Thursday, September 11, 2008

Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane

Chad VanGaalen
Soft Airplane
(09.2008, Sub Pop)
Verdict: Glorious

After releasing two of the most enjoyable albums known to mankind, I had galaxies full of expectations for the new Chad VanGaalen album. Somehow, all those expectations were fulfilled and then some. Chad VanGaalen is a genius, and not only that, his music genuinely makes me feel good. Not just a happy good, but some deep cosmic feeling that everything is going to turn out and that the world aint so bad type of good. I guess that might be weird considering most all his song lyrics are about death, revenge, and other morbid topics, but somehow Mr. VanGaalen laces these topics with a little bit of euphoria, a dash of love, some small bits of mysticism and magic, and tops it all off with a whole lot of quaint charm. His amazing song writing skills are carried out through bluesy acoustic guitar, electro dance beats and inventive percussion all layered under a quavering fragile and emotive voice. Soft Airplane is exceptionally beautiful and wonderfully light. Mr. VanGaalen does his own illustrations for his albums and music videos, and the new video for "Molten Light" is the most creepy, ugly one to date, but for some reason they always draw my curiosity in no matter how gross looking they are. Enjoy below.

-Sassigrass

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cant believe you didnt edit out those cartoon boobs.

Anonymous said...

wow. i can't get over the odd/quirkiness of the animation combined with the haunting song.

Anonymous said...

I genuinely thank you for introducing this video to me. My siblings thank you as well. Wonderful!