Tuesday 5 June 2012

DLC 6/5: Cracker, Florence + The Machine and Midnight Oil



I'll be honest, I can't stand Bullet for My Valentine, so really, it can't get much worse. Can it?

Cracker - "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" - Pro Available
Florence + the Machine - "Dog Days are Over"
Midnight Oil - "Power and the Passion"

Well, my first instinct is WHERE IS BEDS ARE BURNING?!?!?!? but I've got a feeling we'll be seeing it on Rock Band Blitz. With that said, will I like the DLC?


Cracker - "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)

Overall, the guitar part isn't that bad, in fact, I'd even play it more often if the vocals didn't annoy me so much. The part starts of with a moderately difficult intro where it progresses into the riff that comprises pretty much the whole song. That riff isn't all that interesting in itself. The solo at the end of the song is probably the most interesting section of the guitar part. It's not all that great of a solo but I did find it to be enjoyable. The bass wasn't as good as the guitar by any stretch of the imagination. The verses were the only bits of the song that aren't complete alt-strum-fests and unfortunately, I kind of wish they were. That really is all that happens in the bass part and it's kind of disappointing. The drums were fairly standard, with your standard rock beat throughout with little to no variation. With that being said, I didn't completely dislike it and I actually found it enjoyable to play through.

Florence + the Machine - "Dog Days are Over"

Songs that feature an intro where it's a series of chords but every other chord has a note added to it are horrible. Songs that feature that as a central part of the song are even worse. The chorus salvaged the song into something remotely playable by playing similarly to Teen Angst's bass, but it wasn't fun there and it isn't fun here. Whenever there are RB/GH parties there always seems to be an argument over who has to play bass. That's part of why I primarily play bass when playing with other people. Normally, I find the bass to be just as, if not more, fun than the guitar part. If this song were to come up in a random setlist however, I'd be the first one to argue against playing bass. Let me remind you that I did not like the guitar on this song. The song has EXACTLY 50 notes. That means that, unless you use overdrive, you will never be able hit notes with a multiplier of more than x5. When you DO actually get to play, it's one of the most boring things you possibly can play. Just a series of long notes, and I think that the orange fret it touched ONCE. This may very well be the worst bass part released in 2012. I'd just like to mention that I'm not the greatest keys player in the world. With that said, this part was so easy (and boring) that even I got an FC. The only part of the song that's remotely interesting is the end and to get to that you've got to dredge through the rest of the song where you just play long notes in an uninteresting pattern. The drums on the other hand, are really fun. The pattern is interesting to play and it changes up a fair bit. You could actually go on to say that it salvages the song from the otherwise terrible guitar, bass and keys parts!

Midnight Oil - "Power and the Passion"

I'm not sure if I like the guitar part or not. The parts that are fun are very fun. The parts that are boring are very boring. The fun parts are the most frequent parts of the song so I suppose that's a very strong plus. The most boring bit of the guitar part has got to be the drum solo, but then again, it is a drum solo. Instruments tend not to be playing during a drum solo. All in all, a surprisingly fun guitar part! When I play Rock Band with other people, it's songs like this that make me very, very glad that barely anyone wants to play bass. It's got one of the best bass parts I've played in a while because it features something I love in Rock Band; songs frequently changing without being an über-hard prog song. It even plays during the drum solo! The keys (well, horns really) on this song don't start until the songs outro after the third and final chorus. While it is a fun section to play, the fact that you have to wait through the whole song just to get to it just doesn't seem worth it. Unless you just skip through my reviews to get to the instrument you care about, you'd know that there is a drum solo in this song, but that's not the only place this drum part really shines! The main beat is a very interesting pattern, very different from your usual cymbal-cymbal/bass-cymbal-cymbal/snare-ect. pattern that most of the songs seem to feature.

Best instrument: Drums
Pick of the week: Power and the Passion
What should you buy: Power and the Passion

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