Wednesday, June 21, 2006
New Music: May/June
eMusic was recently featured in Entertainment Weekly as #2 in its top 25 music websites, right behind iTunes's music store. And since the music store in iTunes is barely a website for me (and, I think, for many other consumers), running as it does from within the iTunes music program itself, I think I'll declare eMusic my #1 music website. Entertainment Weekly called the site "underappreciated," I think, and it's very much deserved of the praise. It's changed my life in the way a true enthusiast website can do (like boardgamegeek and Gamespot--so there, you have all my obsessions on a plate).
It'd be easier to post these things if my eMusic subscription was billed at the beginning of the month; as it is, my downloads (90/month) refresh halfway through each month, so I get a glut of downloads on, say, the 12th and 13th, and then practically nothing for the next half-month.
Anyhow, here's the new music (or some of it) for the last month.
From Yourmusic.com:
Killswitch Engage: The End of Heartache. Still waiting (eagerly) for this to come in the mail.
From eMusic:
Akimbo: Elephant. Great hardcore with metal elements. Some of the most original riffs and breakdowns I've heard in a while. They're so good I get sad when, true to the hardcore form as I know it (I admit here my relative ignorance), they're over before I'm ready for them to be.
The Black Heart Procession: Spell.
The Black Heart Procession: Amore Del Tropico. A band that could become one of my top five. These two albums are entrancing: sorrowful without being maudlin, beautiful without being sappy, and sinister without being alt-country. eMusic has several of their records, and I've downloaded most of it, but I need to actually listen to it now.
Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out of This Country. It's excellent, but I've listened to it once and it hasn't won me over yet.
Cathedral: The Carnival Bizarre. I love Cathedral. This is the first of their albums I've gotten in a while. It makes me laugh and rocks my socks off at the same time. Can I ask for more from a stoner metal album? Oh, you can: killer guitar solos, and it has those, too.
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: Fear Is on Our Side. Great gothic rock that has a similar feel to The Black Heart Procession, so it's taken a back seat to that superior band. But the music is good, though.
Karsh Kale: Broken English. Starts out in a way to think one's found someone who can take Ozomatli's concept and twist it to Indian, rather than Latin, music, but it proves instead to be a versatile ethnic electronic album that sticks to its Indian feeling throughout. For me, this means there'll be days when it'll be all I will want to listen to, and others where I won't be able to stomach it.
Matchbook Romance: Voices. Epic. Reminds me of the Juliana Theory's record, Love, in its scope and in its musicality, but it's sharper and more dark. Like if Dashboard Confessional slept around on Arcade Fire and had Interpol's love child.
The Tiger Lilies: The Brothel to the Cemetary. Need to listen to it, though my initial attraction to it had something to do with the feel I got that it somehow combined 16 Horsepower with Anthony and the Johnstons. We'll see. I think I'd better be in a particular mood before approaching this one.
It'd be easier to post these things if my eMusic subscription was billed at the beginning of the month; as it is, my downloads (90/month) refresh halfway through each month, so I get a glut of downloads on, say, the 12th and 13th, and then practically nothing for the next half-month.
Anyhow, here's the new music (or some of it) for the last month.
From Yourmusic.com:
Killswitch Engage: The End of Heartache. Still waiting (eagerly) for this to come in the mail.
From eMusic:
Akimbo: Elephant. Great hardcore with metal elements. Some of the most original riffs and breakdowns I've heard in a while. They're so good I get sad when, true to the hardcore form as I know it (I admit here my relative ignorance), they're over before I'm ready for them to be.
The Black Heart Procession: Spell.
The Black Heart Procession: Amore Del Tropico. A band that could become one of my top five. These two albums are entrancing: sorrowful without being maudlin, beautiful without being sappy, and sinister without being alt-country. eMusic has several of their records, and I've downloaded most of it, but I need to actually listen to it now.
Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out of This Country. It's excellent, but I've listened to it once and it hasn't won me over yet.
Cathedral: The Carnival Bizarre. I love Cathedral. This is the first of their albums I've gotten in a while. It makes me laugh and rocks my socks off at the same time. Can I ask for more from a stoner metal album? Oh, you can: killer guitar solos, and it has those, too.
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness: Fear Is on Our Side. Great gothic rock that has a similar feel to The Black Heart Procession, so it's taken a back seat to that superior band. But the music is good, though.
Karsh Kale: Broken English. Starts out in a way to think one's found someone who can take Ozomatli's concept and twist it to Indian, rather than Latin, music, but it proves instead to be a versatile ethnic electronic album that sticks to its Indian feeling throughout. For me, this means there'll be days when it'll be all I will want to listen to, and others where I won't be able to stomach it.
Matchbook Romance: Voices. Epic. Reminds me of the Juliana Theory's record, Love, in its scope and in its musicality, but it's sharper and more dark. Like if Dashboard Confessional slept around on Arcade Fire and had Interpol's love child.
The Tiger Lilies: The Brothel to the Cemetary. Need to listen to it, though my initial attraction to it had something to do with the feel I got that it somehow combined 16 Horsepower with Anthony and the Johnstons. We'll see. I think I'd better be in a particular mood before approaching this one.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
A new acquisition this month, and my most listened-to record of February-March, so I finally feel able to write about it. Too hip to be downtempo, too funky to be electro, too electro to be funk, Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens sounds like an energized and danceable cousin of Nightmare on Wax's Carboot Soul. I love Carboot Soul, and a lot of the same elements--such as the interplay of strings and synths, torchy vocals, a dash of funk, and a sheen of cool--are present in Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens. But there's more funk, more cool, and a bit of a jazzy feel. There's also more variety in the vocals, which on several songs use a female vocalist for a smooth groove. On many others, like "Matter into Energy," Kelley sings himself, and his voice, with the synth-based swirl of melody behind it gives the songs a quality that is simultaneously subdued, wiry, and wary--much like the male vocals of an album by The Residents, but without disturbing the poppy crawl or thump of the composition. It's all very smoothly produced and eminently listenable, its layers and textures unfurling through repeated spins. A really fantastic album, and just the thing for when I'll be in my shiny silver-chrome spaceship, hurtling toward the Horsehead Nebula at near-lightspeed, and looking for some party-starting music for my glitzy, afro-sporting androids.
My Swans obsession reasserted itself in the new music selections this month, which included:
Jarboe: Thirteen Masks (Fantastic)
Jarboe: Beautiful People, Ltd. (Marvelous and different [what could one expect?] but it wears a bit toward the end of the album when one gets to the mix tracks)
Jarboe: Anhedoniac (Haven't listened yet)
The Clientele: Strange Geometry (A bit disappointed initially, though I need to give it a couple more listens to decide for sure what I think)
Opeth: The Ghost Reveries (Simply brilliant)
Hatesex: Unwant (ElectroGoth, and just what one might expect--chilly and subdued guitars, distant vocals, and plenty of aggression, with a great mix of female and male vocals. May review this one later, as it's quite good and deserves to be heard for those who are into that sort of thing.)
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting at the moment, as well, but what're you going to do?
My Swans obsession reasserted itself in the new music selections this month, which included:
Jarboe: Thirteen Masks (Fantastic)
Jarboe: Beautiful People, Ltd. (Marvelous and different [what could one expect?] but it wears a bit toward the end of the album when one gets to the mix tracks)
Jarboe: Anhedoniac (Haven't listened yet)
The Clientele: Strange Geometry (A bit disappointed initially, though I need to give it a couple more listens to decide for sure what I think)
Opeth: The Ghost Reveries (Simply brilliant)
Hatesex: Unwant (ElectroGoth, and just what one might expect--chilly and subdued guitars, distant vocals, and plenty of aggression, with a great mix of female and male vocals. May review this one later, as it's quite good and deserves to be heard for those who are into that sort of thing.)
I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting at the moment, as well, but what're you going to do?
Thursday, February 16, 2006
New music this last month
For Christmas my folks got both my brother and I a Sirius satellite unit and subscription.
I had long avoided the service myself, not only because of the monthly fee (which isn't exorbitant, but IS just one more thing to pay every month) but also because I was afraid of what it would do to my music selection--more exposure means more to collect.
I was right on the latter score, and after settling a snafu with Yourmusic.com (they had cancelled my subscription without letting me know after the ATM had ground up my old credit card and I hadn't updated the information with my new number) I'm back on track. I've long thought that eMusic was a bit shallow on the heavy metal scene, but I've been going back and picking up some of the stuff that I'd started collecting some time ago and just never finished off.
Well, without reviews of any sort, here's a short list of how, under Sirius's influence, a revival of my interest in heavy metal has affected this month's music picks, stuff I've either purchased or downloaded:
Demon Hunter: Triptych
Trivium: Ascendancy
Opeth: Deliverance
Opeth: Ghost Reveries
Dido: Life for Rent
Bolt Thrower: The IVth Crusade
Both Thrower: For Victory
Black Flag: Damaged
Annie: Anniemal
Cat Power: The Greatest
Ladytron: Witching Hour
The National: Alligator
And then there's the stuff I'm really excited to get:
God Forbid: IV: Constitution of Treason
In Flames: Come Clarity (A little less excited about this than some of the other stuff in their back catalog)
Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself
We'll see what February to March brings.
I had long avoided the service myself, not only because of the monthly fee (which isn't exorbitant, but IS just one more thing to pay every month) but also because I was afraid of what it would do to my music selection--more exposure means more to collect.
I was right on the latter score, and after settling a snafu with Yourmusic.com (they had cancelled my subscription without letting me know after the ATM had ground up my old credit card and I hadn't updated the information with my new number) I'm back on track. I've long thought that eMusic was a bit shallow on the heavy metal scene, but I've been going back and picking up some of the stuff that I'd started collecting some time ago and just never finished off.
Well, without reviews of any sort, here's a short list of how, under Sirius's influence, a revival of my interest in heavy metal has affected this month's music picks, stuff I've either purchased or downloaded:
Demon Hunter: Triptych
Trivium: Ascendancy
Opeth: Deliverance
Opeth: Ghost Reveries
Dido: Life for Rent
Bolt Thrower: The IVth Crusade
Both Thrower: For Victory
Black Flag: Damaged
Annie: Anniemal
Cat Power: The Greatest
Ladytron: Witching Hour
The National: Alligator
And then there's the stuff I'm really excited to get:
God Forbid: IV: Constitution of Treason
In Flames: Come Clarity (A little less excited about this than some of the other stuff in their back catalog)
Imogen Heap: Speak for Yourself
We'll see what February to March brings.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Posting on music
I think I'd like to continue putting my micro reviews and thoughts of music.
I am the first to admit that I don't have much education in music: a few years of piano lessons constituted the background of my music theory, and includes the backbone of reading music and understanding basic use of time signatures which served me well enough to play French horn in high school and to sing hymns in church. I never had a music theory class, though I think it would help for as much as I like music.
I also don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of any particular type of music, as my process of music discovery has been intuitional and fungal, spreading from one adjacent surface to another, perhaps without any overarching guiding purpose except to continue the hunt for more and more wonderful music.
Every month I spend a lot of time on "the hunt," and if this serves as nothing better than a chart of my progress, it will fulfill enough of a purpose. Telling you what I've found is as much a catalogue of the evolution of my personal taste, a map of my discoveries, than it is anything else. I am always asking the people with whom I talk about music if they have heard of Such and Such or their latest So and So. So excuse the utter lack of refinement as I articulate my findings--at best, perhaps you'll find something that strikes your own fancy, or share with me a suggestion of your own. That's what this is all about anyway, right?
I am the first to admit that I don't have much education in music: a few years of piano lessons constituted the background of my music theory, and includes the backbone of reading music and understanding basic use of time signatures which served me well enough to play French horn in high school and to sing hymns in church. I never had a music theory class, though I think it would help for as much as I like music.
I also don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of any particular type of music, as my process of music discovery has been intuitional and fungal, spreading from one adjacent surface to another, perhaps without any overarching guiding purpose except to continue the hunt for more and more wonderful music.
Every month I spend a lot of time on "the hunt," and if this serves as nothing better than a chart of my progress, it will fulfill enough of a purpose. Telling you what I've found is as much a catalogue of the evolution of my personal taste, a map of my discoveries, than it is anything else. I am always asking the people with whom I talk about music if they have heard of Such and Such or their latest So and So. So excuse the utter lack of refinement as I articulate my findings--at best, perhaps you'll find something that strikes your own fancy, or share with me a suggestion of your own. That's what this is all about anyway, right?
Rosebuds
Birds Make Good Neighbors (2005)
on AMG
on Pitchfork
I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled onto this album, but it's possible I tried it out from the review on Pitchfork, because there's no way I would have picked up the album after reading the AMG review. I am not familiar The Rosebuds's first record, which all sources indicate was an upbeat and peppy affair with great hooks. Now, I'm not necessarily against upbeat with great hooks, but usually I'd sooner claw my eyes out than listen to "peppy," which makes my recent attraction to The New Pornographers utterly baffling. Even so, from the sound of it The Rosebuds got a bit sick of peppy, as well, and injected a heap of gloom in their 2005 offering, Birds Make Good Neighbors.
There are plenty of hooks in this album, which is why I can't get the songs out of my head. And perhaps it's a bit too much to say that a "heap of gloom," as the record doesn't really strongarm me into a melancholic mood, and doesn't quite have the pathos of an Interpol or Arcade Fire record--it sits somewhere just above Antics, perhaps, in terms of mood. But the sadness that is present, combined with the relentless catchiness of the songs, pushes them deep into the brain. I really like this record. Its up-tempo numbers drive forward great and emotive melodies, and Howard's voice is superlative--expressive in longing, but never weepy or distant. Howard and Crisp share vocal duties evenly enough--including in several songs through backing group vocals--and though they don't include a true duet in the album their voices are even enough in tone to prove wonderfully complimentary, two things that belong together.
So while it retains its sadness, Birds... never lets up enough to make me think I'd want to take it out while cruising down the highway, and its emotional tone would make it perfect for a drive during the days when the first leaves are starting to fall.
on AMG
on Pitchfork
I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled onto this album, but it's possible I tried it out from the review on Pitchfork, because there's no way I would have picked up the album after reading the AMG review. I am not familiar The Rosebuds's first record, which all sources indicate was an upbeat and peppy affair with great hooks. Now, I'm not necessarily against upbeat with great hooks, but usually I'd sooner claw my eyes out than listen to "peppy," which makes my recent attraction to The New Pornographers utterly baffling. Even so, from the sound of it The Rosebuds got a bit sick of peppy, as well, and injected a heap of gloom in their 2005 offering, Birds Make Good Neighbors.
There are plenty of hooks in this album, which is why I can't get the songs out of my head. And perhaps it's a bit too much to say that a "heap of gloom," as the record doesn't really strongarm me into a melancholic mood, and doesn't quite have the pathos of an Interpol or Arcade Fire record--it sits somewhere just above Antics, perhaps, in terms of mood. But the sadness that is present, combined with the relentless catchiness of the songs, pushes them deep into the brain. I really like this record. Its up-tempo numbers drive forward great and emotive melodies, and Howard's voice is superlative--expressive in longing, but never weepy or distant. Howard and Crisp share vocal duties evenly enough--including in several songs through backing group vocals--and though they don't include a true duet in the album their voices are even enough in tone to prove wonderfully complimentary, two things that belong together.
So while it retains its sadness, Birds... never lets up enough to make me think I'd want to take it out while cruising down the highway, and its emotional tone would make it perfect for a drive during the days when the first leaves are starting to fall.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Vashti Bunyan
Just Another Diamond Day, 1970
Lookaftering, 2005
My most recent find, I unearthed Vashti Bunyan after cruising Pitchfork's recommendation list. I thought I'd take a chance on her--I knew roughly what to expect from my limited contact with Devendra Banhart and other freakfolk acts, but I was mostly intrigued by the story behind the two albums--a new album made after a 35-year lapse by an artist who walked away from the music business after her sole, universally highly-regarded album. I haven't yet gotten into Devendra Banhart or the other freakfolk acts--which I discovered only a few months ago after browsing the Young God catalog--but something about Vashti's sound intrigued me. I just finished listening to these two albums back-to-back, and have gone through Just Another Diamond Day a couple times.
Because of my lack of reference, Vashti Bunyan's earlier album defines my mental image of a '60s psychodelic folk movement. Somewhat whimsical lyrical themes, at times with surreal imagery, combine with ancient instrumentation. Many of the songs are shorter, almost like haiku, and the instrumentation on the album--from string accompaniament to flutes--changes from song to song. In this way the album evokes a walletful of moods, from wistful to even elegiac, while the shortness of the songs allows the album to touch each without settling in for extended meditation of any. The real attraction, though, is Vashti Bunyan's voice, which she pours over her lyrics and accompaniament like a delicate fragrance. The gentleness of her approach seems not dissimilar in spirit to that of the late Elliott Smith, though less wispy. Her voice is mixed more centrally than the backing music, but retains an earthy closeness that gives the whole recording a cooly intimate feel. It has the effect of recalling songs you heard yesterday telegraphed from the ancient past: simultaneously immediate and ancient.
The 2005 album feels much more like an album recorded in the now. It runs just four minutes shorter but has seven fewer songs, and the approach seems much more meditative and focused. The wistfulness is less immediate than in the earlier record, and the longer songs develop their emotional tone more intensely. There is as much variety but more focus in instrumentation from song to song, and at several moments Bunyan is accompanied solely by a piano or a guitar, with orchestrations which more add texture than set the stage. Bunyan's voice also nestles in more closely to the music, so one imagines her more sitting with her players than far in front of them as in the earlier album. And that voice: if 35 years have done anything they've given something of a foundation to her voice's airy fluidity, adding subtance if not age. Like the music itself, her voice has traded some of its wispiness for emotional texture.
Bottom line: I'm quite glad I have both albums, though I find Lookaftering a bit more accessible, as it feels more like a cohesive record than a collection of invaluable time capsules. Perhaps as I play the newer album more I'll be better able to appreciate the old--if Vashti Banyan has proven anything, it's that music can, like wine, grow more flavorful with age.
Lookaftering, 2005
My most recent find, I unearthed Vashti Bunyan after cruising Pitchfork's recommendation list. I thought I'd take a chance on her--I knew roughly what to expect from my limited contact with Devendra Banhart and other freakfolk acts, but I was mostly intrigued by the story behind the two albums--a new album made after a 35-year lapse by an artist who walked away from the music business after her sole, universally highly-regarded album. I haven't yet gotten into Devendra Banhart or the other freakfolk acts--which I discovered only a few months ago after browsing the Young God catalog--but something about Vashti's sound intrigued me. I just finished listening to these two albums back-to-back, and have gone through Just Another Diamond Day a couple times.
Because of my lack of reference, Vashti Bunyan's earlier album defines my mental image of a '60s psychodelic folk movement. Somewhat whimsical lyrical themes, at times with surreal imagery, combine with ancient instrumentation. Many of the songs are shorter, almost like haiku, and the instrumentation on the album--from string accompaniament to flutes--changes from song to song. In this way the album evokes a walletful of moods, from wistful to even elegiac, while the shortness of the songs allows the album to touch each without settling in for extended meditation of any. The real attraction, though, is Vashti Bunyan's voice, which she pours over her lyrics and accompaniament like a delicate fragrance. The gentleness of her approach seems not dissimilar in spirit to that of the late Elliott Smith, though less wispy. Her voice is mixed more centrally than the backing music, but retains an earthy closeness that gives the whole recording a cooly intimate feel. It has the effect of recalling songs you heard yesterday telegraphed from the ancient past: simultaneously immediate and ancient.
The 2005 album feels much more like an album recorded in the now. It runs just four minutes shorter but has seven fewer songs, and the approach seems much more meditative and focused. The wistfulness is less immediate than in the earlier record, and the longer songs develop their emotional tone more intensely. There is as much variety but more focus in instrumentation from song to song, and at several moments Bunyan is accompanied solely by a piano or a guitar, with orchestrations which more add texture than set the stage. Bunyan's voice also nestles in more closely to the music, so one imagines her more sitting with her players than far in front of them as in the earlier album. And that voice: if 35 years have done anything they've given something of a foundation to her voice's airy fluidity, adding subtance if not age. Like the music itself, her voice has traded some of its wispiness for emotional texture.
Bottom line: I'm quite glad I have both albums, though I find Lookaftering a bit more accessible, as it feels more like a cohesive record than a collection of invaluable time capsules. Perhaps as I play the newer album more I'll be better able to appreciate the old--if Vashti Banyan has proven anything, it's that music can, like wine, grow more flavorful with age.
Monday, November 21, 2005
New Music
I get music generally in two fashions.
First, through eMusic.com, where for $20 a month I can download a hundred tracks--that's between 8-11 albums a month. Second, through Yourmusic.com, which is run by BMG. Yourmusic is the kindest and most consumer-friendly of the music clubs that I've seen. It functions like Netflix in that you select a queue, and then each month they send you a disc from your queue. The best part about it is that each cd cost only $5.99, and that includes shipping and handling. No hidden costs, and you get just what you want for less than you'd find it at a used cd store.
I'm not meaning to turn this into a commercial--I've just been pleased by both services, and they enable me to acquire much more music than I would otherwise.
So, two new this month.
Van Halen: Van Halen (1978).
I don't know how I managed to not ever get into Van Halen. Perhaps they were a bit before my time, and I'm just now getting around to picking up the stuff that has influenced the stuff I listened to when I first got into music in high school. Regardless, this is absolutely fantastic rock and roll; almost every cut is still played on rock radio today, so it feels like a "Best Of" record, or one that I've always had in my collection and yet forgot to listen to for years. Eddie's guitar is absolutely brilliant: dynamic, alternating between appropriately understated and fiercely turbo-charged. I love masterful electric guitar--so it's about time this is in my collection. I'll pick up the other good Van Halen discs over the next few months.
Dream Theater: Octavarium (2005)
The newest album from the band that got me into music in the first place--so it pairs really well with Van Halen in biographical theme, if not in musical taste, even if guitarists like Van Halen made bands like Dream Theater possible. Reading reviews of this album before I had listened to it I was quite afraid; I had loved Dream Theater's heavier sound in their last release, Train of Thought, so I was disappointed to hear they had backed off from this a bit. I feared a return to the flaccid style of Falling into Infinity, but I'm happily pleased with the album after a couple spins. There are a few songs to which I've not yet grown accustomed, and which do take the more radio-friendly turn (which feels like a belly flop from Dream Theater). Even so, I get the feeling they construct their odd album around a cd-unfriendly 20+ minute cut, which we have in the title track with Octavarium--such long songs have to elbow their way in around other songs, and it makes track listigs a bit awkward no matter what. But I do like this disc quite a bit. For the first time since Awake, Dream Theater feel at home with a keyboardist. Jordan Rudess exerts serious muscle on the album, and his keyboards stand beside Petrucci's guitars as equal in presence, texture, and melody in several of the songs. This is good, because it shows the sonic depth the band has perhaps underutilized in the last few albums--for as much as I like it, Train of Thought really is more a metal album influenced by prog rock than it is a prog rock album influenced by metal. Petrucci's guitar always was the best when settling into a heartfelt solo over a crushing groove, and there's more of that in this album, but prog fans will find even the more listener-friendly tunes filled with amazing flourishes. Great album with great songs that made me consider a band's catalog as more the opportunity to develop different themes and textures rather than as a progression. I wrongly kept wondering how Dream Theater could get heavier after Train of Thought--and Octavarium shows they don't have to.
First, through eMusic.com, where for $20 a month I can download a hundred tracks--that's between 8-11 albums a month. Second, through Yourmusic.com, which is run by BMG. Yourmusic is the kindest and most consumer-friendly of the music clubs that I've seen. It functions like Netflix in that you select a queue, and then each month they send you a disc from your queue. The best part about it is that each cd cost only $5.99, and that includes shipping and handling. No hidden costs, and you get just what you want for less than you'd find it at a used cd store.
I'm not meaning to turn this into a commercial--I've just been pleased by both services, and they enable me to acquire much more music than I would otherwise.
So, two new this month.
Van Halen: Van Halen (1978).
I don't know how I managed to not ever get into Van Halen. Perhaps they were a bit before my time, and I'm just now getting around to picking up the stuff that has influenced the stuff I listened to when I first got into music in high school. Regardless, this is absolutely fantastic rock and roll; almost every cut is still played on rock radio today, so it feels like a "Best Of" record, or one that I've always had in my collection and yet forgot to listen to for years. Eddie's guitar is absolutely brilliant: dynamic, alternating between appropriately understated and fiercely turbo-charged. I love masterful electric guitar--so it's about time this is in my collection. I'll pick up the other good Van Halen discs over the next few months.
Dream Theater: Octavarium (2005)
The newest album from the band that got me into music in the first place--so it pairs really well with Van Halen in biographical theme, if not in musical taste, even if guitarists like Van Halen made bands like Dream Theater possible. Reading reviews of this album before I had listened to it I was quite afraid; I had loved Dream Theater's heavier sound in their last release, Train of Thought, so I was disappointed to hear they had backed off from this a bit. I feared a return to the flaccid style of Falling into Infinity, but I'm happily pleased with the album after a couple spins. There are a few songs to which I've not yet grown accustomed, and which do take the more radio-friendly turn (which feels like a belly flop from Dream Theater). Even so, I get the feeling they construct their odd album around a cd-unfriendly 20+ minute cut, which we have in the title track with Octavarium--such long songs have to elbow their way in around other songs, and it makes track listigs a bit awkward no matter what. But I do like this disc quite a bit. For the first time since Awake, Dream Theater feel at home with a keyboardist. Jordan Rudess exerts serious muscle on the album, and his keyboards stand beside Petrucci's guitars as equal in presence, texture, and melody in several of the songs. This is good, because it shows the sonic depth the band has perhaps underutilized in the last few albums--for as much as I like it, Train of Thought really is more a metal album influenced by prog rock than it is a prog rock album influenced by metal. Petrucci's guitar always was the best when settling into a heartfelt solo over a crushing groove, and there's more of that in this album, but prog fans will find even the more listener-friendly tunes filled with amazing flourishes. Great album with great songs that made me consider a band's catalog as more the opportunity to develop different themes and textures rather than as a progression. I wrongly kept wondering how Dream Theater could get heavier after Train of Thought--and Octavarium shows they don't have to.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Re: Caveat
The FCC hasn't yet rolled back the HDTV deadline, which is still set at December 31, 2006. What this means is that broadcasters are going to have to provide all-digital television broadcasts by the end of next year. Even though more and more stations are offering HD content I can't see the changeover being completed by then--possibly at the end of 2007 or 2008, but not by the end of 2006.
I was grousing about this at work, as I was telling the gentlemen there about my plan to get an HDTV AFTER the transition; I reason that after the changeover prices on HD monitors will fall significantly. This would push the plan to get such a TV back by several years, which would definitely cause a serious discrepancy between the Xbox 360 buying and the HDTV buying. And after continuing my 360 research it looks like the only way to play these games is going to be on an HD monitor.
Happily, one of my coworkers said that when he bought his HDTV (not the kind I'd be looking at, as he got the 72" one for the 60" price [?!?]) he noticed they were dropping the prices on the HDTVs significantly. So I looked yesterday, and indeed, they have fallen into the "affordable" range--you can get a nice 26-30" 16:9 CRT HDTV at about the same price as a premium 360 and a couple games, or a premium 360 with a game and a couple controllers.
So I'm erasing the caveat of my previous post, or at least updating it with this: I shall acquire an HDTV, and definitely around (if not before) the time I acquire a 360.
This take differs somewhat from Susanne's. I mentioned an HDTV yesterday and she said "no." Twice. This was naturally before I showed her how reasonably priced they have become--at which point she said, "You can get either an Xbox 360 or an HDTV."
Good thing I knew she meant--but forgot--to end that sentence with "first."
I was grousing about this at work, as I was telling the gentlemen there about my plan to get an HDTV AFTER the transition; I reason that after the changeover prices on HD monitors will fall significantly. This would push the plan to get such a TV back by several years, which would definitely cause a serious discrepancy between the Xbox 360 buying and the HDTV buying. And after continuing my 360 research it looks like the only way to play these games is going to be on an HD monitor.
Happily, one of my coworkers said that when he bought his HDTV (not the kind I'd be looking at, as he got the 72" one for the 60" price [?!?]) he noticed they were dropping the prices on the HDTVs significantly. So I looked yesterday, and indeed, they have fallen into the "affordable" range--you can get a nice 26-30" 16:9 CRT HDTV at about the same price as a premium 360 and a couple games, or a premium 360 with a game and a couple controllers.
So I'm erasing the caveat of my previous post, or at least updating it with this: I shall acquire an HDTV, and definitely around (if not before) the time I acquire a 360.
This take differs somewhat from Susanne's. I mentioned an HDTV yesterday and she said "no." Twice. This was naturally before I showed her how reasonably priced they have become--at which point she said, "You can get either an Xbox 360 or an HDTV."
Good thing I knew she meant--but forgot--to end that sentence with "first."
