And here's what we got:
Oh how I wish this review was going to go well. A lot of people like The Midway State. Hell, I’m sure a lot of people really love this album. I want to like it, but I keep getting hung up on things. I know two things will happen with this review. First, anyone who is a massive fan of The Midway State is going to nail me to the wall and then stone me to death. Second, I’ll have to actually listen to the whole album through two more times to actually find songs that I like.
Wait, those could be out of order. It doesn’t matter, they’ll both happen one way or the other.
I have been waiting for a long, long time for a new album to come rolling out from this man. The album was supposed to come out a while ago, but when your house burns down due to some forest fires that are ruining the local forestry… well I can understand a delay.
Thankfully after my faithful wait, I have been rewarded with his new release: Sycamore Meadows. After giving this album a couple of listens, it has quickly become one of my favorites for all time. It’s both amazingly happy and startlingly deep, many times simultaneously.
Oh my God.
Datarock is easily one of my new bouncy favorites. The only way I can describe them is disco acid pop. There’s probably a better way of explaining them, but that’ll work for lack of the creation of new words.
As an aside, I want to apologize for the title of this post. I’m using the normal format, but their first album is actually called “Datarock Datarock” so it makes for some crummy article titling.
I’ve got something to admit to. A secret that I’ve had for a long time. Something that very few people know about me, and I’ve kept this quiet for a very long time. I’ve had somewhat of a re-awakening to something that I though I had left behind me.
I like classical music. Beyond that I’m a fan of opera, all forms of choir music, and even musicals. I even have a keen spot in my heart for well-arranged soundtrack of both T.V. and Movie.
That’s right people, I’m basically a monocle-wearing classical enthusiast.
Break Of Day is one of those albums that every time I come across it I don’t realize who the artist is, but I always think the songs sound fantastic. Then I’ll check my iTunes and realize that once again, it’s a song from Break Of Day. Then I say to myself “I really have to review this album! It’s so good!”
Then another month passes, and no review has been written, at least not by my own hands. Well I’m changing that today, because I ended up listening to the entire album from start to finish and I am not totally in love with this album.
I’ve found myself using online music sources when I’m not around my home computer or too lazy to plug in my iPod. I’ve found myself going between two different programs: Last.fm and Deezer.com.
Both have pros and cons, and I felt that it’d make a good article to compare my findings and contrast the two services. I’m not going to gives scores, because comparisons like this are subjective. I’ll let the readers come to their own conclusions.
I have to start by saying that I’m not a huge Coldplay fan. Short of some of their more well-known songs (Green Eyes, Yellow, Clocks) I’ve never been much of a fan; a fact my girlfriend has never quite understood why. Coldplay as a rule, have never really done it for me; their music tends to border on the hyper-sensitive, and though I like sensitive music, theirs was a brand I just couldn’t stand behind.
Then they came out with Viva la Vida.
I’m a bit of a sleeper fan of Motion City Soundtrack. I had their albums available to me for over a year before I listened to them. The only reason I really gave them a chance was because I was driving through a snow storm and the radio couldn’t pick up anything. I was really shocked when I went through both albums that I had of theirs (Commit this to Memory and I Am the Movie) and was craving more. Their bouncy, feelgood sound had me totally hooked. I listened through them all again, and I realized that in contrast to their sound, much of what was said bordered on major depressing.
Panic! At the Disco actually made a second album? I totally thought that they were going to burn out after their first album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” but apparently I was mistaken. I mean the first album was self-contained, and it’s fairly obvious that you can’t really go anywhere from it. If they released another album that sounded like it, they’d be accused of repeating themselves and it wouldn’t have the impact that the first CD did. Tack on the fact that ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ got played to death, and you get a mixture for disaster should they continue on the path they were on.
They didn’t, which shocked me.
I very recently came across Ben’s Brother due to Dentynes newest commercial. I like many, many others were drawn in by the addicting song selected. ‘Stuttering’ is the name of the track, and it’s performed by Ben’s Brother. I’m sure this track alone will launch them into new realms of stardom. As I tend to give bands the benefit of the doubt, I decided to get my hands on their latest (and only) album “Beta Make Fairytales”. As it turns out, they are not a one-hit-wonder. They are, in fact, a rather talented band that reminds me faintly of Coldplay, Maroon 5, and even Snow Patrol.