Music: Bright Eyes - Motion Sickness

Bright Eyes
Motion Sickness
[Live / Rock]






Let's start with the obvious; this is one for the fans. If you don't like Bright Eyes, this isn' t the disk to convert you; try I'm Wide Awake It's Morning for that, or Digital Ash In A Digital Urn if you think wide-eyed, troubled Nebraskan Conor Oberst is only capable of one mode of songwriting.

This live album is composed heavily of cuts from last year's Wide Awake tour, and whilst featuring a lot of tracks from that album in their live incarnations, it also covers a couple of tracks from previous albums;"Make War" and "Method Acting" from Lifted and a scaled down (Thank you, you've been a great audience) version of "A Scale, A Mirror, And These Indifferent Clocks" entitled simply "Scale". There's also a generous wadge of bonus material, including a beautiful cover of Elliot Smiths "The Biggest Lie" and a perky, countrified take on Feist's "Mushaboom" (Yes, that song from the advert, you'd recognise it if you heard it) in which Oberst doesn't really capture the vocal but the band do a good job. The other treats are the previously un-released and rather pretty "Southern State" and a barn-storming version of Lua B-Side "True Blue", complete with an excellent solo by Saddle-Creek resident trumpeter Nate Walcott, who is pictured on the cover. In fact, this point highlights the fact that this is very much a road record and a band record; this is not Conor's record alone, and he knows it.

Sleevenotes are provided by drummer Jason Boesel (also Rilo Kiley's percussionist) and he proves an eloquent, frank and perceptive companion to the journey, couching the tour firmly in our era, with references to iPods, Japanese bullet-trains and Hunter Thompson's suicide. Readers will smile wryly at how the band crosses the path of Bush's entourage, especially given the enthusiastic reception of witty acoustic rant "When The President Talks To God".

As for the bulk of the record; live versions of Wide Awake favourites like "Road To Joy" and "At The Bottom Of Everything" are all well done; the quality of the takes culled is very high and the band strike the right balance between live spontaneity and studio accuracy. No "Lua" or "First Day Of My Life" though; but if you have Wide Awake you'll own acoustic versions anyway.

In short, this is by no means an essential record. But it is a great little snack to keep the fans happy until next year's double album. There's a lot here to like, and if you're a completist, you'll lap it up. As I've said though, if you're a newcomer, just go buy Wide Awake instead. In short; a hard record to score, but that won't stop me trying. 80

Games: Funcom - Dreamfall

Ragnar Tornquist / Funcom
Dreamfall
[Adventure]






Ok, let's get the big one out of the way right now; this game has a story that kicks ass. If you aren't familiar with the name, it's a sequel to a game called The Longest Journey. Released six years ago, it grew a cult following of gamers looking for "classical" graphic adventures (an increasingly niche genre) and story-based gameplay. It concerned the endeavours of a girl called April Ryan to save conjoined worlds of magic and technology called "Stark" and "Arcadia". (Guess which is which...)

"Wait a minute!" I hear you cry. "He said this had a story that kicks ass. This sounds like the usual sci-fantasy hokum brewed up by dozens of immature game designers."

Hear me out, reader. What really elevates these titles above the average fodder is the characters. All of which, without exception, are well written and voice acted. That's right, kids, these games have good voice acting. Further, lots of the most interesting aspects of The Longest Journey centred around the character development of April herself; starting as an art student in Venice, a small, bohemian corner of a futuristic city, Newport, we spent a lot of the game watching her progress from carefree dreamer to a woman with the weight of two worlds on her shoulders.

She returns, older and disillusioned, in Dreamfall, along with two new protagonists, Kian, a warrior who begins as April's enemy but must re-examine his own faith and allegiances, and Zoe, a privileged college-dropout whose life is stuck in a rut until she discovers the existence of the parallel world and becomes embroiled in intrigue involving lucid dreams, robotics corporations, and a creepy little girl in the style of The Ring.

By turns, the plot of Dreamfall is clever, funny and heartbreaking. The ending led me as close to tears as a game ever has, and there's even some time for a spot of bush-bashing/nazi commentary. The art direction, also, is superb; this game will leave stunning images burned on the back of your retinas for a long while after. The music is tasteful and suits each scenario well.

With so much good, what can I say stopped me giving this a full two-thumbs up? Well, firstly, there's not actually that much to the gameplay. There are some trivially easily puzzles (apart from one unfair music puzzle which only lets you hear the cue once) and a little bit of sneaking and fighting. The fighting has clunky, unresponsive controls, but is either easy or skippable. Most of the time you'll be walking about from point A to B, clearly signposted, or talking. Boy, is there a lot of dialogue. I'm talking fifty per cent of the game length, here, no exaggeration. You'll be thanking your lucky stars there is good voice acting and writing, because without it you would be bored out of your skull. As it is, it would merely have been nice if the developers had put more interaction into the conversations.

Now, believe me, I would rather have easy challenges than bizarre, illogical puzzles any day. But there are so many opportunities for puzzles to have been naturally integrated into this game that the designers missed, even a plot-centric guy like me was longing for a bit of an intellectual workout. Without the innovations of Fahrenheit, this game does seem very much like simply a My First Adventure - with very good writing, sound and art.

You'll enjoy it, and it's a blast while it lasts. But don't expect much of a challenge, and don't expect a neatly wrapped up ending either. The story is part two of a trilogy - and you'll have to wait another six years or whatever for the end of the story. But the key point here is that it's a story you'll want to finish, not another shooting gallery you couldn't care less about. 87

The Challenge Of Reviews

As some of you may have noticed, Musically Sound is very much a no-expenses-spared endeavour. In that we have no spare expenses. So anything reviewed here is bound to be bought by one of the contributors for their own personal listening/reading/playing/viewing pleasure. Because of that, I'm going to find staying neutral on this blog a bit of a challenge. How can you review something that you've handed over good hard english pounds for (and considerably more than our US counterparts, but that's another story altogether) and have previously formed expectations about with any sense of neutrality? And what's more, how can anyone score things out of a hundred anyway? Cheers Harry...

Well, I'll be attempting to rise to the challenge soon with some forthcoming reviews, kicking off with Dreamfall, a game I just finished playing, and a review of Motion Sickness, the recent Bright Eyes live disc (cue rolling eyes from co contributors)

2006 - Half a year in focus

As we haven’t been around for the first half of 2006, what follows is a brief guide to the best I’ve experienced so far this year in each field of the arts.

Music:

Liars – Drum’s Not Dead
[Experimental]
Much maligned experimental trio create a concept album worthy of attention. Unlike their previous LP of noise, distortion, feedback and a bit more noise, Drum’s Not Dead has an unexpected hypnotic quality underneath the walls of percussion and falsetto wails. They even have a crack at a ‘normal’ song at the end, too! 86

Games:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, X360)
[RPG]
Yes, the battles, skill system, dialogue and story have all been dumbed down to give the series mainstream appeal, but the unexpected linearity lends the game a pace and cohesion severely lacking in Morrowind. Hundreds of side quests still exist for the determined, mind, and the depth of Oblivion is well beyond your standard GTA fare, so it should keep most purists, as well as newcomers, content. Did I mention it’s the best looking game of all time? 93

Film:

Inside Man
[Heist Thriller]
Not Spike Lee’s best but a clever, slick thriller with great performances from Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. If you don’t mind the familiar bank robbery build up in the first half hour it’s the year’s smartest mainstream release. However, with the main competition coming from the admittedly solid Wallace and Gromit it’s hardly been a fantastic year for cinema. 76

Books:

DBC Pierre – Ludmila’s Broken English
[Contemporary Fiction]
The dull shouting and screaming of the first hundred pages are rescued by Pierre’s unique use of sublime metaphors and fluid language, and from then on the main plot manifests itself terrifically. Overlook the author’s overzealous and hammy political commentary (the Siamese twin protagonists are named Blair and Gordon…) and at times this book is a joy to read; just don’t expect Vernon God Little 2. 82

Musically Sound is back!

Hello and welcome to the revamped, brand new, brand-free Musically Sound. No doubt our legions of loyal followers will be delighted to hear that the number one site for all music, game, book and film reviews, as well as general commentary, is back in town and ready for action. Here is the team of contributors, listed in alphabetical order so as to dispel any notion of hierarchy:

Adrian Bunting

Michael Burgass

**Harry Holt**

Greg Wakeling

Stuart Young

We now rate all things out of 100, as the decimal point and star system created untold havoc on the old site. Rating books out of 5.0 would be almost as ridiculous as evaluating music according to five single, exact measurements, so in order to streamline our evaluation of the arts, the market research team decided a score out of 100 would be more suitable for all the forms of brain food under examination. It might help Musically Sound get on Metacritic, too.

For those who found us through Freewebs, we also operate through http://www.musicallysound.tk for easier access.

Make sure to check back regularly for the scoop on all things arty, goodbye for now...