Leeni, "8-Bit Heart"

Leeni
"8-Bit Heart"
(Self-Released)

It's been a long time since I graced the internets with my cackles and shameless quest to talk smack upon those who deserve it. I spend so much time writing throughout my day, that all I ever really feel like writing is the bits and pieces that I dispense either on stayoffthecrack or moviescenester.com. Pop culture-wise, there hasn't been enough activity that's worth writing about, save the following factoids:

1. I finally got "30 Rock" Season 1 (Thanks, James!)
2. "Cloverfield" will be out on Friday (Wikipedia has the full movie summary and I'm sure it'll pop up in a pirated format soon enough).
3. I was going to go see the Finch reunion show tonight, but I'm staying in Olympia to mingle with my co-workers; also, I'm broke.

With that said, two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing this girl named Leeni play the Rendezvous in Seattle. She sang over a keyboard and beats provided by an old school Gameboy (and not the Advance or DS Lite for you youngsters). At the time, I didn't have enough cash to pony up in order to buy her CD, but I managed to buy one anyway [1] once I had a paycheck come through.

"8-Bit Heart" is this amazing album. To spare this review of any hyperbole, let me say that all the songs sound the same, Leeni more-or-less uses the same melody throughout the record, and it works better as a gimmick record.

Except for the fact that it also works as an actualized project.

If you get past the whole "oooh cute girl makes songs with Gameboy" schtick, "8-Bit Heart" is actually quite clever, particularly in the lyrics department. Leeni's words are, at times, self-deprecating and, at other times, viciously critical of whoever broke her heart. On the album's highlight, "Perfection Interrupted," the hook is so catchy and so emotionally tugging, I dare not rewrite them; you just have to listen to it.

While most people could also dismiss this album because the songs rely heavily on using the same programmed drums, to me, it runs more as a cohesive thought; a characteristic that most albums lack nowadays since it's mostly about singles. And really, concept albums rarely work as a whole anyway.

There's a reason why I actually bought "8-Bit Heart" versus downloading or burning it from one of my friends. If you're going to spend money on something, it might as be something worthwhile, which Leeni happens to be.

[1] See, RIAA, people still buy stuff.