The new full length Flowers album is up for preorder at
Kanine records.
You can also preorder the new Spoon album in multiple
different packages on their page.
The new full lenth from The Proper Ornaments called Wooden
Head is up for preorder at Slumberland Records in the US. It is
already available via Fortuna Pop! In the EU.
sorry for the late post... here we go...
This is the sixth album from Linkin Park (LP). It was
released in June 2014. This is the first of their albums to be produced with
Rick Rubin since Meteora. The name of the album is kind of a metaphor. It is
said to be that Linkin
Park is the party that is
hunting to bring back the energy and soul of rock. They have pushed back the
electronic flavor that they had been using in favor of their hard rock roots
this time. There has been a lot of advertisement for this album. It has ranged
from the different packages that the band has put together for the album and
the special Best Buy version of the album to the new tour that they will be
embarking on. All of the packages that I have seen have only been on download
or CD. I have not seen the album advertised on vinyl. I am happy to say that I
will be attending that concert with my son. It is his first concert ever!
There have already been five singles released from the album
and it was just released in the US
this week. That is nearly half of the album. The first single from the album is
called Guilty All The Same. The song features the rapper Rakim from Erick B.
& Rakim. The songs first appearance came on Shazam and a day later as a
standard single. The song is very hard edged with stabbing guitar chords,
Simple but rough guitar solo parts, and pushed to the edge vocals by Chester
Bennington. Synth parts made to help progress the song and hard drumming. This
is a great first single from the bands new album and shows directly where the
group went for the album.
The second single from the album is called Until It’s Gone.
This one goes back to the electronic style of the previous albums. It reminds
me of a track that could have been a part of a sound track. It has a super
polished sound that movie soundtrack makers gravitate toward. It fits with the
album only because it breaks up the album. I like the song but if the group is
going for a heavy rock album all the way this one doesn’t really fit the bill.
The third single, actually the third, fourth and fifth
singles were released at the same time, is called Final Masquerade. This is
another track that seems super polished with electronic and synth parts
floating in the background with not much in the way of heavy guitars and hard
hitting drums. They are there but not as heavy as some of the other tracks on
the album. Like the previous single, it is good but not has heavy as the rest
of the album.
The next single is called Wastelands. This is a hard hitting
drum song with guitar fills and synth fills. The song hits like a light version
of a song from living things but still has heavily distorted guitars to make
the fans of the earlier work happy. The break down in the song is the exciting
part with cool psych sounds that make your brain feel all twisted. When it
comes out of that part it sets you straight and prepares you for the next track
on the album.
The last single from the album is called Rebellion. The song
features Daron Malakian from System of A Down who plays additional guitar on
the track. The addition of a heavy guitar gives the band a new dimension. This
heavy guitar sound makes this track one of my favorites on the album, although,
I could due with out the synth part all together on the track. This is another
great song from the album that really smacks of the System of A Down sound from
the Toxicity era. Either way it is still a great LP song.
It is a great album leaning on the heavy metal sound from
the first three albums with some of the good stuff sprinkled in from the last
few albums. I am very excited to get to know this album.
This is the first release from the group ever. It was
released in 2010. This was well before I had ever heard of the group. This is a
different recording from the version of Recalling put out a few years later (2013).
The two songs put on this single were recorded at a friends house and as such
have a duller sound. It gives the sound a boost on the lower end. It is also a
little crispy on the highs too. This isn’t necessarily a good thing but it does
give it a homey feel that you usually only find on demo versions of songs.
The A side song is called Recalling. I had this to say about
the re-recorded version of the song and this still applies to this version of
the song, “The song starts off with a simple chord progression played in muted
eighth notes. There is also a slight tinkle of piano and a good drum beat. As
the song progresses the guitar parts get more complex and the piano plays more
frequently. There is also an organ part that floats in the background that
reminds me of the Vox organ that was used heavily in the 60s and 70s. The
vocals send me back to that time as well with their lower tone and drawn out
sound. The song is really great…” I think that the difference between the two
versions of this song is mainly that this version was recorded at someone’s
house and the newer version sounds like it was recorded in a studio. Both
versions are good and I can’t say that I prefer one over the other.
The B side to this single is called Are You Going Blind? It
is a slower song that matches the sound to the A side. It is a slower song that
uses slow strummed chords with eighth note pick playing on the bass guitar. It
is a sad song about a friend going blind and listing off things that they won’t
be able to do any more. It is kind of depressing though. If you can get over
the lyrics the music is very good.
This is a limited edition release of demo tracks from the
group. It was released last year in the EU for their spin-off of Record Store
Day called Cassette Store Day. This is the only thing that I have gotten from
that event with the exception of the Bleed In Gold album that was also made
available as a download through Art Is Hard. The cassette came with a download
sticker in the sleeve. The downloaded tracks didn’t come in the proper track
order and one of them came as an aif file. I am not sure if this was just
sloppy production on the part of the record company that put this out or what.
I did find it quite annoying as I had to not only correct the order of the
songs and make sure that the names and other bits were labeled properly I also
had to convert the aif file to MP3. An aif file is a pretty large file. It was
not such a big deal for me to do but I know that not as many people have that
ability or understanding to do so.
There are eight tracks on this tape. They are all demo
versions but in varying state of clarity. Some of these demo tracks were
re-recorded in the studio for their first album and a couple of them are used
on the second album. Largely, they are only heard on this cassette. I hope that
they all in some way or another get a studio treatment as they are all a lot of
fun to listen to.
Shining Bright and Drop Off were given a studio treatment
for the first album. Tire Me Out and Stereolab got the studio treatment for the
second album. These demo tracks are very fun and I can’t wait to get the two
full length albums from this group. I am just as excited to hear the studio
versions of these tracks.
That's all for now...
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