Music Exchange Project

Sharp instruments and even sharper vocals is a pretty good way to describe this album. The music that comes from the instruments itself borders on impeccable. However, I have doubts about how well it all flows together. Take the first and titular song for example. I think it's kind of... too much? The bass is awesome. The drums work pretty well. Then there's a synth and that sounds cool too. But putting all of these on top of one another, I could really do with one less instrument on there. It sounds a bit muddled even. It distorts the sharpness I mentioned earlier. Then there's a sax solo and holy shit I love that but all these instruments are still going absolutely bonkers in the background. Thankfully there's a few songs on the album (New Religion and The Chauffeur namely) that absolutely don't suffer from this problem and sort of represent what Duran Duran, I hope, is more about than just mixing everything together.

Also, hot damn, as a man more of lyrics than the literal music, listening to the lyrics of Hungry Like the Wolf for the first time ever, I got pretty damn uncomfortable. I have a hard time to listening to something like Blurred Lines so a song this outright about stalking your next rape victim is.. uh. A bit questionable. I guess there's the generational gap of what was once cool and why it really, really isn't any more.

I've always liked David Bowie's voice a lot. Who doesn't? There's a very rare level of variety there coupled with very distinct qualities. You can really recognize it no matter what he does, and he can do a lot. And with that said, I would've never expected to say that the best songs from one of his albums would be two entirely instrumental tracks, but hey, whaddya know. I really like Sense of Doubt and Neuköln, both weird and dark tracks that bring to mind the very best synthetic horror soundtracks of the 80s. And yeah, there's Heroes too. A song that became the voice of a generation, I guess. It's a great song, no doubt, but by now through this weird sense of osmosis has become almost a cliche. Which is a shame because it is a damn good, bittersweet song. The rest of the tracks? I actually didn't like them too much, aside from that insane Arabia-song that ends the album. It sounds like the theme song to a canned blaxploitation-film. Otherwise the other songs are mostly OK, though I really dislike the fact that the whole album starts with what I'd call the worst it has to offer.

So this album is pretty fucking great! It sounds like if early 90s Metallica and Guns 'n Roses wouldn't have sucked and then proceeded to meld into one another, AKA it's heavy with simplistic yet grimy-as-balls melodies complemented by lyrics about dying and wanting not to. They're nice and full of colorful, and for a genre-newbie such as myself, fresh metaphors about these themes. The only real complaint I have is that the three hits on this album are of such caliber that I've heard them about a hundred times each, however when put into the context of this album they almost felt new. Also, for something that has this many songs, it holds up remarkably well all the way until the end - even if that final song is a bit weaker than the rest.

Laibach's cover of the entirety of Let It Be by The Beatles is an album that confounds the mind. The sound changes fluidly from synth-filled metal to weird orchestral music, and all of it sounds pretty good. Then we have the vocals, mostly sung by the band's male vocalist, and holy shit, they're so bad. They're verging on being so bad they're good, but really, they're just so bad. Thankfully there's an earnest motion to all of this, a manic energy stemming from deep within, that really implies that this is what these people have been wanting to do all their lives.

And they do it wonderfully tongue-in-cheek. But still... I just can't get over some misfires in the humor value of the album. The vocals are often so horrible that they really aren't satirical any more, and while that is some of the charm, it's also almost a pain to listen to. Thankfully we get some respite during Across the Universe, where we get a female vocalist. Then we have the last two tracks. My mind was going places during those. For You Blue suddenly sounds like the fucking Army of Darkness -soundtrack, and then Maggie Mae is just a nazi-invoking German marching song. I appreciate the confusion it creates but as jokes the two just go on too long, and the latter especially just doesn't sound fun enough to warrant it's existence.

Still, it's a funny album that mostly sounds pretty darn neat!

This album is every film trailer from the late-90s flashing before my very eyes. It's a dude jumping a somersault in slow motion while next to him two others take martial arts-positions as cameras, slanted 45 degrees, take close-ups of their hands and face, all the while three aerodynamically designed motorcycles ride beside one another at the side.

PS It also has some of the dumbest dope-ass rhymes I've ever heard. "My intellect's the power / With diesel power " OH MAN

You know, Deftones are often referred to as the start of the nu metal-movement, and this is what I knew of them. The music itself, thankfully, is decidedly not nu metal, but rather this weird alternative to it where the rapping and techno is replaced by moaning and what feel like the remnants of a sweet guitar riff. It's a weird thing to listen to, and it occasionally works very well. Most times though... I don't know. Maybe this is just me. Heck, it probably is. A lot of this album sounds very alike. Each track flows into the next one almost to a fault. I mean this is probably a great album for people who like to listen to great instrumentation but that isn't really all that for me. This theme of repetition is repeated in the lyrics, which, while occasionally rising to interesting spheres with bountiful metaphors, also repeat things over and over again. I guess it works in the context but by the time they get from the first time of saying "When you're ripe" in Elite to anything else I've forgotten what the previous stuff was. I just didn't have too much fun listening to this album and don't feel it suits my musical preferences at all.

So I like this weird artsy fartsy Finnish rap-thing that is going on nowadays. This doesn't go up there with the others I like from that lot though. Ex ovis etc. is sort of lyrically great but at the same time not, and that bothers me. It's one of those albums that play a lot with the concept of word association. Sentences flow into each other but without a retainable theme, most of the time. The sentences, in a vacuum, would make sense, but put together, there often is no discernible whole even through the themes presented. This is a real pain for me because I really like the lyrics but they just don't flow. The same can't be said for the vocalists, all of whom do a superb job rappin' about stuff to creepy beats. It sounds fantastic.

More artsy Finnish rap, my oh my! Good stuff, this one. I know I complimented that previous rap album for it's sound, but this one also sound great, but in a different way. It's more distinct, more unique. I mean heck, I love Joose Keskitalo's solo work and Paavoharju is good stuff, so this was right up my alley, to some extent. You can sort of tell that this is made by people who maybe don't 100% associate themselves with rap all the time, and as a result it feels like there's almost a need to incorporate genre tropes. The most obvious of these is the constant profanity, that becomes a lyrical motif, but I honestly didn't think it worked as well as intended. Which is a shame, because a lot of the time this is great stuff lyrically.

I absolutely don't get it. I have no particular fight to pick with Devin Townsend, because the only reason I even know the dude's name is that I always get his name mixed up with the main character of Silent Hill: The Room, Henry Townshend. Anyhow, this album absolutely did not strike me in the least. It's like listening to Radio Rock for 50 minutes. Like... what makes this album special? Someone please tell me. I don't get it. At all. I guess the music is a bit more diverse than your average rock, but that can't just be it, right? There has to be more to it. Seriously.

The big problem for me with his album is that I have no reference point for it. Mastodon is apparently a band that thrives on ingenuity and coming up with new stuff for every new album. This is probably something they haven't done before. And yet, for me, it sounds like something someone else would've done before. It has great hints of something like Machine Head, but lacks the emotional complexity of it. It sure has some heavy-ass guitar shreds, but I just don't think there's enough substance in this album to make it a great one. It's a pretty good listen, but it doesn't rise to the top for me at all.

This was nice. It's sort of Elbow with more of an aggressive edge to it. The songs revolve around relationships as is usual with bands like this. I honestly don't have that much to say, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's pretty music. That's cool with me. If I wish for something it'd be bringing up the aforementioned aggressiveness up front a bit more.

Oh man, one of these albums. I like music like this because it really allows me to turn my brain off. There are barely lyrics. I mean, there are, but there's like a chorus. At most a verse in the beginning of a song. The rest of the time I just float away. When it works, that is. The big problem with Sin Cos Tan is that it doesn't work all the time. The band goes for this melancholic retro feel ala Depeche Mode or something, but only achieves this momentarily. Sometimes the songs come off as waaay too corny for their own good, such as All I Ever Dream Of, where we get that aaawful synthesized Lust Sex-voice. But then stuff like that last song is really nice and floaty. It's a fairly mixed bag.

I don't like listening to bad music so listening to the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack was torture. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure Prince can and has made some good songs. It's just that none of them are here. It sort of feels like he's just too far gone to make a good song at this point. The base for each song is a somewhat functional Michael Jacksonesque pop tune, but then Prince comes in and throws every instrument into a studio and jumps on top of them, then throws those sounds onto the song. It's just such a horrendous trainwreck and a mess not worth anyone's time. And don't even get me started on the lyrics. Apparently Prince is like REALLY into the thought of making love to me every single second. Like dude, chill out. I don't want to "make the funk" with you in bed. And yeah, he literally says that. Of course obfuscating the n in funk so it sounds like another word. That's how bad this album is. Holy shit.

I turned around on this album. I didn't initially like it. At all. It's that flowing synth-pop stuff, like Daft Punk. What kind of upsets me with Cut Copy is that where I feel DP always tries to take their music one step beyond, CC feels like it's at a standstill. Sure, it's honed to absolute perfection for what it is, but it's awfully similar to what this type of music has always been. It's the furthest from being new or experimental. I feel like I've heard all the songs before. And yet... That's the comfort. It's weirdly satisfying to dive in to something of a known quantity. I knew exactly what it would be fifteen minutes into the album and you know, when I let go of this need of hearing something exciting, the easy listening vibes of the music really started to sound good. So there's that. I don't know if this is really a good album, but it was an enjoyable one.