James Funfer

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRGvJ6ep_G0

Masterpiece Theatre 1

By Marianas Trench

It seems odd to follow up a classic band like the Eagles with a modern pop-punk group from Vancouver, but this blog series is about music that has inspired me or touched my life somehow, rather than just artists that have withstood the test of time.

Plus, there was that Juno nomination this year...

The group cites its biggest influences as Queen, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Beach Boys and Ben Folds Five. That’s not a bad list, if you ask me…and it makes for a compelling blend of sounds. While I do find pop albums to be heavily engineered, mixed and edited, Beach Boys-style a capella vocals combined with catchy punk-rock chords and a Mercury-esque flair for the dramatic make Marianas Trench a band worth listening to.

I chose the first song on the album, but really it’s the whole album that I’m hoping to convince you to listen to. I’ve always been a sucker for a concept album, and Masterpiece Theatre is exactly that. It’s an honest tale of a difficult relationship put through the grinder because of commercial success. It’s a tale of hope, tragedy and yearning…cautionary but sometimes shockingly blunt in its delivery. The title track opens like a prologue:

First it comes on quiet, creeping slow/Clever words and phrases only stain, I remain so/Lost and buried under everything that I need/When all I want is you

And from Josh Ramsay’s mouth comes forth a story, probably containing more of his own life than he perhaps intended, but artists seem to work with what’s in their hearts. Themes and lyrics are revisited in the middle of the album with Masterpiece Theatre II, and the tale continues to unfold until a brilliant climax with the final track, Masterpiece Theatre III, which combines lyrics from every track on the album and weaves them together to tell the listener how the story ends. When you listen to an album and focus on the lyricist’s intent, I find that it can give the music an entirely new meaning.

Ever After was the follow-up album to Masterpiece Theatre, and it continued the concept album theme to the point where tracks segued perfectly into each other, both musically and thematically. Ramsay’s stated intent (paraphrased) was to bridge ideas across the entire opus, creating a pop-rock symphony around a fairy-tale concept. I haven’t fallen in love with it yet, but in some ways I am slow to love. It took a long road trip and a rough patch in my life for me to find the deeper value in Masterpiece Theatre, and I suspect that perhaps Ever After demands the same kind of slow, patient love that requires a lot of listening.

My recommendation, however, would be to start with Masterpiece Theatre. You may just find yourself falling in love with Marianas Trench, no matter how entrenched your musical roots.