jamie on April 12th, 2005
It’s Tuesday again! It feels like only a week ago that is was last Tuesday! While Tourist is just out today, it’s been available in the UK for months, and I’ve been dying here waiting for the US release. After hearing Wires in a television show, I was instantly enamored with the band and excitedly watched as that single sprung to the top of the UK singles charts instantaneously. This album is less exhuberant than 2002’s Vehicles and Animals, and shows how the band have grown both musically and personally in the time between. While not as quirky or optomistic as 2002’s Vehicles And Animals, this album is beautiful- with songs that can be both dark and light at the same time. Some of the album tracks drag on like a Coldplay tune, but there are some really great tracks here as well. Wires is a great ballad, written about lead singer JOel Pott’s prematurely born daughter, and the second single Half Life brings back the quirky vocal styling and guitars of the band freshman effort. Twenty Four Hours has spark, but ends in repetition that begs for the fast forward button.
jamie on April 12th, 2005
Better Than Ezra’s new disc Before The Robots was due to be released today… but their website says it’s been pushed to May 31… What a downer.
jamie on April 11th, 2005
I’m not a big Springsteen fan, but I have to say that when he does his thing, it almost inevitable will sound good. Still singing the woes of the everyday American, the Boss tackles the troubles of a soldier far from home. The beautifully simple arrangement of guitar and voice at the beginning of the track is later muddled by the addition of strings and some distant kind of percussion. I don’t have download links, but it Springsteen, so I’m sure it’s all over radio and every major music website on the net. on Rhapsody: Devils & Dust
jamie on April 11th, 2005
Ah, how I love it when a label puts track on line! This time, it’s Mush [Dirty Loop], with the first single from Busdriver’s Fear Of A Black Tangent- Avantcore (get it from the ‘music and videos’ section of their site- along with LOTS of other great stuff). The quick witted, rapid-fire style of Busdriver is accented here by a very quick, staccatto piano loop on top of a fairly basic beat. The combination of Busdriver’s style and this minimal beat give your ears just enough info at speed to be able to keep up with what’s he’s doing. Slagging off mainstream rappers and fickle fans displays a bit Busdriver’s frustration with his place as an underground rapper. But it’s okay Busdriver, with track like this, you’ll be mainstream before youknow it.
jamie on April 11th, 2005
So, last week was releatively slow for me in the new music department. I found a few new albums, but am only now getting around to listening to them. The reason for this appauling delay is that I’ve been trying to get my taxes worked out for the 2004 year- and with most idiots like me who dont’ really get why we even have to pay taxes, I’ve screwed mine up and will have to pay $725. Argh. Oh, but I was going to blog about the new album from British Sea Power, Open Season… The opening track (also the first single) It Ended On and Oily Stage stands apart form most of the album, with powerful sweeping guitars, a catchy hook, and a good melody. It reminds me of Joy Division, and I keep seeing David Bowie singing in my mind while I listen to Open Season. But don’t take my comparisons as those of quality, but rather just as in “they soudn like…”. After the first track, I get lost in the uninventive, meandering songs. One after another, I hear nothing new- nothing terribly original, and for that matter, nothing interesting. Substitute some repetition for cleverness, and unimpressive guitar work for pop inventiveness, and you may find yourself with a copy of Open Season.
jamie on April 8th, 2005
We’ve recently been bombarded by a new Brit invasion, with most of last year’s quality music coming from the UK, but I think it’s time for a new Aussie Invasion. Recently, one of my favorite artists (ever.), Alex Lloyd, was signed by SonyBMG and is currently working in HelLA recording a new album for release on the label. In the same time, another Australian singer/songwriter was brought to my attention: Missy Higgins. If you haven’t heard of either or both of these artists, you MUST check out their stuff right now…here I’ll even give you Rhapsody links to help out: Alex Lloyd - Watching Angels Mend and Missy Higgins - The Sound Of White. I think the tides for imorts are changing, and we’re about to start hearing a lot more from artists like Lloyd and Higgins, and other great Australian acts like them- and it’s time.
jamie on April 5th, 2005
The first single from Elevator showed promise with a very catchy melody and indie-pop guitar work, but the rest of the album falls far short of this initial taste. Throughout the album, the vocals are presented in a very forced brit accent, as if being Canadian wasn’t cool. Maybe it isn’t in Victoria, BC. Anyways, song after song on this album sounds as if it were written by a song factory for use in some new century remake of a 50’s film. Basically, this alabum is all fluff, with no real teeth.
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