Icon For Hire - Scripted
Rating
RIYL
ParamoreNo Doubt
Pink
Release Date
08/23/2011
Label
Tooth And NailTracklist
1. Overture2. Theater
3. Make A Move
4. Get Well
5. The Grey
6. Off With Her Head
7. Fight
8. Up In Flames
9. Iodine
10. Only A Memory
11. Pieces
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The difficulty with evaluating a record like Scripted is to what degree can you suspend your genre prejudices and interact with the album on its own terms. For those of you who have read some of my reviews in the past, you know that this is not the sort of thing I usually enjoy. It’s an album with an alternative touch (is that a breakdown buried in “Make a Move?”), but one with its eyes on the radio nonetheless. But this is just the sort of record where I am challenged as a listener to engage and find things that I like, to not make blanket generalizations and to analyze to what degree Scripted succeeds in, or even transcends, its niche.
The cover art, lyrical conceits, album titles, et cetera point to a band that is infinitely more self-aware than most pop acts; vocalist/frontwoman Ariel is keenly aware of the role that is expected of her, and much like a Pink, she both trades on these expectations and vehemently denies them. Like some sort of ironic tug-of-war, I could spend the majority of the run-time trying to draw lines in the sand, which would be to miss the point, or I could acknowledge the self-awareness and admire how adeptly the band bandies it about, delivering pop hooks with a wink.
In this sense, the album is definitely a success. On musical counts, the requisite production and contemporary pop flavor are very much intact; this is a release aimed at a specific demographic, though, and I can’t escape the idea of the band as a pre-packaged product. Trading on convention can only get you so far before, returning to the Pink parallel, there is the inconvenient little fact that the music is almost exclusively locked on one goal.
In summation: the tiny rays of something deeper, the coy subversion of expectation, and Ariel’s pipes make Scripted a cut above the average pop rock record, but that it stubbornly refuses to break with the musical constraints prevents it from being much more.
--Jacob Oliver
Comments
Baton Rouge
I came across a website promoting this, and thought I would give pink hair a chance. I felt the same way about it as you. It's one thing to sing about bucking convention, but when your record sounds no different from anyone else in your genre, it's tough to take seriously.
Boobs
http://thenicsperiment.blogspot.com/
Fishers, Indiana
Hey hey no way I don't like your pop band blah blah blah blah better get a new one so on and so forth.
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Buffalo, NY
I'm going to go ahead and say it. There is absolutely nothing about this band that sounds like No Doubt.
Wales
It was more like the idea of the outsized female lead backed by a bunch of nondescript dudes and the idea of potential radio play that influenced that inclusion. To piggy-back off Zach, maybe I should have gone with Avril Lavigne. But again, it's not my scene...and evidently I'm into rhyming this morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLF9Cm4E15E
I GO TO WORK
Bronx, New York City
girls always sound like girls.
i'm always getting L7 and Tsunami Bomb mixed up.
--FTTW--
Cincinnati
Yeah...I just don't understand why every new female fronted band sounds exactly like paramore. It's as though
producers have a Hayley effect they put on vocals that turn any female voice into a paramore copy. If I'm forced to listen
to female vocals, I'd just assume listen to Adele, at least her voice is original sounding.