Here is a set from the 00's. Some really good stuff!
This is the initial released from the band Coldplay. It was
released in 2000. This is a very moody and atmospheric album with happy lyrics.
This album shows that music is just as important as the words are in a piece of
music. This album became popular during the 9/11 crisis here in the US. It was the
perfect time for the album to gain recognition. The third single being the most
linked to 9/11 from this album. The first single is called Shiver. The band has
said in the past that one of their biggest influences in their music writing
has been Jeff Buckley. With this song in particular it shows that he was a big
influence in their music writing. This song is simple and good but was a
failure in the US.
The video is just as boring. It is the group in a white room playing the song
around a circle as if they were practicing the song. The next single was called
Yellow. This was the song that introduced me to the band. There is something
magical about this song for me. I think that it is a combination of the lyrics,
the ease of sing ability and the music that puts this song in my top list of
music that I love. The video adds to this idea for me. The video is yet another
simple video for the band. It was shot in one continuous take. The video was
shot at 50 frames per second so that it would appear in slow motion when played
back at 24 frames per second. The video took place on Studland
Bay in England. It is merely Chris Martin,
the lead singer, walking on the beach at sun rise. About half way through the
song the sun starts coming out. It had just rained before shooting began for
the video and adds to the moodiness of the song. Chris is actually wearing a
rain coat and his hair is wet through out the video too. Chris had to sing the
song in double time while walking on the beach so that they words would match
the music when they matched the music up in the mixing room. The third single
is called trouble. This is one of the two songs that I remember the most from
the 9/11 crisis in 2000. The video for the song was very interesting. It made
use of two dimensional animations overlaid on each other. One could see the
overlay of each animation square while watching the video. This was done as an
artful point for the video. The band is traveling on a horse drawn carriage
through out the video. There is a woman in a house watering the floor that is
made of grass. There is also a crow that travels between the band and the
woman. After visiting the woman the crow becomes bigger and more menacing until
it becomes a giant black rain cloud and rains down on this world. Everything
suddenly has black feathers sprouting from it. At the end of the video there is
a tornado that picks up the house and takes it over the rainbow to be dropped
in a suburban neighborhood. It is an interesting video that fit the time that
it was made. There was also a video made for the UK
and Europe. I have never seen that video
though. The last single from this album is called Don’t Panic. This is a rework
of a song that the band had been playing for a long time. This is a good song
from the band but not a great song. They were actually undecided as to what
song should be released as the next single and settled on this track. The video
for this song uses the same two dimensional video as the previous single,
Trouble. The video starts off with an animated diagram of the water cycle. It
then shows the band doing chores. The rest of the video shows what could happen
in a city if it were flooded, a volcano erupted and earth quakes were to occur.
It is interesting but to do the two dimensional video animation again was kind
of lame in my opinion. I think that this is a good album if you can handle the
sad tones in the music.
This is the second album from Hot Chip. It was released in
2006. Hot Chip is an electronic indie pop band with soul influences. I found
out about this band when Yahoo music was just getting popular. It was also
during a time when the internet was not monitored at work and I could get away
with streaming music for hours at a time. It was only a few years later that I
was not allowed to stream music while at work. I later got a warning letter for
using the internet at work for the not intended uses. That was the end of music
through the internet at work. I later started bringing in my iPod and running
it through the onboard speakers in the computers. Then I later used my iPhone
since I was moved to a completely different position and did not have access to
computers any more. I was not sure about this band when I first heard the
couple of song from Yahoo music. I searched the internet to find a copy of the
album. After I found a copy I started to listen to the whole album. I fell in
love with it. I had never heard an electronic band use soul influences. I think
that it helped that one of their big influences was Prince. I like a lot of
Princes’ work so of course I was going to like what they were putting out. Yes
I did actually buy a physical copy of this album. The first single from the
album is called Over and Over. This song is a fun sparkly song with fun wavy
keyboards leading the way. The lyrics on this song are very easy to sing along
with too. The next single is called Boy From School. The title of the song on
the album is slightly different. On the album it is labeled as And I Was A Boy
From School. This song is a little bit sadder sounding in the music. The
keyboards are just a little bit modulated on this song. I think that this adds
to the song and keeps the listener interested in the music. The chorus uses fun
harmonies that I just love. I was infatuated with a girl at the church that I
went to at the time. I actually made her a mix CD and included one of the
tracks from this album. The track is called Colours. She is a comic book artist
and to me this song fit the bill perfectly. This song was the third single to
be released from the album too. The song starts off slow and then after the
introduction it picks up the pace a little bit. The song is all about the
colours of things in this world. What really got me with this song was the
guitar. It is so simple, it is a distorted guitar but the notes that are played
are short staccato notes and the guitar does not even play through out the
song. It is mainly played in the chorus only. This is a great album and would
recommend to everyone to listen to at least once before saying that you don’t
listen to electronic music.
This is the third album from the group Beach House. It was released
in 2010. The group is a duo of French and American lineage. They write dream
pop or indie pop music depending on who you talk to. There was a special
edition CD that included a DVD or an LP that automatically came with the DVD. I
purchased the LP and was surprised to find that there was a DVD that came with
the package. The DVD contains a video for each track on the album directed by a
different director for each track. I am not sure what order the singles were
released with this album because of the DVD. I get just a little confused. I
know that the song Norway
was a single for sure. This is a great song but I get a bit of a head ache
listening to it because the key board part has an automatic sign wave detuning
that happens. I think that the song Zebra was also a single released from the
album. It is a simple song with focus on the guitar and vocals. This album is a
little bit on the moody side with the music. It is a very good album that I
would recommend to anybody interested in where music is going currently.
Although it is a year old it still follows what is currently happening in music
today.
This is the first release from the group MuteMath, stylized
as MUTEMATH. This EP was released in 2004. It is a seven track EP with one
track being released as a single. The track is called Control. A friend of mine
told me about this band in 2007 but I did not take notice then. He also told me
to look into this band a couple years later, 2009ish, and I still did not take
heed. It was not until the soundtrack for the movie Twilight came out that I
finely took notice of the band. They had a song on the sound track from their
second album called Armistice. The song is called Spotlight and it is an
amazing song to hear. It is very inspiring. I think that is an important aspect
about this band. They were originally a Christian rock group under a different
name but decided to go down a different avenue regarding music to try to influence
a wider audience. I think that this has been a positive direction especially
with the addition of Spotlight to the Twilight soundtrack. I am also excited
about this band, they will have a new album coming out in the middle of October
this year. New fall music is always a great thing. I have quite a few albums
that I am looking forward to coming up in the next couple months. I hope to
review them before this volume is up this year.
That is all for now...
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