Good & Evil: An Album About Contrast
Good & Evil is Tally Hall’s second album- and their last- released on June 21st, 2011.
Tally Hall is an early 2000s band consisting of five members. Joe Hawley (red tie, guitarist/vocalist), Rob Cantor (yellow tie, guitarist/vocalist), Zubin Sedghi (blue tie, bassist/vocalist), Andrew Horowitz (green tie, keyboardist/vocalist), and Ross Federman (gray tie, drummer/percussionist). The band branches into several genres, such as alternative rock, hip hop music, indie pop, power pop, and progressive pop! Though the band went on an indefinite hiatus in late 2011, some members still make music. The band had released two albums: Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum and Good & Evil.
Good & Evil is an album about contrast. Though this was their second album, it is much different than their first. With 14 songs, the album shows how far Tally Hall can go with their variety in music. Some songs are a bit more slow-paced, such as “Who You Are”, “A Lady”, “You”, and “Fate of the Stars”. While others are much more upbeat, or faster, like “Never Meant To Know”, “Turn the Lights Off”, “&” and even more! The whole theme of the album is contrast, whether that being contradicting ideas, songs, or even entire songs about contrast. The album is worth a listen, at a length of only 48:50. Not all songs feature the same vocalists, but the main three are Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, and Zubin Sedghi. However, Andrew Horowitz appears in the song “You” as the main vocalist. Through their amazing three-toned harmonies, Tally Hall expresses much musical talent, especially in this album.
One of the main songs that shows contrast in the album is “&” which is quite literally a summary of the album's duality and contrast. The song (excluding the title) says the word (or symbol) ‘&’ a total of fifty times! The song itself has a motif from another song in the album, “A Lady” with the two having the same melody but different lyrics. “&” is also one of the most popular songs in the album, as it spikes in popularity every once in a while when it resurfaces on social media or in fandoms. Unlike the rest of the album, “&” is more blunt about its contrast (hence the name and the use of the word/symbol ‘&’ throughout the song) and deals with opposites in a variety of forms rather than just focusing on one opposite/contrast like the rest of the songs.
Some songs are more popular than others (such as “&”, “Turn the Lights Off”, and “Cannibal”), while some are hidden gems. One of my personal favorites (which is the shortest song in the album, at a whopping minute and five seconds) is “A Lady” which is seen as a reprise of the song “&” and shows even more contrast. “&” being more blunt, louder, and straight to the point; and “A Lady” being more vague, “softer” and ominous in multiple ways. Tally Hall uses their wonderful harmonies to illustrate this effect on listeners.
Those aren’t the only songs that experience duality. “Turn the Lights Off” experiences the theme of dreams vs nightmares, and “You & Me” is about the song's speaker and the person close to them. Tally Hall truly shows the duality and themes of contrast throughout this album by using their harmonies and wonderful lyricalism to convey that.
