New Avengers In Sci-Fi: “Sonic Fireworks”
What a strange little song this is. Avengers In Sci-Fi’s new single “Sonic Fireworks” jumps from anthem-aping rock to more straightforward J-Rock terrain, but does it in such a rapid-fire way it sometimes feels a bit woozy. This group has never been afraid of launching off in a bunch of directions at once, and for the most part “Sonic Fireworks” seems like a streamlined approach to their star-gazing brand of rock, something clearly trying to be more commercially acceptable but also showing “artistry.”
The weird part? The Auto-tune, which pops up before the chorus and is really jarring. Simply labeling the software as “bad for music” is one of the laziest things a music critic can do, Auto-tune capable of being a really beneficial sound in the right hands. Yet I’m not sure Avengers In Sci-Fi fall in that category – here, it just seems completely unnecessary and even counter-productive. If we assume the worst-case scenario as to why they decided to break out the software for “Sonic Fireworks” (that they wanted to mask imperfect singing), they botched it because Auto-tune doesn’t really cover up bad singing, which is what that pre-chorus howl is! Remember 808s and Heartbreak? Kanye couldn’t sing, and Auto-tune didn’t turn him into John Legend. Same goes for Avengers here – it’s a baffling decision that mars (heh) an otherwise fine single.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7rllMNJA4″]
