5 comments about Return to the Last Chance Saloon.

1. ...as their debut album. This one is a little grittier and has some country and almost cowboy-ish influences befitting the album's title. However, it's a fantastic listen, and songs like Unpainted Arizona, Tone Blooze, Solomon Bites the Worm, and Heard You Were Dead, really grab you in the gut and feature some really dextrous guitarwork from Adam Devlin. Great album.



2. What can I say? Superb. Both slow and faster songs, well done, great lyrics. One of the best albums I own (and I own an awful lot).



3. Alot had changed in British music since the Bluetones firstappeared in 1995. No longer is melodic pop/rock the fashion and withthis in mind, it was not surprising when this album did not sell as well as its predecessor. Despite this, it is actually quite a good album. Though perhaps not as consistant and certainly not as easy to pin-point, the album does contain some very good tracks. With a more American feeling running through it, tracks such at 'Tone Blues' and 'Unpainted Arizona' are unlike the usual Brit-Pop sound. However, the band still tend to excel when they stick to great, simple, melodic pop/rock. '4 Day Weekend' is one of two great tracks on the album using a cracking guitar riff and double-time drumming that shows why Brit-Pop is still the most interesting, exciting musical form around. (This song did not even make the top twenty in the British single charts when just two years earlier it would have undoubtably threatened the top ten). The likeable but dragging 'If...' is inoffensive but not particularly inspired except within the chorus itself. Whereas, the lazy 'Sleazy Bed Track' show how the Bluetones have started to widen their sound fitting together the sleazy subject matter and the correct insrumentation well. The second, and last great track on the album is the anthemic 'Ames'. It threateningly builds up before gloriously exploding into the chorus, where Mark Morris is allowed to show his vocal range. With a great rock guitar and melody throughout, this song is one of the most potent things produced by the band. 'The Jub Jub Bird' and 'Heard You Were Dead' work well, and show the rarer, darker side to the 'Tones. The album is littered, however, with too many insufficient, light pop songs ('Sky Will Fall, Solomon Bites The Worm' and 'Broken Star') which stops it from reaching its full potential. But, overall,the LP does show why the Bluetones still have remained with such an underground following years after the Brit-Pop boom.



4. After being a Stone Roses fan for years, I think the Bluetones can cut it. I'm not saying they are the great Manchester band, but many of the songs are great. I enjoy this album and suggest buying it if you like the Roses, Charlatans, or Primal Scream.



5. The latest Bluetones album is amazing....more so than their freshman Expecting to Fly. Last Chance Saloon's songs are better crafted and superbly performed. The Morris brothers have again shown up Brit's babes by producing a well-rounded and well-written extravaganza for the ears and mind.

No comments about Greatest Hits.

5 comments about Stars of CCTV.

1. This was another blind purchase, a used disc at Soundgarden in Syracuse. I dug the cover art and the few seconds i had time to check out on the cd player were interesting enough. First listen through was in a car at low volume, and Hard-Fi sounded like another forgettable indie band. I gave it another shot at home though, remembering that it sounded decent at the record store, and found it to be a pretty enjoyable album. I don't know if i can vouch for their compositional abilities, but their attitude and the production are quite refreshing. This is exactly the kind of uber-new trend-pop that Urban Outfitters plays all day long, and at certain points during Stars of CCTV i couldnt help but squirm at the occasional new wave-hipster cliches. "Gotta Reason" struck me as way too derivative of the neo-disco flavor of the moment to be enjoyable on its own merits, with its "cool awkward" start-stop bassline and shouty lyrics.
   
   You can't really blame a band for fitting into their own time though, and the crunchy, unpredictable production of this record overshadows its weaker aspects. As has been re-iterated over and over, Hard-Fi has adopted the same dub-influenced aesthetic as guys like the Clash and perhaps the Mars Volta, fusing jangly guitars and reverbed vocals with a wide stereo mix of feedback and other noises. I'm all for the jagged disco-punk thing, and when the band hits their stride on "Cash Machine" and "Hard to Beat" you can see why they have been hyped so much. The messy garage sound, the occasional helter skelter drum machine, and dominant blasts of guitar give them an irreverent, unconcerned sound that is subtly more honest in its rebellious debauchery than many of their peers. They actually sound like the 80s bands that all the hipsters are imitating, rather than an imitation. Their blue-collar lyrics are similar to those of Mike Skinner, and make for way better listening than the standard emo or nu-metal radio fare. No vocal melodies really grabbed me, and the songs themselves don't seem to push any boundaries compositionally; it's really their sound and attitude that makes this worth a spin.
   
   About halfway through the record they seem to run out of ideas and move into an ill-advised piano ballad, that is totally unremarkable in every way, besides being the low point of the album. This is followed by another ill-advised pop tune that sounds a lot like Our Lady Peace. I have not listened to either of these songs all the way through, as either one has been basically recorded a thousand times by a hundred other bands. Things pick up a bit after this, but the first half of the album contains Hard-Fi at their best, with an eclectic mix of disco-rock stomp and even some filtered house music creeping in from leftfield.
   
   I'm hoping these guys come into their own a little more with a sophomore effort, although this is a great debut that I imagine I will be returning to for a while. An even rawer, ballsier sound seems to be just around the corner, as if they maybe softened some edges somewhere along the way. I picture them taking the route TV on the Radio did with their second LP, throwing caution to the wind and letting their sound develop into its own beast.



2. i love the band hard-fi!! they're from the UK, and most of the music i listen to is from the UK because they have such great music!! <3 i first heard their song on my friend's myspace. and i decided to check them out. i loveee the song "hard to beat"!! it's totally catchy and very original. the remix by axwell is also very great. i also love the song "gotta reason". if you like upbeat and happy yet great music to rock out to, this is for you!!



3. this is a very good cd, that lives up to the hype, unlike the over rated wankers called the arctic monkeys. Some very catchy rock tunes here, and an awesome ballad 'move on now'......highly recommend......one of my top3 cd's of the past 7 yrs.....along with interpol's 1st cd...and the strokes 1st cd.



4. Okay, this has come in for some slating in the reviews, but there's really some decent stuff here - Middle Eastern Holiday, Cash Machine, Living for the Weekend, Unnecessary Trouble - all rock. Problem is, not the entire album is to the same high standard - I'll only be keeping 6 out of the 11 tracks on my MP3 player! Okay, it's not grittily urban, but more commercial Indie rock, but if your bags thumping guitars and anthemic choruses, you won't go far wrong here.



5. I first heard the Hard-fi single "Hard to Beat" on the local alt rock station somewhere in the territory of 2-3 a.m. I fell in love immediately and called the radio station to ask what it was. Later I heard "Cash Machine," another catchy single, and made the executive decision that even if all the other tracks were awful bits of fluff and filler, it would be worth it for those two songs. I picked up the CD at the bookstore last night, listened to it on the way home, put it on repeat overnight, and it's currently on its third play on my office computer (it's only 10:45 am - I don't plan on listening to anything else today).
   
   I was pleased to find that all eleven tracks on "Stars of CCTV" are solid full-length songs - none of this filler spoken word sampled crap nonsense. Infectious grooves, hand claps and anthemic shouted choruses are found everywhere. Vaguely Any of the songs could be the next single - not the case with most albums. My personal favorites are "Hard to Beat," "Middle Eastern Holiday," "Tied Up Too Tight," and "Gotta Reason," but they're ALL good. Worth your while. I personally think they're better than the Arctic Monkeys.

No comments about Tellin' Stories.

5 comments about Com Lag (2Plus2IsFive).

1. You'd probally be better of just buying the Go to Sleep sinlge, the two songs off that are really the only ones worth paying for. I paid $10 for the Japanese Import on ebay, and it's worth it because I love Radiohead, but $35+ is nuts. Really, if you can find a copy of Go to Sleep, Gagging Order and I am a Wicked Child are the only songs worth buying. I got my Go to Sleep single for $3 or $4 which leaves a lot of money to but better Radiohead imports.



2. Radiohead is not shy about issuing its B-sides and other assorted "left-overs". "My Iron Lung" is one of the best examples, "Airbag/How Am I Driving" is another. Not merely a single or an EP, but not quite yet an album's worth of music, these releases are hard to classify. After the release of "Hail to the Thief", Radiohead issued another such "maxi-EP", but only for the Japanese market, namely "Com Lag"
   
   "Com Lag" (10 tracks, 36 min.) was originally released in 2004 in Japan, but finally re-released for wider audiences in 2007. This compilation is a hotch-potch of (then) unreleased tracks, B-sides, live tracks and remixes, and so not surprisingly this is all over the place. It starts off very strongly with a live version of "2+2=5" (from London's Earl Court in November '03). The outstanding instrumental "I Am Citizen Insane" reminds me musically of the Thom Yorke solo album "The Eraser". Other highlights for me are "Paperbag Writer" (which is the best track on here for me personally), "Gagging Order" (just Thom Yorke and acoustic guitar), "Fog (Again") (just Thom and piano; recorded live) ; "I Am a Wicked Child" and the closer "Where Bluebirds Fly". I can do without the 2 remixed HTTT tracks: a nervous remix of "Myxomatosis", and a slightly better remix of "Scatterbrain".
   
   In the end, "Com Lag" reflects both the scattered sense of these types of grab-all compilations and the scattered sense of the Hail to the Thief album. However, if you are a Radiohead fan, you will cherish this release. (Last but not least, I stumbled upon this recently while browsing in the used CD bin at my local indie-record store, and picked this up for only $7.99!)



3. As Radiohead imports go, this is one of my least favorites. The remixes are really good but the tracks Paperbag Writer, I am Citezen Insane, and Where Bluebirds Fly are just plain dull and not worth more than one listen. Fog (Again) is a pretty albeit brief piano ballad. Two of my favorite tracks are Gagging Order and I am Wicked Child but I already own these as b-sides to one of the american singles from "Hail". If you don't own either "Airbag/How am I Driving?" or "My Iron Lung" I would strongly reccomend buying those first. However if you are like me and can't resist hearing any new Radiohead song you can find then by all means, buy this disc.



4. If you are a true Radiohead fan, you need to get this EP. I'm not a huge fan of the remyxomatosis, but skttbrain is awesome, and the whole thing is worth buying just because of gagging order and fog (again).



5. This EP is fantastic. At first, I wasn't too enthused about the b-sides from HTTT. I thought the remixes of "Myxomatosis" and "Scatterbrain" were awful, and I thought the other studio tracks were duds. However, wanting to have a definitive collection of the b-sides, this was the easiest and most economical way of getting the HTTT b-sides. Now, after having and listening to these songs in their entirety in full quality, repeatedly, I'd have to say I prefer nearly all the b-sides to the actual HTTT album. The remixes I think capture the feel of the original songs' subjects much better, and rest of the tracks are actually quite fantastic. "Paperbag Writer" is everything that "Backdrifts" completely failed at, "I am a Wicked Child" is hypnotic and gets stuck in my head easily, and "Gagging Order" is just a gorgeous piece of songwriting... it's quickly become one of my favorites from Radiohead. The only track I don't particularly like is the L.A. remix of "I Will", which is still good, I just prefer the much more bare album version. All in all though, I would much rather put this in my player than HTTT any day.

No comments about Greatest Hits, Vol. 1.

3 comments about The Best of Both Worlds.

1. I'm a big fan of Marillion, and while this collection is a great primer for the uninitiated, I kinda feel like the band is worth your checking them out one album at a time. This collection's first disc features material from the first four albums (plus a few b-sides) featuring the band's original lead singer-songwriter, Fish. Disc 2 features material from the first 4 albums featuring the current lead singer, Steve Hogarth. There are plenty of songs that work as individual songs, but for the most part, they work better in the context of the albums from which they originally came. It's a forced analogy, but those Chocolate crunch things you find in a Carvel ice cream cake? They taste really good on their own, I'lll eat 'em straight from a cup, but they taste better...in the ice cream cake. Same with Marillion, the songs work fine as songs, they work better as part of an album.
   
   If you know little about the band, and just want to take a chance, I doubt you'll be disappointed. But if you want the advice of a long-time fan, I'd suggest buying Clutching At Straws and either Brave or Afraid of Sunlight first. It will give you incredibly strong entire CDs, one from each singer, and then you can see whether it's worth adding to your collection.



2. Quite simply the very best Marillion collection out there, and the only one worthy of your money. The idea is simple, yet powerful; One disc features the best work of the bands powerful heyday, featuring the troubled and brilliant Scottish poet Fish. Whilst some of the material sounds slightly quaint these days, the songs still retain the magic from my younger days.

   The other disc features the more contemporary sounds and songs of the material written with current lead-vocalist, Steve Hogarth. The second best voice in pop music, second only to A-Ha's Morten Harket. The band has changed it's sound to a substantial degree under the helm of Hogarth (or "H", as he is affectionally known as), yet there is no denying the quite excellent musicianship and emotional lyrics that have always been their trademarks.

   Marillion remain the best kept secret in British Rock. Neither rock, nor pop, nor "progressive" and definately not "hip" or "in", their music is simply put rock music of the highest calibre and flavoured with touches of pop, of progressive rocks finest moments and the odd touch of soul and folk.

   Still confused? So are most critics whom have never been able to put a sufficient tag on the band, and many rock fans are left bewildered by the band. I can only say that you will be well off by giving this band a chance, and this is as good a place as any.

   If you have never heard any of the music, yet are familiar with the name and wonder what this actually sounds like, you will have to try and imagine a blend of Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Yes, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin and Crowded House. If any of these, or similar bands, are to your taste, I guarantee you a nice few hours in the company of this excellent 2-disc set.




3. For all persons who like Marillion or any sympfonic-rock. I'd like to recommend it. My first introduction to marillion was about 11 years ago, and since Steve H. (the new singer) came I haven't bought anything. But after hearing this double CD, I was really tempted not to buy all the rest of the marillion CD's. If you like nice rock music with a twist of symphony, you'll love this. At least I did.

No comments about Nature's Law.

2 comments about A Glorious Day: Live in Leeds.

1. I am very new fan of Embrace. When I stumbled onto the song "A Glorious Day" I was blown away and immediatly started searching for more from this group. I was not disappointed in the least with this DVD. It is great from start to finish. If you are a fan of great song writing and musicianship, you will love this DVD.



2. For any Embrace fan out there who could not afford to make it to the concerts, this is the ultimate dvd. It is absolutely amazing on many levels. With a great concert show in store, Embrace hit off some of their most famous songs from Out of Nothing as well as their (now) classic anthems from past albums. It is the ultimate experience as well as concert performance. The DVD also includes a documentary extra, as well as a fan video and four of the singles videos that made Embrace's comeback unforgettable. You will not be disappointed. This is a must have for any fan of great music!

2 comments about This Is Punk.

1. The title doesn't lie. This is punk. Great live tracks too. Only 5()(). Very rare. But dont pay 49.99 for it. Thats just a ripoff



2. This is really good, I felt it had alot of good old school punk.