Celldweller - "Wish Upon a Blackstar"

Celldweller - Wish Upon a Blackstar
2012, FiXT

1. The Arrival
2. Unshakable
3. Blackstar
4. Eon
5. Louder Than Words
6. Memories of a Girl I Haven't Met
7. I Can't Wait
8. Gift For You
9. The Lucky One
10. The Seven Sisters
11. Birthright
12. I Makes No Difference Who We Are
13. The Best It's Gonna Get
14. So Long Sentiment
15. Tainted
16. Against the Tide

For those who don't know already Celldweller is comprised of one mister Klayton Scott (aka Scott Albert) of Circle of Dust fame. Circle of Dust put out three "official" albums with the last being Disengage. After that, Scott Albert changed his name and became Celldweller. Celldweller is a bit more commercial and not as heavy - leaning on the more dance/electronica side of things. I've never really given Celldweller a chance for whatever reason so I decided to pick up the latest and see if it did anything for me. Good news - it does do something for me! Yay! Klayton finds a way to add just about any kind of electronic music from Dub Step to industrial and make it work. The songs are quite entertaining. And while some of them occasionally sound like a Transformer throwing up, Klayton uses a lot of melody, clean vocals, and even live instruments. Is there such a thing as progressive industrial? Anyway, I really do enjoy this disc. I may have to pick up the debut someday.

According to Klayton, Wish Upon a Blackstar is a concept album. The concept being "be careful what you wish for." I'm not sure what the actual story is, if there is one. It seems like the first few tracks start telling a story about an alien invasion. Then the middle tracks talk about relationships (with lyrics that could have been on Argyle Park's Misguided), then the last few tracks seem to pick up the alien thing again. I don't really know.

Useless Fact: Work on Wish Upon a Blackstar began as early as 2004! Klayton would release chapters of two songs each as songs were done. Eventually they were collected last year and released as an album.