As many of you have probably guessed, I have a secret love affair for techno music, dance music, electronica music, and my personal favorite, electronic techno dance music with a touch of screaming. The album that I am about to review, "Who Speaks for Planet Earth?" by And Then There Were None, falls largely under the dance/electronica umbrella of genres. As many of you have probably also guessed, I also have a not so secret love affair with Christian music, and this band is no different. Although they don't profess their faith very through their lyrics very often in songs, their beats and melody provide a very happy, and upbeat feeling even with darker lyrics.
Murmurs of...
Like many albums now a days, "Murmurs of..." is a simple, lyricless song that's meant to open up the album. It's only 38 seconds long, and consists of random sounds that range from static, to speaker feed back, to some guy saying "Seven dollars". What I like most about this song however, is the seamless transaction into the next song. The transition is planned so well, that when I first heard the song I didn't realize I was listening to a different song. Rating-5/5
John Orr the Arsonist
This song, as I already stated, continues exactly where the intro song left off. The start of the song is a very catchy and upbeat electronic sound. Unfortunately (at least to me), that is the only real techno sounding part in the whole song. After the first couple seconds, the song melody levels out to a steady drum beat with typical synthesizer noises as background music. This remains mostly consistent throughout the song, but will sometimes jump to catchier sounds during the bridge and in between verses. Many of the songs by ATTWN are very confusing, and very vague, and in this song, the only meaning I can find is a that it's about a selfish girl who wants a guy to change for her, but when he refuses to, she gets very angry. The mood of the song is also like many of their songs, very happy, hopeful, and upbeat. Rating-4/5
The Hospital
This song probably has one of the heaviest pop influences I have ever heard, to the point where it sounds so cheesy that I almost refuse to listen to it. The song does have one thing going for it, that saves it from it's nightmarish pop syndrome, it also happens to be one of the catchiest dance songs that I have ever heard from a Christian band. Right from the start, we can already anticipate that this is going to be a great dance song with its repeating keyboard notes in the background, then slowly the drums are brought in, and then, the synthesizers are faded into the background. The real punch however, comes right before the chorus. It's hard to explain techno or dance music to someone, but just picture a bunch of lasers and lights that change colors to the beat, now just imagine the greatest laser and light show you've ever seen, and you got this song. Okay, I'm sure that probably didn't help, but just trust me, it's pretty awesome. The meaning behind the song is like I said before, very poppish. He sings a cliched meaning of asking a girl to bring him to the hospital since he's "sick with love" for her...yeah I know, I'm getting sick myself just thinking about how lame that line is. The mood is, well, happy...like all their others. Rating-4/5
Reinventing Robert Cohn
This was the very first song I ever heard by ATTWN, and I loved it right from the start. The song's melody combines everything I love in a song. It slowly fades in with a piano (awesomeness #1), then the song takes you by surprise by breaking right into the sythesizers (awesomeness #2), then the song gets softer again with the piano, only to take you by surprise again once the chorus hits (awesomeness #3), it has an awesome bridge to it (awesomeness #4), and lastly, it has techno in it! (awesomeness #5) As for the meaning, it is about a girl that the lead singer is obcessed about, even though he knows she is a bad influence on him since she always tempts him, but she is "in his blood", so it is very difficult for him to let her go. Rating-5/5
Action is the Anecdote
Although I don't care much for the melody of this song, I find the lyrics to the song to be beautiful. The melody is very slow and boring, and repetitive in many parts. The meaning however, I find to be very unique, in a sort of clichéd way. The song itself is another simple love song, but the lines he uses to describe the girl he is obsessed with, are something I find to be rare. With lines like "Or I could be a good scene in a bad dream, I could make it something beautiful", or "I can see that the closest thing to perfect is the farthest thing from me.", I feel that they were very creative in their lyrics, and for that I give the song much higher ratings than I first expected. Rating-4/5
The Atmosphere
I don't have much to say about this song really, the lyrics are confusing, and the melody is very repetitive. It's not really a bad, it just doesn't catch my attention very much. One good thing I must say about it though, is that the few beats they do repeat are pretty cool sounding. Rating-3/5
Cloak and Dagger
When I first heard this song I hated it. That was most likely because the song opens up with a very annoying synthesized beat (yes, believe it or not I do hate some techno). Then one day, I decided to listen to the whole album, and ever since then, I have never skipped this song. It has now, ironically enough, become one of my favorite on the album. The melody's style is very similar to that of Reinventing Robert Cohn, in the sense that the beat jumps from slow in the verses, to fast and loud in the choruses. The meaning is again, very confusing, and the best I can come up with is that it's about a girl and a guy liking her (Yeah I know, a very rare theme...) Rating-5/5
Right Here Waiting
I have very little to say about this song, since well, it's a remix, and I very rarely like remixes. Luckily, ATTWN, surprised me by remixing this song beautifully. I'm not sure how familiar you are with techno songs, but if you have ever heard the song Everytime We Touch by Cascada, this song sounds very similar to that one. The song has amazing techno qualities, that even though they've probably been used in every club dance song ever made, they still make me want to buy some strobe lights, and lasers and start jumping around my living room (believe me, I would do that if I could). Rating-5/5
Bed of Nails
This is one of the few songs I still skip on the CD when I listen to it. The vocals are very annoying, the techno sounds are even annoying, and the lyrics are once again, very poppish. I especially hate the way he says "Ironic how", he just says it in this high pitched voice that makes me want to cringe. Anyway, the song is about a breakup, and how he is trying to get on with his life even though everything reminds him of the girl. Rating-2.5/5
Thank the Watchmaker
Now we've reached my second favorite song on the album. In many ways though, this song has even better qualities than Reinventing Robert Cohn. This song has a better dance beat and a better sounding intro. The lyrics however are somewhat annoying, which bumps it down a bit. The song opens with one of the best fade-ins I've ever heard. Then it proceeds to go staight into the paino, then techno sounds, much like Reinventing Robert Cohn. This song however, has a "techno solo" as I like to call it before the chorus, which is when the person just bust out this awesome dancing music. The lyrics, like I said are what brought it down though. With lines like "Your pictures are the paper that lines my wall", I wasn't sure if I should find this song to be sweet, or creepy. Rating-5/5
The Alamo
I have nothing to say about this song, by far the worst one on the album. Annoying vocals, annoying lyrics, annoying beats, enough said. Rating-2/5
Insozzz...
I don't care much for the lyrics and vocals in this song, but it does have a very catchy beat to it. The song has a heavy electronic sound to it, that although it doesn't really make me want to dance, I still find it to be a very soothing beat. The lyrics are a bit confusing, and I've yet to figure them out, but they're very repetitive and he sings in a higher pitched voice which is a big downside for me. Rating-3.5/5
Overall, I find this to be a very happy, and upbeat album that have many songs that make me want to dance, or will at least put my mind at ease. If you enjoy music like this, you will most likely enjoy this album. But if you have yet to discover the awesomeness that is techno music, I would suggest you start with something different first. I would also like to note that ATTWN has a demo in which they have different, older versions of the songs "Action is the Anecdote", "John Orr the Arsonist", and "Occam's Razor" which is the same thing as "The Atmosphere". All of these songs are slightly more rock sounding, and in my opinion, better sounding, but hey, that's just me. Overall Rating-4/5
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