Album Review: A Thousand Suns

I don't understand it either.

A strange thing happened, Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns caught me completely off guard by not sucking. It's strange because upon hearing the first single off ATS, "The Catalyst," I had given up on the band. It was way too... crap to have come from my former favorite band. Then I heard another song LP released called "Wretches and Kings" and thought it was garbage. I heard a third called "Blackout" and thought it was loud and repetitive. Then "Waiting for the End." With that song everything changed. I began to think of the songs less like individual tracks and more like pieces of a puzzle. "Waiting for the End," "Blackout," and "Wretches and Kings" are all one after another on the album in that order. Listen to them together and they don't suck so much. Listen to the whole album together and you have something that's actually much more consistant and coherent than Minutes to Midnight. Track breakdown inside lies ahead.

Review: Plastic Beach by Gorillaz

It's been five years since the masterpiece that was Demon Days. If you're looking for more of that, keep looking. Plastic Beach cannot be compared. It's not that it's better or worse, it's just so completely different, both from Demon Days and Gorillaz's self titled debut. The first Gorillaz album without a producer, this one is handled by Damon Albarn himself. That's probably one of the reasons that Gorillaz has an ever changing sound, with Dan the Automator at the helm of the first, Dangermouse at the helm of the second, and Albarn at the helm of the the third. Whatever your expectations, throw them out the window. If there's one thing you should expect about Gorillaz, it's the unexpected.

Indie Week: Advance Review: Broken Bells

To close out Indie Week, I have for you an advance review of the debut album from Broken Bells! I'm sure you can't contain yourself. What's that? You can't get excited because you don't know who they are? Well allow me to introduce you:

Broken Bells is an American indie rock band featuring artist–producer Danger Mouse (billed by his real name, Brian Burton) and James Mercer the lead vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band The Shins. The project was first announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The pair decided to work together after meeting at a Danish music festival in 2004 and finding they were fans of each others work. Mercer and Burton began recording together in secret at Burton's Los Angeles based studio in March 2008 and describe their material as "melodic, but experimental, too".

Now are you excited?

Indie Week: Feersum Ennjin

Tool is one of my very favorite bands. Imagine how excited I was to find a new band formed by Tool's former bassist Paul D'Amour. Very much so. And guess what? They're awesome.

Indie Week: A Brief Smile

 

I recently discovered these guys and their music started to grow on me. Then I found out that they are now no more. That's disappointing, but I'm highlighting them here because not only is their music good, but the band still lives on spiritually as Sea Monster. As such, official info is hard to come by. They're not on Wikipedia and their website hasn't been updated since last July. I do know they're from New York, though. Anyway, last summer they released three EPs of three songs each, which were apparently their last work before becoming Sea Monster. I'll be reviewing them today and if you like what you hear, then you might want to check out Sea Monster. They have a brand new EP out (new as in last week) and you can download it for free on the band's website. 

Indie Week: Anamanaguchi

I could provide an actual photo of the band, but that would ruin the awesomeness. Plus, this one has an octopus. Anamanaguchi is probably the most unique band we'll be highlighting all week. They don't just make any old music, they make 8-bit music. Just as a note, this is to make up for my lack of update yesterday.

Indie Week: Animal Kingdom

animal kingdom are four

geoff, wayne, hamish, rich

skins, strings and sings

currently holed up somewhere cold and westward

they make wintery music that's strange, dark and beautiful

when it's done, you should come have a listen

That's the official bio for the band. It's been written in verse for some reason. You can probably tell Animal Kingdom already has a unique personality of their own. And they've got music to match.

Indie Week: Stratospheerius

Since this week is Music Month, I figured the month should start off with Indie Week, in which we highlight a different indie, new, or relatively unknown artist and review some of their work. To start out, here's Stratospheerius. Why them? Because I just happened to be listening to them, that's why.

Review: Full Cricle by Creed

Creed has finally returned! But are they any good these days? Can they at least be as good as they once were, or are they even better? The answers lie within.

Muse Album Review: The Resistance

So being a long time fan of Muse I was excited to hear that they where coming out with a new album. In this posts I'll be looking at The Resistance song by song, breaking it down, and giving the entire album a final score.

Halo Wars Triple Whammy pt. 1

Behold! A review of the Halo Wars soundtrack! Let me tell you, I was as skeptical as you probably are that the sound track of Halo Wars would suck. After all, it wasn't composed by the master himself, Marty O'Donnell, but Steve Rippy, the composer for Age of Empires and Age of Mythology. But I purchased it anyway because, well, Halo music is Halo music and any Halo music is a good thing in my book. At the very least, the soundtrack delivers. It's not stunning, but it delivers.

D-Sides: A Review

So I was at Best Buy a couple of months back (around Thanksgiving), and to my surprise I came across a brand new Gorillaz CD entitled 'D-Sides". It's basically a collection of songs and demos that didn't make it into 2005's 'Demon Days'. 'D-Sides' is a two disk affair. The first disk contains unreleased songs and demos, and the second contains remixes. I will now proceed to break the album down song by song because, let's face it, some of these were meant to be left on the cutting room floor.

The Else: The Review

The Else is the 12th compact disk from They Might be Giants. Apparently, they're still not giants, and we may never know if they ever will be. It's a magical journey for you're ears to behold. Also, it's better than TMBG's 11th compact disk, The Spine. It seems to be a somewhat of a return to form for the two Johns that might be giants. I felt, with The Spine, that it was too musical (if you know what I mean). It was popy and good but bad at the same time. The Else, however, is more of what you've come to love from TMGB, but it is also kind of a mix of the classic sound and the new sound. It's a super-sensation of musical bliss and confusion!