Buddahead, Ashes

I’m going to be honest and lay the facts on the table. This review has been over due for about two months. Okay six, but who’s counting? Well, okay, maybe my editor is, but that’s beside the point. This review is late partly because I became overwhelmed and put too much on my plate, getting greedy and wearing myself thin, but part of the blame can also be handed out to Buddahead and their infectious melodies and tunes.

Ashes, the second full-length release from Buddahead, a band hailing from New York, was my Kryptonite after only one listen. For a while, I was unable to start the review, let alone take notes. I could barely hold the CD in my hands; it just lay there on the dashboard of my car, taunting me to give it one more listen time and time again, and when my will subdued the fear and I finally took another listen to it again, it was just as I had suspected. Nothing. With each new listen to the album, a new idea formed inside my head. The gears that turn my brain would flood my mind with words and ideas, a new intro or ending, a different angle to take the story in, and it all stemmed from whatever mood I was in.

I was at my wits’ end, not being able to decide which direction to go. Every angle would change the mood of the review, maybe portray the band as a different entity. This was my dilemma. So I came up with the only solution that I could think of, given the allotted time. Throw bits and pieces of all my intros, endings, and angles and make one review that would lead the reader into many different roads. Which isn’t a long shot from what Ashes really is, since it’s an album full of twists and turns. So, follow along as I try and make sense of Buddahead…the best band not being played on the radio.

Ashes consists of nine tracks that take the listener into the psyche of lead singer Raman Kia, the vocalist and lyricist for the band. And don’t be surprised if after the first track, “Ruin,” your ears are startled by the voice coming through the speakers. Kia’s voice travels the scales of musical notes, hitting each one perfectly. His vocal prowess will have you questioning yourself, wondering why you’ve never heard his name or, more specifically, his voice before. Kia has the kind of talent that will more often than not find him in the hands of American Idol producers, who’ll try to shove him down your throat as the next great pop artist of our generation.

Kia has gone through a long journey to get to the point he is at right now. As a young boy, he witnessed the violence of the Iranian Revolution, which led him and his father to flee from their homeland of Iran and migrate to London. While in London, he finally met the mother he had never met, she having left while Raman was only a tiny infant for London. He found the schooling of British Military School a bit harsh, so he needed an outlet for his frustration, and music was it. He was so intuitively skilled at this creative channeling that he attracted the interest of a major London music publisher; Raman decided instead to flee once again, however, this time setting his sights on America.

After making the rounds in New York City and Los Angeles, he signed a deal with Interscope Records. But the joy would be short-lived. He soon learned the direction the label wanted to send him in and, not satisfied with the mold they were trying to fit him in, he walked, opting to do it on his own, whether that meant failing miserably or succeeding gracefully. Many accolades can be given for this decision, leaving potentially millions on the table and taking a very punk, D.I.Y attitude in the process. The decision proved to be wise. On his travels as a solo artist, he would meet the future members of Buddahead, bassist Toby Evers, guitarist Simon Gibson, and drummer Richard Scannella.

As a band, Buddahead play just the right notes to compliment Raman Kia, who himself dons an acoustic guitar for the album. Gibson plays his lead with just enough dexterity as to not overpower or steal the spotlight. Scannella keeps the band on beat, keeping the pace of the song like a steady heartbeat, his fills not overstaying their welcome, and the same can be said for bassist Evers, his steady rhythm playing following the kick drum to perfection.

“Brakes,” the second track on the album, is a tribute to that, as they all play clearly and with just enough force, leaving room for Kia to sing about ashes of torched relationships. The first line that opens the song — “For crying out loud / these are the physics of goodbye” — breaks the emotional roller coaster of the relationship into a science, and the chorus, “I can see / that I’m crashing so fast into you / I’m too late it’s now time to brake,” simply finally giving up on the love that was once shared.

It should come as no surprise that while in London, Kia took hold of the music that inhabits the region. Tracks like “Sour Grapes” and “Strangest Most Beautiful” do their best imitation of a pre-pubescent Radiohead and an up-and-coming Muse all rolled up into one. His vocal work on these two songs recalls a young Thom Yorke.

In “Sour Grapes,” the music is dark and invigorating, fitting the mood in which Kia delivers the lyrics. The music behind him is tragically played in bits and pieces from the beginning before unleashing a full-on chorus and breaking down with a semi-electronic drum break. The guitars are fuzzy and trashy, they’re dirty yet fully beautiful. In contrast, “Strangest Most Beautiful” begins with painfully stricken guitar picking. Kia soon follows with a tearfully felt swooning vocal line, but the song picks up the tempo, and so does Kia, doing a 180 and altering his vocal pitch to a higher octave.

On songs like “If I Tried,” “Standing Still,” and “Story of Our Lives,” Buddahead shift from their dark Radiohead-esque tunes to take a stab at pop songs, and they do a great job. These three songs can easily be heard sandwiched in between Coldplay and The Fray, or even next to Nickelback on any Top 40 radio station. Raman Kia clearly proves what the labels already know: the man can sing and write catchy pop songs that stay with you long after the songs end.

With Ashes being their second full-length, it’s clear that Buddahead has hit their stride in this album. Pressing but less frantic, Ashes is the union of a band that is maturing, fully embracing the influences that brought them together in the first place. While their first album Crossing the Invisible Line had artful tracks, it barely hinted at what was to come. Ashes is the fruition of the roiling emotions that lay beneath their smooth surface and the truly dramatic stories Kia is finally able to tell.