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Fans of The Knife – Fever Ray (a.k.a. Karin Dreijer Andersson’s) main musical outlet – will probably love the deep-freeze dance beats, mechanical hums, and distorted vocals of this solo debut just as much as 2006′s Silent Shout, but the unconverted (like this reviewer) may dislike it for many of the same reasons: though it’s far from terrible, it’s all just a little too understated and self-serious to really pop out at you on first listen.
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While not Springsteen’s strongest effort (even in the last 7 or 8 years), Working On A Dream is still a solid, if not slightly meandering, collection that doesn’t really stick to a theme like the stripped-down grit of Devils & Dust or the jugband fun of We Shall Overcome, but still manages to outshine 2007′s Magic thanks to a stronger song selection and wider variety – it just might require a couple of listens to fully appreciate its diversity, from the rough-edged blues of “Good Eye” to the vintage Springsteen polished blue-collar optimism of “Working On A Dream.”
Tags: brendan o'brien, bruce springsteen, e street band
When it comes to music, we here at Opinz are sincerely interested in the good, the bad and the very, very ugly. With this interest in mind, we are undertaking a quest to examine the seedy underbelly of music, to dig to the bottom of the barrel and take a look at those albums that are widely regarded as the worst of the worst. Every week, we take a look at a candidate and determine whether or not they truly deserve their reputation as a musical disaster. Enjoy.
I’ve been doing this for several weeks now and I’ve so far chosen to ignore one particular album that has managed to make it onto many lists of the worst albums of all time. That album is of course Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. Up until now I’ve ignored it, admittedly because it’s much easier to extract LOLs from 50 minutes of Kevin Federline rapping then 65 minutes of ear-raping guitar feedback. But there’s another reason why I’ve ignored it, something I’ve suspected but have confirmed now that I’ve actually heard the whole thing: it’s far from the worst album of all time. In fact, it’s not even bad.
Metal Machine Music was recorded in Reed’s apartment, where he supposedly set up two guitars and merely recorded feedback sped up and slowed down in various ways. The album was released in 1975, between two fairly mellow and well-received rock records, making it even more of an oddity in his catalog. Upon it’s release, it was met with predictable confusion. It was lambasted by critics and legend has it that thousands of fans returned their copies and asked for their money back.
Tags: lou reed, metal machine music, the velvet underground, worst albums of all time
The Von Bondies haven’t “made it” yet, and maybe they never will, but the fact that they are not only alive after a) being dropped by their record label, b) losing half their members and c) having frontman Jason Stollsteimer get his face beat in by Jack White, but recording a very respectable if not standout followup to Pawn Shoppe Heart is a testament to their durability – they’ve lost bandmates, a contract, and (one would guess) a fair amount of machismo, but their mojo is still working and turning out music best described as punchy, indie-but-totally accessible post-post-punk-pop rock; Von Bondies aren’t as cool as they think they are but Love Hate…, while not as good or fun as Pawn Shoppe Heart, sure loses a lot of the pointless hipster sensibility of its predecessor.
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The eight tracks on Psychic Ills’ second album, Mirror Eye, consist mainly of psychedelic guitar and waves of rippling synths and sound effects on top of sandy Middle Eastern grooves, producing a promisingly original sound, but it all ends up sticking together into an amorphous sonic blob that isn’t dynamic or energetic enough to be truly memorable.
Tags: mirror eye, psychic ills
Bon Iver’s first EP sees Justin Vernon out of his cabin in the woods and accompanied by a band but making similarly soulful and masterfully written tunes (the title track in particular), all be it with a more polished sound and less charm, something we’ll probably all have to get used to unless he decides to take another extended camping trip in the near future.
Tags: blood bank, bon iver, ep, justin vernon, leak