The Scope

Local track reviews by Luke, 11, maren, 11, and Havie, 9.

Listen: Patrick Canning — “Crutches”
From Sex Lives of the Paralyzed (2008)
St. John’s, NL
www.patrickcanning.ca

Luke: (Listening.) Not very exciting.

(Song ends.)

Well, it wasn’t very exciting. It was slow (impersonates guitar sound). One thumb down, one thumb up.

Maren: (Listening.) Wow, this is cool. I like this. This sounds like the stuff my dad does on guitar, so it sounds really good. The beat is good. It’s really good, I love it. A little bit slow for my liking—I guess I’m more used to dance music, but I love it. I think the beat is fantastic. Wicked guitar solo. I like the ending.

(Song ends.)

I really liked the beat. I loved it a lot actually. It was my type of music.

Havie: (Listening.) He sounds like a country singer. He sounds kind of weird. I don’t really like this kind of music anyway.

(Song ends)

I didn’t like it. It sounded kind of country. It was kind of in the middle of country and rock. I don’t really like country.

Boring!

—

Listen: The Domestics — “Autumn ‘03″

From e.p. (2008)
St. John’s, NL
www.myspace.com/lesdomestics

Luke: (Listening.) This one is more exciting and fun. Its a bit faster, and more to the point.

(Song ends.)

It was better than the last one. More exciting and had a better groove. One thumb and a half up. This one comes in first so far.

Maren: (Listening.) I like this song, it’s really good. The singing is really good. I don’t like the words as much as the last song, but this one has a way better beat with the actual background music.

(Song ends.)

I like how it faded at the end. It had more of a positive flow, and a nice smooth beat. It sounded really great actually. When i listened to it at first I thought, “i don’t think this is going to be so good,” but what i liked about it is in parts it sped up and the drummer started to do better things, and all the music kind of turned around. I think the song was done nicely.

My favourite so far.

Havie: (Listening.) I like the name of the song. Autumn is my favourite season.

I like this song much better, it’s exciting! I like how there is a boy and girl singing it together. I’m not really sure what this song is about, but it’s more exciting than the other one.

(Song ends.)

I like it. I like it much more than the other one. It’s faster so it’s much more exciting. Fun. My favourite by far.

—

Listen: Children of Eve — “The Shallows”

From s/t (2008)
St. John’s, NL
www.childrenofeve.ca

Luke: (Listening.) RaaaaaAAH!! (imitating song). What’s his problem?? These people are angry, and I can’t tell what they are saying… Yeah, he definitely is angry. Pretty good chorus. It’s a little bit scary.

(Song ends.)

It’s really good with the beat and all that, but scary noises.

One thumb up, one thumb down.

Maren: (Listening.) It’s very harsh… at the beginning when he was screaming and stuff you kind of went “oh my gosh!” The band sounds great though, it’s very good. But the singer is out of control… parts of the song I don’t even know what he’s saying!

Wicked guitar! I like the chorus because he’s really singing there.

This is the stuff my dad plays on guitar. Kinda deafening. The way he sings it—it’s just so harsh you’re like “is that singing, or is that screaming?” The beat is good though, but I can’t understand a word he is saying.

(Song ends.)

That was very funny because when I hear stuff like that I normally go “uuuuh…” but when you’re actually listening it you kind of go “wow, actually there’s a lot more put into it.”

Havie: (Listening.) Scary! They yell a lot! I really don’t like this kind of music. I like the tune, but I don’t like the way they sing.

(Song ends.)

Scary! I didn’t like it. They yelled a lot. I don’t really like heavy metal.