LPF Reviews 3

[azemkamikaze03]

i was lookin through Stenners reveiws and im like wtf...why would u reveiw albums and not give a freakin score (as in 5 stars) then i realized the smiley faces and was like XD

 

[Stenners]

Bloc Party
Mercury

A single review this time & I usualy don't spend this much time on single reviews but quite
frankly this is quite a touchy subject for me I remember when Silent Alarm came out, it
was dynamic and interesting... the was no focus on lyrics they meant nothing and the drumming
alone made it one of the best albums of 2005. A Weekend In The City was okay, certainly listenable
but was quite hollow and now we have had flux a horrible disco tune and now we have Mecury
which sounds, once again like a pre renderd remix with programmed vocals and stupid horns
thrown in, the lyrics are Pretentious drivel where he talks a lot but says nothing, it's a headache
undoubtably i'm sure they are trying something different but it's just not working for them, it's
a car crash and a sound of a band trying to find a sound but having no idea how the hell to pull
it off, the one redeeming feature on this dire track is the drumming break near the end. TERRIBLE
song

 

[Black_Angel]

Arghhhh I know!!!!
Me and my mate Ollie were mourning the dissappearance of guitar by listening to Silent Alarm today..... we want the guitar back damnit!!!!

 

[Stenners]

Noah And The Whale
Peaceful The World Lay Me Down
Folk/Pop

Folky pop has always been a popular feature of the music scene even if it may not seem it, but you
know you get a release like this every other week and a lot of them are instantly disposable... this
band I had failed to check out for a long time because of this but the release was comming and it's
been a fairly slow couple of weeks & they seem to have gatherd a bit of hype so you know what
I thought why the hell not it will put off reviewing the next Offspring album off just that little bit
more.... really i'm not in the mood for obnoxious music. First thing that seems to spring to mind is
that this music is pretty.... pretty. Yeap its pretty it's good to listen to and has a sense of fun to it
which I just find charming, it's got the charm and front, so it must be a solid album and that's
exactly what it is, solid.... the isn't anything else to it which is a frustrating shame! This is one of
those albums that has tracks that all sound great on their lonesome with the strings layerd over
simple melodies and prodominate drumming with the odd trumpet thrown in and posetivley nice
vocals.... but.... yea one after another it just sort of flys straight over my head, the 3rd track
stands out because of the very upfront Trumpet but what it mainly boils down to is accoustic
guitar strumming and strings with the same vocal format over and over, occasionaly it will slow
down a bit but often it remains a very similar tempo.

It's refreshing for a british band to sound so American in a country so stagnant with Indie RAWK but
the is nothing new here, nothing done which has been done better & whilst these are little pop
gems on their own, as an album it just doesn't catch on... it doesn't do it, interest quickly begins
to fade and this is a shame because given that they only had a couple of these songs alongside
some more subtle ones this album could of been a great balance of slow burners and pop hits but
this, like a greatest hits collection, has no impact because all of the songs are DYING to get your
attention and when that happens you often forget the lot. Good try, not bad, worth a look but
ultimatly it's very disposable... but at the same time it's a nice addition to the libary for when your
iPod/iTunes is on shuffle.



Five Years Time http://youtube.com/watch?v=jRX5kH6IrkY

 

[Stenners]

Silver Jews
Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Folk

The is a list of bands whose names alone can carry the entire expectation of an album, 'Silver Jews'
have been releasing great albums for the best part of 14 years now & at no stage have they ever
looked to slow down. Their music is folky melodic masterpieces with rock n roll swagger and
sensebilities, the dynamic mix of these 2 elements allow for a lot of wiggle room for the band to
explore and vary things up with out straying to far from their core sound... this allows for punchy
memorable albums which never alienate, all too often a band could have 4 STAND OUT tracks but
loose focus and the cohierance and uneasy nature of the album make it a bit of a chore to sit
threw as it desperatly tries to set a mood one minute then ebruptly shatters it all by going a totally
different direction... much like a schitzophrenic friend, good fun one minute... needlessly aggresive
the next... well what i'm getting at can be great but frustratingly swings off course. The other fear
for a band is to stay too strongly to a formular where songs whilst sounding great on a shuffle
would just wash right over you when played one after another (see Noah & The Whale). Silver Jews
have never ever been guilty of this and again they are not, this music is beautiful and vaired... it's
never needlessly straying from the formular and never has the uneccisary CRY FOR ATTENTION 3
or 4 tracks in... this is all solid and at time beautiful stuff & you will remember it all.. not just select
moments.

Few steps away from attaining legendry status, especially in the folk scene it's nice to see a band
of such stature and experiance not drop the ball the vocal interplay between male and female a like
whilst common in this genre of music is done as if to set an example... simple not flashy but not too
modest either, shes got nice vocals he's got nice story telling vocals they don't want to try and
match each other or upstage each other they just go in their stride... and this is where the album
ultimatley proves it's self and is why it's such a great album, it all sounds very honest. The often
very down lyrics are deliverd with an eary sense of honesty, all the notes seem to come natural
and it's got the sound of a band that know where they are going... they know who they are but
don't know what about their sound is so good... & as a result they create the sound with out ever
trying to beat it & as a result this is probably the best folk rock album of the year... the use of
spacey tense electric guitars underneath the very much folky undertone combined with some really
interesting layers allow this album to be both punchy and allows it to have a very long shelf life.

 

[Stenners]

Nas
Untitled
Gangsta/Hip Hop/Rap

Considerd rather rightfully as one of the leading icons in the hip hop scene, turning out a consistent
run of critcially acclaimed albums... Nas whenever he announces an album the is always a great
deal of excitment from it... something most hip hop artists can't command. The controversy
surrounding this album is pretty **** so I ain't even going to discuss something like that especially
considering the actual end product is even lamer then the controversy that surrounded it. Who
remembers the Nas cross over album 'Nostradamus'.... no? Well thats because it sucked but it
wasn't for one second denying it was more then a cross over album... here we have Nas trying
rather foolishly tackle mainly race relation and rapping about how singers cant sing whats from their
heart anymore, o how ironic as this whole album comes off as flat and souless. Association and
Testify both come off as some preachy self rightious effort to teach morales and religious ethics
in a very preachy way to the point it feels quite patronising and even to a degree insulting.

What is even worse for this is that Nas seems fully serious on this concept hes got going on in this
album to the point he sound dellousional, the music here is patheticly weak, the messages are
either patronising, cliched or just vauge.... the beats on here are soooooo wishy washy going from
fantastically poor Gangsta to wishy washy pretentious self indulgant pap. I really like Nas and
'Hip Hop Is Dead' was a good album but do go from such a staggeringly consistent run of output
to dirge like this is not just perplexing but it makes you wonder if Nas even wrote the thing in
the first place, avoid at all costs.

 

[Stenners]

Sonic Youth
Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth (SYR8)
Experimental/Noise/Live

The SYR series which is done on Sonic Youth own independant lable has always been renound...
well only existing for sonic youth to put quite frankly extremely experimental albums often mainly
instrumental and consisting enitrley of self-endulgance and are well known for an incredibly difficult
listen... especially for people that don't like music lacking in melody or structure. For people that
love experimental progressive noise however this is a great opputunity for fans to experiance the
'other' side of sonic youth with toones of changes in signature, horns and fuzz. This album is just
one massive jam session lasting at over 57minutes and was entirley done live as a jam in 2005
& I must say this jam is nothing short of stunning, the horns are well implemented, the switches
all seem to work and whilst it is essentially one long durge of noise and distortion the short bursts
of vocals and interesting ways the direction changes keeps this track both interesting and
fasinating.

So for people to look at this as an album of music it will be a bit wrong, it isn't even album at all
it's a 58minute jam and its good stuff. People who thing Sonic Youth is just noise as it is deffinatly
won't appriciate this with open arms at all. But people who like things on the immersive atmospheric
side especially for the fantastic section that kicks off at about 38minutes in should check this out
it creates a new world & the fact this is all done live in front of a crowd in one take makes it
all the more impressive and further shows off more to the point why Sonic Youth are one of the
best bands ever to have existed.

 

[DarknessLover]

Oh, right he's banned


You're music taste is terrible, and you need to do something better with you're life.

 

[GraDoN]

theres no need to rub it in in every thread....