Review: Megalithic Symphony by AWOLNATION

The cover art for Megalithic Symphony

The first time I heard the song, Sail, was at the end of the Longmire episode, Dog Solider (season 1, episode 5) in a haunting and frightening montage that included the character of Jacob Nighthorse (A Martinez) dressed up as a Dog Soldier performing a ritual under moonlight.

A Martinez as Jacob Nighthorse

Since then I have purchased the CD (yes, the actual physical CD) of Megalithic Symphony by AWOLNATION, and now I am here to review it. As a whole, this album is a tight little package of upbeat, danceable (often angst-fueled) tracks that bring a hard-rocking electronica synth-pop vibe to the related but different songs. If an album is a family of songs, these all feel like distant cousins to each other. There are only, in my opinion, a few missteps.

Megalithic Symphony (Track 1): An odd little sound nugget that serves as an intro to the album. Popular among certain genres of music, I usually find these intros to be a waste and serve only to pad the total track list.

Some Sort Of Creature (Track 2): The intro pieces I can forgive, but a rambling 30 second monologue about...well...whatever the hell that was about again feels like it was meant to be cool and hip, but instead is just another pad to the total.

Soul Wars (Track 3): After the odd and bizarre intro tracks, the album suddenly kicks into high gear with a song that sounds like a sermon mixed with 1980s pop, 1990s grunge, and 2000s death-pop. It is an amazing rocking track that gets the body moving, and bears repeated playing. A great driving song.

People (Track 4): Sounding more like 1980s pop and far more mellow than the previous track, it is a catchy melody that clearly wants you to sing along. Frankly, it feels like the kind of song that shows up at the end of a 1980s John Hughes film during a montage of the characters getting their issues resolved. And that is a great thing.

Jump On My Shoulders (Track 5): The first, but not for the last time, song with a little blues-grunge getting mixed with a gospel-like chorus that's rather uplifting despite the Robin-hood theme of the song. An entirely decent song.

Burn It Down (Track 6): Again, returning to 1980s pop along with soul-music influences (Little Richard specifically), this high-energy track also feels like it could have been an alt-Talking Heads song or possibly Devo. Catchy and a lot of fun to listen to....I can almost imagine Nelson, Estevez, and Hall dancing around a library to this tune.

Guilty Filthy Soul (Track 7): A decent song with more of the gospel-like theme mixed with jazz. Serviceable, but far from my favorite.

Kill Your Heroes (Track 8): Despite the essentially bleak topic about everyone dying at some point, it's a totally uplifting song with a lot of hope and a catchy harmony and chorus. Great song!

My Nightmare's Dream (Track 9): Another snippet of music that serves as very pointless and distracting intermission, especially after following such a good song as Kill Your Heroes. Perhaps it was meant to slow down the pace before launching into the next song, Sail, but I now skip past it without any problems.

Sail (Track 10): By the time we reach the song which arguably made AWOLNATION famous, and the song which got me interested in them, it feels almost as an epic afterthought. This distorted anthem of love and angst is brooding and morose compared to the rest of the album, but still powerful.

Wake Up (Track 11): This track hits as my sleeper favorite of the whole album. Not as rocking as Soul Wars, not as jazzy as Burn It Down, nor as powerful as Sail, but the one that fills me with the most joy and one I find myself listening to the most. It is some kind of Aerosmith/Beach Boys mash-up that is completely enjoyable.

Not Your Fault (Track 12): Like Guilty Filthy Soul, a decent track, listenable, danceable, but unremarkable, in fact the chorus can get a little grating, which I think causes a self-inflicted wound on what would be an otherwise great song.

All I Need (Track 13): Another heavily gospel-inspired, crooning, ballad. This song feels like the natural, mellow, cap to a full-throttle, high energy album that brings us back down to reality. Like a great cup of coffee after the main courses of dinner. It should have ended here, but there is one more track that ruins this perfect denouement.

Knights Of Shame (Track 14): This song in all honesty feels like a collection of half-finished songs jammed together for nearly 15 minutes of an incoherent music buffet. It might be called experimental, and therefore get a pass, but again it feels like it was padding the total songs, as well as drawing out the total minutes of the album to look all the more respectable and finished. It just leaves a sour taste after a near perfect album.

So there you go. Overall, I give it a 7 out of 10. That being said, their are so many songs on this album that are completely infectious, demanding repeated plays, that I give it a full recommendation.

Try them out: AWOLNATION - http://awolnationmusic.com/