Listening to Serj Tankian's solo album, "Imperfect Harmonies." Serj is the lead singer of System of a Down. So far, I'm impressed. Serj brings SOAD's love of experimentation to his solo album, which is awesome. What I've always loved about SOAD is that every song is completely different from all their others, while retaining a certain "flavor" that connects them in a way that you can immediately tell by listening, "Oh, that has GOT to be a System of a Down song!" At the same time, the songs so far on Serj's solo album have a different flavor from SOAD songs. It's a similar flavor, like how cheddar cheese is similar to American Cheese (for lack of a better comparison). I like the differences, he makes them really work well. It's a little softer than SOAD's usual fare, but still nowhere near a lullabye.

The first song, "Disowned Inc.," did a spectacular job at making chaotic, unmelodic piano (and other) sounds melodic despite their unmelody. The... chord? whatever: the bit of music the first song repeats sounds like someone banging keys haphazardly on a piano, but the repitition of that sound, and the addition of sounds that balance it out and move in harmony with it, gives it a melodic feel nonetheless. This CD will be worth it if only for that song, though the other songs so far are pretty good too. Here, I'll let you judge for yourself:



Serj also keeps SOAD's signature criticism of corporations, war, nationalism, and other societal ills, at least in some of the songs (I haven't read all the lyrics yet). Like "Borders Are":



I haven't heard the whole CD yet, but so far, I give this album two thumbs and a big toe UP!