show! throughout the day. It's a really good opener and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Normally I buy albums off Bandcamp however I had to use Spotify for this one. As such I don't know much about who is on the album as there aren't liner notes like bandcamp (well there probably are, but I have to menu dive to find them). I'd have to say though that all in all, it's quite enjoyable, even though the songs are generally around the 2 and a half minute mark. My go to music is postrock or psychedelic stoner rock, so it's not uncommon for me to listen to songs that are 10 minutes or longer, songs with slow builds and rhythms. This is a much more compact sound, but there's still plenty of dynamics. Sure, I wish some songs were longer, but it's still a great album, possibly because it packs so much into such a short time frame.
Certain songs reminded me of things from the past. As I mentioned, Queen is the first band that comes to mind, along with maybe Van Halen (I'm thinking specifically of the song Jump when I say this, which is weird as I don't think there's any synths on The Drama album). There's no doubt people who are more familiar with this style of music who will have much better examples of what this sounds like, but this is what springs to mind for me, especially on songs like Alive, Let Me Loose, Drama and Hater. It's different of course, but there's a vibe to it that makes me think of the 70's and 80's pop rock. Not that I'm all over that sound, I barely know it and dare I say it I have actively avoided it in the past so there's a lot of influences and bands that I'm missing. But this is the general vibe I got from this album.
The less theatrical songs like Modern Heartbreak and Melanie really grabbed me lyrically, and in many ways became the ones I enjoyed more over time. Lines such as open the door it's the look on your face, that tells me all I need to know or Melanie Melanie what do I do, you're telling me things I don't want to be true hit pretty heavy, especially coming after a song like A Tragedy which, while upbeat and quite funny, closes with To everyone who breaks a heart, cheats a heart, or even beats a heart, may you go to hell. But first I would like to thank you for the um inspiration, and furthermore, the trauma, I mean the drama. This album has a lot of upbeat and feel good songs, but I personally think it shines most during these more vulnerable moments.
The last few songs actually have a different feel to me and in some ways it's closer to what I'd normally listen to. I didn't pick up on this initially, it just sounded like a mass of theatrical glam rock, but as I came to know the album, I found myself hearing a separation in the sounds of the album. Baby reminds me of a mellow Audioslave, there's something about his vocals on this song that have real Chris Cornell vibes to my ears and there's a really good guitar riff to sink your teeth into. Then there's Put Your Money on Me which reminds me of The Darkness. I loved these guys back when they came out and I was stoked to hear something akin to it on this album. The Darkness were another band looking back while moving forwards, and I'm probably attributing the familiarity of sound to the wrong band because I haven't dug deep enough into this era of music. But to me, I can hear a lot of The Darkness in that song.
So at the end of the day, how does this album rate to me?
As I mentioned, it's quite short, I think the whole thing is around 35 minutes long. The beauty of this is that I can't pick out a song in particular that I like more than the others to a huge degree, as the whole sound is cohesive and tight. That being said if I had to pick one song, I think I'd go with Alive. It's got feel good vibes, a great sound, and a fantastic chorus that I found myself singing long after the song had finished.
Despite my initial reservations listening to something like this, I'd give it 4/5 fingers. It's something I would go back to, with the lyrics ultimately pushing this album from something I didn't mind, to something that had a lot more depth than I'd initially thought.
Here's the list so far:
*Fergerdergerson is part of a secret reddit sub I’m in. You’re welcome to join, but it’s not up to me, it’s up to our bot overlord, the redefined redefiner.