LPF Reviews 3

[Jeezy]

errm....would it be too much to ask if someone could review the new "From First to Last" album?

 

[Stllmn8j]

errm....would it be too much to ask if someone could review the new "From First to Last" album?

If I was good at profesional style reviews,I would do it

 

[Friðbjörn]

I could if I could get a link lol
but I mean, if I think it's trash I'll say it...

 

[Stenners]

Santogold
Santogold
Pop/Alternative

Pretty much one of the hyped artists of the moment, Santogold is making ripples in many
music scenes but is the hype totally justified or is it just another artist being pushed due
to current trends in the music industry? I heard her early stuff & to be honest I had never
been overly impressed, I mean I always liked that the was some cohierent melodies and
some interesting moments but you know what I always thought of Santogold... she thinks
she is making much more edgey pop music then she actually is. I happen to know the manager
of Santogold and he specialises in pushing HYPE bands of the moment that lack any substanance
so when I got this CD I wasn't expecting much & this is totally backed up.

Vocally threw out her performance is acceptable but again seems to be trying too hard
to be edgey and this goes out threw out the album with swooshy pop melodies seeming
posetivley interesting at first and loosing all impact mid song, this is someone trying too
hard to be accepted by a certain scene, in all honestly I cant write much more about this
CD as even after 4 listens I remember next to nothing about it. Essentialy, dont believe
the hype and invest in some Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bjork and M.I.A and listen to them in
interchanging moments, much better.



LES Aristites
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y9JI0GXkARQ

 

[Stenners]

Free Kitten
Inherit
Noise Rock/Alt.Pop/Alt.Punk/Indie

Free Kitten is a 2 piece outfit featuring 'Kim Gordon' of Sonic Youth & 'Julie Cafritz' of *****
Galore. The general sound of this outfit is very comparable to Sonic Youth in the use of unothodox
tuning but it's a lot less noisey I guess. The music is all fairly disjointed and isn't necciarily tight
but 'Free Kitten' have cetainly haven't gotten close to the success of say '***** Galore' yet
alone 'Sonic Youth' & the is a reason for it & it is shown once again here. Although this band
are capable of making some fun catchy songs, the music always sounds like a lighter stripped
down 'Sonic Youth' more then anything & at the best of times they do sound like a real off the
wall pop act as is shown on this album with tracks such as 'Banana' being genuinly enjoyable
& actaully a really good fun song.

The real problem here is this album offers very little in the way of instant appeal and it
doesn't offer much in the way of reward either, the music here isn't bad and some of it
is enjoyable but the isn't much more to it. It's good music to shove on into the background
but as a pievce of music that stands out, this most cetainly isn't it.

 

[Stenners]

Shearwater
Rook
Alternative/Slowcore/Sadcore/Indie

Just as the above album this is another brand new album to come out which is a collbaration
between some of indies heavyweights this time it's 'Will Sheff' of Okkervil River & Johnathen
Meiburg of Kingfishers collaberating once again for their 4th release in 7 years & once again
to no suprise it lends it's hand to heavy inspiriations such as the likes of 'Nick Drake' and
'Lenard Cohen'. Too 'Okkervil River' fans who are yet to know of this band, in which case..
shame on you the band is a lot softer and slower paced then 'Okkervil River' more melodic
pop then catchy pop, the melodies here are largely comprised by simple accoustic strumming
& simple piano often topped off with frequent though sparse use of Violin, it's pretty music the
is no doubt about it & devishly easy to wack on and get into straight away.

I have always had a bit of a hit miss relationship with Shearwater but with this album they
seem to have finnaly hit the nail on the head, sure the album doesn't sound too different
to when they first started and their focus seems to be primarily the same. The album though
clearly has a large budget and whilst most bands usualy splash this out on making an album
as polished as possible to the point within the is no hope to hear any honesty or any of the
core dynamics behind the band the production here is very nice making the album easy to listen
to but with enough subtle qualities to make it worth while to listen to again. Will Shefs vocals
do, as usual pervail and stand out & are a massive selling point to this band who are now 4 strong,
the development of this band has meant their songwriting has now reached a stage where they
may now no longer be considerd a side project but a band in their own right.



Rooks (Live)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y6WX69BlESY

 

[Friðbjörn]

sadcore wtf

 

[Stenners]

Flyleaf
Much Like Falling (EP)
Metal/Alternative

Female vocaled Metal which isn't really metal.... hmmm what have we got here then? Well
it's not very oparatic melo-dramatic so thankfully it's not a new Evanescence record.. but
what the hell is it? A satanic like figure imegrges upon my shoulder with gelled down hair
and mascare looking at me going 'Flyyyleaf dude its flyleaaaf' the pain in his voice was un
paramount as I hear him crying to me about his faviroute band. Ohhhh they are one of those
bands, before I listend to this EP I had a pretty defined idea of what this is gonna sound like,
I could see some chugger chugger guitars (which we got), the pop structure disguised with
distortion (yea that), over the top screaming in some of the song with some wailey im so
depressed vocals (not quite as much as i thought but man they are still there) and the lack
of imagination which could make Flyleaf any other of these bands, yeap plenty.

The only real 'suprise' the accoustic version of the song 'Supernatural' which is....
rather bland, I guess it's more sincere then the original but unfourtenetly I cannot
compare the two, her voice is tecnically fine but it's nothing interesting. The 3rd
track is functional and instant but again is really nowt of special though I wouldnt
be suprised if fans of such records wouldnt wet them self as she shouts 'JUSTICEEE'
I believe thats what she was screaming anyways, feel free to point out my mistakes
here.... but the thing is this... just another teen angst band with nothing to offer
not terrible but they emote no feeling what so ever.

 

[Stenners]

Radiohead
The Best Of
Indie/Alternative/Experimental/Rock/Electronic

It's no secret that Radiohead are easily without a doubt one of the best and most established
bands of our generation, the aren't any bands that really could be placed in the same leauge
in terms of social impact, musical influence and general contribution to music as a collective in
our generation (I mean really, can you think of anyone that comes close). This is the band that
has die hard fans from the music snobs, casual listener to the emos, metallers and hip hoppers
they seem to have a fanbase everywhere & whilst the really resiliant will belt on about overrated
they are they can rarely back this up other then by seemingly trying to look cool. Sure you don't
have to like them but the above is fact and not an opinion, so it's only logical that their old label
EMI would want to milk every last penny out of their former label darlings so here comes this, a
collection of Radiohead songs which was sure to come sooner or later.

This collection of songs covers all the album in their carrer under the EMI label, from the
early days of 'Creep' threw to expermimental period on 'Hail To The Thief' it's got it pretty
much all coverd (In Rainbows not being on EMI). So is the any use to this collection of songs?
Well yes of course they are but not so much for us, a generation that has grown up with the
band as the is nothing new here, the are b-sides included on the main tracklisting but not
anything any die hards wont have already. The aim I guess is at the casual listener of the band
that only know 'Creep' and 'Ok Computer' & now to a lesser extent I guess 'IN Rainbows' as
amongst all these stone cold recognisable classics this collection also features an abundance
of their experimental electronic side which was every bit as appealing. For a greatest hits
collection it's incredibly diverse due to their nature as a band... you cant ever say with
a band such as radiohead 'heard one album, heard them all' they go down as a list of a select
few bands where no one is ever sure what their best album is (and I mean threw out the
whole carrer not just at a select era) only other bands I can think of with such a scatterd
opinion and consistency are 'Beck', 'The Beatles', 'Sonic Youth' & 'Pavement'... sure the are more
but they are just examples.

In this 2 cd collection you have to argue if it's too long, they dont really miss any of the obvious
ones out but you got to wonder if 2hrs+ worth of material is just a bit too much to listen to in
one going? Well of course it is & this collection of hits will never replicate an album experiance which
they are known to deliver so well, so you do miss out on some of their core appeal & why they are
such a great band, however this is a nice guide to be able to tell what Radiohead era is for you
and to divulge further... as this is a band with such a diverse and large catalouge this is an essential
for newcomers but the is no reasson for the fans to get it.. other then the collectors, simple to
sum it up GREAT BAND + GREAT SONGS = GREAT COLLECTION.



Let Down
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jzsX6UKoCDU&feature=related

National Anthem
http://youtube.com/watch?v=n02PhHaeRG4

 

[Friðbjörn]

great collection yeah, but pointless much? yes very

 

[Stenners]

The Hold Steady
Stay Positive
Rock/Contempoary/Indie/Alternative

Contempoary Rock is often a very dirty word to give to a band, it often means boring & dated
rock which just sort of goes along with basic structures and doesn't really go about being cool
with the use of piano n such it goes along as more of a classic rock n roll record.... think 'Thin
Lizzy' and you pretty much get the point. The are exceptions to this rule 'Bruce Springstien' jumps
to mind and along with such a name I would also drop 'The Hold Steady' who offer a suprising
about of depth and scope into the genre. THe point of this band is they make Rock 'N' Roll based
Rock music seem fresh again! For such a dated concept they sound radicously fresh and most
deffinatly have their own sound, 2006s 'Boys & Girls In America' shuttled the band into a much
larger audience and was critically very well recieved (in fact all their albums have been) & early
signs seem to suggest the same with their latest release 'Stay Positive'.

People could initialy be put off by their throw back sound but it's once you realise they
aren't dated at all is when you often discover that HEY! This **** is good fun & it's got
more catchy melodies and hooks then most mainstream records have to offer, which is
good as to be anal all the time is to be boring all the time & this is a very colourful record
the lyrics are whitty & the instruments used often braught out in major keys but with minor
keys co-operativley playing off of each other to make a fun but not sickeningly sweet
album, the song writing here is amongs their best, I personally think this is better than their
last effort & although it does have moments when it wavers for the most part this is a
hootin tootin good ol time!

 

[Stenners]

Street Dogs
State Of Grace
Punk/Punk Revival

Street Dogs have really got a bit of a following going on in the punk world, those fed up of
the cookie cutter punk bands & looking for a band with a bit of an edge and creates those
anthems that sadly dissapeard a long time ago have turned to this band. The first 3 albums
were all strong though the last effort was a bit more of a polished affair it still hadn't lost it's
edge and the anthems were in tact & the case is once again present here. The one thing that
has to be said about this band that is even though its very much traditonal punk by nature
this band are quite eclective and experiment with different sounds stopping the album from
becomming a monotonius blur, the hooks are in anthematic perportions with hooks being similar
to the likes of 'Offspring' but I dont know... less cheesey and irritating.

This albums all you would expect from a typical Punk album, simple chugging and furious riffs
with backing vocals repeating in a woooooOOOOooOoOo type fashion and simple hooks which
are often just a short statement such as 'Won't take any more' and so forth... it's simple &
is often done poorly but the vocals here all seem to suit it... it sounds like this band is a
passionate about tradtional punk values and as a result knows their way around short punchy
anthmatic songs. Sure they mix it up a bit with tracks such as 'Elizabeth' being Punk with a
really folk edge.. so not only are this band are of interest of punk purists but they also have
a fresh sound for the genere stopping them from sounding dated, album number 4 and still
yet to go wrong.

 

[Stenners]

Nôze
Songs On The Rocks
Minimal Techno/Electronic/Jazzy

Nôze are a french duo which specialise in making fun minimal techno music & combine it with
various other genre elements by putting the likes of jazzy piano over a typically Techno beat
it's a real mis-mash of sounds which promosies & delivers a very dancey sound which doesn't
try to hard to get people moving. It's all rather low-key, people looking for in your face dancey
electronic music might want to move on as this is as stated in the genre description mininum, the
drums are of rhytmic patterns that are designed to carry a song and make you dance in the
repetetive nature but they are very quiet and modest... and good the is nothing I dislike more
in a dance/electronic track then in your face drums.

With very simple vocals being deliverd in a stereotypically french manor you can tell this
duo are in it for fun, the vocals remind you of say 'Gogol Bordello' at times whilst at others
they are incredibly modest higher pitched deliveries which work incredibly well with the
minimal structure of these songs. It's all very fun and hooky with little touches which will
inevitably spark an ear to ear grin but at the same times the are moments where the music
turns fairly eary in the fun eary way, sort of like a twisted scene in a cartoon which is
simultaniously entertaining and creepy this band will prove something fresh in your music libary,
from the Ballad like offerings to the silly sing songs this album is truely one for the lighthearted
but at the same time, musically its a real treat.



Kitchen (from the last album) http://youtube.com/watch?v=3l78GFJzRIk

 

[Stenners]

HEALTH
HEALTH//DISCO
Electro/Remix

HEALTH are a band of great humour some will say 'All The Hits//Remixed' is a bit of an overstatement
with HEALTH only surfacig last year and whilst getting a considerable underground following and only
having one album to their name calling them hits is a bit rich, but considering the recent flood of
uneccisarily greatest hits compilations and such you can understand the humour. The band it's self
are a noisey bunch & very difficult to get into, believe me I never quite got this band and whilst
some people seemed to rave on about them I just couldn't get into it. But this didn't stop me from
investigating this, the remix album of aformentioned album featuring the likes of 'Acid Girls'
'Crystal Castles' & 'Curses!' laying down their talents to alter the original recordings... and you know
what, the add of beats and cohesive melody to the squils of noise is really effective. The noise is
still there but at such a bare mininum and been alterd into cohesive electronica dance that you
would never know the original HEALTH sounded anything like they did, these aren't lazy remixes
these are the real deal people.

Musically this is a bit of a gem, an easy electronica album to get into but without being stale
fragmented or boring like most of what is currently under offer under the term 'electronica' this
is pure glitchy beats with the odd vocal samples thrown in a the odd inclusing of heavy beats
and noise to really get the heart pumping and so begin the disorientation, this is all club stuff
designed for those currently very euphoric and/or drunk, this is the type of music you want on
in your club whilst gurning your little head off to your faviroute MDMA. The essential drive of
the album makes it a very coheirant and linier listen which to be quite honest with you I'm shocked
by. It works very well & whilst not reaching the state of instant classic or soon to be classic
as is the case with all remix albums but this is pretty much as good a party cd as you're going to
hope for right now.



Crystal Castles Vs Health - Crimewave
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pXkQFjRcjC4

 

[Stenners]

Damiera
Quiet Mouth Loud Hands
Post-Hardcore/Emo/Indie

Sighhhhh the crossover record? Perhaps..... Damiera, a decent Mathrock based Hardcore band of
2006 which I found a very fun band in wake of the likes of 'At The Drive In'... I was excited about
this album as I thought they could become the next 'At The Drive In'... but alas they seem to have
forgotten most of their original appeal. Okay i'm all for a good catchy track in this genre but most
of the time they sound a bit too 'Maroon 5' for my liking, you know sort of like a rock based Michael
Jackson? Well yea. They do have some mathy hardcore elements, the tuning for example is a dead
give away of this and the general singing gives that feel as does most of the guitar riffs but it all
seems so waterd down, like such a Damiera lite.

This album is not by-in large dissapointing it's just so mediocre, painfully so, the album lacks any real
edge and between sounding like a decent hardcore band, like an 'emo' band & a Maroon 5 tribute
band the overwhelming sense of dissapointment makes it hard to listen to. It stands for things I like
about music whilst simultaniously imploying elements I dislike about it thus making this album utterly
frustrating, i'm sure it will have its market and im pretty sure Damiera are the band the label wants
to push to the mainstream, it was fun whilst it lasted... goodbye Damiera x.

 

[Stenners]

The Young Republic
12 Tales From Winter City
Indie Pop/Cotemporary

Do you like 'Belle & Sebastian'? Yes? Well then continue reading but if you dislike the aformentioned
band please leave now as I really don't see anything of any interest here to you, so keep your
complaints back whilst I review yet ANOTHER indie pop album (before the Weezer album) which
I should have posted by the end of the night if thats of any interest to you. 'The Young Republic' are
yet another band that seem to be intrigrating male/female vocals in this increasing trend but in a
more harmonious way then the call back/shouting way that has recently become popular because
of bands such as 'Los Campesinos' and 'Johnny Foreigner' but more the way of well... 'Belle &
Sebastian' and 'The New Pornographers' yea?

Their sound is of very sweet perportions with the use of brass instruments in the lowest of all drama
in a way that compliments the fiddle and accoustic guitar in a very harmonious way that is simple
but pretty. It's all very natural pop music here with heart and honesty, the folky and at times
country influence is pretty well introduced without straying too far into either of these genres to
make it a unfoucsed listen, tracks such as 'Excuses To See You' abd 'Girl From The Northern
States' are incredibly true to this fact, its straight forward music that anyone that likes melodic
music would love on first listen but the honesty, strenght of the lyrics and general beauty of these
songs really come into their own threw out repeated listens & quickly become the standouts. The
album may get a little bogged down towards the later half but it picks up again towards the end
its a really nice album to wack on when you know feel like you want to have your emotional bone
tickled just a little, its pretty & melodic, honest and sweet without being too personal for it to
become a challenge to listen to.



Modern Plays
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iJeq55gXS9c

 

[Stenners]

Weezer
Weezer [Red Album]
Pop Punk/Rock

As much as I love Weezer.... I mean as much as I love 'Weezer [Blue]' and 'Pinkerton' and as much
as 'Weezer [Green]' is a really strong album... oh how you guys frustrate me. First Maldariot with
its bang down averageness.. albeit with some good songs, then 'Make Believe'.... Ohhhhh with the
'Make Believe' what a terrible album. Must be said I was pretty delighted to hear 'Pork & Beans' even
if it was abit like Weezer by numbers, it gave me some hope for this album & off the basis of the
opening track 'Troublemaker' i'm in high hopes. Yeaaa this is punchy pop punk music I can really strike
a chord too, yeaaa! Of course after this it starts going a bit pear shaped..

I mean I know this band isn't the teenage angst ridden band they once were, crafting melodic
beauties & summer hits with ease with some of the most heart felt and beautifully personal lyrics
of the time.... they are now just mocking everythign arounf them and so sounds & looks it... even
themselves. I had some massive doubts when I saw the album cover for the first time & I was right
'Weezer' just seem like a band that just don't really care anymore, sure this album is by no means
as poor as 'Make Believe' but it's a shade below 'Maldirot' which is where we get problems. The fact
the band are now seemingly given a greater roll should of proved for some more interesting moments
but it just isn't there, from bland American Idiot sounding Green Day rip offs to unimaganative chug
a long pop punk this band just doesnt have it's edge anymore. Oh sure the are some good songs here
such as the Sinlge 'Pork N Beans', 'Troublemaker (which is their best song for a while i give it that) &
the melodic 'Heartsongs' but the rest is either mediocre or poor. Such a dissapointment and I get
a feeling this was Weezers last chance to redeem themselves.



Pork And Beans
http://youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

 

[Friðbjörn]

seems like weezer just keep repeating themselves these days...
I mean all those singles I've heard for the past few years...I always think wow, that sounds like I expected...
sad really

 

[FireHawk]

Weezer had its run for a while but they have become sad...I will never forget "Beverly Hills" *winces* and "We Are All on Drugs" *shutters* they were so good back in the day

 

[Kanavazk]

I still like Pork & Beans. The song, not the dish.

>_<

(BTW you can all bash me now but I don't really get Radiohead)