You of course have some highly anticipated albums such as The Flaming Lips, Fall Out Boy and Sarah Brightman. not saying the others were not highly anticipated but tend to fall under a genre hype versus an industry (if that makes any sense). Some other notable ones of course are Ghost, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Iced Earth. Different genres but all equally worth the listen.
Especially since Record Store Day is around the corner, I can't stress enough to show some love and hit up your local record shop, online retailer of other legal source for these albums. Cheers!
Blind Melon's self-titled 1992 debut album, Blind Melon, featuring the now-iconic 'bee girl' on its cover, has been remastered for the first time and expanded with the band's previously unreleased 'Sippin' Time Sessions' EP for release on CD by Capitol/UMe. Creation of the new edition has been overseen by band members Brad Smith and Christopher Thorn. -Amazon
This is a lonely record, epic in length and intimate in scope. In 30 years of getting a contact high off the Beach Boys, the band has never had a Pet Sounds moment like “Try To Explain,” which wraps a gurgling echo chamber around Brian Wilson’s sandbox—Coyne’s plastic space bubble re-imagined as an isolating womb. The Terror is the sound of The Flaming Lips going from a group experience to an internal monologue, the perfect record for any fan who has ever felt like the band could use two “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”s for every “Race For The Prize.” -AV Club
The selection of covers on this album is flawless, and how much of that down to Sarah herself and how much is down to producer Mike Hedges I don’t know. And, as much as I’d like to think that Sarah chose all of these songs from her vast collection of music, I’m pretty sure she was guided towards the more obscure sections of this album, but it’s the perfect combination of music snobbery and ambient pop perfection and I wouldn’t change this album for the world. Instead of playing it safe and releasing yet another Mother ‘s Day Opera By Numbers album, like most classical singers, Sarah’s general lunacy helps her to take risks most artists in her genre wouldn’t take. Whether your average Classic FM listener will be as excited by this as I am I have no idea, but this album has barely been off my iPhone since I got it, and I can’t imagine I will tire of it anytime soon. -Polari Magazine
If it sounds like a mixtape, that’s because it essentially is. If it sounds scattershot, that’s where you’d be wrong. There was a time where punk, dance, reggae and rap coexisted on the same new wave plane; think Blondie, The Slits, Bow Wow Wow, Pylon. For a band who knows their history with their own vocal and guitar sound, the genre-hopping is a natural fit. It also helps that O is a natural roleplayer, whether relishing a vampiric insect or mourning her own wedding. But her band’s swift changes border on microscopic, hard to notice until they bite you and don’t let go. -Paste Magazine
Not that there's any possibility of this happening with FOB, but Walker's studio wizardry provides Save Rock and Roll with the Rolls Royce of production values. It's a huge sounding record in all respects, (a bit too) clean, spacious and meticulously layered. But that's fine. The punk has always played second stage to the pop in FOB's world. Save Rock and Roll isn't life or game changing but it's probably the album FOB needed to make - if only for themselves - and as an honest portrait of the roller-coaster ride that is FOB's career, it finds them on a high. -Drowned In Sound
The Singles Collection 1979 – 2012 is an excellent place to start with all the Killing Joke the casual fan would ever require and I recommend the version with the rarities which is a limited edition. See if you can spot the ways in which this highly influential band has influenced groups as diverse as Nirvana, Fear Factor, Faith No More , Opeth and many more. -Sea Of Tranquility
Ghost is not a band that will last forever. They won’t be seen as anything more than a footnote to rock and metal. Still, they’re here now and they’ve decided to bring the spooky party with them. Infestissumam is about as scary as an episode of Scooby Doo and just as entertaining. In the stale, dank and oppressive room that is the extreme music genre, the self-importance can be stifling. I applaud Ghost for smashing open a window and allowing some air in, even if that air is ripe with the smells of twenty other bands. -Crave Online
The production of the record is raw, probably being processed as little as possible but it could fit a bit of additional dynamics. The Cypriot fans are having the same enthusiasm and energy as the Greek one and are loud and actively participating in all the songs. The band is doing some minor mistakes but nothing that one would spot on the first listening - except maybe some small troubles in Stu's voice. Keep in mind though that their songs are demanding; not only because of their vocal range but because of continuous parts where the singer doesn't have time to breathe (check "Dracula" which is an extremely demanding song). -Metal Temple
In the end, it’s really going to come down to whether you can get past “what could have been” and focus on the actual reality of the situation. The reality is that Ugly Noise is a solid return to Flotsam and Jetsam’s most high-profile era, mixed with a few new tricks and modern influences. Considering the band’s output over the past fifteen years, it’s also a very welcome addition to their discography. Granted, it doesn’t come close to reaching the lofty heights established by Cuatro, it does at least come close to Drift. The biggest issue is simply that without The Cold casting its shadow over this album, Ugly Noise would be generating infinitely more fan excitement due to its successful return to the band’s most popular era (not to mention the reunification of that era’s line-up), and that is still saying a lot. -Sputnik Music
Daily Herald: Shooting for "The Lords of Salem" (due out next year) started almost exactly a year ago. At what point did you start working on the music, and what did you have to work with?
John5: Rob would give me direction, like, 'I want it to sound like this, or I want it to sound like that.' It's very primitive, not your everyday-sounding instruments. I would use a violin bow across an acoustic guitar or clank on things or use other odd musical instruments. Then, of course, you have your bassoons and french horns and everything under the sun for other parts of the score. It's very unorthodox, if you will, but it really was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work and it was a big challenge. It turned out amazing, though. I'm very proud of it; that's for sure.
Now I don't normally do singles and vinyls unless they happen to be a favourite of AFGM, but due to the fact that Record Store Day is soon to be arriving, I felt that some of these goodies shouldn't go unnoticed.
Singles
.jpg)
Vinyl
Blind Melon's self-titled 1992 debut album, Blind Melon, featuring the now-iconic 'bee girl' on its cover, has been remastered for the first time and expanded with the band's previously unreleased 'Sippin' Time Sessions' EP for release on CD by Capitol/UMe. Creation of the new edition has been overseen by band members Brad Smith and Christopher Thorn. -Amazon
This is a lonely record, epic in length and intimate in scope. In 30 years of getting a contact high off the Beach Boys, the band has never had a Pet Sounds moment like “Try To Explain,” which wraps a gurgling echo chamber around Brian Wilson’s sandbox—Coyne’s plastic space bubble re-imagined as an isolating womb. The Terror is the sound of The Flaming Lips going from a group experience to an internal monologue, the perfect record for any fan who has ever felt like the band could use two “Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”s for every “Race For The Prize.” -AV Club
Limited three CD edition. 2013 collection from the veteran Scottish band best known for their string of hits in the '80s. Led by vocalist Jim Kerr, Simple Minds already had a clutch of albums in their catalog before fame came calling in 1982... and they've continued to record critically acclaimed albums ever since. Celebrate contains the band's biggest hits and album tracks plus two new songs: 'Blood Diamonds' and 'Broken Glass Park'. This version features 50 songs including their rare pre-Simple Minds' single, 1977's Johnny and The Self Abusers' 'Saints and Sinners', and their interpretation of Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot" from their 2001 covers album, Neon Lights. -Amazon
The selection of covers on this album is flawless, and how much of that down to Sarah herself and how much is down to producer Mike Hedges I don’t know. And, as much as I’d like to think that Sarah chose all of these songs from her vast collection of music, I’m pretty sure she was guided towards the more obscure sections of this album, but it’s the perfect combination of music snobbery and ambient pop perfection and I wouldn’t change this album for the world. Instead of playing it safe and releasing yet another Mother ‘s Day Opera By Numbers album, like most classical singers, Sarah’s general lunacy helps her to take risks most artists in her genre wouldn’t take. Whether your average Classic FM listener will be as excited by this as I am I have no idea, but this album has barely been off my iPhone since I got it, and I can’t imagine I will tire of it anytime soon. -Polari Magazine
If it sounds like a mixtape, that’s because it essentially is. If it sounds scattershot, that’s where you’d be wrong. There was a time where punk, dance, reggae and rap coexisted on the same new wave plane; think Blondie, The Slits, Bow Wow Wow, Pylon. For a band who knows their history with their own vocal and guitar sound, the genre-hopping is a natural fit. It also helps that O is a natural roleplayer, whether relishing a vampiric insect or mourning her own wedding. But her band’s swift changes border on microscopic, hard to notice until they bite you and don’t let go. -Paste Magazine
Ghost is not a band that will last forever. They won’t be seen as anything more than a footnote to rock and metal. Still, they’re here now and they’ve decided to bring the spooky party with them. Infestissumam is about as scary as an episode of Scooby Doo and just as entertaining. In the stale, dank and oppressive room that is the extreme music genre, the self-importance can be stifling. I applaud Ghost for smashing open a window and allowing some air in, even if that air is ripe with the smells of twenty other bands. -Crave Online
The production of the record is raw, probably being processed as little as possible but it could fit a bit of additional dynamics. The Cypriot fans are having the same enthusiasm and energy as the Greek one and are loud and actively participating in all the songs. The band is doing some minor mistakes but nothing that one would spot on the first listening - except maybe some small troubles in Stu's voice. Keep in mind though that their songs are demanding; not only because of their vocal range but because of continuous parts where the singer doesn't have time to breathe (check "Dracula" which is an extremely demanding song). -Metal Temple
In the end, it’s really going to come down to whether you can get past “what could have been” and focus on the actual reality of the situation. The reality is that Ugly Noise is a solid return to Flotsam and Jetsam’s most high-profile era, mixed with a few new tricks and modern influences. Considering the band’s output over the past fifteen years, it’s also a very welcome addition to their discography. Granted, it doesn’t come close to reaching the lofty heights established by Cuatro, it does at least come close to Drift. The biggest issue is simply that without The Cold casting its shadow over this album, Ugly Noise would be generating infinitely more fan excitement due to its successful return to the band’s most popular era (not to mention the reunification of that era’s line-up), and that is still saying a lot. -Sputnik Music
Daily Herald: Shooting for "The Lords of Salem" (due out next year) started almost exactly a year ago. At what point did you start working on the music, and what did you have to work with?
John5: Rob would give me direction, like, 'I want it to sound like this, or I want it to sound like that.' It's very primitive, not your everyday-sounding instruments. I would use a violin bow across an acoustic guitar or clank on things or use other odd musical instruments. Then, of course, you have your bassoons and french horns and everything under the sun for other parts of the score. It's very unorthodox, if you will, but it really was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work and it was a big challenge. It turned out amazing, though. I'm very proud of it; that's for sure.
Now I don't normally do singles and vinyls unless they happen to be a favourite of AFGM, but due to the fact that Record Store Day is soon to be arriving, I felt that some of these goodies shouldn't go unnoticed.
Singles
.jpg)
Vinyl
No comments:
Post a Comment