| Genre Funk Rap Rock |
Rage Against The Machine - Renegades
Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist
| Genre Punk - American Underground |
icks up right where Plastic Surgery Disasters left off. As always, the lyrics are among the most literate and angry in all of rock & roll. "Goons of Hazard" scores the culture of guns and the rednecks who love them, utilizing full-textured hard rock to set the verses. "Soup Is Good Food" lacerates the concept of disposable people in disposable jobs, pairing this idea with repeated guitar riff-based music that suggests a nightmare version of 1960s songs. more...>
Journey - Trial By Fire
year: 96 - review: With Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry, and Neal Schon leading Journey once again, and bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith behind them, it would seem that Trial by Fire would contain the same elements that gave them their stardom in the '80s. Disappointingly, though, there is nothing captivating or even the least bit attractive about this unimaginative release. Perry's singing hasn't lost too much of its power, but the faster tunes come off as contrived and messy. Sounding hard and scattered, the smoothness of their trademarked music is nowhere to be found, replaced with brash, beat-up, hollow rock riffs. The ballads fair no better, as the passion that once flourished within the band when it came to slowing things down has long since faded. Just the fact that Journey reunited may lure fans to this album, but it won't be long before the discontentment begins set in.
Ocean Colour Scene - On The Leyline
| Genre Britpop Brit Trad Rock |
rs (the XTC-esque title track) and joyous Everly Brothers inspired romps ('Two Lovers'), 'On The Leyline' sees OCS breaking free of their comfort zone at every turn. If first single 'I Told You So' is a jangle-pop classic in the spirit of 'You Got It Bad', 'On The Leyline' boasts an experimental side too. The caustic 'Mr Brown' ("You promised us the earth/So you could let us down") set to a jaunty calypso, whilst the sublime 'These Days' sees Steve supply lead vocals on a psychedelic excursion reminiscent of Buffalo Springfirled's 'Everydays'. Wellerologists, meanwhile, will be ecstatic at the inclusion of 'For Dancers Only', a song the Modfather recorded in 2006 and as yet unreleased.
Chumbawamba - Never Mind The Ballots
| Genre Alternative pop rock punk |
: Chumbawamba originally comprised former Men in a Suitcase frontman Dunst, onetime Ow My Hair's on Fire drummer Alice Nutter, and computer technician Lou Watts. After recording a song for a compilation album, they teamed with Harry Hamer and Mavis Dillon -- members of one of the LP's other contributors, the Passion Killers...
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
| Genre Rock Rock & Roll |
King Crimson - Lark's Tongues in Aspic
review: This album simply pushes the borderline on the understanding of prog rock, contains the heavy elements found on KC's other releases such as 'Red' and 'Thrak', but also contains some wonderful improv jams. Top stuff!
Eddy Grant - Greatest Hits
| Genre Reggae Pop Pop Rock |
John Mayer Trio - Try!
| Genre Pop Rock adult alternative |
Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits
review: The most popular form of Steve Miller ingestion nowadays is his Greatest Hits 1974-78, which has also sold many millions of copies in both LP and CD form. While not a bad-sounding CD, there's certainly room for improvement. DCC has been releasing hits collections from a number of popular artists the last few years, and in addition to sounding better, they usually include extra material not available in the regular release.
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
year: 07 - review: Most people are confused by the electronic means of this music, but they are definately artists. Expressionists of the late 20th century. No other artist within 200 years has been so direct and intelligently emotional expressing things that we all could go through. Daily life. Maybe in 200 years they will see.
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
year: 07 - review: Cohen always remains keenly aware that pop’s charm lies in its utili
ty. Humming, wordless singing, and muffled, echoing voices haunt each of these albums, often functioning as cathartic finales to disturbing songs (as in “Sing Another Song, Boys” and “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong”). He anticipates that his melodies will live on, with only a fragment of their content intact, in the minds of his listeners. He also suggests that a song’s true emotional impact rests not on its words, but on more primal, sublinguistic forces. I won’t disagree. Sometimes a drunken chorus of “la”s voices a feeling more eloquently and intelligently than an epic simile. And perhaps this is why Cohen’s own charms cannot be fully explained by generations of otherwise articulate scribes. At the end of the day, early Cohen is gut music.
ty. Humming, wordless singing, and muffled, echoing voices haunt each of these albums, often functioning as cathartic finales to disturbing songs (as in “Sing Another Song, Boys” and “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong”). He anticipates that his melodies will live on, with only a fragment of their content intact, in the minds of his listeners. He also suggests that a song’s true emotional impact rests not on its words, but on more primal, sublinguistic forces. I won’t disagree. Sometimes a drunken chorus of “la”s voices a feeling more eloquently and intelligently than an epic simile. And perhaps this is why Cohen’s own charms cannot be fully explained by generations of otherwise articulate scribes. At the end of the day, early Cohen is gut music.
Santana - Kings Of World Music
| Genre Latin rock Psychedelic |
antana is the primary exponent of Latin-tinged rock, particularly due to its combination of Latin percussion (congas, timbales, etc.) with bandleader Carlos Santana's distinctive, high-pitched lead guitar playing. The group was the last major act to emerge from the psychedelic San Francisco music scene of the 1960s and it enjoyed massive success at the end of the decade and into the early '70s.
