Emancipator’s “Soon It Will Be Cold Enough” goes down smooth much the same way albums like Metallica’s “Saint Anger” and Nirvana’s “In Utero” don’t. Perhaps the only aspect of the piece that makes it hard to digest, certainly for casual music listeners, is a lack of context surrounding the experience. The not-quite-techno, not-quite-electronica, not-quite-experimental rock…
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5) With War, U2 build skyscrapers upon the foundation of their debut album Boy. If the startling cover art—the same young boy staring at the viewer, only with a face of righteous anger replacing innocence—wasn’t enough of an indication, these men, just 23 at the time of release, expand upon…
Rating: 2 stars (out of five) Though it’s not a very good album, Billy Joel’s 1973 pre-major label album (*) is intensely prophetic. It signals, in some way or another, every one of Joel’s strengths and weaknesses. You’ll never revisit more than a few of these tracks, but it provides a meaningful look into the…
American Idiot, 5 years later (4 stars out of 5) I distinctly remember negative emotions towards American Idiot when it first came out. My habitual response is still negative. Why? The same reason any level-headed guy comes to despise a good, popular album he should like: Overexposure. Green Day immediately went from the most underrated…
Yesterday a package arrived. By the Amazon logo printed on the side of the box, I knew it was finally time to crack open new material from Transatlantic, Buckethead, and Jupiter Sunrise. That last one in particular excited me since an ad for the cd, May the Box Burn Down around You, was the first…
This is Grant’s half of the Pinkerton point-counterpoint review. Read Dan’s half here. Pinkerton is the sound of a band afraid to become great. Representing a comeback after the hiatus Weezer took in response to their debut album’s surprise success, it doesn’t so much as reinvent the band as push their less desirable attributes to…
This is Dan’s half of the Pinkerton point-counterpoint review. Read Grant’s half here. I have this funny image in my head of Rivers Cuomo, the bespectacled frontman and songwriter of Weezer, performing the music of his first album in neatly trimmed suit with a smile. Then, just as the fans start yawning “novelty” and move…
Twenty-five percent of the songs on Three Days Grace’s debut album ended up Top-5 singles. Twenty-five percent of the songs on Three Days Grace’s sophomore album ended up Top-5 singles. Do we understand each other? There is no room to question the credentials of Three Days Grace. As Canada’s premier alternative-metal missionaries, they bring the…
I have no right to review Slippery When Wet. I can’t break down Born to Run. To me, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds are beyond approach. I lack the bona fides to critique such eternal landmarks, not least of all because I wasn’t there to experience them. Awareness of the musical…
Pop rock is a huge umbrella. Elton John, Something Corporate, Kelly Clarkson, Fall Out Boy, and Jason Mraz all play pop rock. It’s pop music (melody-driven music with catchy hooks that prominently features vocals and follows expectable structures) with rock instrumentation (a lead guitarist/keyboardist and his sidekick rhythm guitarist/keyboardist riding over a bass guitar under…