gcn - this place called earth

GCN 

This Place Called Earth
self-released; 2013

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

GCN is a project that revolves around one man who occasionally collaborates with a couple of his buddies. The recent release this place called earth is a lo-fi sounding pop album that is quite diverse. More often than not the production is too poor for my liking but not to the point where the songs are unlistenable.  The songs themselves are hit or miss and feel like disparate singles rather than an album that is cohesively connected.

The album starts with “The beginning,” which is comprised of an electronic sounding harp, programmed drums and a lead vocal that sounds like it was manipulated with multiple filters. I can't figure for the life of me if the lead vocalist is actually five years old or it just sounds like that. “I’m not ready” is most likely a different vocalist because it is clearly a man who is singing. This song isn't too shabby it is just held back by the recording quality. It has an upbeat momentum but never gets to the point of feeling electric.

“Dance Free” sounds like a music you might encounter while visiting a piano bar at 2 o’clock in the morning while “Stay Beside Me” has a relaxed feel but suffers from sibilance issues when the vocalist is singing (use a deEsser for these issues in post-production). I was getting down with “No Email.” It vaguely reminded me of Ariel Pink and the vocal harmonies worked wonders on the aesthetics of the song.

“Never” is an oddly attractive song. The synthetic generic synths were appealing although the vocals were in desperate need of proper compression. “Dirty Disease” overstays its welcome and needed some more variation but “The Last Word” closes the album with one of the strongest song on the album. 

GCN has some well-written songs but desperately needs some tune-ups on the engineering department. There are a couple of songs on this album that you will want to check out.