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Post #2481
Megadeth - So Far So Good... So What!
So Far So Good is an album I feel is often overlooked by Megadeth fans as "mediocre" and "average". While yes, this is the most flawed of their first four albums, I feel that it's still a good album.
The album starts off fairly decently. The instrumental is nice and it gives a modest show of the albums general sound. The next tracks, Set The World Afire and the Anarchy In The U.K. cover are fairly decent. They don't have any spectacular riffs or any amazing showcase of musicianship, they are nice. However I feel the only reason why these songs are so memorable is because the Set The World Afire has an intro sample from the song I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire and the fact that Anarchy in The U.K is such a popular song. They're most certainly not filler but they don't quite grasp your attention. Around the middle of the album the next tracks, Mary Jane, 502 and In My Darkest Hour are great tracks and are essentially what makes the album so great. The guitar work is killer in these tracks, especially In My Darkest Hour. The album finishes nicely with the track Liar, which sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in Peace Sells, and Hook In Mouth.
Overall I feel this is one of the most unappreciated Megadeth albums I've heard. It can't compare to something like Rust In Peace or Killing Is My Business, but it's a fine album that will bring some enjoyment.
81/100
Pros
-Overall great guitar playing
-Bass sounds nice
-Dave's vocals sound killer on this record
Cons
-Starts off boring
-The drums are nearly inaudible. May be an issue on my part?
FAVORITE TRACKS
Mary Jane
502
In My Darkest Hour
Liar
LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS
Into The Lungs Of Hell
Anarchy In The U.K.
/bump
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Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Genre:
Progressive Rock
Pros:
-True to the original story by H.G. Wells, unlike every other adaption of the story
-The narration by Charles Burton is fantastic, his voice fits the character (a learned middle class journalist who lives near where the invasion starts) to a tee
-The instrumentation in the songs is great and the musical Motifs are memorable
-The sound effects are great
-The album is filled with lots of synth and guitar, which both hold an equal musical role as the orchestra
-The vocals are fantastic (except for "The Artilleryman's Dream, but I think it was meant to be slightly bad.)
-Justin Hayward does guitar and vocals on some of the songs
Cons:
-The actual songs are fairly repetitive (but the sound effects and narration break up the repetition nicely)
-Justin Hayward's beautiful guitar solos get slightly drowned out by the other instruments, which is a shame
-In my opinion I thought there was wasted potential for more narrative (but luckily enough this is one of the things Jeff Wayne will be facing in his remake of the album)
-In my opinion the album could have ended slightly better then it did musically
-The vocals in "The Artilleryman's Dream"
My Score: 9/10
Almost a perfect album but some small issues bring it down
Favorite Tracks
Forever Autumn
Thunder Child
The Artillerymen and the Fighting Machines
Least Favorite Tracks
Epilogue pt.1
Epilogue pt.2
The Eve of War
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Bill Frisell - Live
Genre:
Avant-Garde/Jazz Fusion
Pros:
- An incredible display of musicianship from all three members
- One of Frisell's best performances I've heard, he isn't afraid to slow things down and use a lot of space and just play something beautiful, but also knows when to amp things up and go heavy on the distortion, and improvise melodies that just shouldn't be allowed to work, but he manages to find ways of bringing it all together in quite a remarkable fashion
- His band does an excellent job of supporting him throughout the entire concert
- The audience clapping a syncopated rhythm in perfect unison is confirmation of the type of audience Bill Frisell attracts
Cons:
- Probably not the most accessible album to the untrained ear
My Score: 9.5/10
A great live release from Bill Frisell, featuring some of his best guitar playing
Favorite Tracks
Crumb/No Moe
Pip, Squeak/Goodbye
When We Go
Least Favorite Tracks
I don't dislike anything
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Don't mind my minimalist rating format
Seefeel - Succour
7.5/10
seefeel are a weird intersection of genres. they're looped in with bands like bark psychosis and stereolab as part of the original post-rock movement as coined by simon reynolds, and their actual sound is more like ambient techno meets dreampop. I checked this out because I heard it was shoegaze but it seems like just too much of a stretch. still this is a really beautiful album. the ambient aspect means that the songs don't really go anywhere and there isn't much dynamic, but it's more of hypnotic waves of melancholy sound. very comforting music on a cold day.
Ride - Nowhere
8/10
so I kinda of ignored Ride for a while because I wanted to hear the noisier side of shoegaze and thought this was a bit too alt-rock, but now I finally listened to this album and I wish I had sooner, it's wonderful. a totally different experience than the disorienting, colourful noise of MBV or the soft haze of Slowdive, but it definitely captures some of dat ethereal bliss that the other groups do. the feedback is pretty tame but the songs here are just really fun to listen to, but the best is by far Vapour Trails.
Loop - Fade Out
5.5/10
so another shoegaze ish band I checked out, this one is actually a lot more like Spacemen 3 than most shoegaze. the songs have this hypnotic repetition which I thought I could get into (as with Spacemen) but when I listened to this I was just really bored. there's some feedbacking here but it doesn't sound interesting at all. I think I could listen to this again another time and get into it, the minimal sort of pulsating rhythms seem like something I could like, but this time I couldn't make it through.
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just his opinion bro, read the reasons.
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M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
I really am not sure what to call this. It's a lot of electronic, but elements of indie, rock and pop as well as some shoegaze. Whatever youw ant to call it, it's not 'weird', which imo is an artistic success. If something is surprising because it is weird it is often because it's not completely worked through, and feels unnatural in one way or the other. This is different without being weird, and suprising by being just amazing. The sound is very dynamic and wall-of-soundy, sort of like post-rock but with pop structures. The music evokes a similar emotional response as when I listen to post-rock, which is one of grandieur and natural, inherent beauty in the world. The vocals are especially heartwrenching. It is quite long, 22 songs in about an hour, but manages to refrain from being boring even to me, who has relatively little patience.
8/10 at the least, maybe even 9/10. I will definitely listen to this a lot, and I strongly reccomend it to anyone who likes post-rock/metal and/or shoegaze. Or anyone, really.
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I like that one a lot. But it doesn't seem worthy enough for two discs. When you do that, you tell the world you have the balls to show your ambitious with every single title.
Maybe I nitpick, because it still is well put together.
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guess I need to check out more M83 on my current shoegaze binge, I loved Dead Cities
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It's a good song, but it's so repetitive.
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m83
shoegaze
lol
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There's a lot of shoegaze elements on Dead Cities and even some in HUWD
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I don't think there's anything in that album remotely close to what I would classify as shoegaze
just because it's fuzzy or there's a 'wall of sound' is it shoegaze
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All of a Sudden I Miss Everything by Explosions in the Sky
7/10, really great to listen to on different occasions, the music is really powerful and inspirational-type. Not as much "listening" music as the other stuff I listen to, but it's not necessarily background music either. I usually listen to it when I go to sleep or when I'm on a long drive in the morning or something like that. It's the kind of music you would hear in an inspirational speech video. I like it.
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Lots of reverb, effects, quiet vocals. Sounds pretty shoegazey.
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I never really got how M83 was shoegaze either, I mean I can see the comparison but I would call M83 a lot of other things before shoegaze.
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Yeah, same. However, it's still something that is pretty prominent in his music.
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Shoegazing is more atmosphere imo. But a certain hazy atmosphere which pretty much all the shoegaze albums I've heard had it, M83 didn't have it. It's kind of a dream pop record.
Edited:
so Fleet Foxes are shoegaze eh? :-)
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the only thing about that album that made it worth listening was the psychedelic frog song
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in actual reality it's your average synthpop record with some dream pop elements. Their earlier stuff is probably more psych and less easily accessible.
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it was alright I just checked it out because of all of the hype
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Thought I might do this cause it made me depressed and I needed to vent about it
Just finished listening to two albums by The Beach Boys. I've recently been getting into them (I've always loved Pet Sounds, but I wanted to hear the rest of their stuff.)
Little Deuce Coupe - 1963
This album pretty much just appealed to the part of me that loves corny pop music, and this whole album is that in a nutshell. The one reason I love The Beach Boys is their fantastic vocal harmonies, I honestly can't get over how nice they are. Makes me want to practice my singing a lot more than I actually do. The guitar work is relatively simplistic, and the lyrical content is really sappy and kinda unbearable at times (good examples are "Be True to your School" or "Car Crazy Cutie") and for some reason they really like Cars... but I still enjoyed it. Especially "I Get Around", easily the best track on the album.
I RATE IT SEVEN SOUPED UP VINTAGE CARS OUT OF TEN
And then I listened to this:
Surf's Up - 1971
This album officially wins the award for most misleading title, and the most depressing album art ever. This is not Beach Boys? I'm sew confused. Now, this is the post-psychedelic era of The Beach Boys (A lovely era which gave us Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile) but what? Where are the vocal harmonies I love so? Where are the lovely cheesy songs about surfing and girls and cars etc.? I miss you now, even though I ridiculed you at the time. It's no wonder The Beach Boys were so obscure during the 70's; this album was actually awful to listen to. It made me actually sad.
I GIVE IT TWO DEPRESSED ME'S OUT OF TEN.
Edited:
it's just interesting to see how much a decade can do to a band, really
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It is a depressing album. You should get Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, much more uplifting. But Brian Wilson's Smile is probably the most uplifting album I've heard.And then I listened to this:
Surf's Up - 1971
This album officially wins the award for most misleading title, and the most depressing album art ever. This is not Beach Boys? I'm sew confused. Now, this is the post-psychedelic era of The Beach Boys (A lovely era which gave us Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile) but what? Where are the vocal harmonies I love so? Where are the lovely cheesy songs about surfing and girls and cars etc.? I miss you now, even though I ridiculed you at the time. It's no wonder The Beach Boys were so obscure during the 70's; this album was actually awful to listen to. It made me actually sad.
I GIVE IT TWO DEPRESSED ME'S OUT OF TEN.
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it wan't just depressing, it was kinda awful too. The songs were just bland and not very good.
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Never heard Fleet Foxes. But if all those elements are in their music consistently, than I'd say they have some aspects of shoegaze.
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dude, shoegaze is a LOT more than just "reverb, effects and quiet vocals".
you just generalized something that's actually quite complex.
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Quiet vocals, distortion, layered melodies, effects. Shoegaze may be complex, but those are all things that make shoegaze what it is and you cannot deny that. All of that is present in Dead Cities and because of that you can safely say that Dead Cities is inspired by or partly shoegaze.
And we're generalizing about genres. That's what you do.
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I just can't classify these two in the same genre mate, no hard feelings.
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I didn't notice really any of what we were talking about in that song. The guitars were clear and vocals were pretty loud except for near the end. But, let us agree to disagree. I don't think En-Guage will though.
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I may have blanked out the word distortion while I read that post. Dream Pop is the bastard child of Shoegaze anyway.
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listening to m83 again and i don't know why i thought it was shoegaze. welp.
dark neofolk shit. lots of really beautiful playing and I always love music with such a foresty atmosphere. my only problem is that it lays it on a little thick with all the minor chords and sad melodies, so it sounds kinda samey after a while. but it's pretty short.
7/10
also... the album art is an image by theodor kittelsen, (who's been used by Burzum and others as well) and you should look at his other pieces they're amazing :3
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2011 AOTY tbh
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Sounds interesting.listening to m83 again and i don't know why i thought it was shoegaze. welp.
dark neofolk shit. lots of really beautiful playing and I always love music with such a foresty atmosphere. my only problem is that it lays it on a little thick with all the minor chords and sad melodies, so it sounds kinda samey after a while. but it's pretty short.
7/10
also... the album art is an image by theodor kittelsen, (who's been used by Burzum and others as well) and you should look at his other pieces they're amazing :3
I looked up Theodor Kittelsen and I never knew how much of his stuff was used just in the Black Metal realm.
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I forgive you
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Uneven Structure - Februus (2011)
Genre: Progressive/Post-metal, Ambient, I could see this getting called "djent" because it uses 7 - 8-string guitars but trust me when I say its like no "djent" I've ever heard.
RIYL: Tesseract, Isis, Meshugguh, Helios, Sigur Ros
This album is an hour and a half long over two discs so I'm gonna split this up.
Disc 1 (55 minutes): This is the metal disc. It does a pretty good job of mixing huge layered ambient textures over the down-tuned guitars. The vocals aren't anything to write home about but they also aren't really the focus of the music, they're enjoyable either way. This whole disc flows like a single song and the division of songs is usually pretty arbitrary, they're definitely meant to be listened to in order, from start to finish but there's definitely some standout parts. All in all, the lack of any division between songs can make this disc seem homogeneous at times but honestly there's way too much to be taken in at each moment to keep it from being boring.
Favorite Tracks: Awaken-Frost, Plenitude-Finale
Least Favorite Tracks: Hard to pick because theres good parts in all of the songs but Awe has some awkward moments in it.
Rating: 4.2/5
Disc 2 (35 minutes): Disc 2 is a strange partner to the first disc of the album. Its entirely ambient, and while the first disc has moments of ambience in the interludes (Exmersion and Limbo), the second disc is still sort of a surprise. It still has some interesting textures but nothing nearly as huge as the first disc. The tracks tend to repeat small sections for the entire songs and never really go anywhere or build at all (which isn't too unusual for the genre) but they're good for what they're trying to do. Overall its a good listen but you probably won't be as inclined to listen to it and explore it as the first disc.
Rating: 3.7/5
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;_; thankyou
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
so black metal has been a bit hit and miss for me. I'm a bit picky with like dissection and emperor, but darkthrone just works perfectly for me. it's simplistic, repetitive as fuck, amateur sounding but somehow never got boring, and is almost kinda of hypnotic. when it was over I just wanted more.
9/10
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I didn't say it was, no there's no need to get rude about it :c
It just reminds me of shoegaze, and since much of it appeals in the same way I thought it would appeal to the same people
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Just no, also rude is what I do deal with it
Slow Dancing Society - The Sound of Lights When Dim
Really nice ambient album, reminds me of Helios - Eingya which is what turned me onto ambient music. Guitar based at points, really pleasant listening. I loved it
8/10
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What I heard of it was pretty good as I expected.listening to m83 again and i don't know why i thought it was shoegaze. welp.
dark neofolk shit. lots of really beautiful playing and I always love music with such a foresty atmosphere. my only problem is that it lays it on a little thick with all the minor chords and sad melodies, so it sounds kinda samey after a while. but it's pretty short.
7/10
also... the album art is an image by theodor kittelsen, (who's been used by Burzum and others as well) and you should look at his other pieces they're amazing :3
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John Legend & The Roots - Wake Up! - 2010
9/10, A near perfect album, John Legend's singing goes amazingly with The Roots' playing.
Best songs are I Can't Write Left Handed & Wake Up Everybody. My only complaint is that they put all the hip hop features in the first half instead of spacing them throughout the album.
Friendly x 1
Agree x 2
Dumb x 1
Funny x 1
Winner x 1
Disagree x 1
Informative x 2
