Best Album Of 2005, So far... Options

[FurryMammal]

I'm with InKy on the new QOTSA album. It's good, really good, just not as good as Songs for the Deaf. The actual quality of the songs hasn't lowered, it's just the style has changed, presumably because Oliveri left the band and took his death screams with him. Lullabies to Paralyse is 'softer' than Songs for the Deaf, which was a great album because to be honest it just plain ROCKED. LtP doesn't quite ROCK as much, it merely rocks. I heartily recommend Strings for the Deaf, recorded on Vitamin records, which is a string quartet tribute to, unsurprisingly, Songs for the Deaf. Not all the songs are on there, but it's amusing enough and they've managed to cover the songs they did do pretty closely.

Also, I am looking forward to any new releases from SOAD, though I heard B.Y.O.B. and thought it was a bit iffy. I'm after copy of Human After All, but I heard Robot Rock (I think that's the track name, the latest single anyway) and thought it was pretty standard, much like Discovery. It's a sad thought, but I think I've been persuaded by their recent efforts that Daft Punk will never acheve the same quality as Homework without some rethinking of their music. In my opinon, Discovery was a bit flat and electro-poppy, if that's even a relevent way to describe it.

Also looking forward to the new Gorillaz album, but I could really do with buying their first one first. I hear a new Zutons album is on the cards and I'm pretty intrigued by that. Wouldn't mind listening to the new Chemical Brothers album, but I've heard from sources with similar musical tastes to mine it was 'a bit crap'.



Incidently, the duo who record the string tribute albums have clocked up around 120 cover albums so far, if you hear any good ones let me know. There's a huge listing on amazon.co.uk with many many samples if anybody would like a starting point, though they're pretty expensive on there. Hey, you could always contribute to the matazone though

[Alanity]

I'm loving the new QotSA album. The absense of Oliveri just encourages Homme to get even more insular and self indulgent, and it would have been nice to have Grohl on drums again but they don't suffer without him.
I don't agree that Lullabies.. just doesn't rock as much, it's abandoned Songs for the Deaf's ridiculous compressed production and the songs are more varied but the music rocks just as hard as it ever has done.

I wouldn't be so quick to trust your source's opinions on the new Chemical Brothers album. Give it a listen, tis very good. : )

I'm also really liking the new Ivy album, one of the prettiest releases of the year.

[Usurper MrTeapot]

With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails.

Not as good as I was expecting, there are a few great tracks but not enough of the album is as woah to compare it to previous works of teh Trent. Good but not amazing.

[Forever Unknown]

I hate hate hate hate the new NIN album. Sorry. I'm usually a big fan, but this album, quite frankly, is piss-poor. Trent, usually so good at his production, has fallen on his face with this effort. And he's a forty-something still whining and angsting about everything. Just stop it, Trent. Stop. Now. Hush.

Bah.

However! My faith in metal has been restored by just hearing the new System of a Down track, BYOB (see www.systemofadown.com to have a looksee). It's four and a half minutes of orgasm, and I've come over all excited. Both albums, Mezmerize (out in May) and Hypnotize (out in November, I think), are bound to be wicked.

[Usurper MrTeapot]

Oh, a new SOAD album? Funky, after a good 4 years of waiting.

[CommieBastard]

Oh, a new SOAD album? Funky, after a good 4 years of waiting.

Did you sleep through Steal This Album or something?

[Chronotub]

With teeth is the best new album I’ve herd this year.
Although I did enjoy hotel by Moby and have high hopes for the prodigy retrospect album

[Forever Unknown]

Did you sleep through Steal This Album or something?

Does it count, though? It was more of a filler album - older stuff that never made it onto the first two. That's cheating.

[CommieBastard]

Did you sleep through Steal This Album or something?

Does it count, though? It was more of a filler album - older stuff that never made it onto the first two. That's cheating.

It's a CD full of System songs I hadn't heard before. Quibbling about when they actually recorded the songs is just nit-picking, really. How much does it matter?

[Usurper MrTeapot]

Pfft, a mere collection of B songs. Barely and album so therefore it doesn't count. So ner.

[CommieBastard]

Why was it "barely an album"? It was a CD full of music, exactly what else is it you want from an album?

[Usurper MrTeapot]

Its mostly because I don't like it, but that would be stupid to say that if I don't like something it shouldn't exist.

Steal this Album was released because of people downloading the songs under the name "Toxicity 2" and SOAD released the collection of songs so that people would stop downloading the songs and buy them. Seems to be against what SOAD are for, stop getting things free so we can make money.

Ok fine, its an album but not a good one. The worst of the three, just a collection of their previously unreased songs that I see why they weren't released on Toxicity or on their self titled.

[Wookiee]

I hate hate hate hate the new NIN album. Sorry. I'm usually a big fan, but this album, quite frankly, is piss-poor. Trent, usually so good at his production, has fallen on his face with this effort. And he's a forty-something still whining and angsting about everything. Just stop it, Trent. Stop. Now. Hush.

Bah.

However! My faith in metal has been restored by just hearing the new System of a Down track, BYOB (see www.systemofadown.com to have a looksee). It's four and a half minutes of orgasm, and I've come over all excited. Both albums, Mezmerize (out in May) and Hypnotize (out in November, I think), are bound to be wicked.

I concur on both points. Obviously. Because you're hot and I want to have lots of sex with you.

But seriously, Trent is up his arse and should just kill himself and stop wasting our time. And I've not been so excited for anything remotely metal since Sikth coughed up All The Trees... in 2003, but new System has made me burst my excitement glands.

New stuff! In Case We Die by Architecture In Helsinki is the most glorious and wonderful thing I've heard so far this year; if The Fiery Furnaces packed Blueberry Boat into an album half the length, it would sound like this. More fun, more interesting, a little silly, but leaking with glorious melodies and harmonies and sunshine singalongs. Spastically good.

Also, I caved in to Bloc Party, and I have to say Silent Alarm is one of the most enjoyable indie guitar pop albums of recent memory.

Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is two discs of Eels by numbers, but is still worth a listen because even at his weakest, E still writes better songs than most people. The Milk Of Human Kindess by Caribou (formerly Manitoba) is lush, awash with psychedelic flourishes set to particlarly propulsive percussion. And yeah, I can alliterate and stuff!

And there's a badass Stereolab boxset called Oscillons From The Anti-Sun, which culls all their EPs and singles since 1993 onto three CDs and there's a DVD of videos and other goodies, and I managed to pick it up for £12.99, 'though I think HMV are running it for £15.99. Still bargainous though, and so full of that mad Gallic prog electro pop that Stereolab have always done so well. Stunning, really.

[Usurper MrTeapot]

I hate hate hate hate the new NIN album. Sorry. I'm usually a big fan, but this album, quite frankly, is piss-poor. Trent, usually so good at his production, has fallen on his face with this effort. And he's a forty-something still whining and angsting about everything. Just stop it, Trent. Stop. Now. Hush.

Bah.

Many people would agree, here is a simple and short review of the album.

[FurryMammal]

I heard BYOB, and as stated before, thought it was a bit dodgy. Would it kill them to stick to less than three rhythm sets in one song? My friend has a copy of one of the new SOAD albums (hasn't said which one, or where from, I'm guessing mezmerize), but I'm eager for a listen. I'll let you know what I think if I get a chance to snaffle his pocket-PC thing for half an hour tomorrow.

And Steal This Album wasn't awfully bad. I liked at least three tracks from it, innervision was better than some of the tracks on Toxicity, I thought.

Anybody know anything about a new Zutons album?

[Jonman]

However, all this may change in a week, when Autechre's new one "Untilted" is released (and no, that's not a typo).

Although one online acquaintance who's been privy to an early release described it as "made entirely from samples of the noise of two men disappearing up their own arses"

Isn't that the sound they've been making for the last five years?

Having had my mitts on the the new Autechre album for a few weeks now, I can honestly say it's by far and away the best album I've bought this year. Proper amazing.

And much less about climbing up their own bottoms than previous few releases. Great, great, great stuff....

[Industrial Kybos...]

And there's a badass Stereolab boxset called Oscillons From The Anti-Sun, which culls all their EPs and singles since 1993 onto three CDs and there's a DVD of videos and other goodies, and I managed to pick it up for £12.99, 'though I think HMV are running it for £15.99. Still bargainous though, and so full of that mad Gallic prog electro pop that Stereolab have always done so well. Stunning, really.

At your lovely local Music Zone (if you have one) you can still get it for £12.97. Because we rock. And yes, it is a fine release, packed with loveliness.

On a more disagreeable note, I like the new NIN album, so hairy nadgers to the lot of you. Unless you agree with me, in which case, shaven nadgers covered in cheese. Everything tastes great covered in cheese...

Five months into the year, and here's my top five:

1. Arcade Fire - 'Funeral'
2. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - 'Worlds Apart'
3. Bright Eyes - 'I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning'
4. QOTSA - 'Lullabies To Paralyse'
5. NIN - 'With Teeth'

This is subject to change, as I am a wilfully capricious person with a short attention span.

Good things upon the horizon include various ones already mentioned, a collection of Jeepster-period Belle & Sebastian B-sides (which, given that 'Tigermilk' is my favourite album of theirs, I will probably love), a new Stephen Malkmus offering (predictably unpredictable), and new stuff from Coldplay and Oasis for everyone to argue about (are they past it? is it okay to still like them? is it as good as 'Definitely Maybe'/'Parachutes'? etc etc etc).

It's times like these when I love working in a music shop...

[Forever Unknown]

Hello.

Mezmerize ... bound to be wicked.

I was right!

I suggest you all go, put your copies of With Teeth in the bin right now, buy this instead and pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.

Bye!

[Wookiee]

Eleven songs, thirty-six minutes, no fat, just mad metal silliness. Politics upfront, tongues firmly in cheeks, cock and balls out, System Of A Down as frantic and daft as ever. It's like someone's applied electric current to my nipples and made me dance bare-arsed in a tiger pit.

What I do find is that the dark edge that the first two albums bore is absent; there's serious ideas and politics, but there isn't such a sense of menace. No matter, as it's still ace.

Also, I'm really enjoying Maritime by Minotaur Shock; pretty and enchanting with a childlike sense of wonder present in the melodies and arrangements. Instrumental, based around live and programmed drums and synthesisers, with acoustic guitar, piano, flute and violin.

[snooodlysnoosnoo...]

Audioslave - Out of Exile is sounding pretty good

You can listen to it on My Space (here)

[little_bear]

It would have to be:

Employment - The Kaiser Chiefs

I win the thread.

[Alanity]

Audioslave - Out of Exile is sounding pretty good

You can listen to it on My Space (here)

Lots of nice noodling from Morello, but I still feel the band as a whole aren't worthy of backing up Cornell. He really needs stronger melodies and a more creative rhythm section behind him. The band do have their moments though, maybe I might grow to like more of the album in time, it does at least seem a better effort than their debut.


I just discovered Jimmy Chamberlin's new project, the imaginatively titled Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. Their album 'Life begins again' sticks to a strange fusion of Jimmy's jazz roots with the Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan's melody rich rock, which at times can be slightly tiresome and other times simply gorgeous (Lokicat and Lullabye to Children are stand out favourites, the former with Billy Corgan on vocals and the utterly fantastic Bill Medley on the latter).
Jimmy's drumming is better than it's ever been, making full use of the restraint and subtlety that make him stand apart from other great drummers imo, as well as his prodigious talent. The band can all hold their own, and Jimmy's arrangements are full of the same care and detail that Corgan brought to the Pumpkin's best work.

All in all a very nice record that's definately worth a listen but does at times get pretty bogged down in its fusion ambitions. Saying that they do stay more firmly rooted to the ground (with their heads less up their arses) than most, this ain't your dad's Tortoise or Liquid Tension Experiment.

[CommieBastard]

I'm really falling in love with the new Gorillaz release, Demon Days. It's my current nomination for this year's best (out, admittedly, of the two albums I've heard so far this year).

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Only thing I can think of right now is Garbage - Bleed like me. I like the kaiser chiefs album as well though.

[FurryMammal]

Demon Days is awesome, we'll leave it at that (especially Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head, Dirty Harry and Feel Good Inc), maaaybe the best album this year.

However, I'm now here to plug a different album- The Invisible Invasion by The Coral. It's like their other albums- kinda bouncy, with good basslines and a scouser singing over it. Except now it is a little bit darker, some songs being more ghostly than before, and lyrics mostly about death, disease and decay. However, it's still great and it still sounds cheerful in some parts.

I think the Kaiser Chiefs are ok, but I think all their songs sound the same! If you skip down media player and listen to two seconds of the middle of each song on their album, only two sound different to the rest, What Did I Ever Give You and Team Mate. I must admit though I've only listened to it a couple of times, so thats just the impression I got.