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Recently Enjoyed CD's
A friend of mine recently introduced me to Mercury Rev. The first time I put the CD on, I was scared of the squeeky, creepy vocals of David Baker and the soft music behind him. After a few listens, I started to really get into the band. All is Dream is a volatile trip through The Vedas, which is the most ancient sacred literature of Hinduism.
"What appears like an angel
Stabs like a dagger
Fills you with light
And bleeds you of matter
Comes to a dead stop
Forgives you like Jesus
Hands you a love
Only found in the Vedas"
To learn more about Mercury Rev, go here:
http://www.mercuryrev.co.uk
To learn more about Hinduism, go here:
http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/religions/vedas.htm
Many of the Year 2002 "best of" lists seemed to include The Roots Phrenology CD. I hadn't heard anything from the CD, but bought it based on the fact that so many journalists and respected music types seemed to love it. These Philadelphia hip-hop artists have packed a lot of surprised on this CD. I'm not familiar with what their older CD's are like, but this one is full of variety. Nelly Furtado makes an appearance on the almost poppy sounding "Sacrifice", but you barely know she's there. The second track on the CD, which seems to be a punk parody, reminded me of one of the early tracks on the Beastie Boys Check Your Head CD.
This CD is complete with funk, soul and it all fits together very nicely.
When I first bought White Blood Cells, by White Stripes, I couldn't get enough of it. I would listen to it at full volume in my apartment, in my car and in my office (at a lower volume). It's not often that I can over-play a CD to that extent and come out still loving it in the end. This CD is basically raw and heavy rock and roll. Period.
There is nothing innovative about the sound of this band (which is really just a brother and sister); instead, they have taken all of the things we have loved over the years like dirty, distorted guitar played at massive amplification and thrown in some crashing drums and, Voila! Pure Brilliance.
This CD contains traces of Velvet Underground and The Yardbirds with some Led Zeppelin thrown in. Remember the song "Hot Dog" by Zep? Well, the rebirth is present here and it's called "Hotel Yorba". I've read a lot of reviews that say the best song from this CD is the single "Fell in Love with a Girl", which is pure, unadulterated, raw agression. It's hard to disagree with the masses on this one, but I do. My pick for the best song on this CD would have to be Offend in Every Way. Go ahead, give it a listen.
Coldplay has been referred to as "music for bed wetters". When I heard this, I laughed out loud. In fact, i'm still laughing. In spite of this undeniable fact, they are still a good band. Their debut album Parachutes was wildly successful and with good reason. Their songs are catchy and Chris Martin's vocals are hard to forget. I don't feel that Coldplay has a lot of depth, and this CD is undoubtedly the album we all expected but it's also smarter; more poetic, more mature. I don't like to hear Coldplay being compared to Radiohead, Travis et al. I prefer to think of these bands, especially Radiohead, as being innovative, experimental contributors to the alternative genre. Coldplay is pop group, plain and simple. They aren't doing anything we haven't heard before. Don't get me wrong, I like the CD. Not everyone has to reinvent the wheel. I'll even go so far as to admit that my favourite song on this CD is Green Eyes.
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