Finally, a review of the new music I got for my birthday
I know it's a bit late, but I'm sure some of you would like to hear about the CDs I got with the generous Amazon gift certificate my wife gave me for my birthday. I'll list them in ascending order of my level of excitement and anticipation, and then I'll give a short review of each one.
8. Guster - Satellite EP. I love Guster, and respect how they've matured and evolved their sound over the years, but I've also liked each new album a little less than the previous one. The last album I truly loved was "Lost and Gone Forever". I've only listened to this once through, and it didn't make a huge impression on me. This is more of a collection CD, where I make sure I have all the releases from my favorite bands.
7. Michael Penn - Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea. This is a kind of "Greatest Hits" for Michael, but not really. I usually don't buy greatest hits albums, but this has some unreleased stuff and alternate takes/demos of album songs. It's another collection CD. I'm pretty disappointed, actually. There are at least three songs left off I feel should definitely be on there, and both the unreleased and alternate-version tracks are nothing special.
6. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris. I love "Songs for the Deaf" and "Lullabies to Paralyze" by this band. Josh Homme is one tier down from Jimmy Page in terms of rockin' riff genius. The band just flat out rocks, but in a creative, unique way. This is their newest, and it hasn't got a lot of great press. I really like it, though. Good, rocking QOTSA album.
5. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R. This, their second album, was kind of a collection CD, but I also read great reviews of it. I like it a lot, but it doesn't rival "Songs for the Deaf", and I actually like "Era" better. Maybe it will grow on me the way "Lullabies" did.
4. Rush - Snakes and Arrows. Fresh off seeing a great concert by this band and regretting not being familar with the songs they played from this album, I was really looking forward to this CD. I was excited that there were 3 (three!!!) instrumentals on it. Having listened to it a few times, though, I'm not that in love with album. There's a lack of energy to the music, except for two of the instrumentals, and a lot of it sounds too similar to other recent albums. Just reading the lyrics, I like the themes Neil Peart explores on the album, but it's clumsy in execution. It seems that I'm constantly in the minority among Rush fans about what's a good album and what's a weak one. Vapor Trials, their last release, is much better in my opinion(although apparently the sound mixing on that album is horrendous).
3. Elliott Smith - New Moon. This is a two-disc compilation of unreleased Elliott Smith material. I was way psyched to get this, even though I already had almost half of the songs from my illegal downloading days. Listening through the discs, it is great, but not revelatory. I'm sure the unfamiliar songs will grow on me, but this is more like a collection CD... a very important one.
2. The Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba. I'm a big DM fan. I started listening to them in high school when my hard core fan friend copied a tape for me. I bought this album on tape and loved it. It's the one that has "Punk Rock Girl" on it, and lots of other great stuff. Somewhere along the way I lost those first two tapes I had, but started buying CDs of other albums from used CD stores. I never found those first two albums, though, so it was time to rectify that. This album is great. It hasn't aged at all since its release.
1. The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in my Backyard. As you might guess, this was the first DM album I had, the copy made by my friend. It has a lot of sentimental value attached to it, so it was the first CD I listened to once I got the package. Not only was I not disappointed, my expectations were far exceeded. Talk about timeless! You hear people and critics say things like "there's not a bad song on the album" and they're wrong. There are always weak links on an album. This album is as close to an exception as there will ever be. Only the last song, a quasi-instrumental that goes on a bit long, can be considered a lessening of the quality of the other 20 tracks. You know I'm not one of those bloggers that trade in hyperbole. So trust me when I say that this is easily one of the greatest albums of the 80s, nay, of all time. Incredibly consistent, listenable, clever, funny, musically compelling (listen to those bass lines!), full of incisive social satire as well as just plain nonsense. Classic. I shit you not.
That's that. Stay tuned for a new series I hope to start today reviewing some new TV shows this season. Thank God TV is back so I have something to write about.
8. Guster - Satellite EP. I love Guster, and respect how they've matured and evolved their sound over the years, but I've also liked each new album a little less than the previous one. The last album I truly loved was "Lost and Gone Forever". I've only listened to this once through, and it didn't make a huge impression on me. This is more of a collection CD, where I make sure I have all the releases from my favorite bands.
7. Michael Penn - Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea. This is a kind of "Greatest Hits" for Michael, but not really. I usually don't buy greatest hits albums, but this has some unreleased stuff and alternate takes/demos of album songs. It's another collection CD. I'm pretty disappointed, actually. There are at least three songs left off I feel should definitely be on there, and both the unreleased and alternate-version tracks are nothing special.
6. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris. I love "Songs for the Deaf" and "Lullabies to Paralyze" by this band. Josh Homme is one tier down from Jimmy Page in terms of rockin' riff genius. The band just flat out rocks, but in a creative, unique way. This is their newest, and it hasn't got a lot of great press. I really like it, though. Good, rocking QOTSA album.
5. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R. This, their second album, was kind of a collection CD, but I also read great reviews of it. I like it a lot, but it doesn't rival "Songs for the Deaf", and I actually like "Era" better. Maybe it will grow on me the way "Lullabies" did.
4. Rush - Snakes and Arrows. Fresh off seeing a great concert by this band and regretting not being familar with the songs they played from this album, I was really looking forward to this CD. I was excited that there were 3 (three!!!) instrumentals on it. Having listened to it a few times, though, I'm not that in love with album. There's a lack of energy to the music, except for two of the instrumentals, and a lot of it sounds too similar to other recent albums. Just reading the lyrics, I like the themes Neil Peart explores on the album, but it's clumsy in execution. It seems that I'm constantly in the minority among Rush fans about what's a good album and what's a weak one. Vapor Trials, their last release, is much better in my opinion(although apparently the sound mixing on that album is horrendous).
3. Elliott Smith - New Moon. This is a two-disc compilation of unreleased Elliott Smith material. I was way psyched to get this, even though I already had almost half of the songs from my illegal downloading days. Listening through the discs, it is great, but not revelatory. I'm sure the unfamiliar songs will grow on me, but this is more like a collection CD... a very important one.
2. The Dead Milkmen - Beelzebubba. I'm a big DM fan. I started listening to them in high school when my hard core fan friend copied a tape for me. I bought this album on tape and loved it. It's the one that has "Punk Rock Girl" on it, and lots of other great stuff. Somewhere along the way I lost those first two tapes I had, but started buying CDs of other albums from used CD stores. I never found those first two albums, though, so it was time to rectify that. This album is great. It hasn't aged at all since its release.
1. The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in my Backyard. As you might guess, this was the first DM album I had, the copy made by my friend. It has a lot of sentimental value attached to it, so it was the first CD I listened to once I got the package. Not only was I not disappointed, my expectations were far exceeded. Talk about timeless! You hear people and critics say things like "there's not a bad song on the album" and they're wrong. There are always weak links on an album. This album is as close to an exception as there will ever be. Only the last song, a quasi-instrumental that goes on a bit long, can be considered a lessening of the quality of the other 20 tracks. You know I'm not one of those bloggers that trade in hyperbole. So trust me when I say that this is easily one of the greatest albums of the 80s, nay, of all time. Incredibly consistent, listenable, clever, funny, musically compelling (listen to those bass lines!), full of incisive social satire as well as just plain nonsense. Classic. I shit you not.
That's that. Stay tuned for a new series I hope to start today reviewing some new TV shows this season. Thank God TV is back so I have something to write about.
posted by at 9:04 AM
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