Chameleon Circuit: Still Got Legs review!

I've heard the new album from the band called Chameleon Circuit, and I loved it! Even more than I expected to! It's great that the music is all about Doctor Who, but the music itself was amazing! It helps that I know exactly what the background story of the songs are, but they are amazing as standalone pieces as well. I want to write a little about what I thought about the songs and the album. I have no clue about music other than my own enjoyment of it, so this will be a very amateurish review. No professionalism to be found here! :)

I think my favorite songs of the album are Kiss the Girl, The Sound of Drums, The Silence and the end of all Things, Mr. Pond and Big Bang Two. Especially Mr. Pond, Kiss the Girl and Big Bang Two are the ones I sing the most loudly to in my car! :D

01 - The Subwave Signal

This one is a short, introduction-type track. Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel... :P

02 - Regenerate me

Ten personas I’ve walked the Earth
Sole protector of the human race
You will know me by the big blue box
But you may never know my face

This was a really great standalone song! The band seems to like the combination of "exterminate/regenerate". Not sure why, but I got chills at the line "You will know me by the big blue box". My choice of words to doodle at a piece of paper one time I was really bored later that day.

03 - Nightmares

I've ended lies and ended worlds, I guess I've done it all.
Fire and ice and rage inside, how long 'til I fall?

This reminds me of another song I've heard, but I can't remember which... This was a nice, calm song, but not much to comment on here I think.

04 - Travelling Man

Even if he has to die five hundred and seven times
The Traveling man will save the day

Ooo, it trails seamlessly over from the last track! This was where I realized that almost all of the songs on the album does this. Really cool! This song seems to be about the Doctor through the eyes of others. Also, I loved the lyrics. For example this part, I realized after a while that the number here is the number of regeneration the Doctor (jokingly?) mentions in "The Death of the Doctor".

Everybody knows that everybody dies
But nobody knows it like him
I think all the lights would drain out of the skies
If he ever gave up trying

They also have included song versions of some of Reinette's dialogue from "The Girl in the Fireplace" and River's final dialouge from "Forest of the Dead". Gaah, I loved it. I always get really emotional about the start/end of River and the Doctor's relationship, and this didn't change anything! Gah...

05 - Everything is ending

You're human, you're Amy
This is my fairytale

This was one I liked more because of the story than the actual song, but it was still a nice song. It actually sounded like something from Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog! I don't know who the female singer is, but her singing style reminded me of Felicia Day. This is a duet between Amy and the Doctor, mostly about what happened at the end of "Flesh and Stone". I loved the part I added here. So fitting for Amy.

06 - Mr. Pond

I know you save the universe,
and she paints you in perfect light,
and though I may be just a nurse,
The doctor isn’t always right.

The lyrics are so clever! This was my first favorite, and one of those really good ones. It is sung from Rory's point of view at the start of season 5, and is about the problems he has with the Doctor and Amy's fascination with him. Not sure if I have a particular point about this one, just that it was glued to my brain an entire day at work. I love both the melody and the lyrics. And the base that goes along with what "Rory" is singing. "Cause I wanna be, Mr. Pond, and there's so many things that could go wrong"...

07 - Kiss the Girl

She’s not my girlfriend
She’s just a friend who’s a girl
She’s my colleague, she’s my best mate
And she rocks my world

This was also one of the first songs I really noticed, right after Mr. Pond. I usually have to listen to an album two-three-times before I actually remember what I've been listening to, and notice which I liked. Kiss the girl struck me at once. (Little Mermaid associations) I just love this part I added here. It's so damn catchy! Also, "Monkies, monkies, monkies, monkies..." ^^ "But what about the monkies? / Oh not again, not when the world's about to burn, just for God's sake, kiss the girl."

08 - Knock Four Times

It is returning through the dark,
Doctor, you have met your mum
Your song is ending, so don't cry,
When you hear him knock four times.

This one is really clever when you have listened to the entire album. It's also a really short track where they only sing about something returning, and that "when you hear him knock four times". Love the forshadowing here, just like in the show! I wonder if "mum" is the correct word there. I thought it was "mark" or something, but I just can't make out the words! Mum sounds strange, there was speculation that the woman in The End of Time was his mother, but he hasn't met her yet in this song.

09 - Teenage Rebel

I used to be old but now I feel young
‘Cause I was a boy when I learned how to run

This one is about the Doctor's different regenerations. Great song about Doctor Who, and a great song! It sounds really professional! (no offence, guys! I'm not calling you amateurs! ;)) But I don't get the title! It makes the song sound a bit... cheap. Teenage pop-ish. :P Teenage Rebel? Meh. Doesn't quite work for me.

10 - Big Bang Two

Oh my God what will they do
Seems impossible to get through,
My mind is blown I bet yours is too,
Well I guess this is Doctor Who.

This was also one of the ones I started singing to very quickly. This part here is a really perfect description of Moffat's Doctor Who. Haha, I love Charlie! ^^ Had to listen to it a couple of times before I remembered that part by heart though!

11 - Eleven

This was a short track that was a bit rocked up version of Murray Gold's I am the Doctor. Really cool! And bad ass.

12 - The Sound of Drums

Each Time Lord child
Approaches the eye
Forced to behold the vortex
To be inspired or run
But as I gazed into the vastness of time
I heard the sound of drums

This one is told from the Master's perspective, and is a cover of a song by another band playing songs about Doctor who called Quantum Locked. I liked this song more and more each time I listened to it! At first I didn't pay too much attention, but it sounded great. Then I listened more to the melody, and then started thinking about what he were singing about. I really get chills at some parts. Especially this first quote here. I couldn't quite make out the first two lines at first, but when I did it made a bit more sense. I keep hitting rewind to listen to that part again. Even in my car.

Now I lay in your arms
Mortally wounded in your care
I’ll leave you here forever
Last of the Time Lords once again

And this part here, oh my. I think I feel tears forming in my eyes at the "Last of the Time Lords once again." The only part I didn't quite like with the song is where the singer (Charlie?) that "plays" the Doctor starts yelling "regeneraaaaate!" I don't know, it sounded a bit weird to me. Not natural maybe?

13 - Silence and the End of All Things

Amelia, the girl who waited,
No longer will you wait for me.

I like this more for the Doctor Who stuff, but this has some amazing musical parts. I didn't really notice this song before a couple of turns. (I blame my crappy car stereo!) The first part of this that really struck me was the part where the Doctor speaks/sings to Amelia "In your dreams I'll still be there with all the days that never came." Oh lordy. My heart! Oh dear, my heart...

But, one amazing part in this song was the clever transition to (what I think is) "Little Amy" from the season 5 soundtrack. The line goes something like "...inside the box the bluest blue." And the oo-sound in blue just trails seamlessly into the ooooo-humming of the piece from the soundtrack. I don't know how the copyright works with stuff like this, but oh my God if that didn't make me rewind the song a bit back and listen to that part over again. So beautiful!

Also, I love the irony in the fact that the "You know I hate repeats"-line is repeated!

14 - The Doctor is Dying

I dooooon't want to goooooo.

This one repeats the eighth track, Knock four times (really clever continuity!) and then tells the story of Tenth Doctor's "death". Another use of the word "regenerate"! It also keeps repeating Ten's last line "I don't want to go", which I loathed beyond reason. Though I can't help singing along, damn you, CC. ;)

15 - Still not Ginger

Legs! Still got legs,
And there's life in this old horse yet,
And I know there's going to be an awful lot of running to do.

This starts with the Doctor's first moments in new bodies, Ten and Eleven respectivly. Really cute and fun piece after a lot of a bit of dark songs. Love the transition from death in the previous track to life in this one. And I love the way the title of the album appears in the beginning here, "Legs, still got legs." And I don't know if it's just my mind making things up, but I like the "That's all folks" way the line is sung. :)