Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum

I've actually never written a review before, but I have many thoughts on music, so might as well start! I'm gonna start with my faviorite album, one that I've listened to literally hundreds of times, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum by Tally Hall. I wasn't lying in my about me when I said I was gonna be talking about Tally Hall on here! This review will be split into 4 sections. The first one is gonna be dicussing the band itself and my history with it, the second section being the 2005 mix of the album, and the the 2008 remaster (As of writing, its that ones anniversary :DD). I'll probably end it with final thoughts. The 2005 section will discuss individual songs, while the 2008 one will be focusing on its changes. For this review, I will be listening to the album on CD using a pair of Technics SB-A52 speakers. That might be brought up later.

The one on the left is the 2005, the one on the right is the 2008. Theres also a 2006 mix but thats hardly diffrent then the 05.

Tally Hall and My Relationship With The Band

I, like many, discovered Tally Hall through the Ruler of Everything meme, and as most retards do, I listened to the song on loop for like 3 hours straight. I fucking loved it. It was really the first "real" (non video game/video game parody) music that I actually listened to. I listened to a few other songs after that but didn't end up listening to the whole album until I was walking through my local park one night. Needless to say, I mostly loved it (outside of a few tracks, will get to them later on haha). I eventually got the CD from Needlejuice, started collecting all the bands older releases meeting people along the way, until a little less than a year ago when I was added as mod on the Hidden in the Sand discord. Ik being a discord mod is stereotypically cringey but I still find it really cool that I was chosen to represent HITS (thanks Ant for putting in the word) It was really intresting going from just an average surface level fan to someone with all the releases physically, meeting one of the members, and becoming a community figure head of sorts. In short, I love this band and I am incredibly biased. Keep that in mind for this review haha

Here is my ever growing horde. Take that as you will

2005 Marvins

I'll start of by saying this is my prefered version of the album. It is much rougher than the remaster, so I'll try to be objective about it during the 2008 comparison section. This album came out on November 22cd, 2005 so its actually pretty damn old. It's gonna be 20 in 2 years! It was released under Quack Media! and mastered by Greg Polsdofer. Lets hop into the music!

Good Day

I'm going to make a rather bold claim, this is probably the best album opener ever, which I'll go into more detail at in the Welcome to Tally Hall section. The rapid fire intro with clear vocals and whimsical lyrics is amazing. I adore the lyrics in this song, they strike a great balance between sounding great and having meaning. It's also fairly self refreiential with my personal interpretation of the line "Give it a few tries" being in refrence to the band itself. Its weird, its not like most other music, it might need a few plays to click. The whole ending section of the song with everyone chanting "Let Us Sing" is also incredible. Its just joyous and danceable. This song is peak Tally Hall and really showcases what the band can do. INSERT RATING IMAGE HERE (5 star lyrics, 5 star instrumental, 4 star production quality, 5 star positioning, 5 star overall enjoyment. Total rating 4.5

Greener

This is gonna be a bit of a hot take, but I don't really like this song. Its pretty generic and I don't really think its that intresting, but thats almost kind of its purpose. Good Day defiently showcases the sillyer side of Tally Hall, and Greener shows off the more normal side. Once again, I'll dive into more detail about this in Welcome to Tally Hall's section. This song starts off intrestingly though, with its guitar starting in the end of Good Day. This makes it quite funny when going out of order since the Greener transition goes into a random song. As for lyrics, theres one that stands out for me and that is "Time for time together, and depending on the weather, we'll either argue in your house or outside". This whole song seems to be about a mutually destructive relationship that the protagonist just can't let go on, because when his partner is gone, it is still worse then when they are together, which we knows is bad because they fight all the time. Intresting song concept, but if I'm in the mood for that i'll listen to Twin Fantasy. INSERT RATING IMAGE HERE (3 star lyrics, 2 star instrumental, 4 star production quality, 5 star positioning, 3 star over all song enjoyment.)

Welcome to Tally Hall

Now I can finally talk about the opening tracks as a whole. Good Day, Greener, and Welcome to Tally Hall are a trio. Well yes, you can listen to them sepretly, for the full experience, you need all of them. That's true for most of this album, but especially for this. As I said earlier, Good Day showcases the sillier side of the band while Greener is more normal in tone and lyrics. Welcome to Tally Hall combines these elements to explain what you just listened to. It gives you a sample of bost sides of the band before explaining what they are, and I think thats fucking awesome. I've never seen that in an album before.

As for the song itself, it's incredible. Its got a chiptune opening that leads into Rob shouting "Can I get a T?!?" to which the crowd unethusiastically responds "T". It's goofy and I love it. The verses continue to build until you're at the chorus. I like the melodies here and the lyrics are great at explaining the band and what music they play, which is as stated, all of it!. This is played into more because Welcome to Tally Hall is a rap and a rock song. It swaps genres multiple times, which is really neat. After the first chorus, it goes onto introduce each of the members by their tie colors and what role they play in the game. It really adds a lot of personality to the band.

I'm gonna skip ahead a bit in the song, since what I already said applies to the next verses too. By this point, the backing instrumental has built up until it releases into a Jazz bridge. This bridge is fucking incredible. Its so groovy and the lyrics are great. They refrence the actual Marvin's and pain the idea that the band is a puppet show. It ends with the band shouting "We think we're playing in a band! We'd love to give you all a hand!". Now I'm not sure what these lyrics mean, but I like that they give the audience the hand instead of the other way around. The chorus then repeats until the song ends with the crowd (presumbaly the ones from the beggining) all singing "We think were playing in a band! We'd love to give you all a hand! as you can here a large thumping and metal clanking in the background. On subwoofers, this section shakes the whole fucking room its awesome. It then transitions seemlessly into Taken For A Ride. INSERT RATING HERE (4.5 star lyrics, 4 star instrumental, 5 star production quality, 5 star overall enjoyment)

Taken For a Ride

This song stars Marvin, a reoccuring character in the album, struggling with depressions. It uses a heavy, close to ununderstandable robot vocal effect (which I love!), and has really intresting lyrics. It stars off with a simple drum and piano beat but quickly expands into so much more, with tubas and trumpets accompanying the chorus. The chorus itself is amazing as well, the melodies, the lyrics are some of the best Tally Hall has written. This song would be damn near perfect, if it wasn't for the ending verses. The song speeds up and the drums are kinda crazy (watch live performances Ross is killing it lmao), but it just dosen't sound as good as the rest of the song musically. It serves as a sad climax as it seems Marvin might be starting to get better, as the lyrics "And theres something, and theres something, and theres something next to nothing" repeat hopefully until it comes to a halt by saying "But you're gone". Even with this mediocre sounding ending, this song is amazing. INSERT RATING HERE (4.5 star lyrics, 5 star instrumental, 5 star production quality, 5 star position, 5 star overall enjoyment.)

The Bidding

This is one of the tracks that really stood out to me during my first listened. The ominous humming at the begining going into a catchy as hell verse really caught me off gaurd the first time. I'm happy to say that my enjoyment of this song hasn't decreased at all. I love pretty much everything about this track, especially the 2005 version (I'll go into to more detail about this in the 2008 review). I think the lyrics are silly, the melodies and harmonies are tight as fuck, and it dosen't overstay its welcome. The only negative thing about this track is that I am not the biggest fan of the repition in the lyrics of the bridge, but it still sounds great. This review has been very postive so far, I sure hope nothing changes that :3(4.5 star lyrics, 5 star instrumental, 5 star production quality)

Be Born

This track is commonly considered the most hated Tally Hall song, so what do I think? I actually kinda like this one. It's not the best track on the album but it's certainly not the worst. It's a cute little track with nice lyrics, but the part where they go "ba ba ba" annoys me. I think the demo on the Pingry EP is much better than the final, but this track is fine. I don't really have that much to say about it. It's pretty simple, it's about giving birth, I like it in context of the album. I think the constant genre swapping in this album is intresting. That's pretty much it! (3 lyrics, 3 instrumental, 4 production quality, 3 overall enjoyment)

Banana Man

This track is commonly considered the most beloved Tally Hall song, so what do I think? Fuck this stupid, annoying, and boderline racist song. Now I don't think Banana Man is intentioanlly racist, it's pretty easy to see why people do. I'm just gonna leave it at that for that point. This song sounds like shit, it just sounds very boring. I'm not even sure what about it's production that I don't like, but it just dosen't sound that good. The version on Complete Demos is actually pretty solid, so I'm not sure how they messed it up this badly. This song makes me mad and I don't like listening to it. There are 2 parts I do like about it, though

I think the part starting at "Forget all your troubles and go with the flow". I just think it's catchy and I like the lyrics. I also like the little instrumental break with the whistling. It's very relaxing. That's pretty much the only redeeming thing about this track. Luckily it can't get any worse, right? (1.5 star lyrics, 2 star instrumental, 2 star production, 1.5 star overall enjoyability.)

Just Apathy

I really don't even want to talk about this one. It fucking sucks. The lyric sucks. The melodies are boring. The song topic is done to death. It goes on for too long. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't enjoy listening to it. The one lyric I kinda like is "Consider the possibility that you've been had, but not by me. We're just kids, don't worry about this". I really like that part of the song, but that's it. Maybe this song would be better if it was about gay people, but probably not. (1 star instrumental, 1 star instrumental, 4 star production, 1.5 overall enjoyment.)

Spring & a Storm

The fact that this album can go from one of my most hated songs of all time to my most loved is incredible. Spoiler alert for the rest of this song, it's fucking amazing. I really like the lofi mixing at the beggining so when the electric guitars come in, they hit so much harder. I love the rain sound effects that come and go throughout the song. The lyrics and melodies are so amazing too. Here are some of my faviorites.

"But all the rain comes down the same
Falling to from where it came
On the ground then back around
Up in the sky"

"I wish you could have heard the music
When the clouds growled overhead"

"Well, I think you return to obscure
Or wherever you were
Before you were
But I won't let you lose yourself
In the rain"

"We have so much left to sing
There's a storm for every spring"

"Create until nothing is left to create and
The universe bursts with an overworked sigh then
Pretend to pretend to re-crown the creation and
Sing the same thing 'til the clouds start to cry and then
Over and over and over again and then
Over and over and
Never again"

I am more than well aware that I put more than half of the song here. I wanted to put more. I really like this song. I really like it's meaning. There isn't a single thing I don't like about it. I also really like the vocal harmony and how each part of the harmony is in a diffrent channel during the Mr. Moon section. It's such a cool effect and I love it. That's all I gotta say.

Two Wuv

This comes right after Spring & a Storm, so does it live up to that song? Not at all! Is it still good? Kinda, lets get into it. I'm really mixed on this song. I think it's catchy and I like the instrumental. I think the lyrics are funny and it's overall pretty enjoyable. I adore it's music video and the little bee sound effect in the middle of the song. So then why am I so mixed? I do like celebrity stalking songs and I do like how now everything I here the names "Mary Kate and Ashley" I go into fight or flight mode, so what don't I like about this song. I really do not know. It's just fine, leaning towards good. That's all I really have to say. (lyrics 3.5, 4 instrumental, 4 production, 3.5 overall enjoyment

Haiku

This is an intresting one. I liked it at first, but over my literal hundreds of listens. I'm sick of it. This song is very gimmicy, which isn't inherently bad, but after this many listens I would be content never hearing it again. The lyrics are goofy, I think it's cool that every line is a broken haiku except for the one which is just slyables, and I adore Joe shouting "I WROTE A HAIKU! FOR YOUUUUUUUUU!". It's a good song, I'm just bored and kinda sick of it. Overall, it's still a fine song. I'd put it in the same category as Be Born.

The Whole World & You

This song is funny because my feelings about it took the exact opposite path of my Haiku take. I used to think it was just ok, but now it's one of my faviorite Tally Hall songs. It's simple, it was written in an hour, so what do I like about it? I think a lot of this comes from the fact that it was the last song Tally Hall preformed live. It makes me think of the band and feel warm inside. It's really comforting and sweet. It's just so... Tally Hall. Its such a simple track but really gains more and more meaning the deeper you get into the Tally Hall fandom. I really like how you can hear the idividual piano keys being pressed at the beginning of the song, I really like the whole "Please don't just laugh and clap right now" section. It's just special and nice. (4.5 lyrics, 4.5 instrumental, 5 production, 5 overall enjoyment

13

doo doo doo doo, dooo doo doodoodoo(ah ah ah)doo doo doo dooDoodoo doo dah dum bum

Ruler of Everything

Oh boy. I'm gonna go into a lot of detail here. Lets start off with the intro. I love 13 as the intro, the strings and the crechendo into the xylophone (or glockenspiel, I forgot the name of the instrument my bad) is so amazing. Let's start with the opening lyrics.

"Juno was mad, he knew he'd been had
So he shot at the sun with a gun
Shot at the sun with a gun
Shot at his wily one only friend"

The simply instrumental, and the soft distorted vocals here are great. It's so eerie but beautiful at the same time. The lyrics themselves are very well written and create a very vivid picture of what's happening at the beggining of the song. But it gets even better as it builds up and expands masterfully into the bridge.

"In the gallows or the ghetto
In the town or the meadow
In the billows even over the sun
Every end of the time is another begun"

I like the lyrics and melody here and this is when the song starts to talk about time, which is it's main theme. It shows that no matter where you are, time will outlive you. When it's over, it will restart. I would also like to give a shout out to the early version of this verse.

"In the gallows or the ghetto
In the town or the meadow
In the future
Even over the sun
It can never be stopped
If it hasn't begun"

I like these lyrics a lot as well. I don't have much to say about them but I think they're neat. Let's delve into the chorus.

"You understand
Mechanical hands
Are the ruler of everything
Ruler of everything
I'm the ruler of everything
In the end"

The mechanical hands represent time, everyone knows that already so I'm not gonna delve into the meaning of these lyrics. The first verse transfers into the chorus so well, and the instrumental cut outs with the angelic "Ahhs" is such a nice detail. I can't believe that this was one of the first songs Joe ever wrote.

"Do you like how I dance?
I've got zirconium pants!
Consequential enough
To slip you into a trance

Do you like how I walk?
Do you like how I talk?
Do you like how my face
Disintegrates into chalk?"

I have a wonderful wife
I have a powerful job
She criticizes me for being egocentric (Ha ha ha ha!)

This set of lines introduces us to a new character. An egotistical nameless young man we will call Guy. This section of the song consists of Guy and Time talking, with Guy speaking in the undistorted voice. He is very focused on what other people think about him. Constantly focusing on inconsiquential thing, like wheter people like his weird pants or how he walks. He continues to list things he has, but even he can see the cracks in his character and openly admits his wife calls him egocentric. I really like how Zubin (singer for Guy) sounds like hes in the top left shouting when you wear headphones, it's neat.

You practice your mannerisms
Into the wall
If this mirror were clearer
I'd be standing so tall!

I saw you slobber over clovers
On the side of the hill
I was observing the birds
Circle in for the kill

This next set of lyrics features Time critcizing Guy once more, stating his character is fake and practiced. This makes Guy gets defnesive and he starts to make excuses for himself. The clovers are likely meant to represent luck, and how despretly Guy desires these things in life, which he then tries to make up excuses for himself. He wasn't doing anything weird! He was simply looking at birds. Time then points out that there is always something more sinister going on with Guy's self centered activities.

"I've been you
I know you
Your façade is a scam

You know you're making me cry
This is the way that I am

I've been living a lie
A metamorphical scheme
Detective undercover brotherhood
Objective: obscene

Oh no
No?
Oh yeah"

This next set of lines starts with Time talking about how he's seen so many people like Guy and that he can see through his simple facade. This makes Guy cry. He dosen't like feeling like this, his world is falling apart. This is continued in the next line where he talks about living a lie. This section ends by saying oh no, and quickly changing corse to oh yeah with a massive BPM boost.

"Do you hear the flibbity jibbity jibber-jabber
With an oh my God I've got to get out of here or I'll have another
Word to sell
Another story to tell
Another timepiece ringing the bell
Do you hear the clock stop when you reach the end
No
You know it must be never-ending
Comprehend if you can
But when you try to pretend to understand
You resemble a fool
Although you're only a man
So give it up and smile"

The sped up section of this song could once again be in refrence to how little time we have to live and how quickly it can go by. This set of lines talk about how time and everything will still happen after you die, so you should stop trying to prevent it. Stop acting like an egotistical dick, forget about what people think about you. Give up your facade, give up everything, and just smile. This then repeats and goes into the chorus one last time. I really like how this section sounds and it's fun to sing along to. I like the funky vocal effects when this section is repeated alot.

"Without looking down
Gliding around
Like a bumbling dragon, I fly
Scraping my face on the sky

Oh no
No?
Oh yeah"

I don't know what this means but I think these lyrics are beautiful. It creates another vivid image in my brain. It's so bitter sweet and sounds so cool. The song ends with a final "oh no no oh yeah" before going back to the simple instrumental at the beginning and slowly fading to silence. If it's not obvious, I adore this song. Everyone adores this song it's not a hot take. It's fucking incredible. That's all I have to say.

Hidden in the Sand

This song is overly popular, but also overhated. It does not work well on its own but by god is it the best album closer I've ever heard and nothing even comes close. It's bitter sweet and literally the only way this album could have closed. It serves its purpose perfectly. Bad by itself, but perfect for this album. For purposes of rating, this takes into account the rest of the album. (5, 5, 5, 5)

2008 Mix

On April 1st, 2008 a remastered version of this album came out. It's the one you will find on streaming services and the one thats been repressed by Needlejuice. It's much better produced, like the mixing and mastering is some of the best I've ever heard, so why do I prefer the 05 version? Well, honestly, I flip flop all the time. I like the roughness of the 05 and I don't like some elements that they changed in the 08. I like the higher production quality of the 2008 mix, but there's some elements that I really didn't like changed. Here's some examples

Slowed Down Songs

The 08 mix slowed down a few songs, namely Good Day, The Bidding (this one was entirelly re-recorded), and Ruler of Everything. In general, I prefer the quicker nature of the original nature. They almost feel sluggish on the 08. I do actually like the more menacing tone of Ruler of Everything, but I still over all prefer the 05 version most of the time.

The Removal of Guitar Shredding in The Bidding

As I said earlier, The Bidding was one of the two songs that were re-recorded for this remaster, with the other being Just Apathy (we'll get to that!). Its slower, its not as exciting as the original, and the most specific at all, they removed the guitar shredding from it's bridge. The original bridge was pretty intense. Fast drums and an epic fucking guitar shred in a small silence gap. It was so fun to flail around my room to and they removed it. They fucking removed it! Fuck this band I hate everything! (jk i still love tally hall)

Somehow Made Banana Man and Just Apathy sound worse

Banana Man somehow sounds worse. Unsuprisingly. They removed the small intro from Just Apathy which was one of it's only redeeming parts of the song. Oh well, atleast it shorter now :P

Removal of Some Stereo Vocal Effects

The most notable one is the one I talked about in my Spring & A Storm section. They fucking gimped the cool harmony in each channel thing from the 05! Why! Why!!!!!!!!

Lack of Color

This really only applies to the CDs, but I still wanted to talk about it. The original's lyric books were colorful and filled with goofy images of each of the band members interacting with the lyrics on the page. It made perfect sense. It had a real surrelest aesthetic with this disturbing moon on the inside using human eyes and teeth photoshoped on some grey circle. The disc shares a similar aesthetic. On the front cover, each of the members have their own little pose, so what do they do in the remaster? Greyscale. Fucking greyscale. It is so stupid, especially on the photos of the members (who are now standing still and emotionless in every photo!) that have their name and what color their tie is, because you can't fucking tell in GREYSCALE. The surelest design is gone as well. Bummer, but oh well.

Thats All For 08

Still a great version of the album, I listen to it regurally. Those are just my gripes with it.

Final Thoughts

This album is amazing, but it's not perfect. The insane quality drop from Be Born-Just Apathy is hard to ignore. Overall, there are signifcantly more good than bad tracks, so here's the final rating. (4.5)
I really like this album, if that wasn't clear. I think it's really neat. That is all thank you for reading a few thousand words of my autistic rambling.