Pagan Wanderer Lu - Build library here (or else)
'Build library here (or else)' is a reissue of Pagan Wanderer Lu's 2005 album, which features tracks profiling his recording career. This album is quite strange it comes to its style and content. The first track, 'The ending makes what came before a story' is misleading into what the rest of the album is going to sound like. It opens with an acoustic guitar, some very good rhythms and vocals which are accompanied with some lyrics as if being read straight from a story book; "It's like joy will come first, and then always comes sorrow, you could get hit by the future tomorrow". Unfortunately this amazing track is probably the best thing the album has to offer.
As the album continues, there are some tracks similar in sound to the opener, while others have more electro-pop touches, such as 'Show me yr knuckles'. The instruments are used in various ways on this record. Some are electric such as the instrumental 'Harp and chainsaw', then there is the hazy electro track, 'Good Christian/bad Christian', in which the instrumental becomes rather creative and the guitars stand out, the deep piano in 'Goodnight', with guitar and drums exploring loud explosive effects which when combined go very well together. The harmonica in 'Yr on my shoulder', is very effective and with the catchy base of track 'O Peter! (Won't you hear my mournful strum?)' I found my pen tapping along. Unfortunately, as with a few of the tracks, the beats are very interchangeable and so 'O Peter! (Won't you hear my mournful strum?)' gets dreary and the mix of guitar pings on '(Sick of) playing solo' would have been outstanding if electronic sounds like a game machine were left out. At one point the guitar kicks in as the vocalist announces 'check out my guitar solo' – it would have been outstanding and really made an impression of those machine noises were not as predominant – a disappointment.
The vocals throughout the album go between being plain and boring like in 'Yr on my shoulder', to low and deep in 'Goodnight'. The only thing that keeps a listener entertained by the vocals are the lyrics coming out of them, which for the much part are nothing to write home about. Some of the best include "Well we fought some fights, turned some wrongs into rights and we got a clearer conscious we can sleep at night" in 'Keep the weather out' and '2 bullets' with its build up and then "put a bullet in your head" after which all hell breaks lose and the music and vocals are at two very different paces; the vocals are also too low.
There are the good tracks, the bad tracks, and the tracks that are so unpredictable you won't know what to make of them until the end.