An Album Review Thread

[benji]

This is the Jae counter thread since he came down from on high to call forth the minions to carry off the reviews to another life, a life of torment, a life of eternal labor, a life in the Phillipines, and one life long from this thread already nearly breached the commandment of our lord and savior Jaesus.

And thus we have sacrificed our credibility by not searching but instead constructing a new edifice on which for us to pretend our opinions matter. An alter where we exhibit our inability to construct rational phrases from our emotional responses to constructions of sound.

From where shall one start, what with an album that took some content of the superior thread.

Weezer delivered two great albums. Back when we were a child. In a more innocent time when you found epic videos on your Windows 95 disc instead of through the tubes that deliver the internet. Then Rivers Cuomo decided to see how long he could troll the now defined hipster fanbase by releasing one good song every two years smothered in meaningless. Sometimes two just to throw everyone off.

The album is titled Hurley, after the character on Lost. But any real man knows Jorge Garcia first from his role on Becker as Hector (and later on Curb as a drug dealer) for a real man understands that when you write out a character you panic and find anyone you can write into fill those plot-lines you wrote for the now gone character. Then Lost came along, and people cared, then they realized it was a directionless sham and forgot about it and nobody watched the show ever again.

But we digress. The fact is that Weezer peaked as a band on the Blue Album, and Rivers peaked as a writer on Pinkerton. And hordes have spent years pretending that any sign of the RIvers that wrote Pinkerton was a wormhole that would deposit the writer of that era, or at the least a facsimile. The Green Album tried to distract the true believers with a few perfectly constructed songs, Maladroit tried to pretend that it was the result of the years of production and not the least of the grains that sifted through the label's colander even though everyone knew of what had come before. Make Believe rejected everything that came before in pursuit of a pop radio status, and could be considered to have succeeded, but in terms of actually producing good music it offered up only one track, one which rejected the Weezer past but delivered like Amazon Prime. Then our heroes dared to produce their third self-titled album, something that could only end in disappointment, and it did. In a comparison to another band which went from one songwriter to the entire band, the Weezer that resulted was much like the Oasis that did, not the same thing anyone wanted. While potentially saving the band from the one-note lead, it did nothing to justify the further existence of the band. Indeed, freed from the full songwriting duties, the lead delivered one of the only two worthwhile tracks on a stillborn album. Rejecting this, the band returned to Rivers, and instead let him collaborate with others. And this went better than the efforts of the last decade had, but still fell short.

So we here we stand with Hector. He replaced Bob, a timeless character who brought himself from nothing to great things in just a few seasons. Hector was a step back, a stand-in for plots already written. A curse that might stand in the way of the album? Maybe, but we're being entirely rational and objective in our analysis. As always.

"Ruling Me" is the first track that matters, and it's sadly basic Weezer which makes it less relevant. "Unspoken" tries to help and in the latter half does give us a bit of what we want but again falls short. Thankfully, "Where's My Sex" is there. It's a blatant attempt to grasp at Pinkerton, but it succeeds ever enough. It's entirely overthought, overwritten and overproduced to exist in the Pinkerton era, but it alone in the last decade of Weezer dares to suggest that it belongs then. "Smart Girls" is not Weezer but instead an obvious grab at the dance-rock that pervades modern radio. It's not offensive, but nothing worth noting either. "Brave New World", "Time Flies", "All My Friends Are Insects", we've been there Rivers, find something to justify yourself. I'd comment further but we're into bonus tracks at this point offering the shortness of the production as if the album were a production of British television. It should said when one of your best tracks is a Coldplay cover you need to re-evaluate your status in life. And don't be mistaken, Weezer delivers the hell out of "Viva La Vida" but the fact they included it on the "proper" album says all you need to know about modern Weezer. What you bring from that statement says not only how you'll feel about modern Weezer, but what you should feel about your life.

In the end, at least they aren't Canadian. But we can't help but wonder if they haven't produced only one album over the last 15 years, but spread the genuine content with the mush over six in a desire to remain in our consciousness. We shouldn't call Weezer a directionless sham, but we can, for this is America and we are modern gods.

(Bonus track "Represent (Rocked Out Mix)" is maybe the second best track.)

2/5 - Average.

This thread is for album reviews btw.

[benji]

Linkin Park brought the "nu-metal" of its debut era into the pop world, providing us with a conceptualization where rap and rock blended in hooks that brought forth choruses that deserved their place in the top 40.

Some would consider that they went derelect with Reanimation, but those would be wrong. Reanimation not just took what had been produced before and re-explored it, but redefined it and improved it bringing about a brilliant album. One that stands as a true achievement. Hybrid Theory spoke to the masses, but Reanimation spoke to those who felt overcomplexity is not a sin.

Since that time there have been serious pursuits both positive and negative. Meteora underwhelmed but did provide a couple of solid tracks that suggested Linkin Park was still about. But it took Fort Minor to prove that the creativity and relevance was there. This was short lived as the band, Linkin Park that is, offered up its own ode to irrelevance with Minutes to Midnight. While consisting of adequate tracks, none suggested a reason to consider the band more than much beyond a relic. Even when the band reached out, it was seemingly in an effort to hold their place. And too much was expended in some kind of "meaning" against the historic notion of generic placement.

But in retrospect Minutes to Midnight placed a greater impetus on Linkin Park. Chester Bennington bombed with the absolutely horrific Out of Ashes. And while Minutes to Midnight suggested at an aging Linkin Park it never claimed they were maturing but instead trying to maintain their past relevance in a world long past. Which left us with an album that never seemed to know what it wanted. A fight between the maturity that Fort Minor delivered, the complete shit Dead by Sunrise offered and a desire to perserve Linkin Park as it had existed. In the end it resulted in an album that despite some tracks that could be considered good on most albums became nearly great when considered in context of the lackluster effort, and one of the better tracks was left off it all together. ("No Roads")

But here we stand three years later. Linkin Park has returned, but in a change has refused to play along. A Thousand Suns has its similarities, but also diverges greatly from the Linkin Park we have all known. The lyrics are here, the ear for the hooks are here, Chester and Mike are here, but what you expect is not. The band is eschewing the traditional soft-metal rock, and instead exploring something that's different.

It's one that works. No, it is not perfect, but the band shows its cards far more than ever before. The willingness to experiment is far greater than on Meteora and Minutes to Midnight. Reanimation it is not, but it is far closer than they have been since. Is it a maturity? Maybe, one cannot say. But there is far more inplace where the band abandons its safe zones and doesn't come back.

In many respects the question we have to ask when we approach this album is not whether we think it will be a good album, but whether it will destroy our preconceptions of what we expect from Linkin Park. In this case we cannot say it does otherwise. Everything Linkin Park has done before runs counter to what is done here. Even if this album is considered a failure, Linkin Park has cast off the shackles of nu-metal and finally forged a new path. It took them a decade, but they finally did it even where they stumble upon their new path. The fact the album is something to respect is a bonus.

A truly great album? No. An album that re-explores a band we know completely? Yes. An album that may be a true successor and evolution for the band? Yes. An album that makes Linkin Park relevant again for the first time in nearly a decade? Yes. An album that is worth taking a chance on?

4/5 - Very Good.

[Lamrock]

Good Hurley review. I'd probably give it 3/5, but this album is no classic. Agree with your points about the other albums (though I thought Raditude was almost as bad as Make Believe. I think Unspoken is the best Weezer song since at least The Greatest Man That Ever Lived. Will probably post a review of something soon.

Also didn't realize Jorge Garcia was in Curb. Knew I had known him from something!

[Lamrock]

Since there hasn't been anything particularly interesting released lately, I've decided to review an older album I just discovered. For fun, here are my Summer indie album scores:

Interpol - Interpol (7/10 - fuck the haters, its better than OLTA)
of Montreal - False Priest (8/10 - score may be inflated due to Skeletal Lamping being the worst album since Make Believe)
Weezer - Hurley (6.5/10 - It's their best since Maladroit at least but probably better than that, even if the lyrics and a couple songs are turrible)
Big Boi - SLLF: TSOCD (9.5/10 - AOTY)
The Walkmen - Lisbon (7.5/10 - Not as good as You & Me and boring in parts, but still pretty good - great band)
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (9/10 - Technically Fall, but its a great album. #3 of the year in my prestigious book)
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (7/10 - Has its moments, but its overlong and pretentious as fuck)

Anyway...

Code: Select all

hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?0yhhlva9my4

An older album I definite did not discover via Pitchfork Media, Dusk At Cubist Castle is an oft-overlooked 90's Indie Classic. The Olivia Tremor Control were a very indie band under the same collective as The Apples In Stereo (ugh) and Neutral Milk Hotel. Dusk At Cubist Castle was their epic debut.

Without submitting to the cop-out of a "post-___" to describe their music, its like the Beatles remixed by somebody on acid. The sonic texturing on the album is intense, but the tracks never cease to be charming and catchy. This album definitely deserves to be heard with some excellent headphones though, as its easy to miss the myriad sounds happening.

The album's sole fault is its length. At nearly 80 minutes, its practically a double album. I've listened to it probably a dozen times, and only gotten all the way through twice. However, this is the true definition of a good problem as I pick up something new every listen. Its hard to recommend this album to too many people on here (except TheMC5), as there's not a lot of screaming or rocking. However, Dusk is a fantastic album, and a quite underrated indie classic. Here's hoping the reunion is for realz.

Score: 9.34786982709487p043760984653987.10

[TheMC5]

An older album I definite did not discover via Pitchfork Media

Lies. But yeah, great band, great album. One of the dudes had this other project called Black Swan Network where he would get fans to send in recorded recollections of their dreams and then build weird ambient sonic landscapes around them. I'll try to upload it to mediafire or something if I can find the album (moved recently, still finding shit).

[benji]

Se7en, Mikl, Phat J and Antz have returned to challenge the conventions of our world yet again. Shortly they will be beginning their KA$H KU$H tour with fellow post-modern superstars Millionaires the band seems primed to yet again conquer and reshape the world in a new progressive fashion.

Phat J put it properly earlier this year:

"Honestly, we are sort of appalled by it, but we are used to it. People just want to try and throw dirt on our name and they have to make things up to make us seem like bad people so people won't like us. I would never do that to someone, so I can't relate to someone who would do it to us."

In other words?


At the end of the day, the man cannot keep down the achievement of our era, the pinnacle of musical composition. Does he want to try? Of course, for if BrokeNCYDE were able to work their magic without the regulations of the man then reality itself would be changed. We would enter a new era where would all get crunk, all would get booty calls and all would...skeet skeet I guess? But not before FREAXX!

I know what you're wondering, how could a group which seemingly hit perfection with their first release top it? It was not easy, but the doubts of the man inspired them to reach deep into themselves and deliver the most powerful and most emotional album in American history.

Can we survive the latest BrokeNCYDE album?

The first track is EPIC INTRO, and it does NOT LIE. The threat is made clear, the threat you know will be backed up, and you begin to cower, hoping that you will survive, even if they must rape your concepts of music.

LET'S GO, GET DRUNK! Perfect, BrokeNCYDE yet again challenges the Puritan sensibilities of the music industry from the very first words. Not only that but they encourage us all to get on the dance floor and shake our body. Something that is ever more and more socially relevant. As if to emphasize this stand against fascism they repeat it over and over, just as the fascist groups of Europe in the 1920s and 30s repeated slogans over and over. The political and social juxtaposition is brilliant.

The next track touches on the new world of getting crunk in a club and obliterating the haters. In calling on people to "drop it low" the artists challenge the ever expanding laws that make it illegal to wear pants at a certain spot on the waist, ever the sociopolitical commentators BrokeNCYDE takes on not just the laws but the sociopolitical consequences of the laws by ending the song with the sirens of the approaching police state that wishes to dominate every aspect of our lives and then vocalizing the reality of this police state.

As we move on to the fourth track "Shake" BrokeNCYDE choses to move in a new direction that begins to criticize not just the crass commercialization of simple goods but also the media desire to see stars participating in common everyday events. BrokeNCYDE paints a picture in which they attempt to simply enjoy a "slip n' slide" but yet the media is taking pictures of their fun. Fun that in the 1950s would have involved a hose and some material taken from the scraps at the nearby factory. When we evaluate this picture within the status of the Rust Belt we understand that BrokeNCYDE is assaulting our sensibilities about the modern service economy where we outsource these projects to China and enjoy them at home for voyeurs while not understanding the damage we do to our manufacturing base and our common culture.

In the fifth track, BrokeNCYDE tries to point us at the dangers of date rape. They point to the use of liquor, drugs and who knows what else to violate their breasts and who knows what else. BrokeNCYDE by claiming that women can actually want sex exposes the male agenda and its extensive infection of modern culture. They also strike out at the media and haters yet again, those who are so interested in the modern manocentric maleocracy they refuse to allow BrokeNCYDE the airtime to spread their progressive agenda. Another triumph for the leaders of the modern generation.

As I am running into length problems and want to avoid spoilers as to the social message and revolutionary music being provided here, we need to be short on the remaining tracks after the first skit. "Teach Me How To Scream" challenges the favorable media perception of rape, while "Money Hungry Hoe" deconstructs the myth that women are inherently whores and establishes a new era for respect for women. From there the band attacks stereotypes regarding those addicted to marijuana and the idea that "island/Jamaican" culture is correlated with this drug culture, the dangers of fire code violations, the struggles of relationships, and also the objectification of females as nothing but sex objects.

But BrokeNCYDE are not finished, they have farther to take us into the New BrokeNCYDE Man they envision. Using poetry such as "I freak the fuck out! WHAT THE FUCK!" they lead us into the dark world of binge drinking, peer pressure, the dangers of hos just too attached to you, and lastly the long established role of bros before hoes.

As they had a few years ago, BrokeNCYDE has yet again challenged musical, political and social conventions, and if this were a just world would bring forth the crunk revolution this world needs.

5/5 - Classic.

[J@3]

[cyanide]

benji's review and Jae's response was awesomely hilarious.

[J@3]

ASFPIOJHAEOGIHAEPFGAPOJFPIOAEFOPJEF

[jettdaking!]

http://www.forums.nba-live.com/viewtopi ... 7#p1561596

apparently i posted on the wrong thread. hey.