Stories by Avicii and II by Capital Kings - DOUBLE ALBUM REVIEW!!! part 1: Stories of failure and success

HAIIIIIIIIIIII Caleb here, pretty excited to write this, I've been looking forward to it ever since, oh, I don't know, about a week ago when I realized Capital Kings and Avicii's sophomore albums were both dropping (i.e. being released) on October 2 (this past Friday). Since I'm known for going on

and on

and on

and on

about EDM (Electronic Dance Music, for you muggles out there), I'll just start by saying:

Avicii's Stories: Meh album with good parts. Bit disappointing.

Capital Kings' II: Good album with meh parts. Surprisingly awesome.

okay now that's out of the way time to get down to it.

First off, a bit (or more than  bit) about our first artist, Avicii.

(this is a lot of biographical info, but it really helps put Stories into context. Read or not. If you choose not to, pick up where I say to).

Avicii, 26, hails from Stockholm, Sweden, where it's so dark and cold most of the year that people resort to having fun indoors - in Avicii's case, making music.

He's also Taylor Swift's twin, apparently. They do look kind of similar...

He quickly rose from the EDM underground, where he had been producing for some time, with the release of Levels, a mostly instrumental dance single with a sample of Etta James' Something's Got a Hold on Me thrown in the middle, in 2011.

Yeah, it got about to this level of popularity. Kind of the Whip/Nae-nae of its day. Except it was good.

Since Levels, which was a fairly traditional EDM track (mostly/entirely synthesizers), Avicii began to branch out into his own vein of the genre, taking the world by storm even more so than Levels with the smash-hit Wake Me Up in 2013. I'm sure most of you out there in internet land have heard it at least once. What makes it unique was its use of genre crossovers - besides having a solid beat and drop (the part where the singer cuts out, the synths play something repetitive, and everyone dances and throws their hands in the air), it incorporated elements of country music, including acoustic guitar.

Wake Me Up was followed up by another single, Hey Brother, which dove even further into the realm of country/EDM, with many comparing it to bluegrass music. These two singles were both on the album True, along with a handful of piano driven and purely synth tracks - all comfortably within the realm of EDM.

Late in 2014, despite illness, Avicii released his first EP (Extended play - like 3 or 4 songs) called The Days/Nights. It contained two new singles - called, you guessed it, The Days and The Nights. Both had the country/EDM sound of Wake Me Up, with The Nights actually sounding a bit like an Irish drinking song. Both songs were, in my humble opinion, great, and they were followed soon after by a plethora of remixes, as well as another (pure synth this time) Irish-tinged track called Heaven which featured Coldplay singer Chris Martin (though this song was never released on iTunes or Spotify...WHY, AVICII, WHY???)

Then, in March of 2015, Avicii shocked the world.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.

Any case, he released a song which turned everything I thought about him upside-down. This song, a cover of Nina Simone's Feeling Good, was not EDM. It was just jazz music - played with lots of synthesizers and such. I wondered what he was doing branching out from his usual repertoire, and it wasn't long before more songs outside of the EDM vein began to show up - now heralding Avicii's sophomore album, Stories. 

Though the singles Waiting for Love, Broken Arrows, Gonna Love Ya, and For a Better Day fit solidly within EDM, songs like Pure Grinding (which borders on hip-hop), and Ten More Days (which is sort of acoustic alternative-ish), while still using synthesizers, were completely different from the Avicii of old.

Which leads us to the release of Stories.

(okay, start here if you skimmed. But I do hope you didn't skim.)

Before I begin to review the album, I want to insert a word of warning: While none of the album's lyrics are openly obscene, many of them do bear reference, to varying degrees, to...what married people do (just trying to keep this family-friendly here). I would advise proceeding with caution through this album; maybe don't play it around the younger kids.

However, I have decided not to focus on lyrics in this review, other than placing (warning) labels on particularly bad tracks. I will be reviewing as if the album was in French - since I know about ten words in French and I would only recognize 1 or 2 if I listened to French EDM (believe me, I've tried), I'm going to be looking at the tracks in terms of sound, not message.

1. Waiting for Love: A danceable piano-driven track with decent vocals compared to much of the rest of the album. Despite being an okay opener, it lacks the power and charm of Wake Me Up. 3/5 because of one or two objectionable lyrics.

2. Talk to Myself: Once again EDM, but this time taking us on a journey into new territory. Mixes a bit of deep house (a softer, less pop-y, slower vein of EDM) and arpeggiated synthesizers harkening back to the 80's, resulting in a unique blend of styles that reminds me slightly of Daft Punk's recent tracks as well as disco. Quite creative on Avicii's part. Okayish vocals too, and (sorry I'm breaking my rule on track 2!) good lyrics. 4/5, a nice surprise.

(warning) 3. Touch Me: Yeah, it's about what the title implies. To top it off, the beat seems to plod along (this observation made after several rounds of Talk to Myself) and the synths seem to swim a little. 1/5

4. Ten More Days: First non-EDM track on the album, venturing instead into acoustic pop. The singer might be good, but it sounds as if he's singing through cheap microphone. Catchy melody, and still has traces of EDM influence - such as still having a drop, though this is rather different and quirky. 4/5

5. For a Better Day: Good vocals and beat, moves along at a good clip. Like Waiting for Love, it is piano driven, and in my humble opinion Avicii pulls this off better here. The drop, however, is a bit anti-climactic, simply relying on the piano rather than bringing in synthesizers (the remix, available as a single fills in this void) 4/5

6. Broken Arrows: Another guitar-driven country/EDM track, FINALLY! This one sounds even more country-y than Wake Me Up or Hey Brother, and the synth progression in the drop sounds like a space-age banjo. Good vocals too. 5/5

7. True Believer: I was really excited about this track when I learned Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay who's already put together two brilliant works of EDM with Avicii - Sky Full of Stars and Heaven) would be singing on this one, but my excitement was short-lived. Not only does Martin sing in a Cockney accent, but also the background vocals are horrific, taking a degree of concentration to recognize the usually amazing vocalist beneath them. The synths and beat are both rather nondescript. Pretty big disappointment. 2/5

(warning) 8. City Lights: Sounds like a deliberate imitation of Daft Punk in both vocals and use of older synthesizer sounds. Goes on a bit too long but is a good sound. 4/5 when not considering lyrics, 3/5 if lyrics are considered.

9. Pure Grinding: This track takes Avicii towards the realm of hip-hop, with a touch of blues and a quirky drop. The vocalists are...awful. One definitely needs more voice lessons; the other could be singing in French for all I know (was he saying "money" or "Monet?"). 2.5/5 - the .5 being added because I like what I think Avicii was trying to do with this.

(warning) 10. Sunset Jesus: A rock track vaguely reminiscent of Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts, it still incorporates synths, blending them quite well with the other instruments. However, like on City Lights, the good sound is diminished by the lyric and, like on Ten More Days, the vocalist sounds like he's singing through a cheap mic (Avicii must like this sound I suppose). 2/5

11. Can't Catch Me: Even for Avicii's branching out, this is going too far. Reggae? Honestly? There aren't even any prominent synthesizer lines, and it bears no resemblance to Avicii's other work, other than perhaps the use of background piano vaguely reminding us of what he used to do with synths. Lots of potential in this song, very little of it was realized. 2/5

12. Somewhere in Stockholm: A dark song, despite its use of a major key. Has a 6/8 tempo like Axwell^Ingrosso's amazing Sun is Shining from earlier this year, but, like Can't Catch Me, I think Avicii could've done a lot more with this song, including getting some improvement in the lyrics - rhyming backbone and Stockholm? Honestly??? 1/5

13. Trouble: Right about here in the album I'm starting to wonder if there will be any more good tracks. Then the guitar kicks in, and we're back into Country/EDM again, once again proving this is truly Avicii's strong spot. Has a bit more of a low-key feel than the anthemic Wake Me Up, but it's a pleasant song with good lyrics and a repeat of Broken Arrows' space-age banjo (or maybe a fiddle this time, I'm not sure). Very refreshing, especially after the past two tracks. 5/5

14. Gonna Love Ya: This slower deep house track, complete with processed vocals and guitar, rounds out the album arguably better than Waiting for Love started it (although I do see the juxtaposition here - Waiting for Love, Gonna Love Ya). Neither outstanding nor terrible. 4/5

Overall thoughts: Avicii's desire to break out of the EDM mold is admirable, but its execution isn't. The further Avicii gets from EDM, it seems, the worse he sounds, especially on tracks like Can't Catch Me. Also, with the kind of budget Avicii has, he could probably afford to hire some nicer vocalists for his songs to match up with the quality of the music, which itself could use a facelift. Finally, less innuendo in the lyrics would be great, but I doubt that's going to happen.

If you want to give this a listen, I'd recommend sticking with tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 13, and 14.

Part II (pun intended) is coming soon!