Music Review: Tryad

Today's review is of Tryad, or rather, their misleadingly-named album, Public Domain.  It's not in the public domain, it's licensed under a CC Attribution-Share-Alike license.  I don't keep track of the version numbers because the differences are minimal, besides, I can always go back and look it up if I need to.  A word on licenses - I my favorite CC license is the BY license - no share-alike necessary.  Also, it's compatible with BY-SA, BY-NC-SA, etc.  The thing that bothers me about SA licenses is their incompatibility.  I can't mix BY-SA and BY-NC-SA licenses in a work, because I can't license it under both.  This is super frustrating.  Another annoying one, as far as new words is concerned, is BY-ND (attribution-no derivatives).  Like, why?  I license my works, when I can, under the WTFPL.
     I keep track of the licenses all my music is under by filling in the "comment" tag with the license - in this case, "by-sa" is all I have.  Clementine is my current music player of choice, because I liked Amarok 1.4 a lot.  I have used Songbird often, but always find it to heavy for what I'd like.  Too slow.  I've also used Banshee, Rhythmbox, Amarok 1.4, Amarok 2.0 (only for a few moments), XBMC (also momentarily), and probably others which don't come to mind right now.  Clementine is pretty darn good.  I might try to switch back to Amarok 1.4 at some point, but right now it's not worth the trouble.
    Anyway, this is a review of Tryad's Public Domain, not music players.  I like this album.  Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't download it.  Many of these songs are lyrical, and well done at that.  Beautifully airy and echoing voices over the triphop beats, with some synth and piano backing.  I am a firm believer in the triphop beat + piano backing formula, and Tryad pulls it off very well.  The lyrics are a bonus, especially in songs like "The Final Rewind" and "Peace on Earth (Same Place)."  Occasionally, such as with "Our Lives Change," the deep and awesome-scene-in-a-film (which is one of the ways I judge this type of music) sound disappears.  There is still a nice beat, but the background emotion of synth and piano is traded for an acoustic guitar.  It's not bad, certainly, but it's not the same.  Some of the other songs also feel empty - not particularly fleshed out by any instruments other than drums, for example.  There are also tempo variations - some of these songs are not triphop.  But overall, this is one of my favorite triphop albums.  Most of it is good, listenable triphop, and as far as lyrical triphop goes, it's the best I've ever heard, in the few songs with lyrics.  Really, the album's worth downloading for those songs alone.  Hey, it's free.
     Next review:  Keffy Kay.