| From the singular name on the CD, you might expect Adam Marsland to have a solo set up on this
"Greatest Hits" album. But like Avril Lavigne and Ashley Simpson, Adam has a fully fledged band
accompanying him on his journey. Surprising still is the fact that this album, "Daylight Kissing
Night" sports an impressive 20 tracks and features an unusual combo of two girls and two guys.
Hopefully my mind can process this many tracks from a group that has influences from Ben Folds to
Stevie Wonder.
The first thing noticeable was the fact that the album has about an hour and 15 minutes of playing
time and that is simply a butt load of music. The 20 songs do come from a decade of Adam's playing
so it would make sense to have that many songs I suppose. Sound wise, "Daylight Kissing Night" feels
like the song version of a journal entry to someone’s life and I'll chalk that up to a hip type of
story telling that Adam is fairly good at. Relating to other artists, Adam seems to gather sounds
from all sorts of places. One moment it sounds like rainbow flag regalia of something from Elton John
and the next minute it sounds like something bubbly from Sugarcult.
A few tracks in I couldn't wrap my head around the continuing changes that every song seemed to
make. Musically Adam (and the rest of the band) can pull together a collage of sounds and place them
in correct order to make coherent music, but the manner of how cohesive that coherent music is, is
up for debate. Simply put, this feels like a cover band that has too many different tastes. Also
Adam's high pitched voice can get a little comical.
So while this is an impressive musical outing with a wide variety of sounds and a large quantity of
songs, it is still all over the place (yes even for a "greatest hits" album). On the other hand the
goofy lyrics, storytelling that anyone can relate and laugh too, and solid music makes this a fun
album to peek at every once in a while. But not that often.
~ Derek
August 07 2008 |
