Review: WZRD

It doesn't surprise me that Kid Cudi would choose for his next project to be an "alternative rock" album.  His last album, Man on the Moon II:  Kid Cudi and the Chamber of Secrets* was definitely leaning pretty hard on rock, and let's not forget that MGMT and Ratatat both showed up for the first MatM album.  In fact, in listening to WZRD (and, yes, that is pronounced Double-You Zee Are Dee), I'm curious as to why Cudi even felt the need to separate this from his solo material, except for perhaps the prominent contributions of producer Dot Da Genius.

Review: Sleigh Bells' Reign of Terror

Sleigh Bells was one of those bands that instantly clicked with me the first time I heard them.  The concept of making music so catchy and, at times, fun out of components that were so loud and abrasive was something that shouldn't have worked as well as it did.  Yet, Treats succeeded and it succeeded wildly.  Even in hindsight, I find very few flaws with the album.

And so comes the popular sophomore album question:  What now?

Review: Air's "Le Voyage Dans La Lune"

If you need me to save you the trouble of having to read an entire review to get to the two main points I want to make, then let me save you the trouble:

1. This is a really cool sounding album.
2. Comparing it to Air's previous albums is missing the point entirely.

Some Notes on the Reviews on This Blog

To comment on the nature of reviews on this blog in general:  I realize that the reviews I've posted here thus far have all been positive.  This is mostly a result of the fact that I only want to review an album that I've invested enough time into to critique fairly...yet I'm only going to invest time into an album that I either enjoy or want to enjoy.  Thus, reviews here will - most often - be albums that I'm just enjoying a lot more than others at the moment.

There are exceptions, of course.  For example, last year I spent an awful lot of time with the Cold War Kids' album Mine is Yours, but ultimately just didn't like it at all.

So there you have it: an explanation in case the question ever comes up.

Review: Django Django's "Django Django"

That's a lot of "Django"s in a row in that title....

Chimes of Freedom Commentary, Part 4

So here we are.  Four posts later, four discs later and about 5 hours later, I finally wrap up this:  the most unnecessary series of entries ever.  I'm still not sure if this compilation deserved four entire entries, but its one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time.  Besides, I got it in my head that I wanted to not just listen to this entire compilation, I really wanted to take it in and absorb the effort that went into it.  I wanted to give every song a fair shot and then see where that left me in the end:  Wanting to delve into the Bob Dylan catalog proper?  Or to just walk away without a care.

Review: Lana Del Rey's Born to Die

I spent a good amount of time defending Lana already, so there's really no need to re-hash that.  There's an actual album of music in our hands now and it's time, as hard as that may seem to be, to review the music for what is - as opposed to what the music should or should not be, as based on your preconceptions of Lana Del Rey. 

Review: Of Montreal's Paralytic Stalks

Of Montreal has a lot of baggage associated with it.  I mean that in two ways.  First, and most obviously, Kevin Barnes has infused of Montreal with an intense amount of emotion and personal reflection over the last few albums; this album being no exception.  Secondly, however, the band of Montreal, itself, has gone through such an evolution over the years that it is almost impossible to write about the band without calling attention to the fact that today's of Montreal is almost a completely different band than the of Montreal of yore.