The Raving World Rebirth Episode!

"I had to either rescue the World Series ball or this episode of Kwok Talk from my dog's mouth. Fortunately, I chose wisely," Boston reliever Jonathon Papelbon admitted while wrapping his Christmas presents.

-Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2
-Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns
-Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
-$9000 Guitar Hero 3
-Forum Questions
..and more!
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With their last release, The Question, back in 2005, the Seattle-via-South Carolina post-hardcore band Emery won me over enough to curiously anticipate their third and current album, I’m Only a Man.  While they started with screamo tendencies, The Question was much catchier collection of songs and evolution of the band’s style.  For this third release, the band has changed things up enough to prevent repetition, while retaining a familiar sound.  Some chances are taken, mostly to the benefit of their sound.

One of the things about Emery that has the ability to either frustrate or amaze me is their inability to give you a straightforward song 9 times out of 10.  While still having a pop-hardcore overarching shell, within the span of a single song the style and tempo might swing multiple times in completely different directions.  The point is illustrated best in the song “Don’t Bore Us Get To the Chorusâ€? that goes from falsetto chorus to moody waltz to beat pop within a 2-3 minute span. Whether you like it or hate it, it’s definitely not the same thing you hear elsewhere.  While the album does have its fair share of pop-hardcore tracks familiar to older fans, this album continues the attempt to widen their style.  The screaming is pretty limited this time around, taking the opportunity to showcase the vocal abilities of Devin Shelton and Toby Morrell – who both work very well independently and playing off each other.

Yet even despite these initial praises, it took me a long time to actually like the album.  The experimentation doesn’t always seem to work (especially the use of electronics) and on my first listen, I was actually turned off by most of it.  But over a few more sittings, it did grow on me a bit and in part I think my expectations negatively colored my reception.  Though the band grew a lot between their first and second album, I don’t think the same leap was made between the second and third.  Some of the weaker tracks seem just slightly off-target or fall a bit short, but I still hold out hope that they’ll figure out the magic formula by the time their fourth album comes out.  Overall a good try, but well short of a knockout punch. 3 out of 5.

Countdown To Final Crisis - #20
A bit of an off-issue after a few good ones, falling back into trying to give you too many divergent stories and losing cohesiveness. The Piper/Trickster storyline had really fallen far after such a good start, but I’ve been drawn back ever since Trickster died.  The Karate Kid / Una story seemed to take a dumb turn with Una’s love confession, and highlighted some really bad art by Howard Porter (just too many lines!).  Everything is still building towards something big, but hopefully the next issue will get back on track in giving some more enjoyment along the way.

Grade: C+

New Warriors - #6 – Crap Book of the Week
I have been on the fence about this series and I think the axe is falling on the chopping block. It’s not horrible by any means, but really hasn’t blown me away since the first few issues.  It’s weird, I should love it – the art’s nice and the characters are nice fanboy service to the X-fans (Stacy X revealed in this issue – yikes!), but I really don’t feel vested in the story and characters.  Oh well, it was nice knowing you.

Grade: D+

Green Lantern #25 – Book of the Week
WAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! This was AWESOME! To be honest, I had really started to lose faith in the Sinestro Corps series as of lately, but this was truly a great bookend to the stellar one-shot to kick off the series.  Oddly I found Cyborg Superman’s death and resurrection some of the most interesting panels in the book.  Can you just let a brother die? Great, now I’m hooked on GL for at least another two years.

Grade: A+

New Avengers #37
I actually think I’ve liked the more “colorful� issues of lately, which are strong contrasts to Yu’s art, but I think it still looks good. The Hood storyline was a bit of a letdown, but there’s still hope for a fun blowout fight in the Annual.

Grade: B

X-Factor #26
I’m glad that we have Halo Spartans protecting our future. A bit of a slower issue, but the X-Force / Reaver fight looks promising. Also, I am close to getting weary of the Cyclops / Professor X cat fight and I hope they don’t make “Angry Scottâ€? a permanent thing.  Still getting a kick out of Cable’s baby carrier uniform.

Grade: B

Hailing from Victoria, British Columbia, the now quartet has put out Happiness, LTD., their second major label release and third full release overall.  Their last album, Elevator, was slicker and more commercially appealing than their debut album, but didn’t quite capture the attention they had hoped for and was a little too uneven in quality, leading it to be labeled a failure in some circles.  Interestingly, instead of trying to replicate the indie love after their first album, they’ve set out to try and make an even more produced and polished album to try again in winning over a bigger audience.

For an album entitled, Happiness LTD., it’s ironically the most subdued album from the band.  Where Make Up the Breakdown was choppy and spiky, Happiness LTD.  pulls it all in to try and smooth out both the melodies and instruments.  If these were intended to be pop-ballads ready for radio, this is probably the best shot that they have. But how good is that?  Some of the tracks are catchy enough to keep our Brit-pop loving toes tapping, but I think some of my worries about this album stem to Hot Hot Heat being more about the music and fun energy than the lyrics.  For those missing the old times, there are a few tracks left (5 Times Out of 100 and My Best Friend) that have the old feel of recklessly running forward at full-blast, but the majority of the album progresses at an even pace that definitely feels slowed-down for these guys  (see Waiting for Nothing that crawls at a painfully slow speed.)  I keep going back and forth about how I feel about a slower Hot Hot Heat, and ultimately I respect them going that direction because their strictly jingle-jangle style would probably have run out of steam at some point.  However, I can’t say that I always loved the output of that direction either, since it leaves them indistinguishable from the ten gazillion other indie pop bands.

In the end, the new album should appeal to old fans and if any of the singles hit the radio it should find a few new ears looking for something danceable, but won’t blow up the charts.  If you like what you hear, it wouldn’t hurt you to pick this up.  But if you don’t there isn’t really a big loss on your end.  Happiness, LTD. from Hot Hot Heat chugs along getting a 3 out of 5.

Had some extra reviews, so you'll see some new reviews over the next few days.

Dashboard Confessional – The Shade of Poison Trees
Chris Carrabba, the original singer for Further Seems Forever, frontman for Dashboard Confessional, and the sole culprit for bringing my personal pet peeve of crowd singing at concerts to life in full force, is back with his fifth original release.  Anyone who’s followed his career is aware of the sharp difference from the very stripped-down sound of just him and his guitar from his first two releases compared to the full-band products of more recent years, which have polarized some fans, including myself, who either strongly like or dislike the transition.  For me, while I don’t want to curtail any growth or exploration as a musician, I really missed his stripped-down style.  When I last saw him in concert a few months back, it was ridiculously different feel than when I had seen him during tours for his first album.  While my enthusiasm for each subsequent Dashboard release has been met with diminishing returns, hearing that The Shade of Poison Trees was a return to his acoustic roots made me optimistically curious.

The album sounds sharply different at first with the lead track, “Where There’s Gold,â€? which is a great start, blending the sound of his earlier music with his more obtuse lyrics of recent.  However as the songs pass, you begin to realize that the album isn’t quite a “return to old formâ€? as possibly envisioned.  We do get subdued pop songs that sound like his older songs, but they still hold onto the developed instrumentation of latter releases.  Looking back, I think it was a somewhat smart move as his old acoustic style really has a low ceiling in terms of sustained creativity.  But somewhere in their move away from simplicity, the songs still suffer from being unmemorable or sounding dangerously close to previous songs.  Lyrically, nothing has changed in the continued offering of self-conscious confessionals around the same emo trinity of love, conflict and betrayal.  In my opinion, it’s nothing horrible, but that really depends on which side of the emo fence you fall on.

In the end, The Shade of Poison Trees ranks better than his last few albums, but falls a bit short of his first two releases. If you have been curious to try out Dashboard Confessional, this isn’t a bad one to try out – but it isn’t the best one either.  Either way, it just isn’t that memorable in the end, fitting the “passable fillerâ€? description seen in another review.  Dashboard Confessional’s album, The Shade of Poison Trees, gets an average 3 out of 5.

Man, I'm in a weird mood tonight, with late comics again.

Countdown to Final Crisis #21 – Yo mama so dumb she thought Countdown to Final Crisis meant the last season of Jerry Springer.
Grade: B+

JLA #15 – Yo mama’s butt so big she makes Ed Bene’s ladies look like Unicef posters.
Grade: B+

Buffy #9 – Yo mama so dumb about this book of the week that when she saw BKV, she thought it was the new value meal at Burger King.
Grade: A+

Avengers Initiative Annual #1 – Yo mama so ugly she got startled by the last page because she thought she was looking into a mirror
Grade: B+

JSA #11 – Yo mama gets around so much that she hooked up with more guys than the JSA has members.
Grade: B

The Return of the Stereo Hero 2 Saint Episode!

"I may be Sportsman of the Year, but Kwok Talk is the real unsung hero," Brett Favre said during a dream when he was a NASCAR racer.

-Guitar Hero III for Xbox 360
-JLA Earth 2 by Grant Morrison
-New Found Glory - From the Screen To Your Stereo II
-Text a Saint
-Forum questions and more!
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Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes & write us a review
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Join the discussions on the Kwok Talk forums!

The repercussion of holidays leaves me getting my books on Monday…again.  Therefore, irrelevant reviews in limerick form!

Countdown to Final Crisis #22

Jimmy Olsen’s story wasn’t so bad;
Trickster dying made the Rogues rad;
Come soon Morrison’s run;
Final Crisis should be very fun;
Mary’s butt shot made me very mad.

Grade: B

Green Lantern Corps #18

Is the Sinestro Corps over yet?
Hopefully just one more issue I bet;
Ion’s beat down made me glad;
The yucky art mad me sad;
Event please conclude well so I don’t regret.

Grade: C+

Daredevil #102 – Book of the week (tie)

I thought this was the best issue in a while;
Mr. Fear’s character really showed some style;
How does Razor Fist take a pee?
The cover made me jump with glee;
Will Daredevil ever be able to smile?

Grade: A

X-Men #205 – Book of the week (tie)

Another solid issue for the mutant event;
Baccalo’s art for the battles was worth every cent;
Gambit stabbed in the chest!
Cable’s not dead, you surely jest!
I wish more Marvel events like this went.

Grade: A

All Star Batman & Robin #8

DCBS made a shipping mistake;
This instead of Batman for heaven’s sake;
Jim Lee’s art is so great;
Batman has such a weird mental state;
This series hilariously takes the cake.

Grade: B+