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Akron Beacon Journal, OH
Oct 28 2007
Solo album has lively sounds
Published on Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
ELECT THE DEAD Serj Tankian Serjical Strike/Reprise
It took a solo album by Serj Tankian, the singer and leader of System
of a Down, to reveal the secret ingredient in that band's hard rock:
a streak of opera, or perhaps operetta.
Tankian made this album in his home studio, playing many of the
instruments. In some ways, Elect the Dead continues System's approach
to songwriting, with structures that suddenly shift speed or attack,
from ballad picking to odd-meter pummeling to sing-along choruses.
Tankian's Armenian ancestry still resounds in the melodies.
His voice is as peculiar as ever. It's quavery, hectoring,
deliberately overwrought but not self-mocking; even at his most shaky
and nasal, he means it. Some of the lyrics are openly political: ''I
believe that you're wrong/insisting that they hold the bomb/ clearing
the way for the oil brigade,'' he chants at the end of The Unthinking
Majority. But working on his own, he's less oblique, especially in
broken-hearted songs such as Saving Us or Baby. (One song, Money,
hints that Tankian and System of a Down are at odds.)
In spots where System would blast its power chords louder, Tankian
often switches to quasi-classical piano instead, perhaps adding a
string section as well. That camps up a few songs, bringing Lie Lie
Lie, for instance, uncomfortably close to The Rocky Horror Show. Yet
although System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer
brawn, Tankian's versions are the next best thing.
Jon ParelesNew York Times
ELECT THE DEAD Serj Tankian Serjical Strike/Reprise
It took a solo album by Serj Tankian, the singer and leader of System
of a Down, to reveal the secret ingredient in that band's hard rock:
a streak of opera, or perhaps operetta.
Tankian made this album in his home studio, playing many of the
instruments. In some ways, Elect the Dead continues System's approach
to songwriting, with structures that suddenly shift speed or attack,
from ballad picking to odd-meter pummeling to sing-along choruses.
Tankian's Armenian ancestry still resounds in the melodies.
His voice is as peculiar as ever. It's quavery, hectoring,
deliberately overwrought but not self-mocking; even at his most shaky
and nasal, he means it. Some of the lyrics are openly political: ''I
believe that you're wrong/insisting that they hold the bomb/ clearing
the way for the oil brigade,'' he chants at the end of The Unthinking
Majority. But working on his own, he's less oblique, especially in
broken-hearted songs such as Saving Us or Baby. (One song, Money,
hints that Tankian and System of a Down are at odds.)
In spots where System would blast its power chords louder, Tankian
often switches to quasi-classical piano instead, perhaps adding a
string section as well. That camps up a few songs, bringing Lie Lie
Lie, for instance, uncomfortably close to The Rocky Horror Show. Yet
although System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer
brawn, Tankian's versions are the next best thing.
Jon Pareles
New York Times
Oct 28 2007
Solo album has lively sounds
Published on Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
ELECT THE DEAD Serj Tankian Serjical Strike/Reprise
It took a solo album by Serj Tankian, the singer and leader of System
of a Down, to reveal the secret ingredient in that band's hard rock:
a streak of opera, or perhaps operetta.
Tankian made this album in his home studio, playing many of the
instruments. In some ways, Elect the Dead continues System's approach
to songwriting, with structures that suddenly shift speed or attack,
from ballad picking to odd-meter pummeling to sing-along choruses.
Tankian's Armenian ancestry still resounds in the melodies.
His voice is as peculiar as ever. It's quavery, hectoring,
deliberately overwrought but not self-mocking; even at his most shaky
and nasal, he means it. Some of the lyrics are openly political: ''I
believe that you're wrong/insisting that they hold the bomb/ clearing
the way for the oil brigade,'' he chants at the end of The Unthinking
Majority. But working on his own, he's less oblique, especially in
broken-hearted songs such as Saving Us or Baby. (One song, Money,
hints that Tankian and System of a Down are at odds.)
In spots where System would blast its power chords louder, Tankian
often switches to quasi-classical piano instead, perhaps adding a
string section as well. That camps up a few songs, bringing Lie Lie
Lie, for instance, uncomfortably close to The Rocky Horror Show. Yet
although System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer
brawn, Tankian's versions are the next best thing.
Jon ParelesNew York Times
ELECT THE DEAD Serj Tankian Serjical Strike/Reprise
It took a solo album by Serj Tankian, the singer and leader of System
of a Down, to reveal the secret ingredient in that band's hard rock:
a streak of opera, or perhaps operetta.
Tankian made this album in his home studio, playing many of the
instruments. In some ways, Elect the Dead continues System's approach
to songwriting, with structures that suddenly shift speed or attack,
from ballad picking to odd-meter pummeling to sing-along choruses.
Tankian's Armenian ancestry still resounds in the melodies.
His voice is as peculiar as ever. It's quavery, hectoring,
deliberately overwrought but not self-mocking; even at his most shaky
and nasal, he means it. Some of the lyrics are openly political: ''I
believe that you're wrong/insisting that they hold the bomb/ clearing
the way for the oil brigade,'' he chants at the end of The Unthinking
Majority. But working on his own, he's less oblique, especially in
broken-hearted songs such as Saving Us or Baby. (One song, Money,
hints that Tankian and System of a Down are at odds.)
In spots where System would blast its power chords louder, Tankian
often switches to quasi-classical piano instead, perhaps adding a
string section as well. That camps up a few songs, bringing Lie Lie
Lie, for instance, uncomfortably close to The Rocky Horror Show. Yet
although System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer
brawn, Tankian's versions are the next best thing.
Jon Pareles
New York Times