| Subcribe via RSS
If Britney Spears was intelligent enough to try for an ounce of credibility she might turn out something like Hands, which is all over the map as far as style goes but still keeps the same “pop record trying really really hard for indie cred” theme throughout, which it accomplishes mainly by trying to emulate Depeche Mode – it succeeds with a small handful of catchy pop tracks but ultimately comes across as unremarkable.
More »
If Paul McCartney wrote some songs and recruited Ringo to play drums it would hardly be a Beatles album, and that’s kind of what is happening with the New York Dolls these days; with only 2 original members left and the punk movement they helped create long passed them by, a New York Dolls album these days isn’t the same as a New York Dolls album of 35 years ago…but that is not to say Cause I Sez So isn’t a good, solid album because it is – it’s the same pure rock n’ roll in a more polished package, and suggests that even if their ranks are dwindling the quality of their output is not.
More »
Nobody is looking for anything resembling profound musical statements from 311, and no one is expecting them to create anything which challenges the boundaries of music, so if one keeps his expectations low while listening to Uplifter the lack of originality is much less glaring; it’s not that it’s bad music, it’s just utterly and completely unremarkable in every possible way.
More »
Dave Matthews Band is such a niche product that it’s difficult to review any of their work; either you “get it” and love sitting through hours of pointless jamming or you don’t “get it” and are a shallow Lady GaGa fan who can’t appreciate true musicianship…but we’ll give it a shot anyway: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is easily their best and most complete album to date, with radio-friendly hits like “Why I Am” and “Spaceman” playing nice with slow jams like “Lying in the Hands of God” and avoiding the uneven, jariness most albums of this depth might emit…for most casual fans, Big Whisky is a much easier listen than DMB’s past efforts.
More »
Hearing the music of the mysterious and suddenly hot artist/group/who knows jj (lower-case) after last week’s abysmal Discovery release strikes an interesting contrast: whoever these/this people/person are, they certainly understand how to properly and ear-catchingly cross musical borders and reappropriate the familiar into entirely unique sounds, as this half-hour collection of tracks serves up deliciously tropical grooves, acoustic strums, audacious samples (“ecstasy” is built atop a sample of “Lollipop”…no, seriously), and serene pop vocals from someone whose gender I still can’t identify – this is shaping up to be one of the most refreshing little records of the year and an almost willfully perfect summer soundtrack.
Tags: air france, jj, jj n° 2, the tough alliance
While people generally seem to be forgiving of the faults of the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen due to the large number of shiny robots blowing things up covering up the lack of substance, there is nothing in the soundtrack to cover up for the lack of substance in it, and the only shiny explosions likely to make one forget about the songs meaning nothing, saying nothing, and doing so in a manner completely devoid of creativity would have to come when the computer or CD player used to listen to it is thrown in a bathtub full of water as lukewarm as the music itself.
More »