Best Album You Bought Lately?

[Karlifornia]

Earlimart-Treble & Tremble. Fuzzy guitars, whispered vocals. Think Elliott Smith plugged in. Download "First Instant, Last Report" and "Heaven Adores You"

[ageofquarrel]

I bought Walking Concert - Run to Be Born, about 5 months ago. It is brit pop influenced, which is a genre I am not into. But this cd has grown on me, despite its dumb lyrics.

Here is a mp3 on the some records website

[Ksyrup]

Another band I've grown to like that has a new album coming out soon is Clutch. In fact, if you're looking for groovin' stoner rock, check these guys out.

Here's a song from the new album that comes out in June:

http://www.soundsoftheundergroundtou...ning_beard.mp3

I'd say they sound like a combination of Corrosion of Conformity, Rage Against the Machine, Kyuss, and Monster Magnet.

[Ksyrup]

"Shadow of the new Pretorian...tipping cows in fields elysian..."


I have no clue what that means, but it sounds great.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Another band I've grown to like that has a new album coming out soon is Clutch. In fact, if you're looking for groovin' stoner rock, check these guys out.

Here's a song from the new album that comes out in June:

http://www.soundsoftheundergroundtou...ning_beard.mp3

I'd say they sound like a combination of Corrosion of Conformity, Rage Against the Machine, Kyuss, and Monster Magnet.

you and i have COMPLETELY different definitions of "groovin' stoner rock". holy crap.

[korme]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I'm still loving "My Chemical Romance" -Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

That CD just keeps getting better and better the more I listen to it over and over again.


Todd

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by kurtism

Dogs Die in Hot Cars, "Please Describe Yourself"

Scottish power-pop, heavy influences (IMO) from XTC and the Talking Heads. Incredibly catchy, and well worth a listen.

I'll agree its catchy, but aside from I Love You (Cause I Have To), there really aren't any really good songs on the CD. Its goofy, but I can't really listen to it in the car. I enjoy songs about dumb stuff, but I think they just didn't hit with me. Lounger and Godhopping are really the only other 2 songs I can listen to repeatedly.

[TLK]

Today is the official release date. This disk is more like their earlier stuff, and quite a bit different (read: better) than "Good Mourning." Highest recommendation.

[DeToxRox]

Just .. uh .. found the new dredg cd "Catch Without Arms"

I once heard dredg described has Pink Floyd meets Tool. Although those are two leaders in their respective brands of music, it's hard to dispute it.

This CD is brilliant. It's not as dark as "El Cielo", it has an uplifting mood. The songs are great. Lots of instruments used, lots of imagery in the songs. These guys are artists in every sense of the word. Definetly get this CD when it drops, and for now, pick up "El Cielo".

[Dutch]

Well, I'm heading out tommorrow to South Carolina. I did take 2 recommendations from this thread. Beck and Kasabian. Also picked up Bloc Party which I bought just because I liked one of the songs.

[Chas in Cinti]

Not new stuff... but the best "Road" music for me are Bob Seger and The Allman Bros... something about them just BURN miles for me...

-Chas

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Chas in Cinti

Not new stuff... but the best "Road" music for me are Bob Seger and The Allman Bros... something about them just BURN miles for me...

-Chas

I've got some good classic stuff. My favorite road trip music of all time is U2's The Joshua Tree.

[ThunderingHERD]

Well, it's not new but, since I've been repurchasing my record collection after it was lost in a flood, it fits the topic. Besides anytime is a good time to plug the greatest album of all-time: Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane over the Sea.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

Well, it's not new but, since I've been repurchasing my record collection after it was lost in a flood, it fits the topic. Besides anytime is a good time to plug the greatest album of all-time: Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane over the Sea.

wow, a NMH fan. theres, like, 8 of us. sweet.

ive always believed this is a concept album about the holocaust, but never actually looked into it or asked anyone. do you know, by chance?

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by Pyser

wow, a NMH fan. theres, like, 8 of us. sweet.

ive always believed this is a concept album about the holocaust, but never actually looked into it or asked anyone. do you know, by chance?

This is the spiel I always use when trying to push it on people:

Have you ever fell in love in a dream? Like, it doesn't even have to be with someone in particular, or anyone at all. But the emotion is just so crazily amplified. Then you wake up, and you realize--fuck, I'm not really that in love, it was just a dream. But the residual effects of it are still with you for a bit--it's such a beautiful, bittersweet feeling. That is exactly the emotion this album evokes--and it is the most emotionally evocative album I've ever heard.

I think that is what the album is about, even with no explicit exposition. But, to answer your question: not only from the lyrics, but also from listening to countless bootlegs (including the officially released Jeff Mangum Live at Jittery Joe's, which I highly recommend) and interviews, it is clear that the Mangum's "muse" was Anne Frank. See:

"There are lights in the clouds,
Anna's ghost all around,
hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me,
soft and sweet,
how the notes all bend and reach above the trees.
Now how I remember you,
how I would push my fingers though your mouth
to make those muscles move
that made your voice so smooth and sweet."

Note not only the Anna reference, but also the acknowledgement that this girl is nothing more than a mirage. She cannot speak for herself, her voice is "rolling and ringing" through the speaker in the song. If fact, the speaker has to "push (his) fingers through (her mouth) to make those muscles move" in order for her to speak at all.

For more obvious Anne Frank references, just look at "Holland, 1945" and "Ghost":

"The only girl I ever loved,
was born with roses in her eyes.
But then they buried her alive
one evening in 1945
and only weeks before the guns
all came and rained on everyone"

"She was born in a bottle rocket, 1929"

From "Oh, Comely"

"I know they buried her body with others,
her sister and mother and 500 families.
And will she remember 50 years later,
I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine."

The final song, "Tho Headed Boy, Pt. 2" is full of dreamlike imagery and references to the melancholy of waking:

"How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep wrapped in boxes so tight
Sounding only at night as you sleep"

"In my dreams your alive, and you're crying,
as your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet"

"When we break, we'll wait for our miracle"

"Two headed boy, she is all you could need.
She will feed you tomatoes and radio wires
and retire to sheets safe and clean.
But don't hate her when she gets up to leave"


Anyway, I wouldn't really call it a concept album, but it definately follows a cohesive train of emotion from beginning to end.

[Pyser]

well, thats the closest anyone has ever come to agreeing with me, so it's a step in the right direction..

youre theory is interesting, too. time to fire up the old album again!

also, where did this guy go? does he still release stuff? i know he was releasing things under a different name before neutral milk hotel...elephant or something like that? i cant remember.

[ThunderingHERD]

Originally Posted by Pyser

well, thats the closest anyone has ever come to agreeing with me, so it's a step in the right direction..

youre theory is interesting, too. time to fire up the old album again!

also, where did this guy go? does he still release stuff? i know he was releasing things under a different name before neutral milk hotel...elephant or something like that? i cant remember.

Also, on the Jittery Joe's recording, when he's setting up a song on two different occassions, he says something to the effect of (I don't have a copy here with me, so this is paraphrasing): "This is about a family that lived in the 1940s, and I'd have dreams about them, one member in particular" when he would tries to explain further he sort of trips on his words and starts playing the song.

As for where he went, I guess he's just doing the same thing he's always done, except for the realeasing great albums and touring part. As far as I know he's never really released under any other names--Elephant 6 is the label that he and his buddies from Ruston, LA started up, which includes such bands as Olivia Tremor Control, Beulah, and Apples in Stereo. The most recent interview I've seen him do is from 2002.

The last "original" release he had was in 2001--but it was just a field recording of Bulgarian folk music.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by ThunderingHERD

As far as I know he's never really released under any other names--Elephant 6 is the label that he and his buddies from Ruston, LA started up, which includes such bands as Olivia Tremor Control, Beulah, and Apples in Stereo.

maybe thats what i was thinking of...i think they all worked on each others albums or something like that? i feel like hes recorded other stuff under another name, but i could be wrong. i havent read up much on NMH since i first started listening back in 2000 or so...

but yes, back on topic, great album.

as for me, i just checked out the new Aqualung album. It's not great, but it's passable. worth a download, not a buy tight now...i think the best album i bought lately is Snow Patrol...maybe Embrace.

[BYU 14]

Though I am not normally a fan of this type of music, I am finding myself liking the latest album from "The 69 Eyes" (Devils) more and more every day. They are a Finnish Goth band and remind me of a cross between Type O Negative and The Cult. There are a couple of really catchy tunes on this album, worth a listen IMO.

[ISiddiqui]

Beck's Guero

And if it is 'lately', Green Day's American Idiot. It still is amazing even though I've listened to it over and over and over.

[mckerney]

Sparkle In The Finish by the Ike Reilly Assasination.

I'd also recommend downloading some Ookla The Mok for classic nerd rock. Songs like Mr. Worf are entertaining even if you're like me and don't like Star Trek, and Hockey Monkey is fantastic.


Ringside has a few excellent songs too, such as Criminal and Tired of Being Sorry.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

Common Be

[Coder]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

And if it is 'lately', Green Day's American Idiot. It still is amazing even though I've listened to it over and over and over.

Same here.. absolutely amazing CD.. not one single poor track

[Karlifornia]

Omaha dance-rockers (not that Bravery bullshit..real dance rock) The Faint do a cover of Holland,1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel

[Ksyrup]

Devin Davis' Lonely People of the World, Unite! Awesome album. Has that indie vibe, yet meticulously recorded and produced by Davis alone. Nice homage to a slew of 60's pop/rockers throughout. Vocally a little weak for my tastes (think Ben Kweller's creaky voice), but the rawness and energy more than make up for it. Only weak spot is track 4, which is built entirely on the Stones' Gimme Shelter riff, and I can't get past that. But some really great, witty lyrics all over pretty much every track. This is inspired (and inspiring) stuff.

I guess this means I have completely given up on my CD Review Thread...


Here's the AMG review, which I think is a bit over the top (in fact, this reads like the best review anyone has ever gotten in the history of music reviews), but it's still pretty much on-point:


Devin Davis spent two years crafting Lonely People of the World, Unite! in the studio, playing just about all the instruments himself as well as writing and producing. All that time and solitary effort have paid off in a big way, because this is the kind of guitar pop record that comes out of nowhere and leaves your jaw scraping the floor in amazement, sort of like the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic or Sloan's classic One Chord to Another. Davis' songs are an exciting blend of chamber pop (horns, keyboards, lush layers of acoustic guitars), power pop (hard-hitting electric guitars, jumpy rhythms, vocal harmonies), and classic '60s pop (glimpses of the influence of the Kinks, the Small Faces, and pop-psych bands like the Move and the Easybeats). Best of all, they are suffused with an alarming amount of energy, with Davis' slightly geeky voice straining at the seams, the guitars careening wildly, and the chords and words flashing by at a blinding pace. Not too many bands these days are writing songs as hook-filled and alive as "Iron Woman," "Sandie," and "Moon Over Shark City," or as sweetly innocent and melodic as the quieter songs on the record, like "Deserted Eyeland," "Giant Spiders," and "The Choir Invisible." Davis' production touch is remarkably assured as well. He knows just when to cut the dynamics or jump them up a notch, and the record flows like an exhilarating live set. The whole record is filled with moments of head-nodding agreement with his choices, hilarious lyrics, and moments of audacity, like when he samples the Monkees' theme song ("We're the young generation and we've got nothing to say") in the boy band-dissing "Transcendental Sports Anthem," drops a perfectly blaring E Street meets Archie Shepp sax solo into "Iron Woman," or hits the accelerator halfway through the Kinks-ish barrelhouse piano rocker "Paratroopers With Amnesia," leaving your heart doing crazed jumping jacks. Lonely People of the World, Unite! is a small-scale triumph, and Devin Davis has left the competition in the dust. There are few guitar pop records of the last 20 years that are as exciting, well-constructed, and memorable as this.

[cody8200]

I love the Killers Cd Hot Fuss. Best cd I've heard in a while. I was dissapointed with Audioslaves Out of Exile and Springsteen's newest cd.

[digamma]

Old Crow Medicine Show

It's folk/bluegrass, but good stuff.

[samifan24]

Coldplay, "X&Y"

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Coldplay, "X&Y"

Wonder if they went for this title as it sums up all of their songs where x= the quiet melancholy bit and y= the power poodle rock riffs. Repeat three times.

Return to start for next song.

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Wonder if they went for this title as it sums up all of their songs where x= the quiet melancholy bit and z= the power poodle rock riffs. Repeat three times.

Return to start for next song.

if you listen closely, you can hear their same 4 chords that they build a song out of on every album. i cant remember the name, but its the "come up to meet you, tell me youre sorry" or whatever song it was from "rush of blood". which was also a song on their first album, and the exact same chords make yet another appearance on x&y. cheaters.

[Passacaglia]

Oh, hey, I forgot about this thread. I just downloaded a bunch of NMH songs, but haven't listened to them all. I'll have to check out that album, it sounds interesting.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Wonder if they went for this title as it sums up all of their songs where x= the quiet melancholy bit and y= the power poodle rock riffs. Repeat three times.

Return to start for next song.

Hmm....sounds like you're a fan.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Hmm....sounds like you're a fan.

To be fair, their songs are good as long as you only hear them in isolation. As soon as I hear two or more in a row, the sameness of it all takes over: may as well buy a single and put it on loop than buy either of the first two albums! I bought both for 50c each in Asia, gave them both away within a week... The same thing applies to me with The Strokes.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Coldplay, "X&Y"

I tried listening to this last night while driving to Virginia. I didn't make it halfway before popping it out and putting in some Radiohead. I had heard too many clunkers by that point to consider this a good album. For the record, I though the same thing about A Rush of Blood to the Head....Parachutes is an excellent album, though.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by VPI97

I tried listening to this last night while driving to Virginia. I didn't make it halfway before popping it out and putting in some Radiohead. I had heard too many clunkers by that point to consider this a good album. For the record, I though the same thing about A Rush of Blood to the Head....Parachutes is an excellent album, though.

To each his own.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Ryche

Nightwish's latest album 'Once'

If you like Evanescene, you'll love this. If you don't, you still might enjoy this album. Metal guitars with a classically trained female opera lead singer. This is their sixth album I believe and the songwriter for the band knows exactly how to blend her voice into the songs.

I finally got my hands on Once and Century Child. Wow! This is precisely the kind of stuff I'm looking for - symphonic metal. I think I might like this better than Therion, since the chick's vocals are generally better than the various opera singers Therion employs.

I recommend this over Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, and The Gathering, but only if you like European metal mixed with orchestra. This is top notch stuff.

What finally got me off my ass to check them out is the fact that the San Antonio Spurs' PA system guy played some during a quarter break of one of the Western Conference Final games. Turns out he's a big metal/prog rock guy, and put up a poll at Dream Theater's message board promising to play the song they voted for. And he did. Pretty cool!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Pyser

you and i have COMPLETELY different definitions of "groovin' stoner rock". holy crap.

"Few bands have managed to prosper inside a bubble of their own devising and outside the constricting rules of the music business as successfully and for as long as Maryland's Clutch; who continue to unleash album after album of barely evolving, groovy stoner rock, regardless of label affiliation and changing trends."

"Like the best of the American stoner rock scene, including Monster Magnet, Fu Manchu, and Nebula, Clutch excel at delivering no-frills hard rock, combining spaced-out lyrics with gut-churning riffs, basslines, and drumming, and on Blast Tyrant, they plow along with no fewer than fifteen tight, monolithic tunes that possess a strong Southern rock influence lingering underneath all the Sabbath style riffing."

"Stoner rockers" Clutch take hardcore where it has not gone before."

Hailed by the press as one of the finest live bands around, Clutch offer their brand of 'stoner rock'.

"Fallon emerges as the premier wordsmith of stoner rock on Pure Rock Fury."



Me and several others, apparently...

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Dutch

I've got some good classic stuff. My favorite road trip music of all time is U2's The Joshua Tree.

Playing the opening to "Where the Streets Have No Name" as the sun is rising is awesome...

That said, the best CD I have picked up lately is....

Victor Vito - Laurie Berkner

She is so much better than the Wiggles and other kiddy music... Yes, I have two kids under 4...

[Ksyrup]

I bought my daughter the two For the Kids compilations. She seems to like them, they have some artists I respect on them, and it's not filled with stupid Barney-type songs.