The Darkness Soundtrack

COLD CAVE – CHERISH THE LIGHT YEARS [ALBUM]

French author Jean Genet once said, “A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” His statement could apply to Cold Cave project leader Wesley Eisold. Before establishing Cold Cave, Eisold was a member of hardcore groups Some Girls, American Nightmare, and XO Skeletons. However, his hardcore roots were traded for more electronic and synth tinkerings for his debut Cold Cave album, 2009's Love Comes Close . Cold Cave's new album finds Eisold changing the project's sound once again. Instead of continuing with the more electronic tinged music of Love Comes Close , Eisold has chosen to move toward synth based romantic pop. On Cherish The Light Years , Eisold seems more confident, fully embracing himself as a musician. He pushes his singing to the forefront, not hiding it behind the music's textures. His stronger vocals support better crafted lyrics to songs that are catchy and memorable. Cherish The Light Years is said to have been inspired by Eisold's night time walks after moving to New York City. Much like those walks taken by Eisold, there only seem to be glimmers of light present throughout the album's nine songs. Each song feels shrouded in darkness, and it's easy to imagine Eisold as this gothic figure covered in black with mascara buried eyes. He's the dark narrator of this journey into the unknown. The journey begins with 'The Great Pan Is Dead'. The song bursts with rampant urgency and doesn't slow down. Eisold seems to be clawing for the remains of a broken relationship. “I was someone you would love to love; but never love,” Eisold sings. Love is a central subject throughout Light Years , and its not only romanticized but also treated as a curse. The softer synth track 'Catacombs' sounds like it could fit on any John Hughes' movie soundtrack. Much like the teens in many of those movies, Eisold is yearning over a love that he cannot have and likens the feeling to death. The music of Light Years coincides with the weightier lyrics on tracks 'Underworld USA' and 'Burning Sages'. Both songs ditch the dance synth beats present on the other tracks (although 'Underworld USA' is anthemic) and flirt with industrial rock. The percussive intro to 'Underworld USA' is reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails' 'Head Like A Hole'.

Radar Redux » Kid Cudi Epitomizes New Trend Toward More ...

It’s hard to say which of Kid Cudi’s identities is more authentic. A friend who saw him perform two years ago told me that his live performance persona had been awkward, and he seemed unsettled by the limelight. But in the show I went to last month, I was exposed to a different side of Cudi, an unrestrained, high-energy artist who seemed to feed off the crowd’s enthusiasm. Perhaps, as Justin Bieber famously did, Cudi hired someone to help him with his stage presence. More likely, spending a few years hanging out with kings of confidence Kanye West and Jay Z helped him get a better handle on his swagger. Throughout his set, he bragged about his new music, the TV show he is currently starring in (HBO’s “How to Make it in America”), and how generally incredible his life is. In his song “Cudi Zone,” he raps about the comfort he feels when he’s performing: “when I’m zoned, I’m feeling all right, I forget all about it.” From the performance I experienced, and swagger exhibited, Cudi seems pretty content with his life. The best part of the concert, undoubtedly, was in the last half hour, when he performed three high-energy songs in a row, getting the entire crowd dancing and going nuts. He certainly didn’t seem like a “lonely stoner” that night (“Day N Night”), didn’t seem like the type of boy who, as he raps about in “Soundtrack to my Life,” spent a lot of his childhood in his room, playing by himself.

Indeed, in an interview he gave with the Huffington Post when his first album, Man on the Moon: the End of the Day , was released in 2009 ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cara-parks/kid-cudi-the-lonely-stone_b_295982.html ), Cudi had insisted that he’s not as malcontent as he seems in his music, promising that though his first album was dark, his second would be a stronger mix between darkness and lightheartedness, and that his third would “definitely be light. It will be the arrival. It will be all those uplifting songs that everyone’s been waiting for, the epitome of inner peace.”

. He explained that at first he planned the album to be “filled with fun and upbeat records that for the most part left you with [expletive] when you were finished listening.” However, upon reflection, Cudi decided that “every time i read a comment from someone saying ive touched their lives in some way is what made me want to… continue pouring my life into my music.  MOTM2 is dark by nature.