Is it me?

The song is cool, it's got that 80s metal vibe and all. But I don't understand the guitar solo at all - it seems way, way, way out there a lot of the time.
 
http://www.youtube.com/wa...cYc0&feature=share

Solo starts at 2:45 ish - from 2:58 on, he starts losing me... Must be 10 times and I still can't wrap my brain around it. I get the chord changes but not the notes he chose. Can he really be as off as I hear him on record and neither him nor anyone in the studio noticed?
 
I can dig the sloppiness et all but not like that.


I'd almost rather it be me who doesn't get it. But my teeth hurt when I hear it, which is never a good sign...

I've pre-ordered the album nonetheless, I'm just too glad that the man is back.

The Bark at the Moon reference is pretty obvious, yeah. :P
 
I know I've gotten pickier in recent years and worked on developing a better ear, but not like that. Honestly, to me, it doesn't sound like just drifting out of tune - it sounds like venturing boldly out of anything that would sound right. :/

I'm sure he knows what he's doing by now..but yeah, it sounds like ****.

Now, about that singer...

Just took a listen. It makes sense but he's taking some interesting left turns as to how he's interpreting the harmony. Like the progression is changing in a semi quirky way and with each change he's choosing one of the not so obvious or traditional modal options.
 
Also his style is similar to mine. Really aggressive and never really letting the note rest at it's natural tone. Like he's constantly bending the string to where he wants it which gives it some life as opposed to that hyper sterile sound a band like Necrophagist uses for it's solos. It does sound like he might be slightly out of tune because when the notes do seem to settle they're a touch low but I'm almost thinking he INTENTIONALLY tuned his guitar down a couple cents so that he'd be forced to keep that wild/bendy style going.
 
I started developing that kind of style because of playing on crappy/poorly intonated/warped guitars. Every note I'd fret would get bent into tune as I played (which I think any really seasoned player does a little bit subconsciously anyway). Now I think it sounds cool but I don't play intentionally out of tune guitars to achieve the effect.
 
Now one of my favorite players who was AWFUL for letting his guits go out of tune was Albert King. It's like he refused to use a tuner and would CONSTANTLY fiddle with the tuning pegs while playing throwing himself further and further out of whack. Very distracting while watching his live stuff.

You do realise it's just a video and he's miming...   The out of tune string is in the studio mix, so it'll sound the same on the album (assuming they used the same take...)

jamesg1213
Just listened again..3:01 - 3:10 actually sounds like he's playing in the wrong key...that note at 3:01 is just bad..and not in a good way.

Alternate mode. It does work but it is jarring. I'm probably more accepting of such things because I do that crap all the time but this all makes me question whether perhaps my "creativity" will simply be perceived as sounding like arse. Then again this song does mostly stay within the realm of "normal" so doing crazy stuff like that doesn't fit as well as when you build up a pile of turds then add a couple oddly flavored farts.
 
And there are definitely some "sour" notes there which to me sounds like what I was saying early. He is ever so slightly tuned down/out of tune and when he relaxes the strings to their resting point it sounds off. There are quite a few spots where I hear that happening or about to happen but for the most part it all keeps moving enough to be unnoticeable and most likely wouldn't be perceived by anyone other than musicians and studio hounds. I think with MIDI, hyper accurate tuners and auto tune stuff everyone's ears are becoming more honed to such things these days. I listened to a lot of my old faves that back then sounded PERFECT and can hear all sorts of off notes and other weirdness now.
 
But I also got into punk as I "aged" so even though my ears are more tuned in to off notes and other "bad" noise I can appreciate the humanity and grit of it all. That to me is the best part of music.
 
Frankly the solo was my favorite part of the whole song. Everything else was too polished except for some of the vocals and... well... I didn't really like the vocal style but think he was attempting some interesting tones over the backing parts.
 
At certain points it broke into that heavily processed "Ozzy - No More Tears" sound then went back to totally raw which I thought was kind of an odd and not so pleasant (to me) contrast.
 
Sounds like a great bar band that someone was trying to polish into the new style production sound while still leaving some of the grit... but only in some places. It just felt weird. I'd rather hear a recording of these guys play live off the floor with minimal over dubs and a good old school style engineering job on it. Some record exec probably figured that wouldn't sell though so this is what we get.
 
/jaded

craigb
Obviously he didn't follow the guideline that if you hit a clam note you return to it and emphasize it so people think (at least in your head)  that you made the first note fart on purpose.

I think there are two rules to making pleasurable noise.
 
1) Be honestly and blissfully oblivious to how badly you suck but play like your life depends on it.
 
or
 
2) Know EXACTLY how make things sound PERFECT and THEN how to make them sound like utter crap at which point you must commit yourself to being a viciously skilled and efficient turd slinging machine.
 
#1 becomes completely impossible once you achieve anything beyond the most basic skill level. At that point you must become an extremely proficient and intuitive musician to produce #2. Even then there may be some grunting and pushing and false starts before the desired result emerges.

Dunno...to moi this is like doing a critical analysis of "Green Eggs and Ham".  It's just...as Keef would say..."some blokes with guitars round their necks".

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment. As I said, whenever something seems wrong, I tend to question my understanding of it in the first place, so it's nice to know that I'm not alone perceiving the weirdness.
 
As Janet pointed out, it's the official video, and that's the studio cut, so that's what they'll be releasing on CD.
 
I like the rawness of it, and the playing outside of the box, which has always been part of his style. But in the end, to my ears, no matter how I try to loosen my perception of what's on and what's off, there are at least a couple of notes that really stand out as way off.

Major ooops. Sorry Karyn!!!