Electronica Album Club!'s Album Review Vault

Wpnfire · 04-09-2014, 07:09 PM

This thread is where I will store the edited album reviews made by the club's members.

I will try to condense and edit the reviews as best I can so people unfamiliar with the album or artist can still understand why we gave it that particular rating.

PLEASE NOTE: this thread and the reviews in it are here primarily for reference. Please keep the discussions limited to the albums posted here. Of course, you do not have to be a member of the club to comment here.

April 1 – April 9 Contact! – Eiffel 65

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wpnfire

Review link for Contact!

Wpnfire · 04-09-2014, 07:11 PM

Contact! – Eiffel 65.

Aggregate club rating: 30%

Ruling: Overly Negative

Takeaways: With an astounding seventeen tracks, Contact! has considerable problems with providing enough variety for each of its songs to be dissimilar from the next.
Our members could not decide which song was the worst or best from the album, but this is probably due to members not remembering which song they liked or disliked the most because those songs were lost among the incredible length and lack of variety present on this album (or in many cases members could not bare to finish listening to the album).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goofle11

Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?
2/10
How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
The variety is basically non-existent.
Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Yes, as I didn't like it much. It's too fake and bouncy, without being particularly catchy.
Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?
I didn't hate him but I certainly didn't like him.
What did you think of the lyrical content?
Probably would have been better without lyrics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy

Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?
3/10.
Did your first impressions change, i.e., did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
Not really, the album is WAAAAAAAY WAY WAY WAY WAY TOO LONG.
Which was stronger in your opinion, the opening tracks (first 2-3 songs), or the ending tracks (last 2-3 songs)?
The songs were so uninteresting and similar that I honestly cannot differentiate any of the songs off the top of my head in any way. Also this is the most pointlessly long album I've ever heard. Just thought I'd mention that again.
How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
Oh god, there basically is no variety whatsoever. Be ready for some of the most cookie cutter boyband electropop you've ever heard.
Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Come up with more interesting melodies, use anything besides the most basic foundational trance synths that exist.
Would you recommend this album to others?
Not unless they really enjoy simple dance music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?
4/10
Did your first impressions change, i.e., did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
No, it was pretty consistent.
How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
Not much variety. Mostly funkier, house-ier tracks and filler.
Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Less singing, performed by a better singer. More depth to the production.
Would you recommend this album to others?
Probably not.
Are you interested in listening to more albums by this band?
Only if they put out something shockingly different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Oh man, that was really bad. I couldn't even finish the album tbh. I pretty much agree with what Goofle and YD said: too plastic, too simple, too cheesy, not catchy or creative. That's all I really have to say about the first five tracks I listened to besides 1/10.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wpnfire

Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?
4/10.
Did your first impressions change, i.e., did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
YES my impressions changed, this album has NO VARIETY!
Which was stronger in your opinion, the opening tracks (first 2-3 songs), or the ending tracks (last 2-3 songs)?
I'm sure if I actually listened to the last two-three songs I would find that there's not much difference between the last or opening tracks, but I'll say the opening tracks only because at the beginning you find the songs to be entertaining untill you realize there's no variety.
How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
After the fourth song, I no longer remembered what the previous songs sounded like save for the first song. The variety was not enough for me to distinguish between songs.
For the last 5 songs except World in the World, I listened to maybe the first minute of them and then skipped them because there was nothing new.
There were some interesting downtempo or breakdown sections in some of the songs on the album, but there really was not that much variety that lasted enough to make the entire album bearable.
I'm sure I could pick out maybe four songs that had enough variety between them, but if you include the other thirteen songs, those four songs are lost among the ****storm of blandness.
What is the overall mood on this album?
Happy, I'd say. There's some slower songs like I Don't Wanna Lose that sound more sorrowful, but overall the album mood is happy.
Is this an album you would listen to again all the way through (for personal, recreational use, outside of listening to it for this club), or are there just a few songs that you would listen to?
Definitely just a few songs. I may consider buying Lucky, I Don't Wanna Lose, World in the World, and maybe I DJ With the Fire, but I can't see myself listening to any of the other songs.
Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Once I got to Far Away the album really got stale because only a few songs were truly different than the rest, and the album was too long. They should have focused on making a 10 song album and trying to make all the songs sound different.
Something like an instrumental track or something thrown in would have added some much needed variety, but instead, it was all the same song structures over and over again.
Quantity over quality describes this album pretty well.

__________
Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?
I didn't hate him, but there was seriously no variety in his voice. He either sung normally, or there was some distortions in his voice. No difference between songs other than that.
What did you think of the lyrical content?
Ugh, the vocals were so bland I tried to ignore them as best I could and focus on the instrumentation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchameleon

18. Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?

4/10

4. On repeated listens (if you did so), did you find you liked the album more, or less? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
Such a long album that I was being grumpy about so I don't think I would end up listening to the album more than once and if I did go back to the album it would only be for a few tracks.

8. How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
Non-existant pretty much. I don't know I checked in and out throughout the course of listening to the album and it just seemed very much of the same.

9. What is the overall mood on this album?
Non-stop Party. Don't stop the beat.

10. Is this an album you would listen to again all the way through (for personal, recreational use, outside of listening to it for this club), or are there just a few songs that you would listen to?
People of Tomorrow, Journey and Losing You will definitely get some replays from me but that's about it.

11. How well do you already know the band/artist?
Just from their hit in the 90s, Blue

13. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Better production but the singing was okay in my books.

14. Would you recommend this album to others?
No.

15. Are you interested in listening to more albums by this band?
No thanks but I gave it a shot.

19. What do you think of the production?
For such a long album, I wish they would have taken more risks with it but alas they didn't. They stuck to a tried and true formula.

20. Any other thoughts you had about this album you would like to share?
It isn't really as bad as I thought it was going to be based off of other's opinions but I don't really have the patience to listen to this album in its entirety again. It just validates my opinion of long albums/songs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deviouz

18. Your overall album rating on a scale of 1-10 (whole numbers please. Also, please BOLD or otherwise make this rating easy to see)?

3/10

2. Did your first impressions change, i.e., did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?
Yep, sure did. The very first song was terrible. But every song after that was either really bad or bad.

4. On repeated listens (if you did so), did you find you liked the album more, or less? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
No. Not going to listen to this again. A very slim maybe to listening to some tracks though. But not the whole album.

8. How would you describe the variety of tracks available on this album? Feel free to be very detailed if you like.
I couldn't really tell the sounds of the previous songs I listened to after half way through the album. No variety at all, but I didn't expect anything else from a "three-piece Italo dance/Eurodance group."

9. What is the overall mood on this album?
Upbeat, Party hearty. You get the odd sounding songs that break away from the overall happy sound but happy none the less.

10. Is this an album you would listen to again all the way through (for personal, recreational use, outside of listening to it for this club), or are there just a few songs that you would listen to?
Not the whole album, no. But maaaaaaaybe I'd chuck on, "Life Like Thunder", for when I'm feeling cheesey.

11. How well do you already know the band/artist?
Not that well. Only through their hit single, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)".

13. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?
Better production, singing and songwriting.

14. Would you recommend this album to others?
No.

15. Are you interested in listening to more albums by this band?
Probably not. This album has sealed the deal.

17. (NOTE: This question may only apply to certain albums.) Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?
I didn't like him. Especially the effects he used on his voice. Really annoying. I don't hate him though.