Oct 21
AndrewMusic Album, REM
R.E.M. will re-release its debut album Murmur with bonus material including a second disc recorded live in 1983 at Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto. The new packaging will include the remastered original album, the 16-track live disc and commentary by the album’s producers and IRS label executive Jay Boberg. The album’s release coincides with its 25th anniversary of the original release.
Murmur live bonus disc tracklist
1. Laughing
2. Pilgrimage
3. There She Goes Again
4. 7 Chinese Bros.
5. Talk About the Passion
6. Sitting Still
7. Harborcoat
8. Catapult
9. Gardening at Night
10. 9-9
11. Just a Touch
12. West of the Fields
13. Radio Free Europe
14. We Walk
15. 1,000,000
16. Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
Oct 20
AndrewMusic AC/DC, Album, cd, Music, Review, wal-mart
Anthems may be their gift (or strategy) but AC/DC’s first studio album in 8 years leads off with the rather lackluster track Rock N’ Roll Train. A sign of the times or just poor sequencing?
Turns out it doesn’t matter. Black Ice is uninspired AC/DC rock. From vocals to riffs, their signature sound permeates every song and that seems like it should be a good thing. The problem is that song after song seem kind of muted, from the “Hey Hey Heys” of Skies on Fire to strange pronunciation of Decibel (pronounced “deci-bell” which would be distracting if the track was even remotely listenable.) More to the point, anthems usually inspire sing-a-long kind of choruses, which are virtually missing here. Can you just see a crowd shouting “Big Jack, Big Jack, He said that he’s the only one who got a full sack”? If you can, you’re a better man than I.
Towards the end, it starts to feel like one is listening to the same song on repeat over and over again. Spoilin’ for a Fight sounds a lot like the title track. Not a solitary track stands out over another, and since AC/DC is eschewing typical promotional channels like digital singles, it’s hard to even know which song they want us to listen to. And the ballads are just turds.
Black Ice is only on sale at Wal-Mart, and the company has promised to create a mini-store concept to promote the album, complete with the band’s past catalog, t-shirts and other AC/DC-branded stuff. It will be a mild footnote if the band can rest on its reputation to sell Black Ice only at Wal-Mart, without any digital presence to speak of, as Garth Brooks did successfully. In this day and age, it’s one thing to eschew the Best Buys and Targets of the world, but it’s foolhardy to cut out amazon.com and iTunes. Especially when your music just plain ole sucks.
Oct 07
AndrewMusic Album, Pretenders
I love the Pretenders, but the new release Break Up the Concrete is just a surprisingly bad album. When Chrissie Hynde and company released Viva El Amor in 1999, it felt like a comeback album. It was fun, flirty and hard rockin’ made me want to dig into by back collection for Get Close and Learning to Crawl (both of which have been remastered and rereleased last year.)
Since then, though, the Pretenders have sunk into this weird adult contemporary vibe that (I hoped) came and went with their last studio release, 2002’s Loose Screw. That album just came off flat. Was the music bad? No, not particularly. It just felt one-dimensional.
Break Up the Concrete is worse in some ways because the Pretenders have gone from one-dimensional to unoriginal. There’s nothing here that we haven’t heard from them before. Worse because there is nothing fun about this album. The songs move along like sludge. There isn’t that amazing romantic track (I’ll Stand by You from Last of the Independents,) or the f-u song (Viva el Amor’s Popstar - “your girlfriend wants to be a popstar, and kick the charts out of me.”)
The album kicks off with the head scratcher Boots of Chinese Plastic and meanders its way along through some uneventful tunes with titles like Don’t Cut Your Hair and Almost Perfect the latter cut where Hynde is almost mumbling into the mic about love and doubts. Coming at the end of the album, the title track at least injects some much needed energy into the album, but the damage is done by then. If I hadn’t been reviewing the album, I never would have listened that long.
Sep 30
AndrewMusic Album, Ben Folds, Review
Way to Normal, the new full-length release by college rock icon Ben Folds, exceeds expectations. What might one come to expect from an artist that recorded “fake” versions of songs and then leaked them to the internet to throw fans and foes alike of the scent of the new album? Good question.
The answer, in part, is a solid rock album led off by the bombastic track Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head). The album includes the song Before Cologne, followed by the song Cologne (a stunning, almost ethereal love song) – more evidence of Folds’ unique sense of humor. The best of the album is the single, You Don’t Know Me, a track recorded with Regina Spektor. But there is a lot else to like here. Brainwascht evokes earlier Ben Folds tunes and there’s something almost tragic in the message of Effington “I want to live, I want to die. Please bury me in Effington” even if you get the impression it’s all sung with a smile and a wink. But maybe the point isn’t to read too much into it. With Ben Folds, you can take it either way.
Folds took his band into the studio for three days to record the “fake” versions, which he leaked and is now playing on tour side by side with the album versions. It some cases, it’s proving not quite to his advantage, since the “fake” version of Brainwascht is at least as good as the real. And in the case of Free Coffee, the “fake” version is actually better.
For all that, fans will be happy and there isn’t much to nitpick here (though Kylie from Connecticut isn’t really all that fun and coming at the end as it is, you may just skip it from now on.) Even if you wanted to argue that Folds hasn’t picked up his game with Way to Normal, at the very least he delivered above expectations.
Sep 10
AndrewMusic Album, Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer is set to release a solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, on September 16. Palmer collaborated with Ben Folds and other artists throughout the twelve song set, but this album is wholly Palmer’s unique sonic aesthetic. Who Killed Amanda Palmer is excellent. It is a challenging listen, at times the music and the lyrics render powerfully disparate reactions, like on the track Oasis which is melodically almost a Beach Boys song but the story told is dark and almost more sinister for the music it accompanies.
Palmer is the voice and keys of the Dresden Dolls, an arresting duo self-described as punk cabaret. The Dresden Dolls used to be an eclectic taste, but with their second album (and subsequent b-sides collection) their sound has evolved with a lot more pop and is a lot less avant garde as a result. Lyrically, their songs tend to run the gamut from wordplay to epic storylines. Musically, no style, from pop rock to show tunes, is spared in their creative effort.
In that respect, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, isn’t that much of a departure from expectations. From the pop opener Astronaut to the radio ready Leeds United, there is a lot about this album that is fun and flirty. Among the most playful tracks is the rollicking Guitar Hero, which she tells a guy “and I could save you baby but it isn’t worth my time” because he’s addicted to his video game.
Other tracks get serious, like the gorgeous Have to Drive and Blake Says an album highlight about depression. The thing is, however Palmer tackles a serious topic, the songs draw you in and force you to think about them. Like the Ritalin-induced Runs in the Family, which is another track that sounds like a totally different song if you don’t consider the lyrics. Maybe that’s the point, by contrasting the melodies with the words, Palmer succeeds in getting our attention.
It’s hard to pick a favorite track. Just when you are ready to declare a winner, another song gets a second chance to redeem itself (like the track Ampersand which didn’t have the impact on the first listen as it did on the second). Get your hands on, if you can, two bonus tracks I Google You and Straight.
Aug 12
AndrewMusic Album, New Release
I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Jonas Brothers album, but then again, I’m not an eleven-year-old girl. The Jonas Bros. got massive buzz touring with Two-Face Miley Cyrus (otherwise known as Hannah Montana) daughter of disposed country star Billy Ray. Now with the release of the A Little Bit Longer (evidently a reference to Nick Jonas’s brush with puberty) the Jonas Bros. are ready to storm the pre-teen world.
A Little Bit Longer is actually their third studio album. Nick in fact, started his Broadway career at six years old, eventually signing with Columbia Records with his two older brothers. The boys are Evangelical Christians (of course) and naturally, their songs are about macking on girls, relationships, all the sordid things that come with playing to the Nickelodeon crowd.
It shouldn’t surprise you, either, to find out that a TV show about the Brothers, including youngest non-bandmate Frankie, is in the works. The details of which I won’t bother you with.
Am I going to review the album? No. Because really, this is not about the music, as it rarely is with boy bands fresh off the oxy clean pads. Honestly, it’s not something I would ever listen to again. I actually thought the single releases, Pushin’ Me Away and Burnin’ Up aren’t even the best songs on the album. The cover is a bit Times Square and a bit Tim Burton and actually kind of freaks me out.
Older Entries
Twitter
Facebook
RSS
