This is an album that's dense, filthy, dark, and heavy. It's not an album that's easy to access right away, it's an album that's thick and full of crusty riffing and frenetic percussion that just keeps the album driving forward. There are a few moments where the album slows down a bit, but for the most part, this album is driving forward, slugging you in the face with sledgehammer percussion and chunky riffs. _________________ Progressive Rock
This is a nice album, but little more than that. Lily & Madeleine have very warm voices, and the music suits their tone well. It's spacious and broad, the voices of Lily & Madeleine are very much the focus here, but unfortunately the melodies aren't particularly strong. It's not a bad album by any stretch, it fairly enjoyable, the instrumentation is nice, but overall, it's not much more than a slightly above average album. _________________ Progressive Rock
Damien Jurado has moved from nothing but a guitar singer/songwriter to grander, more interesting psych rock/folk music. This album fairly big, though not overly long. It's 17 tracks but 52 minutes, and it feels like an ambitious journey, which starts of with heavy bass and flurries of strings all over the place. As the album moves forward, it slows itself down and by the end, you've come to a more pensive, simpler mood than you were at before. Jurado blends the upbeat with the slow very well, it doesn't feel choppy, it all feels cohesive. You can have a song like "On The Land Blues", a delicate, quieter tune, lead into a song as bombastic as "Walrus" without it feeling strange or out of place. Lyrically this is well-written, full of references to Jurado's faith as a Christian, and feelings of self-doubt. It's a really well-done album that blends together nicely and makes for an interesting journey. _________________ Progressive Rock
If Neil Young headed up a shoegaze band, it'd probably sound like Wussy. Chuck Cleaver has a very similar voice to Young, and while he doesn't do all the singing (on occasion Lisa Walker does some), he does a lot of it, and the band sounds like they've been listening to a fair bit of Ride and other early shoegaze. What's great about this album is that you can easily get lost in the lyrics as well as the music. The lyrics are clever, thought-provoking works about heartache and strife, loaded with religious and biblical references and simple, yet wonderful imagery. You could pour over the lyrics and find a lot to love, but if you didn't want to do that, you could easily sit back and enjoy the bass-heavy reverbed wall of sound as it washes over you while Cleaver or Walker serenades you with their echoed voices. Put the excellent songwriting and music together, and you've got quite a good album, one that rewards many many listens, one that you can keep looking into and find something new in time and time again. _________________ Progressive Rock
Ray Lamontagne has gone in a pretty different direction with this album. Before, he was very stripped down and blues focused, with his raspy growl of a voice, he drew a lot of Van Morrison comparisons. But there's none of those comparisons on this album, here he's enlisted Jim James to produce, and the rest of My Morning Jacket to play behind him, and he's created an album that explores British psychedelic music from the 60s and 70s. The sound is fantastic, it's rich and relaxing, awash with reverb and light guitars, just about all of this album could put you to sleep, but in a good way. However, the whole album isn't some languid mess, it's light with a purpose, it still drives forward, and not all the songs are slow. Songs like "Hey, No Pressure" it's more a psych-blues number than anything else, culminating in a semi-chaotic ending with synths and guitars going nuts. Lamontagne has all but abandoned the raspy growl for more of a gruff, airy whisper, and combined with the reverb and spacey production, it makes for a really interesting listen. _________________ Progressive Rock
If you've heard one M. Ward record, you've heard most of them, and this one is no different. That's not necessarily a knock against Ward, he's a great songwriter and I'm a big fan of his, but he has a very noticeable sound and it rarely changes, even when he's doing stuff with Zooey Deschanel as She & Him. It's simple folk rock with reverbed vocals, that's what he does, and that's what he's doing again on this album. It's not a bad album, there are a couple tracks that are pretty good additions to Ward's ever-growing catalog, but overall, this just sounds like another M. Ward album. It sounds like he could've released this five years ago. Plenty of artists get stuck in a style, and for some it works, for others it grows tiresome, for Ward, it's fine, but I'd really love to see him move forward as an artist and try something different, he's definitely an exceptionally talented songwriter. _________________ Progressive Rock
If you've heard one M. Ward record, you've heard most of them, and this one is no different.
I liked his early records quite a bit. Over time, it seems like the production has become far less dusty, and I haven't liked his last few very much at all. _________________ http://jonnyleather.com
RockyRaccoonIs it solipsistic in here or is it just me?ModeratorProfile Maryland
If you've heard one M. Ward record, you've heard most of them, and this one is no different.
I liked his early records quite a bit. Over time, it seems like the production has become far less dusty, and I haven't liked his last few very much at all.
Yea me too. It's kind of become the same thing over and over again, and it gets a little old after awhile. _________________ Progressive Rock
This is without a doubt one of the best hip-hop records I've heard this year. Nyck Caution blends excellent songwriting with great production to make an exceptionally memorable album. Production-wise, there's a lot, from traditional-style beats to melodic hooks, strings, and spacey synths, there's a lot of variety that keeps you interested. Along with that are Nyck Caution's fantastic and poignant lyircs, with the highlight coming from "Out of Reach", a song that takes the listener through the mind of the friends of a guy who committed suicide (referencing the suicide of Capital Steez). It's brutally honest and heart-wrenching, as Caution details his thoughts on his friend's suicide:
Shit I thought you were a legend
And of course you manifested what you thought and I admire that
I was denying that it happened till they fired back
And everybody had a question which required that
The truth be spoken
But I ain't even accept it, how we supposed to be progressive when our roots are broken
Yo, and you know Id give you all of me
I swear that old fucking milk couldn't spoil me
Imma always ride with you, 'til the day I lie with you
That's called loyalty
It's beautiful stuff, and he delivers it really well. It's an album that you will fixate on, both the music and the lyrics, and it's a great hip-hop album. _________________ Progressive Rock
The genre of prog, whether you're talking about metal or rock (in this case metal), can kind of be a grab bag. There are aspects to prog, common threads that run through most albums, that make it recognizable, but the beauty of prog is that it incorporates a lot of different genres. Now, sometimes that can be bad, sometimes it makes for a choppy, inconsistent album, and sometimes it can make for something unique and amazing. Oceans of Slumber are somewhere in between, they have some really great moments on this album, but overall it fails to completely translate for me. The first half of this album is fairly straightforward, relatively accessible prog metal, and the problem is, it sounds like any other prog metal band out there (and includes a seemingly unnecessary cover of The Moody Blues' "Nights In White Satin", though it's a decent cover), but the second half is where they establish themselves. The last half of this album is some very good prog, lots of dynamic and stylistic changes that make the album a lot more interesting. The instrumentals thrown in throughout the album sound a bit like filler, but the rest is decent to very good. The musicianship is excellent all the way throughout the album, that is definitely consistent. Overall, it's a decent album, definitely above average, though only a bit.
I feel like Gowi might dig this album (and anyone else into prog metal). _________________ Progressive Rock
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
RockyRaccoon
meccalecca
