William Control - Noir
Rating
RIYL
BrokencydeVampires Everywhere
Aiden
Release Date
06/08/2010
Label
Victory RecordsTracklist
1 Une Annonce2 Vorspiel
3 All Due Restraint
4 I’m Only Human Sometimes
5 Can’t Help Falling In Love
6 Why Dance With The Devil When You Have Me?
7 My Lady Dominate
8 Sololiquy
9 Dorian Gray
10 Ultrasound
11 Noir
12 Epilogue
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Step 1. Get to your closest record store and find a copy of Noir complete with pseudo-postmodern cover art.
Step 2. Listen to Noir while slowly becoming fetal, crying, and cursing whoever gave you the idea of spending money on this.
Step 3. Realize that if you actually expected anything decent from the lead singer of Aiden you got a whole different set of problems.
I was sitting at the lounge room dining table when I first spun Noir, and within 15 seconds of the first track my roommates had turned from being forced to watch Twilight and said something along the lines of, “Dude, that is awful, just God awful,” which I feel says something. If there was one word I might use to describe Noir it would be one I rarely use in any context, let alone relating to music… but this album is truly revolting. It has also signaled the true demise of Alkaline Trio with frontman Matt Skiba apparently contributing to the writing and production on this album.
The opening track is a dialogue about evolving to a mythical beastly creature so “beguiling that even its own shadow cowers in fear,” spoken through serial killer voice modification a la Jigsaw from the Saw movies. From this minute and a half of dark and ominous organ tones and murder-speak there is another minute of synthesized anger backed with group "hey yeahs!" before Jigsaw announces that "this is how we begin," throwing us head first in to the electro mess of "All Due Restraint," with its bridging porno soundbites which somehow ends up with the closing lyrics, “Come with me to the other side / come dance with me tonight.”
I think I understand, to an extent, what William Francis (William Control's actual name) was trying to do with Noir. As a concept it is attempting to link the dark, noir, film industry through what might be called music in underground vampire raves. Unfortunately for Francis, despite his obvious film knowledge (he’s holding a vintage camera after all) he has created an album that is a mess of noise and lower end vocals. He’s also thrown in an acoustic cover of Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love” amongst all the dirty electro which is so out of place it’s laughable, and unfortunately it’s also so revolting you’re too busy dry heaving to laugh.
The greatest of the 11 evils on Noir, however, comes under the drug binge ballad of “Why Dance With the Devil When You Have Me?” which just screams “I am a complete tool” before the music even starts. It features an ill-advised rap chorus and the bridge, “It’s not the drugs that killed your Mom / it’s not that blade that raped your brother,” which kind of comes across as a Blink 182 joke gone wrong. It is also one of several tracks on the album that close out with a key change and forty or so seconds of electro instrumental interlude - who does William think he is, The Lost Prophets?
There are a fair few rants I could digress to while writing about this album, like discussing the ballad of a girl named "Sililoquy," or the 8 minutes of silence in the closing track which is so rehashed you can hear sheep moving in circles through the quiet. I think under the guidance of a different musician the concept of Noir might have actually worked, but under William Control and his messy fetishes it’s just a big mess.
--Sandy Powell
Comments
Somewhere in New York
I could only imagine Billy's response to that music. Ah well, can't say this review was any bit of a surprise. This guy thinks he's wayyyy too much of a badass.
"If someone gives you a kazoo and toots around the house to MTV, they're not gonna fuck you." - David Cross
Fishers, Indiana
Oh, oh god-- that RIYL... I... no, I can't even keep reading.
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Portland, OR
Yuck.
Pittsburgh, PA
I only listened to the first couple minutes of "why dance with the devil...". You're right. It's awful. Not the review though, I enjoyed that part haha
RAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
Fort Bragg, CA
This was such a good review. I'm listening to the music now, and dear god is it awful. It kind of ruined my night.
Minnesota
Oh God... this is such a mess. What sucks is "I'm Only Human" is actually a catchy as hell song. A couple of other tracks have some catchy moments as well, but as a whole this is just a giant pile of crap.
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