Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion (Review: Alex)

I really wanted to like this album. Being the pretentious loser I am, I like to think of myself as one of those people who appreciates the slightly out-there, slightly experimantal stuff which no one really listens to. I'd never heard of Animal Collective before, and when Matt told me that they were nothing like he's ever heard before, things were looking up.

The reality is however, that no matter how much I wanted to like this album (and believe me, I tried), I really struggled to find anything I distinctly enjoyed. Sure, it's different. The intro to the opening track, 'In The Flowers', felt like it was leading me into something new, something interesting. Even the interestingly out of key vocals initially caught my attention in what I'm sure was a good way. However, within about a minute is was already bored. This contradicts what I said to Matt earlier this week; that I rarely find myself bored by songs. However this album gave me the feeling throughout that it should be leading me in a direction, and was failing to deliver.

This said, there were aspects I enjoyed. I don't really know what it was, but I did like 'Summertime Clothes'. It seemed to offer a bit more than the rest of the album.

All in all however, it reminded me of bands like The Polyphonic Spree, and Arcade Fire, both of whom I have a strong distaste for. It felt to me that they were simply trying too hard. I'd like to see this band sit down and just write a song, without the intention of being anything new or radical. That way, I think they might actually be quite good. As it stands, they seem to be striving for something new. If I want this sort of music, I'll listen to MGMT, who give off the same vibe, but manage to do it in a way which is pleasing to my tender little ears.

Sorry guys, but this time I'm going for a 2/5.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion (Review:Ben)

I'd never heard of Animal Collective before and so this was a journey into a band I had no prior knowledge of. I wasn't really sure of what to expect and the only indication I had of what to prepare my ears for was Matt's genre classification of 'experimental'. I'll be honest, this genre tag rarely evokes feelings of excitement from me and so I was never expecting a masterpiece.

So, what did I find in Animal Collective? The original sound was not what I had immediately anticipated and I actually found it a struggle to listen to to begin with. After the first two songs I couldn't wait for the album to end and had placed it firmly in the 'not for me' pile. I found the music very monotonous and the vocals were hardly inspiring. I felt like I was listening to a bizarre combination of R.E.M and MGMT and I didn't like it. 'Also Frightened' did little to change my opinion and I found myself considering what kind of person could enjoy such a record.

However, I persevered with the small hope that the album would make a vigorous change in it's sound or that I would somehow manage to train my ears to enjoy it. Now, there is usually always something for me in an album and thankfully by the time I reached 'Summertime Clothes' and 'Daily Routine' I found that I was tapping along to the beat and enjoying the music a lot more than in previous tracks. I wouldn't say there was a huge change musically in these songs and in fact I found the whole album to be distinctly lacking in variety but something about these two tracks altered my perception of the album slightly.

From this point on the rest of the record went by me relatively calmly and whilst the songs were no longer a huge annoyance, they were still far from stimulating my musical tastes. I conclude that Animal Collective are somewhat of an acquired taste and whilst originally sounding like a musical equivalent of AID's to me, grew into something which was a lot more tolerable.

I give the album a score of 2 out of 5.

New Release Sunday: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

New Release Sunday is where each Sunday either Alex, Ben, Dan or I suggest an album to listen to that none of us have heard before and then write a review on it. This week I have chosen Animal Collective's latest album Merriweather Post Pavillion. I have chosen this because of the unique sound of the band and the mental album cover, not to mention all the positive reviews it has gotten.
I hope everyone enjoys it.

Track Listing:

1. "In the Flowers" 5:22

2. "My Girls" 5:40

3. "Also Frightened" 5:14

4. "Summertime Clothes" 4:30

5. "Daily Routine" 5:46

6. "Bluish" 5:13

7. "Guys Eyes" 4:30

8. "Taste" 3:53

9. "Lion in a Coma 4:12

10. "No More Runnin" 4:23

11. "Brother Sport" 5:59

Bullet For My Valentine: Live (Review: Dan)

Today (or perhaps yesterday) was a bad day. I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall with Ben at somewhere around 7.15pm. This was where it all began. The Royal Albert Hall is without doubt the worst building I have ever been to. It is unorganized, and quite large. It has 12 different entrances scattered around the circumference, only 2 of which were applicable for Ben and I. Finding a door that we were allowed through was one of the most challenging parts of the evening. Next of all, we were very determined to find the Sonisphere 'Stickets' that had been hidden in the venue. We missed the entire set of the first act 'In Case of Fire' to do this. We were so damn close too. We were standing within 50m of it for so long, but we were determined that it was outside the building. Anyway, long story short, we missed a band for nothing. This, however, was probably a good thing.

We entered the arena (which was even harder to find than the fucking entrance) to go and see Fightstar. It was here that we made the very unusual discovery that were many young boys, who can be no older than 11. It was genuinely a very young crowd tonight, and anyone who wasn't young was a massive prick (can't think of a better word).
Anyway, Fightstar. Or as they were clearly known to most people in the audience 'Charlie from Busted's band'. There were so many people just throwing stuff at them, despite a very impressive performance from the band. I was feeling quite disgusted with the reception they recieved to be honest.
I now feel that I should talk about the man of the evening; The big man in the tank top. He was the worst human being I've met at a gig. He was very tall and had an incredibly filthy white vest on. He would strut around a circle pit and wink at girls as he did so. He also felt like he was some sort of circle pit dictator, as he waved his hand in a circular motion for most of the evening. Ben and I were genuinely wishing death upon him for most of the evening.
This reminds me, I feel that I need to talk about my passionate hatred for Circle Pits. I've never liked them, and never understood them. It makes me cringe everytime one is formed, and lots of long-haired, sweaty males skip in a large circle, whilst in the middle a man in a dirty vest dictates, and dodges two small girls holding hands and spinning around in circles. This is not my idea of a good time.
Bullet for my Valentine were next up though, and I was hoping that any chance of having a good evening would be restored. The drums of Scream, Aim, Fire kicked in and the 7 year old crowd screamed like 6 year olds. It was a good song, it usually is, but as expected from people half your size, there was little fun to be had in the crowd. I am happy to say that it was the very worst experience of my Live Music Life. Well, I'm not happy to say it, but I have to.
I feel that at this point I should mention that the arena floor was only half filled, and was far too spacious for any enjoyment, despite the people I was sharing it with. There were a lot of empty seats too.
Bullet for my Valentine gave a fairly solid performace, as usual, but there were one or two times were they made little mistakes - I noticed Matt Tuck's voice dying out a bit on several occasions, and I recall some missed notes on guitar. Other than this though they were very good, and they are VERY lucky that I love their music, or I would probably have walked out.
The only thing that made my night a tiny bit better was seeing The big man in the tank top sitting on a chair with some sort of medic crying like a bitch.

I'm going to have to give two scores for this event:
The Live Experience: 1/5
Bullet for My Valentine: 4/5

Enter Shikari - Take to the Skies (2007) (Special Review: MattJ)

Well well well, Enter Shikari, we meet at last. I've listened to this at the request of Dan who in exchange has listened to and reviewed (very nicely I might add) cLOUDDEAD. I feel that I've gotten the easier end of this deal...

Well everyone and their grandmother seems to have listened to this album and seen the band live apart from me. I wasn't really sure what to expect, although I say that I knew exactly what they are - hardcore(ish) and electronic(ish), but what is that supposed to sound like? The first thing that surprised me was the vocals. I really wasn't expecting what I got from the vocalist on the opening song - he reminded me strangely of the singer from post-punk band Wire and that can only be a good thing.*

'Anything can happen in the next half hour indeed' I thought. I very much liked the little interludes throughout the album and found myself thinking I wouldn't mind listening to an entire album like this, especially the last one before the end. Another part of the album I liked was the energy I heard from the band, especially on the annoyingly named 'No Sssweat'. I very much would like to see this song, Mothership and Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour live. Furthermore, I suppose you could call this a good thing, the backing vocals of 'Return to Energizer' sounds like they are shouted in to a cushion and really made me laugh. Yeah, that is definitely a positive.

Although I did find many aspects of the album to be good it was not without its negatives. 'Sorry, You're Not a Winner' was the only ES song I had heard before this and I have never been a fan of it. From the vocals, which otherwise on the album I have enjoyed but sadly not on this track, to the eternally horrible clapping. I just don't find this song very enjoyable; the same is true of Labyrinth and Johnny Sniper where I really hated the riff of both songs. In fact I found Johnny Sniper down right cringey - it sounds like I stepped out of my bedroom and into a fairground. I'm finding that the aspects of the album I did not like were all things that are down to perspective and so are not things that are bad because Enter Shikari are bad - more because I don't really like some aspects of the album.

This is a fairly solid album from a band who feel like they have been around forever, but listening to this album I hear a young group with a hell of a lot of potential. I much preferred their fast paced songs and shouting as apposed to slower songs like 'Today Won't Go Down in History' but I found 'Adieu' to be a very nice song indeed. I was pleasantly surprised with this album, which is by no means a masterpiece but still a good album, and I am actually looking forward to hear how they've grown with their next album. 3/5

Highlights:
Enter Shikari
Mothership
All of the interludes

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqP-Ezl-4AM (I feel the need to explain myself as I can't just name drop any old band in a review and expect people to know them, I'm not a reviewer from Pitchfork)

cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD (2001) (Special Review: Dan)

I'm listening to cLOUDDEAD's self titled 2001 album by request from Matt. He never really told me what genre it is, or what I should expect and as I've never heard them before I came into this expecting anything. I would call cLOUDDEAD a hip hop album, but as I'm not really a hip hop fan and don't have a lot to compare this to people may wish to argue with this. I enjoyed the track listing - there are six track titles, each with two parts. I was expecting twelve different tracks though, but I was pleasantly surprised after listening to both parts of Apt. A to find that they were relatively similar sounding, and then after hearing the first part to And All You Can Do Is Laugh was pleased to hear that it sounded very different.

To be honest, I find this really difficult to review; There is nothing I like about what I hear, but there is not I don't like at the same time. This genre of music just doesn't interest me. The vocals are bizarre, and I think the whole album reminds me of The Avalanches - which can't really be a good thing.

I'm actually having so much trouble trying to write anything here, I just can't understand what there is to enjoy about this album. I also can't really work out how to give it a score. Because from my statement where I said that "There is nothing I like but there is nothing I don't like" it suggests that it should be given a 2.5 - A nice, medium score. However, at the same time I'm thinking 'If there is NOTHING that I like, how can I give it anything more than a 0?'. So, cLOUDDEAD has been difficult on a number of levels, I think listening has been the worst.

It has a very electronic sound, with vocals that sound quirky, and extremely unusual. I recall Matt telling me that he likes unusual, and I think that is why he likes this - I really can't think of another reason why he might. Also, though I think it's a bit irrelevant, I seem to have noticed that on every hiphop album I have listened to in the past, there has been a section where we hear a phone being dialled or ringing. Hip-Hoppers clearly find this an exciting sound...Sadly, I dont.

I'm going to give up with this now, there really is nothing else I can say. Ah, although I can announce that I was only able to listen to this thanks to Spotify. Though, if anything, this is a bad thing.

So I need to come up with a score...I'm just going to go between my two thoughts, and give it a 1.25 / 5.

"It's all the same shit, but they call it cLOUDDEAD"

Jimmy Eat World - Futures (Review: MattJ)

This is the first Jimmy Eat World album I've ever heard. Before this I'd only heard The Middle and a couple of other songs I don't remember the name of but I'm sure I didn't like. With the song Futures I don't think that they went off to a good start. I hated the riff and couldn't get into the song at all. Just Tonight... then came on and I found this to be huge improvement, the music was quite good and the vocals didn't seem to grate as they had done before. The song was genuinely quite catchy.

Regrettably this was the last song that I enjoyed on the entire rest of the album. There were two main points that I didn't like and came up a few times on the album. The first is the vocals - the worst of which I found to be on Work. His high pitched whine annoyed me greatly on this song and the 'oh oh, oh oh oh' parts of the chorus made me cringe horribly.

Another part of the album which ruined it for me was the music itself. It's as if Jimmy Eat World want their songs to sound catchy and for everyone to be singing along and loving it, but it's just not doing it for me. The repetition of the last words on some lines in Kill made me hate it with an unbelievable fiery passion: "I can't help it baby, this is who I am (am)
Sorry, but I can't just go turn off how I feel (feel)"
I know it may seem like I am being nit picky but it is small things like this that can ruin a song for me completely. "We're only ever as happy, as everyone else seems to be." It's lyrics like this that just make me want to shout 'Fuck off' to my computer screen. I am sorry Ben if this seems like I'm being too cruel.

The song I liked the least of all was Drugs or Me. I dislike this the most because I can see what they are trying to do, but they just can not do it. This is supposed to be ballad that fans of JEW will call beautiful, it's supposed to be minimal in terms of instrumentation because the lyrics are the most important thing. The lyrics are supposed to reach the heart of the listener as they cry about the hurt the singer's singing about. But what I heard was lack luster singing and vocals that do nothing but make my ears blink* coupled with boring music. This song made me sad, not because of the message in the song but because it bored me.
You're sorry, you swear it: you're done
But I can't tell you from the drugs
Remember kids, don't do drugs.

Overall I will give this album 1.5/5

Sorry.

*Ear blinking is when you close your ears to sound. It doesn't really exist but I wish it did.

Tool - 10,000 days (Review: Roshan)

10,000 days was the first of tool I was exposed to, which is actually a bad thing (reasons why later). Their sound is definitely a unique and refreshing take on the metal/rock genre that is very much sagging with age. I wouldn’t oppose a spawn of a new genre based on tools style, I would embrace it and hope that other/new bands will follow these pioneers.

As you might probably guess I have very much enjoyed this album. One thing that always affects how much I like an album no matter what the band is its production values. The production on this album is simply splendid and you can hear the quality the moment you press play, to the progressively inspiring drum fills and the last of the ambient Viginti Tres.

The albums starts of strongly with the palm muted, heavily delayed, almost hypnotic opening melody in Vicarious that has an “eastern” feel to it. As mentioned the anthem like lyrics of it really power the song along, but the part I was most impressed with was echoing of lyrics in the guitar riff at 3.25, which is then joined by the drums, almost like an A cappella of instruments. Jambi’s beginning I can’t help but feel is slightly Meshuggah inspired, it’s the sort of polyrhythmic chugging that you’d expect from them. The progression in this song is a lot more secretive than the previous song climaxing up to 3.04 before the instruments make way for the almost speech like delivery of an awesome verse.

Ah now, Wings both parts 1 and 2 are a masterpiece. If these were the only two songs on the album I would have still felt I received my moneys worth. Incredibly well crafted, atmospheric and engrossing. It begins with a soothing whirling sound that almost surrounds you, fluctuating in speed. By the time it’s sucked you in it hits you hard at 4.12 into a full on traditional power chord enraged riffing followed by an increasingly robotic voice. In wings part 2 the whirl of sound has been replaced with thunder and rain taking you again to another world. The voice is kept slow and almost silent, rarely rising above a whisper. Something I thought was quite cheeky was the return of the whirling sound without you quite realising it blends into the vocalists harmony at 3.18, blink and you’ve missed its entrance. It returns to similar heavy riffing heard in the previous track.

The Pot brings things back to the mainstream with very impressive singing and minimalistic riffs and random guitar noises. Halfway through it cuts to a familiar palm muted melody heard at the start of vicarious. Its little things like this, the similarities, the constants, such as the guitar tone and style of singing in the album that makes sure every song sounds like it belongs there. Blame Hoffman keeps with the background noises and with some simple picking of guitar chords and background chatter makes for a great and interesting instrumental, something other metal bands try and hopelessly fail at, producing an incoherent mess they clearly aren’t talented enough to direct.

Intension builds on their instrumental efforts, including Tablas which I think is a silent nod at reflections from their previous album. There’s not much I can say about the other tracks other than I can only describe them as “typically tool” and they have a fair amount in common with the previous album.

I have to say I am immensely impressed with the hidden genius of this album and it beckons for repeat hearing so you can appreciate it fully. I only wish that this wasn’t the first tool album I heard as their other albums disappoint in comparison. I think tool, although well into their career still have a lot to offer us and I look forward to future productions. Overall 4/5

Jimmy Eat World - Futures (Review: Alex)

I've Listened to two Jimmy Eat World albums previous to this one: Bleed American and Chase This Light (purely for their respective singles, somewhat shamefully). Whereas I was very impressed by Bleed American, my opinion on Chase This Light was that it didn't live up to quite the same standard. I was, therefore, interested to see what I would think of Futures.

Having read Dan's review before listening to the album, the opening track provoked thoughts that my review would end up going in much the same direction. The guitar riff to 'Futures', I thought, was pretty awful. In fact, I didn't really enjoy much of this track on first listening. It's the sort of thing which I'm sure I could have written myself, and I'm Not even close to being in a globally successful band.

However, 'Just Tonight', by total contrast, is a great song. It's catchy (especially in the chorus, which is always important), and something about it shows me a new side to Jimmy Eat World which I can't exactly place. Had I the authority to do so, I would certainly have chosen this as the opening track.

I'm in danger of going through the album track by track, but 'Work' is one of the best things I have heard Jimmy Eat World do. In fact, I've never noticed a Jimmy Eat world album in which the band moves so freely and easily into drop tunings. The album, and this song in particular, shows me something new, dark and interesting about the band which I have never noticed before. It reminds me a lot of 'Hear You Me' from Bleed American, but offers so much more.

From the second track onwards, this album moved up and up in my perception. They offer something soothing, but paradoxically with a lot of 'grunt' (much as I hate that word, it's the most fitting one). It's subtle and simple, but throughout there is an underlying feeling that there is something more. I get this sense most while listening to 'The World You Love'; something that I just can't place. This is a very clever trick to have pulled off and is a testament to the band's songwriting, if not technical, talent.

I'm not sure how they managed it, but with Futures, Jimmy Eat World managed to pull off something ever so slightly different. I think this easily deserves a 3.5/5, though I feel I really should be giving it more.

Damien Rice - O (Review: Elliott)

I'd always thought that Damien Rice was one of those artists that Mothers listen to whilst cooking dinner for the family - a bit of background music. Having been introduced to the likes of "Jeff Buckley", "City and Colour" and "Get Cape Wear Cape Fly" I've started to have a lot of time for music that I previously wouldn't have considered listening to. Slow, melodic music coupled with a pleasant voice can be incredibly soothing and I've found that I can listen to these kinds of albums regardless of the mood I'm in.

The album opens with "Delicate", a very simple song. The title describes this song perfectly and sets the tone for what's to come."Volcano" introduces a female singer who appears on quite a few songs on the album. Something about her voice is very similar to "Regina Spektor's" and it fits the track perfectly. The violins on "The Blower's Daughter" work perfectly and the power of Rice's voice followed by the choir at around 3:30 is one of my favourite moments on the album - along with the climatic part around 3:15 into "I Remember".

There is something about Damien Rice's voice that I love. It sounds effortless and raspy but these are the reasons that I love it. The album doesn't sound overproduced and it doesn't suffer from a vocalist attempting to show-off their vocal range. It's easy to listen to and it seems to satisfy any mood. I can't think of a single fault with this album. I want to be able to say that it lacks a "happier, more upbeat" song but I know that's exactly what I don't want to hear from Damien Rice.

I'm happy that this album has completely disproved any preconceptions I'd had of Damien Rice.

5/5

For anyone wishing to join in the fun

Hello,

To anyone who wants to be an author on the site and join Alex, Ben, Dan and I in reviewing the albums on this blog then just contact any of us and let us know, we'll add you as soon as possible. Elliott already has. You're not expected to review every album put up but please take it seriously.
Unfortunately we aren't currently having anyone else suggest albums as 4 a week is enough, coupled with our new feature New Release Sunday where each of us will review an album that none of us have heard before (this may not yet happen but it probably will), it's probably going to be too much to handle and too hard to keep organised.

Thanks.

Jimmy Eat World - Futures (Review: Dan)

I like Jimmy Eat World. I love the the album Chase This Light, and I find Adkins' vocals brilliant. And normally, a good vocalist is enough for me. And for some reason, I've never gotten round to listening to Futures, despite the fact that I love almost everything I have heard from the band, and they were one of my favourite live acts of 2008.

So I was actually quite looking forward to hearing this. But it is with massive regret that I report; I did not enjoy the album. That's not to say there weren't any good songs on it though, as there some that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Futures and Just Tonight... were not enjoyed at all, they did nothing to excite me and I couldn't find any enjoyment from them. However, I thought that the track Work was magnificent, and I began to think the album would start to improve. It turns out I was wrong, and, though it was a huge improvement on tracks 1 and 2, Kill was already a significant drop below the standard set by Work. Don't read too much into that though, I did enjoy the song. I think things picked up again with World You Love, though, which was a fairly decent track.

The song Pain is very good. This was the only song I knew before listening to the album, and it is undoubtedly one of the best. But it just doesn't suit the rest of the record. It sounds like it doesn't belong on Futures. I can't really justify this, but when I was listening to it, it just felt so out of place.
From then on I think the album got worse and worse, until the song 23 finally gave it a little bit of strength at the end.

I was really disappointed that I didn't enjoy this album; I think there is a lot of filler there, and hardly any strong tracks. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh; I think my hopes were probably just too high for Futures.

Settling on a score for the album, though, has possibly been harder than listening to it. It was let down by so many weak tracks, and I wanted to give it somewhere between 1.5 and 2...However, with tracks like Work, Kill (which grew on me with each listen) and 23, it seems rude to give it such a low score. So, thanks to some of it's better tracks I'm going to give it a (perhaps generous) 2.5 stars.

Highlight Tracks:
[3]Work
[4]Kill
[5]World You Love
[6]Pain
[11]23