Unlimited Music

Going back to my normal mode of retroactively reviewing CDs that I often listen to, today’s post deals with the 2005 CD Never Take Friendship Personal. The second release by rock band Anberlin, this album has a variety of memorable tunes and is one that I would recommend to anyone.

As with most new CDs I listen to, the first tracks that become my favorites are often the singles released first. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as singles are often the device used by artists to draw in listeners in the first place. Never Take Friendship Personal has two great singles with “Paperthin Hymn” and “The Feel Good Drag.” Both songs have strong all-around performances from band members and are easy to listen to over and over again.

The best part about Anberlin is how well the lead singer and instruments contrast from each other. The guitars tend to be deeper and stronger than most bands while Stephen Christian, the lead singer, tends to sing at a high tone. Its not often that a new, relatively, band has such a unique sound, and that fact alone makes Anberlin worth listening to.

In addition to the two singles mentioned above, my favorite song on this CD has to be “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen.”  I’m always a sucker for long songs that are well-done, and “Dance, Dance” is a great example of what a seven-minute song should have. There is a minute of no vocals near the end of the song that builds the suspense for the finale perfectly.

Overall this is a very good CD and it is a shame that more people don’t know about Anberlin. The group is very talented and deserves to have more albums sold and more fans around the country, so check them out and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Grade - A- - A very good all-around CD.

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I’ve gone on a little streak recently of only reviewing past favorites of mine and I am sure there are some of you looking for present-day articles. Well worry not as in the future I will be reviewing the new Foo Fighters CD as well as the new Jimmy Eat World CD (when it is released of course.) For now, however, lets take a break from CD reviews and look at some upcoming, or announced, releases in the next six months to year.

For starters, The Offspring have been in the studio for a while now and are close to finally releasing their eighth CD. For those who remember their last release, Splinter came out way back in 2003. While their newest release doesn’t have much info out yet, the band has promised that the CD will come out late-2007 to early-2008. As no album name has been given yet, I would expect that date to be closer to 2008 than 2007. All the same, Offspring fans have to be excited at the prospect of new tracks after such a long wait.

Another band that has announced plans for a new CD are the lostprophets. Unlike The Offspring, this British band recently had a new album hit the stores. Still, the band has given their intentions to the media to make their CD turnaround shorter for their fourth studio album than it has been in the past. lostprophets, and yes their name is in all lower-caps, are one of the better British bands out there and this is good news, provided they do not rush a new album.

Finally, Weezer should be out with a new album in 2008…but no other details are really known.

Hopefully this gives you a few bands to keep an eye on for the next few months. I will continue posting news about these three bands, and any other new album releases that catch my eyes, as I hear about them. For now just take solace in the fact that I tried something outside of a CD review for once. And as I said before, feel free to request different bands/posts if you have any requests.

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Before I start this review I want to apologize for the somewhat randomness of my posts. There aren’t too many new CDs that I find worthy of buying and so most of my reviews will be about past CDs and the majority of my other posts will be on news of new albums and other artist-related posts. If anyone has review requests, let me know.

Getting back to the subject of matter, today’s review deals with a techno CD released quite a while ago. When Eiffel 65 first hit the United States, they were known solely for their big hit “Blue (Da Ba Dee).” While there is nothing wrong with “Blue,” I sometimes get the impression that the band got a bad reputation because of the song. The simple truth is that Europop is a fun album from start to finish and the better songs are ones not known by those who wrote off the band because of their original single.

While not nearly as polished as their follow-up album, Contact, Europop mainly excels because of their background beats. The vocals, for most songs, are repetitive and are very hit or miss. While “Blue” is not an indication of the band’s best work, it does showcase the band’s style. Don’t get into this CD expecting deeply thought lyrics, you will be disappointed.

The best song, by far, on this album is “Europop.” The breakdown of the music is simply amazing and it is one of the only songs that actually has a decently thought-out chorus. Two other tracks worth listens are “My Console” and “Dub in Life.” The only songs, in fact, that I didn’t enjoy from the album were the ones that took darker tones like “Your Clown” and “Now is Forever.” While I always admire it when band’s try to strive from their usual stuff, it just doesn’t work on this CD. Europop works best as a party album, not a sad listen.

The innate faults of this album are hard to overlook in the end. Repetitive lyrics, out-of-place songs, and a generally hard to take serious album. But I do like many of the songs on Europop and I do think it is worth a look.

Grade - C+/B- - I do really like this album but it is hard to give it a very high grade when comparing it to other songs I have reviewed.

Note - Fans of this CD check out Contact, a much better release by Eiffel. I’ll review it in the future.

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Those who have kept up with this blog should have known that it would be only a matter of time before I reviewed Jimmy Eat World’s last, for now, CD. Futures was released right around the time I was about to embark onto college from high school and to this day it has proved to be a perfect CD for this transition. While some of the fun and upbeat tunes from Bleed American are gone, there are clear signs that the band is maturing as their music takes on tougher issues.

Two good examples of Jimmy’s “issue songs” are “Pain” and “Drugs or Me.” The topics covered in these tracks are obvious and pointed out from the titles of the two tracks. For the most part, these details are irrelevant. The important thing is that the songs deliver and really make listeners feel for whoever is suffering from the problems described in the songs. Jimmy Eat World has always been good at relying emotion, and here they finally put that skill to good use.

Those two songs aside, the one other track I really want to talk about is the finale of the album. “23″ is by far my favorite song from Futures. In fact, it may just be my favorite song by this band out of any of their current CDs. The fact that Jimmy is able to take a seven minute song and make the entire song sound and work great is good enough on it’s own, but the vocals and instrumentals are top-notch and a sign of the best of the band. If there is one song you download and listen to from this CD, make it “23.”

All that said, this is a good solid from start to finish. All of the songs have good appeal and this is a terrific follow-up to Bleed American. If Chase This Light can be as good as this CD and it’s predecessor, it will be great by my standards.

Grade - A - Maybe I am a little biased, again, but so what? I am a big J.E.W. fan and am not afraid to show it. This is a great CD and one of my favorites to listen to since it came out.

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As a full-time college student without a car, I often find it hard to listen to the radio and find new artists. Because of this, I am especially proud when I manage to stumble across a new band that has more than just a one-hit album. The Canadian rock group Mobile is one of my recent discoveries that I have been recommending to friends for a few months. Tomorrow Starts Today is not only an excellent debut album with the needed radio single-worthy hits, it also is a deep CD with substance.

The first time I heard Mobile was when their third single off this CD was first circulating the radio. “See Right Through Me” is, simply put, a breathtaking song. Not only are the instrumentals and chorus terrific, the “peak” of the song, about two and a half minutes in, is just amazing.

Of course, you can’t have a good album without good songs from the beginning to the end. “Hands Tied” begins the album with rip-rocking vocals and a start-stop type tempo that will keep you coming back. “Lookin’ Out” is a nice song that compliments “See Right Through Me” very well. And “Dusting Down The Stars” is a beautifully-sung song that shows that Mobile has a softer side as well.

Maybe part of my love for this album is due to the fact that, for once, I found them first in my group of friends. But even after a couple of months, I still find myself playing tracks from Tomorrow Starts Today on my iPod. And I still find myself recommending the CD to every friend who likes the same music as I do.

Grade - A- - A very good CD with both good singles and good depth.

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In the early parts of this review, as I wait for new albums to be released, many CDs that will be reviewed here are personal favorites of mine. One album that I enjoy listening to just about every week is So Long, Astoria by The Ataris. The tracks are nothing ground-breaking, there are not singles that received very high play on the radios, and I’m sure that most music listeners haven’t even heard this band before. What is on So Long, Astoria is a good CD that plays well from the start to the finish.

The album starts out with a song sharing the same name as the CD. The opening song is fast-paced and every part of it work. Its a perfect opening song because it indicates the tone that the rest of the tracks will follow and it also is a song that will get a lot of repeat listens. After “So Long, Astoria,” the CD somewhat changes tone by slowly going slower and sadder until the tone is topped off in “The Saddest Song.”

Now I’m not sure that the sixth song is actually the saddest song I’ve ever heard, but it is quite a relief when the next song, “Summer of ‘69″ comes on. In my opinion this is the strongest track of the album. It is light and upbeat and there are really no hidden meanings within the lyrics. But it is also fun and easy to listen to, the type of song you can imagine playing while going on a roadtrip somewhere during the summer.

The rest of the CD continues at a pretty good price. Almost everyone has heard “The Boys of the Summer” cover the band has done. Don’t worry, this song is, in actuality, one of my least favorites of the album. And that is saying something.

Grade - B+ - A good listen without much lyrical depth.

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If you’ve been keeping up with my reviews to date, you’ll know that one of my big things with CDs is continuity. A good album features very different tracks that fit together when listened one after another. Most artists don’t put enough effort or thought into their releases to score big points in this category.

But more than anything, British rock band Kasabian knows how important flow really is. Kasabian, a relatively unknown Brit rock band, has been rocking long but have remained relatively unknown on the American scene. Unlike other bands from the same nationality, like Muse, most American rock fans do now know of the band headed by Sergio Pizzomo. But for those missing out, this band knows how to make music and how to keep an album rolling.

The opening track to Kasaibian sounds like it should be played with badasses rolling away from the scene. In fact, “Club Foot” might have one of the most sweet opening sequences of all time. Its no wonder that car video games use it in commercials. But “Club Foot” is far from a good indication to what the CD entails.

The best part about this self-titled debut album is that no two songs sound alike. Instrumentals are different from track to track, lyrics are unique from song to song, and so on. Kasabian ensures that their CD is a good listen from start to finish and that is the label of a good release.

Even the songs without many lyrics are worth repeat listens. This is an excellent CD and I strongly suggest any rock fans check it out.

Grade - A- - A great CD that should be known by more American listeners.

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It may seem unusual that I am a fan of AFI but the truth is that I don’t restrict my songlist based on genres and stereotypes of what certain people should listen to. If I enjoy it, I’ll listen to it. Thats why I posted reviews to different bands such as Jimmy Eat World and Linkin Park. To get back to the subject of the band, however, Blaqk Audio is a new group headed by the lead singer and guitarist from AFI. The band fills out the rest of their sound by using electronic music.

I, myself, am a huge fan of the electronic genre. Naturally, this CD interested me very much. After all, AFI was good on their own right, but a side project that involves electronic music from their two best components sounded almost too good to be true.

The good news is that it wasn’t. The CD delivers classic AFI sound, as one would expect with Davey Havok still doing the crooning. Havok is great singing high pitches and emotional, and sometimes weird, lyrics. That doesn’t change here.

The electronic vehicle ties in pretty well with Havok and fellow, and only other, bandmate Jade Puget. My only complaint of the sound would be that it sounds almost a little too much like AFI. In fact, when I first heard their single, “Stiff Kittens,” off this CD, which is named CexCells, I thought it was something new by the original band. Generally, in my opinion, side project bands should be able to totally differentiate themselves from their predecessors. Can AFI and Blaqk Audio coexist for long like this? I doubt it.

Overall this is a good debut release. Havok has been here before and done this with AFI.

Grade - B/B+ - Pretty good but AFI fans will probably prefer their old stuff and non-AFI fans will see nothing different to pull them in.

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A few weeks ago we first discussed the fact that the new Jimmy Eat World CD, Chase This Light, would be released October 16, 2007. While the majority of this new release will not be heard by all until this date, the band has given a preview into their new album by releasing their new single today. And for fans wondering whether or not the band would stick with their old style and image or change, “Big Casino” was a good indication of their direction.

As a big Jimmy Eat World fan myself, I was excited to hear my local radio station announce that the song would be played, for the first time to my knowledge, as I was driving around doing errands. My first thoughts, when I finally heard the song, were that “Big Casino” sounded an awful lot like something out of Clarity. The song still carried the meaningful lyrics and music of most J.E.W. songs, but also had a softer and somewhat downtrodden melody to it.

Now Clarity, in it’s own right, was an underrated CD. An album that many current Jimmy fans missed because it was before they became big. But the band’s best work was in their last two albums. While it is fine that some songs resemble the vastly different tunes of Clarity, one hopes that the band didn’t forget to include some tracks that could have been on Futures and Bleed American as well.

That being said, the song was a good listen. I would recommend all Jimmy, or emo rock, fans check it out. The song can be heard on the band’s official site. The only reason it slightly disappointed me was because I expected a perfect single after waiting three years for a new J.E.W. CD. Knowing the band out of Arizona, however, I expect that song is somewhere to be found on the rest of Chase This Light.

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Its always nice when a new CD or single gets released that a person likes. Old favorites, while always enjoyable in small amounts, can often wear thin after repeat listens. Even I often find that my favorite CDs, such as the reviewed Bleed American, become dull and hard to listen to after a while. But waiting for new releases from favorite artists can be hard. Bands don’t release, for the most part, new albums each and every year. So how can we find more music to listen to?

The obvious answer, for most, is the radio. The radio has traditionally been the core of new music and discovering new artists. By listening to certain genre stations, one can, presumably, find artists similar to his or her favorites and expand their musical library. Unfortunately, using the radio for this purpose often results in fruitless results and wasted time. Radio stations, even genre-specific ones, mainly only feature big-name artists who most music listeners already know about. In addition, it may take hours to discover a new song one actually likes by listening to the radio.

If you’re like me and want something reliable to discover new music, I would suggest Pandora. Pandora is an internet site that has, over the last couple of months, become very popular in the digital music community. By visiting the free site, which uses internet ads to make money, and entering current favorites, either artists or songs, Pandora will go through different and unheard of music and recommend new artists to you.

Sound too good to be true? Well it’s not. Pandora is, again, free to try and has keyed me into several bands that I listen to today, including Feeder and Maritime. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for new tunes to listen to.

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