Quick album reviews

[Shimra]

Like real quick album reviews, as in ratings with favorite and least favorite songs from them.

Animal Collective- Strawberry Jam
9.5/10
Best Songs
Fireworks, For Reverand Green, Peacebone

Bloc Party- Silent Alarm
8.5
Best Songs
Banquet, Luno

Bloc Party- Silent Alarm Remixed
8.0
Best Songs
Like Eating Glass Remix, Storm and Stress

Editors- An End has a Start
6.0
Best Songs
Smokers outside the Hotel

Explosions in the Sky- The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
8.0
Best Songs
It's conceptual... it's pretty much one long song

The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
7.5
Best Songs
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt 1, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell

Kaiser Chiefs- Yours Truly Angry Mob
5.5
Best Songs
I dunno

Mum- Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
6.5
Best Songs
Blessed Brambles

Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
10
Best Songs
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Holland 1945

Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
8.0
Best Songs
Hermdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse

The Shins- Oh Inverted World!
7.0
Best Songs
Caring is Creepy, New Slang

Sigur Ros- Takk...
8.5
Best Songs
Hoppipolla, Glosoli, Sæglópur

Sunset Rubdown- Random Spirit Lover
8.5
Best Songs
Mending of the Gown, Taming of the Hands that Came Back to Life

TV on the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain
8.0
Best Songs
Wolf Like Me, Province

Wolf Parade- Apologies to Queen Mary
9.0
Best Songs
Ground For Divorce, Shine a Light



I've got others I'll review once I listen to a bit more.

[BadEnoughDude]

Neutral Milk Hotel only an 8.5?

That's my favorite album of all-time

[Shimra]

Haha, yeah. That's my friends favorite album as well. I completely understand how some people absolutely love it. And don't get me wrong, I love it. But you know, 8.5 isn't a bad score at all lol.

[BadEnoughDude]

No, it's really not. I'm just biased. I would probably give 'Oh Inverted World' and 'The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place' something closer to an 9.0 too. Two of my favorites as well.

[Shimra]

This isn't super inflated scores like videogame sites give, a 5.5 is average at best here.

[BadEnoughDude]

I understand. Just pointing out the albums that I would give higher ratings to. I would give lower ratings to others, but I won't point those out

[hXd]

Ahh, this looks like fun. I'll start with one I recently gave a listen to:

Phoenix Bodies- Raise The Bullshit Flag

Score: 9 out of 10

Fast paced, relentless grind-tinged punk-core that grabs you and doesn't let go until the end (which isn't that long, the songs are relatively short). The only reason why it wasn't a 10 out of 10 is because the songs tend to sound identical after a while, but if this is your cup of tea (as it is mine) then you'll love Raise The Bullshit Flag. Their new material, which can be streamed on their MySpace, www.myspace.com/phoenixbodies , (there's supposedly a new song every friday) already has the notion that the songs will differ from each other, which might earn their next album a 10/10 from me, we'll see.

[Shimra]

Awesome more people joining in. Oh yeah feel free to make comments and whatnot and post your own reviews.

[BadEnoughDude]

Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself (6.5/10)

This one has a little room to improve. It's not really my style of music, and I really only got it because I LOVE the song "Hide and Seek," but I will certainly give it the chance to grow on me.

Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day (8/10)

Great southern-style alt-country/rock album. "The Deeper In" is quickly ascending my list of favorite songs.

[Tondog]

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (10/10)

Everything about the album is incredible.

[lackofselfcontrol]

Watchmaker - Kill. Fucking. Everyone.

You have to be really pissed off to fully appreciate it.

8/10... perhaps. Can't make up my mind on this.

[hXd]

Vampire Weekend- Self Titled

Score: 8/10

In an almost ironic fashion, Vampire Weekend craft catchy, bouncy indie-pop like fellow NYC spirits Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the difference being VW tend to look to reggae and/or Rhythm Of The Saints-era Paul Simon as inspiration rather than the heavy Talking Heads comparisons CYHSY are prone to getting.

All of that aside, it's a catchy albums full of memorable songs, but it's the ones that don't stick that make the score what it is, because there aren't enough of them. I would say to any casual listener, you would probably adore half of the album and the other half you could do without. But I still recommend the album anyway, you might like more of the album than I do. I'll admit that I also went into this album skeptically, being as though they've gotten a lot of attention recently, but I feel they delivered on their hype by making a solid album.

[Shimra]

Flux EP- Bloc Party

I know it isn't really an album or whatever, so I'm not going to score it, but it's very good. Shows the bands diversity. Flux itself is one of the most unique Bloc Party songs and shows the band's ability to play a wide range of songs. Emma Kate's Accident is a phenomenal mellow song where Kele's voice really shines.

[Arrrhalomynn]

Flux EP- Bloc Party

Flux itself is one of the most unique Bloc Party songs and shows the band's ability to play a wide range of songs.

In a bad way though. The way the vocals distort reminds me of Cher 10 years ago and the music sounds like a rip off of New Order.
I downloaded the vinyl release which doesn't have Emma Kate's Accident, but a remix of Where is home, which is also far from good.

I'm very dissapointed with this album after the brilliance of a Weekend in the city.

[Shimra]

Oh no, my reply didn't post! Ughh, anyway this is essentially what it was.

I really enjoyed Flux the more I listened to it, much like how Strawberry Jam (Animal Collective) grew on me. I can't say I immediately enjoyed the song, but after multiple listenings I can definitively say that yeah the song is fairly good and does show Bloc Party's diversity. Oh and Emma Kate's Accident is phenomenal and you should give it a listen if you can find it. Also awesome there is another Weekend in the City fan.

Album Reviews

The Mars Volta- The Bedlam in Goliath
7.0/10
Best Songs-
Metatron, Cavalettas
The Mars Volta is a pretty interesting band if you haven't heard them, which judging by most the people's taste from this forum I'm sure you've heard them. That being said, TBiG is a bit heavier than their previous work which isn't necessarily a bad song. The album is overall very good, however some of the songs feel too similar to previous work and the rest of the album. Overall though, if you are a fan of The Mars Volta be sure to pick this one up.

Islands- Return to the Sea
8/10
Best Songs-
Humans, Volcanoes
This bad boy caught me off guard. I had only heard of Islands a bit and decided to check them out. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. The Indie band provides us with a unique spin on the genre with a somewhat tropical feel for some songs yet overall an extremely pleasant sound reminiscent of the new Vampire Weekend (even though Islands was before VW) type of sound. Very good stuff here.

Animal Collective- Danse Manatee
2/10
Best Songs-
None, they are all terrible
What the hell is this crap? This isn't even music. Perhaps Juno should have listened to this crap before calling Daydream Nation just sound. You've come a long way Animal Collective.

The Killers- Hot Fuss
6/10
Best Songs-
Jenny was a Friend of Mine
Brian Flowers is a tool. This album was before that was completely obvious, and for such a cocky bastard their debut was not even too phenomenal. It doesn't provide us with anything more diverse than what has already been seen by several other bands, and in actuality though some of the songs are good, many aren't. To their credit though, Hot Fuss showed that The Killers were on the right track for a while. I don't even know why I felt the urge to review this one.


I'll do more later and try to make some of the reviews more diverse than just Indie rock for the most part. But I will try to review most of the new albums coming out such as Vampire Weekend etc. I just need more time to listen to them.