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Album title: Grimspound Artist: Big Big Train Genre: Progressive Rock Nationality: English Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Tenth Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed9.jpg Familiar with this artist? Yes Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Very Average RYM Score: 3.46 Ah, you know it's prog rock when an album begins with a twelve-minute track and has two others over ten! :laughing: I'm a big fan of Big Big Train so I expect this to be right up my street, and so far it is, definitely. A lot of it is, if you know the band you'll be unsurprised to hear, a sort of pastoral Genesis thing, reminiscent of their early seventies work. You know the kind of thing: lots of flute, violin and shimmering piano, and the Genesis influence is noted nowhere more strongly than in “Experimental Gentlemen”, where you think BBT have metamorphosed into not seventies but eighties or even nineties Genesis. Some lovely acoustic guitar in “Meadowland”, and basically yeah, this is great stuff if you're into prog, but if you hate prog you will want to stamp all over this, stamp on it again and finally set fire to it, to make sure it's dead. Naturally, I love it, so up yours, prog haters! :p: Check out more from this artist? Yes Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Always Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed9.jpg |
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Album title: Volume 1 Artist: BNQT Genre: Indie Rock Nationality: Various Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Debut Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed7.jpg Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No Average RYM Score: 3.10 Ordinarily, I tend to frown on supergroups, as they're usually just an extension of super-egos, and this may very well be another, but with members of Franz Ferdinand, Granddaddy, Band of Horses and Travis involved, well, it might be worth the time. The opener is certainly a kicker, a sort of powerful blues rocker which puts me in mind of Bowie's “Jean Genie” to an extent, also Morrison's “Road House Blues” and the piano on “Unlikely Force” gives me a Bruce Hornsby feeling, while the vocal harmonies are pure CSNY/Eagles. Some beautiful orchestration in “100 Million Miles to Go”, a real standout. Unfortunately, neither “Mind of a Man” (the only one penned solo by Fran Healy of Travis, make of that what you will) or the weird “Hey Banana” are particularly good, and bring the good feeling I was initially getting from this album to a screeching halt. It recovers well with “Failing at Feeling”, another ballad which sounds right off The Man Who, with more fine strings accompaniment, but then they ruin it. Eric Pullido compared this band to “a poor man's Traveling Wilburys”, and on “LA On My Mind” they take this literally. It doesn't work. It's also the second written by Healy; thought there was only one. I was wrong. Should have been only one though. I mean, it's not ****, but it's really really derivative. Closer is excellent. Hard to rate this really: at some points it's ****ing beautiful, at some points ****ing awful with some meh in between. I think I retain my opinion of the supergroup: not needed. This album has a few decent tracks though, that can't be denied, just not enough of them to make it really worth your while. Check out more from this artist? I might Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed7.jpg |
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Album title: 9 Artist: Cashmere Cat Genre: Alternative R&B/Electronic Nationality: Norwegian Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Debut Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No Average RYM Score: 2.94 Another music producer who uses various singers to interpret his music. Here we have the likes of Ariana Grande, Ty Dolla Sign, Selena Gomez and Kehlani, to name but a few. The title track has a lot of weirdly experimental/industrial type sounds, mixed in with what comes across as a heavy r&b track which then metamorphoses into a kind of trance thing. “Wild Love”, featuring The Weeknd is terribly annoying, lots of fragmented samples, autotune and what sounds either like someone hiccuping or plucking a stretched elastic band. Ugh. The next one is a sub-standard hip-hop piece but then I hear familiar chords, and “Victoria's Veil” opens with an extract (the beginning, in fact) of The Alan Parsons Project's “The Eagle Will Rise Again”. Never expected to hear that now I must say. Got my attention. Yeah but after that it loses it. I'm not a fan of these kind of albums. Hard for me to judge someone's performance as a producer, and there are too many vocalists and stars here to sort them out. I could be listening to an album by any of them. Shrug. Check out more from this artist?No Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg |
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Album title: Tailored For Now Artist: CDB Genre: R&B Nationality: Australian Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Third Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No Average RYM Score: N/A Lord, not another tribute album. Why? Why, I ask, and get no reply? This gem is the idea of Australian R&B group CDB to pay dues to their heroes. I guess. Well, I suppose they enjoyed it. I didn't. As I said with the country album yesterday, if I want to hear those songs I'll listen to the originals, not to the interpretations of same by people I don't know. Check out more from this artist? No Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed3.jpg |
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I think I'm going to write and direct a movie THE CLONES OF ELPHENOR :D |
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Don't forget Elphenor Reloaded. It's a pity there was no category in the awards for MOST MISERABLE MEMBER, huh? |
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Album title: Something Else Artist: The Cranberries Genre: Alt-Rock Nationality: Irish Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Seventh Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg Familiar with this artist? A little Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No Average RYM Score: 3.28 It's always poignant to review an album after the artist has passed, especially when that passing has been so recent. It's doubly so when they come from your own country, and when they're so young. Ironically, this album serves, unintentionally, as a last testament to and retrospective of the Cranberries, with the passing of Dolores Riordan earlier this year. I'm not going to pretend I was a fan: I know the singles, and they're good songs, but ask me to name one of their albums, or a track that wasn't a single, and I can't. In fact, I used to get them mixed up with the Cardigans! As it goes, this album is a collection of acoustic and orchestrally-enhanced versions of some of their hits, with three new tracks, and it's nice to hear the likes of “Linger”, “Zombie”, “Dreams” and, well, other hits I don't know but you might, given new treatment by the Irish Chamber Orchestra. I wouldn't be so crass as to find fault with this album, though had Dolores still been alive would I have been more critical? I don't know: I'm not that fond of retrospectives, and usually they wouldn't get covered in this thread, but this one is different as it isn't just a collection of songs you can get on other albums: they've taken the time and made the effort to work on them and produce different versions, so I think it deserves to be given a chance. No doubt it will sell far better than it would have done had Dolores not died, but that's the music business and human nature for you. No doubt, too, it will be a painful but perhaps bittersweet reminder for the remaining members of the band of the colleague and friend they lost, and the musical talent the whole world lost. It is, obviously, unintentional but yet chillingly appropriate that the last song ends with Dolores singing the words "Somewhere between here and Heaven I can hear you asking me why?" Indeed. A question we all wish we knew the answer to. Rest in Peace, Dolores. Check out more from this artist? I don't know Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed8.jpg |
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Album title: Qué Tienes Tú Artist: DVICIO Genre: Pop Rock Nationality: Spanish Release date: April 28 Position in Discography: Third Estimated Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg Familiar with this artist? No Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Yes Average RYM Score: N/A I doubt I'm likely to have any sort of epiphany or revelation here, am I? Basically a Spanish boy band, unless I miss my guess. Hey it's not too bad; some of it is very catchy. I like “Sacame de Aqui”, very bouncy and cheerful, “Quedate” is nice too, and “Te Espero” has a good sort of AOR feel to it, but generally nothing to get terribly excited about here. Check out more from this artist? No Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Yes Actual Rating: http://www.trollheart.com/speed5.jpg |
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