The Strokes - Is This It (Review: Dan)

What do you get when you cross Franz Ferdinand with The Killers?
The Strokes.

I've listened to Is This It a few times now and I like it a lot. It's a really great indie record, and you can tell that it is a major influence on indie music of today. You can hear The Strokes in almost any indie track on the radio right now, so I suppose it comes as no surprise that Is This It was such a success.

In terms of the content of the album, it has some brilliant and catchy riffs, which I'm sure have been stolen by The Killers. I really like The Killers by the way.
Matt was right also by saying that I'd recognise a few of the tracks. Obviously Last Nite is the biggest indie song of all time. And rightly so, it's great. My other favourite tracks are Barely Legal and The Modern Age. Singer Julian Casablancas reminds me a lot of Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos. There doesn't seem to be too much to his singing, it just works I guess.

Looking at my notes for this album I have two bullet points:

• Good
• Sounds like Killers + Franz Ferdinand

This hasn't given me much to work with. At the end of the day, The Strokes have made a really good album which I'd say has been used as a mould for successful indie bands of today. However, I think it lacks lasting appeal, and there are some tracks that would be great at a party and everyone would love it, go home, listen to the album and then put it back on the shelf until the next time Last Nite comes on. 4/5

Sorry it's short.

Dan

Edit: I just logged into Last.fm and Franz Ferdinand are now on my recommended artists, similar to The Strokes and Editors.

Enter Shikari - Common Dreads (2009)

I have been asked by Ben to post his recommendation for The Chief this week as his not-so-lovable landlord has sold his house and therefore he has no internet.

Ben is recommending Enter Shikari's second album 'Common Dreads' for The Chief. The reason that he chose this album is that The Chief enjoyed their debut album 'Take to the Skies' and will be going to see them live in December. His personal highlights are Step Up, Solidarity and Step Up. I, too, will vouch that these are all good songs.

Enjoy, sorry for the delay.

Dan/Ben

Jeff Buckley - Grace (1994)

I don't think Ben has listened to this album, although I know Elliott loves it so he may well have done. If so Ben, then contact me on Facebook and I'll switch it to another one.
Anyway Grace is one of my favourite albums ever and I think its safe to say that Buckley is the greatest vocalist I've ever heard. This album shows his broad skill in many different styles of music from blues, to rock, to sombre piano pieces. This album also contains Hallelujah, originally by Leonard Cohen, which I'm sure you all know well from the pitiful x-factor cover. Buckley's version is the best I've heard as he puts such emotion in to the lyrics like the original and other covers such as John Cale's can't do.
The music on the album isn't really amazing but thats not the point, it could be the best music in the world and still be overshadowed by these vocals, Buckley is that good.

http://rapidshare.com/files/143449324/Jeff_Buckley_-_Grace.rar - disc 1
http://rapidshare.com/files/124156665/Jeff_Buckley_-_Grace__Legacy_Edition__CD2_Part2__320.rar - disc 2

The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

So, Mr Nevill, I see we are trading this week. After seeing what you've offered me, I decided that I too would go for something a bit different and unexpected. I know you want me to give you Immortal Technique, but just listen to it yourself. You shall be listening to an album that the NME recently described as the best of the decade, and is included in every sort of 'You must listen to these albums before you die!' list you will find. Despite reaching somewhere around 40 in its homeland's billboard, the album was huge in the UK and in particular 'Last Nite' is a song you should have heard before, because it's awesome.
For me this album is a precursor to the overwhelming rise in popularity of indie music in recent years, and what's more its a personal favourite. Enjoy.

GZA - Liquid Swords (Review: Matt)

I quite enjoyed the prospect of this album, until I read that it was going to be 'grimey'. After chuckling at the Wiley reference and wondering how the term 'grime' can mean two quite different things within the hip-hop genre, I started to worry. I don't have much experience with listening grimey sounding hip-hop, and this is for a very good reason. It's just not good. I'll admit, I'm a bit of a production whore on Hip-Hop, and often I find that albums with bad production stand out as unlistenable. The only artists I've ever really enjoyed with this sort of sound are Q-Unique and Ill Bill, but they have shit production because they are poor. Whats GZA's excuse?

After listening to the album once, I suspected my initial thoughts were correct. However its clear to me after a few more listens that the production isn't poorly done at all, and in fact sounds nothing like I expected to. While I see the similarities between the production on this and on other grimey albums, I think RZA has made it his goal here to provide mesmerising and hypnotic beats, and these beats allow the pure brilliance of GZA stand out. I don't know who gave him the name Genius, but it was certainly earned in this album. His lyrics are astounding and whilst I could pretty much pick lines from any song to show you and prove it, I'd rather leave it to you to listen for yourself. He writes magical metaphors and wonderful wordplay with astounding alliteration, and carries it off with fantastic flow.

GZA is clearly a very talented artist, yet I still find it strange it sold so unbelievably well, selling over a million in America and peaking at 9th in the Billboard 200. The album sounds, by todays standards, far too intelligent and underground to possibly have been a chart success. Perhaps in 10 years time people will say the same about Lil' Wayne, but I personally can't see it. Before this album I had listened to the solo efforts of ODB, Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface, and with the exception of Raekwon's 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx', they pale in comparison.

This has been an amazingly short review I now realise, but that is because I really can not pick out any stand out tracks to talk about in particular. Once the music takes you in, the delivery of GZA's wordplay and punchlines does the rest, and there is not a point in the album when his skills aren't evident. The many guest appearances also add a lot to the album, and in particular Inspectah Deck's verses on DOTIM and Cold War are fantastic.

However I have, as previously mentioned, always been partial to a decent bit of production to go along with a decent MC, and for that reason I can't rank this album along side my favourites from the genre. I will, however, grant it a very well deserved 90%.

Atreyu - Lead Sails Paper Anchor 2.0 (2008)

This album is for Matt this week. I actually picked this completely on a whim when I saw it on my iTunes. However, it's a shockingly good album and something I used to listen to a lot. I also know that Matt enjoyed Atreyu at Reading this year whilst The Prodigy were busy being shit. Atreyu aren't particularly popular but they have a few well known songs and a Greatest Hits album...They've recently released a new album and I have not heard anything about it.
I'm pretty sure Matt will be hooked from the very second opening track 'Doomsday' starts. They also have a singing drummer so that's a plus. Hope you like it, I'm listening to it now aswell. And it has a cover of Epic by Faith No More. What more could you want? Hopefully this was a pleasant surprise.

Track Listing:
[1]Doomsday
[2]Honor
[3]Falling Down
[4]Becoming the Bull
[5]When Two Are One
[6]Lose It
[7]No One Cares
[8]Can't Happen Here
[9]Slow Burn
[10]Blow
[11]Lead Sails (and a Paper Anchor)
[12]The Squeeze
[13]Epic
[14]Clean Sheets

and you can download it from here: http://rapidshare.com/files/117092520/PnL_Atreyu_-_LeadSailsPaAn.rar

Nov 23 - 30 Albums

Here is the cycle for next weeks album swaps.

This weeks cycle will be:

Dan recommends to Matt (Lead Sails Paper Anchor 2.0 by Atreyu)
The Chief recommends to Ben (Grace by Jeff Buckley)
Matt recommends to Dan (Is This It by The Strokes)
Ben recommends to The Chief (Common Dreads by Enter Shikari)

2 albums reviewed from last week, Matt's review on GZA/Genius will be up tomorrow. Haven't heard from Ben regarding Tonedeff today, but I'm sure it will get sorted out.

Enjoy

Dan

Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (Review: The Chief)

I seem to have noticed that on every Prog Rock album I have listened to in the past, there has been a section where we hear a phone being dialled or ringing. Prog Rockers clearly find this an exciting sound...Sadly, I dont.

It was a cold and rainy summer evening at Sonisphere when I first experienced Coheed and Cambria without laughing at the high pitchedness of Claudio Sanchez's voice. The second they stepped onto the stage they had me entranced, I thought this couldn't be the same band that I brushed off simply because I thought the vocals were a bit funny? Anyway, I'm glad I didn't decide to see Heaven & Hell in the rain instead otherwise. After this I pretty much only listened to Welcome Home and Ten Speed so I'm really glad that Dan decided to put them up.

The album starts with a nice little instrumental that makes a kind of epic orchestral sound, this initial epicness is certainly something that is kept up throughout the album. I have found that sounding epic is a very integral part of Coheed's sound especially as all of their albums essentially is the epic of two people called Coheed and Cambria. But what I especially like about 'Heed is that the listener doesn't need to understand the story line to enjoy the album, to be honest I have no idea what's going on in terms of plot, and this is something that other concept album bands like Maiden can not seem to do. With many Maiden songs I can't really enjoy them if I don't like the concept Dickinson is whining about. I feel that Heebria manage to do this successfully because of a combination of two things: Claudio's voice (which I know thoroughly enjoy) and the brilliant musicianship of the band as a whole, not to mention the pretty tight production. All this allows the band to really show emotion in their songs that can get the audience really into the music (as I witnessed first hand at Sonisphere).

Another aspect of the album and the band as a whole that I enjoy is the combination of genres. Pinning down a band to a genre is always something I (quite sadly) enjoy doing and while its simple enough to call 'Bria a prog rock band it is clear that they are influenced by many other genres. As I've already implied there is a clear Iron Maiden influence (and honestly they do what Maiden do better than Maiden do) but also some punk-popish influences, even some mid-west nineties emo (which is a huge plus) and they manage this while still being able to be very catchy. Overall I just find this band fascinating, from the weirdness of their frontman to the interesting sound they make to the general concept of their albums.

What I've found with In Keeping Secrets is that it is generally much faster paced than Good Apollo which I like because on the latter I found a few of the tracks to be somewhat boring. This is something that Co-Cam have completely avoided on this album and frankly I like every single track it has to offer. I believe this album to be the second best release of the year 2003, second only to Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. 5/5

Muse - Absolution (Review: Dan)

Tricky one this.

This is the bit where I would probably lie and say 'I wanted to go into this album with an open mind' or maybe 'I really wanted to like this album' but the honest truth is that I really wanted to hate it. However, when Ben revealed that this was the album with tracks 'Hysteria' and 'Time is Running Out' I became very worried that I'd have to swallow my pride and accept that it was going to be good. Well, here it goes:

I've listened to the album a lot now, yet a part of me still doesn't really feel qualified to review the album. However, at the same time I feel that I'm in as good a position now than i ever will be. The first positive is that I've got a lot to write about this album, it's given me plenty to talk about. Unfortunately that could well be the end of the positives list.
The best place to start, I guess, is the start. The album opens with the originally titled 'Intro' not that I'm marking it down for that. However...It is about 20 seconds long, about 5 of which is silence and the rest is just a clock ticking, which builds into first song 'Apocalypse Please'. Now, I don't see the relevance for this intro at all. I don't understand why they could just make it part of Apocalypse please, as it is clearly meant to be listened beforehand.

Now, Matt Bellamy's vocals are obviously a talking point here. They are high and wail-ey, and very similar to those of Thom Yorke. Now don't get me wrong, I actually think Matt Bellamy is a very good singer. However, this album is begging for any vocalist but him. Where the album tries to be fast-paced and heavier rock, it's credibility is crushed by long, droning vocals from Bellamy. There are even songs which I think are good, so long as Bellamy remains shtum, such as 'Stockholm Syndrome'. I think the only two songs that seem like they have been written so that Bellamy's vocals will fit it (and very well I'll add) are 'Time is Running Out' and 'Hysteria'. These two songs are remarkable, although everyone has heard both of them already(or certainly TIRO).

Slower songs are outrageously boring, but they sound like they want to be beautiful. In fact I think that the album has a lot of 'want' and probably made a lot of promises in the writing or recording stages. I get the feeling that they have tried to make an album that can be known as epic, but they seem to have fallen short of the mark on almost every track. I'm also going to go out on a limb here and say that 'Sing for Absolution' is the worst song of all time. It's just the most awful, cheesy song of all time. And though it has been said before and been met with frustration from fans (and myself) Muse do often sound like they are trying to copy what Radiohead are doing. Their sound is much more suited to the fast, heavy rock songs which we can see that they can do. Some of the songs start off with so much potential only to lose all their momentum by the halfway point.

Another of my main gripes is the 'Interlude' in the middle. Now, when a lot of bands decide that they're going to put an interlude in their albums they will more often than not record a short instrumental that will fill the gap. What Muse have done is just outrageous. It is essentially just a bit of noise that lasts 30 seconds. By noise I literally mean just a static sound. It's more like a theatre interlude than anything, in that the audience just have to sit and wait for the show to resume. Pathetic. Get rid of it.

There are a lot of piano parts in the album, so I did my research to find out just how many people were involved in the album, as I found that in the song 'Butterflies and Hurricanes' there is an absolutely dire piano 'solo' if you will, and it just sounded like it had been ripped straight off of Classic FM and dumped on their track. This, by the way, is another strong sounding song until you reach the middle. But anyway, I found out that the band themselves played all of the instruments on the album so I guess that makes things a bit more acceptable. But then I saw that a certain Paul Reeve had contributed backing vocals to the album. This is his only input to the album. Paul Reeve was the producer of their debut album, but this is now their third. I do not understand where they thought his vocal input was truly necessary. I'm sure there was a large number of people who worked on the album, and I'm sure that at least one of them would have been able to record one line of song for them.

I think that Absolution is perhaps an album that I would sit down and eat dinner to. I guess what I'm saying is that it is tolerable so long as I have something to do in the meantime. I think actually having to sit an listen to this 14 track inconsistency is beyond a chore.

One last point I feel the need to make is that Ben said in his upload post that the album spawned about 5 singles and most of them are still played live, which demonstrates the strength of the album. So, I obviously did my research again and pulled up their setlist from their show at the O2 earlier this month. I'd like to say now, anyway, that it is not unusual for a band to play their singles live. At this gig they played 3 songs from this album. To be totally honest with you, I think in a 21 song set that is below standard. Especially when it is their middle album. They've only had two since so it isn't particularly irrelevant. 1/7th of their set was from this album. I don't think that shows any strength. I guess a positive is that at least they are the best three.

Although I wanted to hate the album, I do feel disappointed by this, because I expected more. I'm sure this isn't what Ben was hoping to read from me either so I feel that is has disappointed on two levels. I'll tell you what though, it isn't necessarily a bad album, but it is certainly not a good one. Normally I find scoring tough, in fear of being too generous or too harsh I struggle to come up with something fair. With this though, I am confident that 2/5 is a fair score for Absolution.

Highlights:
Time is Running Out
Hysteria
Stockholm Syndrome

Dan

Tonedeff - Archetype (2005)

Following the recent AS success of PackFM and the not so recent success of Cunninlynguists, I feel I should now usher you towards the man who, in my opinion, is the strongest artist on the QN5 label. Archetype is Tonedeff's debut singles album, and is the album that really turned my head towards underground hip-hop, as opposed to the mainstream tripe I was then infatuated with. Tonedeff obviously has a lot to live up to, with his fellow QN5 artists having a perfect average of 5/5 from Ben, and I fully expect him to do so.

Muse - Absolution (2003)

Muse's third studio album is undoubtedly one of the most heralded 'rock' albums of recent times and in my opinion is probably their best album. Spawning the singles 'Butterflies and Hurricanes, 'Hysteria', 'Stockholm Syndrome', 'Time is Running Out' and 'Sing for Absolution', it has so many highlights and the fact that most of these songs are still in their setlist some 6 years later says alot about the strength of this album. I never made a statement that "Muse are better than Slipknot" as Dan suggested as that is purely my opinion. I merely suggested that he may want to consider other bands in his choice of 20 songs in an ultimate seltist and include songs from more than one band. Enjoy.

GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords (1995)

Lyrically my favourtie hip-hop ablum ever? I think so. The GZA (pronounced Jizza) is easily recognised as the most intelligent member of the Wu-Tang Clan and remains one of the only members with a shred of talent left in his body. This is a violent, dark and bloody album and the beats and lyrics reflect this. It, as the album cover suggests, is like a graphic novel with over the top violence and the like. In nearly every line of the album you can find double, even triple, meanings. The main idea of the album is GZA rapping about the ninja wu-tang persona and how certain aspects of this relate to real life situations in New York. It's difficult to explain as I get a different idea of what the album's about everytime I listen to it.
The production is amazing from RZA, very raw and grimey in the original US way, rather than the Wiley sense of the word. If this album is lyrically enjoyed I recommend the Wu's first solo album for further listening, if it is enjoyed due to the beats then I recommend the first album of Mobb Deep.
I hope you enjoy it Matt.