New Song

Teedus · Post by **Teedus** » 9/14/2008, 3:39 pm

I was thinking the same thing; that the lyrics in the chorus are so simple and head searchingly randomly easy, but it's catchy. So ... that's going to help them.

It also seems that the verses in these songs are sun more spoken word ala Hunter's Lullaby style. That make sense?

nikki4982 · Post by **nikki4982** » 9/14/2008, 4:12 pm

Yeah... I'm not happy about that. I was hoping it was just his live voice, though, cos he sometimes just sounds like that. But, I figured Raine would bring some of his solo sound to OLP. I was just really hoping it wouldn't be his ugly singsong spoken word stuff. I really dislike his voice like that.

Man, I'm being super negative. :lol:

It's really not THAT bad.

Heavy Alibi · Post by **Heavy Alibi** » 9/14/2008, 5:06 pm

Yeah, I don't know what it is about Raine's voice, but I think he just doesn't have the capacity anymore to sing at high notes and to contain a note, be it because of Bob Rock's dumbing down or because he's getting older,

Like with One Man Army at this concert, you can tell when it gets to the chorus, and he lowers the octaves of the original chorus bit "through the blaze (high note: I) know (high note:I'm) causing", for whatever reason. I think he's just become so used to singing with a deeper, less nasal voice. So I think they now have to engineer their songs to fall in line with that.

And I really don't want to bring Mike into this, but I feel that he may have had a lot to contribute when it came to song lyrics and guitar solo ideas, etc. I know Raine's written great songs like 4 AM and Thief, but I have a feeling Mike helped shape them into great, finger-tapping, singable melodies.

But again, I love OLP and will never stop listening as long as they keep recording, and I still like the three new songs we've so far seen.

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 9/14/2008, 5:18 pm

I really get the idea Raine wants to keep his solo stuff and OLP very separate and different.
Listening to it again, the verses dont seem spoken-word to me at all. Like, not even slightly.. They sound like Raine singing live.

And I doubt the guitar solo will sound like that when this gets recorded (or when it was recorded..)

MindsOnLoan · Post by **MindsOnLoan** » 9/14/2008, 5:22 pm

Glad to see I'm not the only one that's hating the chorus lyrics. Just saying "you know you got the right stuff" sounds so generic and bland. Hopefully it'll be changed if it makes the album.

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 9/14/2008, 5:25 pm

I fail to see how Raine's vocal capacity could have very much to do with Bob Rock.
I can very much see how it could have to do with having to sing rock songs for two hours straight over a screaming crowd.. just putting that out there. I don't have any experience with being a guy, but I can't imagine that would make singing high falsetto notes any easier.
He did get out some awesome high notes at that concert though.

Also, Mike has never been reported as having anything to do with the lyrics.

Codes · Post by **Codes** » 9/14/2008, 5:35 pm

Glad to see I'm not the only one that's hating the chorus lyrics. Just saying "you know you got the right stuff" sounds so generic and bland. Hopefully it'll be changed if it makes the album.

That may be the case for this song, but remember it could potentially be a single, and in this day in age that's the kind of song they need to move records, now I know that blows, I like the song though, it just its not the 90's anymore, and their complex shit doesn't fly with the masses.

As long as the rest of the cd kicks ass, I really don't care. I don't expect raine to continue to amaze me lyrically anymore, not after the last two cds anyways, aslong as the music is good, and isn't garbage like the Gravity cd, then im happy.

Heavy Alibi · Post by **Heavy Alibi** » 9/14/2008, 5:51 pm

AnnieDreams: I definitely agree that his vocal changes could have a lot to do with all the concerts over the years.

But if Mike had not much to do with the lyrics, I wonder why OLP's lyrics continue to be much more generic than before 2002? I do know that Raine wrote most of them before this, but why wouldn't he start that up again now that Bob is gone?

Maybe Raine's having a hard time finding the inspiration or lyrics? Or maybe the other band members (now that it's a "democratic entity") would rather not go there?

By the way, to me "Right Stuff" sounds a lot like "Walking in Circles", in the way that the chorus is repeated, over and over in a uninspiring way (i.e. not like Superman's Dead). I want more Wonderful Future's!! LOL

And is there anyone else who likes Gravity much more than HIPT? For me, the songs are much more likeable from Gravity, but I think the reason most people resent it is because of its stark contrast to its predecessor, Spiritual Machines. But for me, HIPT's only saving grace is A/L/S

Post by **saman** » 9/14/2008, 6:11 pm

just to throw my two cents in, i have absolutely no problem at all with the right stuff's lyrics. also, i want them to release this new album. right now.

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 9/14/2008, 6:21 pm

My point was actually that his voice probably was tired, rather than being permanently changed.

Raine has always written the lyrics. If you want to know why they've changed, look at him, not Mike Turner or Bob Rock, or the other band members.

I agree that some of the lyrics over the past while have been somewhat ungood... It's beem three years and I still cringe most of the time when I hear "Your lips feel like they're glued together, and no one gives a damn!".

Random Name · Post by **Random Name** » 9/14/2008, 6:41 pm

I don't get the issue with the lyrics.
What I get out of it is the same duality issue that he has been singing about since Naveed, except obviously more focused on the idea of celebrity. It reminds me most of Like a Whore... I mean Kiss on the Mouth.

Heavy Alibi · Post by **Heavy Alibi** » 9/14/2008, 6:58 pm

Well, after finally deciphering the lyrics from "White Flag", I must say I really like the line "This whole world's gone crazy, God's gone a little lazy". Haha, I like i like.

No matter how much I criticize or point out things about their new material, I am literally going insane waiting for the CD to be released, and my copy will be wore out after 2 days, no matter what.

And by the way I agree with Nikki about the spoken word thing. If you listen to the One Man Army rendition from the recent concert, you can see that sometimes Raine will shorten the long chords, to make it sound like simple spoken dialect. I think it's this that's irritating me.

myownsatellite · Post by **myownsatellite** » 9/14/2008, 7:19 pm

I think what we can take from the changing of the lyric style is the fact that over the last ten, twelve years Raine himself has changed so much. I mean, he got married, he's had three (?) kids now, he's a very different person than he was in the mid-1990s, and that has to be taken into account when considering sources for the lyrics. Since the start of OLP, Raine has become much more political and that is obviously showing in his work. He's also done a lot more with pop music, and other rock artists, and a lot of different kinds of people. He's experimented with so many different kinds of music. We can't expect his lyrics to stay exactly the same, nor can we expect that he wouldn't be influenced by everything he's experienced over the last 12 years (or however long OLP has been together...1997 seems to stick in my head for some reason but I'm sure they were around before then).

So no, we can't blame it on Bob Rock, or on Mike leaving the band, or on Steve, or anything else. All of that has had an impact on Raine, but they are not the reasons the lyrics have changed.

That said...I STILL don't like the chorus for The Right Stuff. Like other people said, I heard that and went OMG NEW KIDS. *gag* I loved the New Kids, but seriously, OLP is not the same as NKOTB.

Heavy Alibi · Post by **Heavy Alibi** » 9/14/2008, 7:38 pm

Yeah, I agree that a lot of things could have affected Raine's lyric choices throughout the years. They formed in 1992 by the way, and their first albumw was released in 1995. I guess the other thing I've always wondered is why Raine changed his voice. It's both of these put together that seem to make their music so different.

I really don't think his vocal evolution was completely natural, because how could he go from 2001 to 2002 (SM to Gravity) and have such a big change in voice? I just quiver at the thought of how Raine would sing "Annie" today. Can you imagine? ("something in the way she explains to me, please be careful I exist in someone elses head")

nikki4982 · Post by **nikki4982** » 9/14/2008, 7:42 pm

Wowee, so many new posts! It's been a long time since I've talked about OLP. :lol:

*cracks knuckles in preparation of a long reply*

Are we still talking about Mike leaving influencing stuff? I mean, I understand. Mike ruled. But I think people give the man a lot more credit than he deserves. As far as I know, lyrics have always been Raine's duty, and only Raine's.

Supposedly Bob Rock being out of the picture was supposed to lead back to more complex lyrics. Maybe those are hiding in the verses that I haven't bothered listening closely to, or in the other songs, but they sure aren't in the chorus of "The Right Stuff". That's for dang sure.

The spoken word part that bugs me isn't so much in the verses, but that part right... I think it's right after the solo? Definitely spoken word. It's short, so if that makes the album, I'll deal, but I hope there's not much of it. I just really don't like it... which is why I haven't bought Raine's solo album. I don't want it leaking into OLPness, too.

If generic meaningless lyrics are what they need to do to sell albums, I'd hope they have enough integrity to suck it up and just not sell many albums. Heh. Yeah, maybe Raine simplified his lyrics after SM, but at least they still typically had meaning. This chorus feels like something a middle school student would write in an attempt to woo a crush.

Ooh, I like that "White Flag" lyric, too. Good job figuring it out. :lol:

To answer the question asked... I like both Gravity and HIPT. I couldn't really tell you which I like more.

Megan, they formed in 1992.

Naveed was out in 1994, though. You said something that's been kind of on my mind, too, as I post my complaints. How "OLP is not the same as NKOTB". If the chorus was sung by a bunch of other bands I like, I'd be fine with it. But OLP's not that kind of band. Hard to explain, but I'm sure everyone here gets it.

Oh, and Codes, if you wanna quote someone, just click the little "quote" icon all the way to the right of the post time on the post.

... I hope that all made sense without me quoting everyone in the post. :lol:

Also, because it sure feels like otherwise from what I've been posting lately... I'd like to shout it to the heavens that:

I <3 OLP!!!

myownsatellite · Post by **myownsatellite** » 9/14/2008, 7:50 pm

Don't lie Nikki! YOU HATE OLP! ADMIT IT!!!

nikki4982 · Post by **nikki4982** » 9/14/2008, 7:55 pm

MindsOnLoan · Post by **MindsOnLoan** » 9/14/2008, 8:35 pm

I noticed record sales have been mentioned a few times when talking about "Right Stuff." If Raine really meant what he's been saying, than this shouldn't have even came up. Raine has stated that he's not worried about, and I'm paraphrasing here, "sales, charts, and the rest of that shit."

Also, when talking about material for song writing, Dreamland did make me think of his wife and kids, due to the chorus. And White Flag seems to be, lyric-wise (from what I could understand), doesn't seem too far off the spectrum from HIPT. Right Stuff... I don't even know. Musically it's not that bad, but that chorus just irks me. I've heard lyrics from guys with writer's block sound better. I'm really hoping it doesn't make the album. If Trapeze couldn't make an album, then Right Stuff definitely shouldn't make it on one.. although I guess that all depends on what other type of material is on the album.

As I said before, judging by these three songs, this isn't really keeping up with the OLP tradition of changing the style with every album. Naveed was grunge-ish, Clumsy had hints of it but with an excellent twist, Happiness... added even more falsetto and the synthesizers, Spiritual Machines had a tiny bit of a Happiness... feel but went back to basics a bit yet went miles beyond what they have done, Gravity was over-produced radio-friendly pop-rock songs with some bright spots, and Healthy in Paranoid Times was filled with mid-tempo songs that couldn't exactly get you rocking.

This album seems to just been an slightly- altered HIPT minus politics. I really hope I'm wrong on this and that the album with stand on it's own two feet and see a return to what OLP is and wants to be, but it just doesn't exactly sound like that at the moment...

Post by **saman** » 9/14/2008, 8:37 pm

i would like to take this moment to add that "white flag" is also a dido song.

nikki4982 · Post by **nikki4982** » 9/14/2008, 8:41 pm

Yeah, I immediately thought of that when the title was first mentioned. But Dido's not a joke band from the 1980s with ridiculously cheesy material, so it didn't evoke any images of silly dancing in my head. :lol:

*pictures OLP doing lame boyband dances*

:afe: