The Chainsmokers

There's a saying that goes: "Aim for the moon, so that when you miss, you can land on the sky.” That saying is used to encourage people to aspire to greatness, to aim for the best, be it in education, career or when choosing a life partner. Like apply for these ivy league schools so that even if you don't get this one, you may get the other one. Or get your acts together so that even if you don't score a win, you would still acquire a good number of fans, as in the case of showbiz. In other words, whichever one of these you get is cool, but you have to focus your energy and attention in that direction to get them. It's a win win thing. Usually it requires a lot of preparation and hard work to do this and succeed, and those who are determined to be great achieve it in the end. That was somewhat the case with The Chainsmokers' sophomore studio album Sick Boy. That album can be considered great and awesome, but a further look at its make up reveals the strategy, hard work, determination, and promotions that went behind the scenes before it became great. That body of work can best be described as a wonderful compilation of ten great songs, not because those ten songs are too exceptional, but because they were given proper attention and planning both in their preparation and in their releases. So in other words, we could say that The Chainsmokers put in the work to make sure that these songs came out right, and then also put in the same amount of energy in the post production - strategy, marketing, etc. - so that even if the songs don't make it to the top as expected, the extra work put in the post production would do the magic for them, and vice versa. It's a win win situation and it worked exactly that way, in their favor. They say the patient dog eats the fattest bone, but where I come from, the patient dog goes to bed hungry. The world is increasingly getting more competitive so only the smart and strong have a likelihood to come out victorious. Desperate times require desperate situations indeed!

EDM has been making waves in the music industry lately. With artists like Zedd, Marshmello, and these guys named Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, otherwise known as The Chainsmokers. This EDM duo became popular thanks to the song “#Selfie” in 2014. Currently, they have been collaborating with artists like 5 Seconds of Summer (“Who Do You Love”), Bebe Rexha (“Call You Mine”), and Ty Dolla $ign (“Do You Mean”) on their latest EP titled World War Joy. Today I will feature their popular EP titled Collage, the EP that paved the way to the start of their breakout career.

It was suggested that I listen to The Chainsmoker’s new album because they have a newer, more original production value, relying on some organic instrumentals and more of the pop duo’s vocal contributions. First of all, I commend DJs and producers who take up the challenge to offer more than collaborations and remixes – and on this point, The Chainsmoker’s work hard to put themselves up front and center on tracks such as “Beach House”, “Sick Boy”, “Everybody Hates Me”, and “You Owe Me”, while numerous other tracks will find them sharing some singing duties with the feature artist. I think that they do possess, as a singing duo, a basic ability to get their melodic messages across – yet, their sound is not only derivative of Pop or Alternative artists such as Gnash and Twenty one pilots, respectfully, but on specific tracks, the quality of their vocalization is so unbelievably whiney and nasally that I shudder to listen to the whole song. Hey, I don’t mind a nasal delivery if it is backed by some Soul – Stevie Wonder, who has a basically universally agreed upon dynamic style, is in itself more nasally than others, and I can remember having a hard tie conceptualizing the worth of his voice whilst arguing with a Rock fan who simply hated his out-of-the-nose belting. But that’s real singing. The Chainsmoker’s never said they were singers, but they are ‘producer extraordinaries’ to the ears of the Pop scene – are they not? So how come that can’t hear how unattractive they sound? If you can’t sell it, find someone who can – is what I say.

When it comes to The Chainsmokers, there’re essentially two camps of people: Those who think they’re the second coming of Christ, like some sort of phenomenal electronic duo who cannot do wrong & those who think they’re a scourge to the overarching electronic music scene, pushing the genre & the entire music industry as a whole in the completely wrong direction as far as trends & popular aesthetics are concerned. For years, I was part of the second group, quickly turning off the radio if one of their songs came on & using them as a scapegoat for my hatred whenever someone who was clearly influenced by their music released a similar-sounding composition, feeling like their continued fame would keep the industry from progressing so long as mainstream listeners kept lapping up every generic monstrosity they dropped; But then, something drastically changed & my attention was once-again turned towards the goofy-looking duo, only this time I was actually interested in what they were putting out – This change was , of course, Sick Boy, the second studio album from the group & a possible sign of them finally growing up as musicians, presenting audiences with a harder, much darker sound & a more varied set of sonic techniques throughout the record. Now, instead of hearing the same boring Tropical House bops & Future Bass ballads like “Paris” or “Something Just Like This” I was genuinely intrigued with