Second Guess the Critic: Round 2

[Brenden]

Could I get in on being a critic next round then? I can do 2004 releases.

[murlough23]

Could I get in on being a critic next round then? I can do 2004 releases.

Yes. PM me with your album choice by midnight tonight.

[cbluejays]

bdg: 4
bloop:  3
Danny: 3
Josh: 4
Murlough: 5
worldofcm: 3

[danny316]

My guesses:

bdg: The Wedding - The Wedding                            3 stars
bloop: Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal   4 stars
Josh: Vic Chesnutt - Ghetto Bells                             4 stars
Murlough: Over the Rhine - Drunkard's Prayer        5 stars
worldofcm: House of Heroes - House of Heroes      3 stars

[murlough23]

Alright, the polls are now closed. So I will go ahead and reveal that I'm giving Over the Rhine 4 stars.

I really, really struggled with this one, because I can see them striving for excellence and I absolutely adore the theme of the album. But musically, it's not quite coming together for me. Being slow and sparse is permissible. It adds to the intimacy. Being repetitive, and in some cases, lyrically simplistic in ways that I don't allow other bands to get away with, is iffy. Still far more of a positive than a negative impression, but I gave Ohio a 4 and I thought that was a better record, so I have to stick with a 4 for Drunkard's Prayer (because it's not an average album, which would be a 3).

[danny316]

I really, really struggled with this one

Funny, I was struggling with 4 or 5 on how many to guess for you. So near but so far....

It was hard to decide on this one, but I'm going to have to go with 3 stars on W0rmSiGn. The music's not bad, and the occasional real instrument in there works rather well - but some of the "speaking" samples are rather annoying. I keep getting the feeling that the music's trying to tell me something that doesn't quite make sense. Then there's that preachy one that ruins the last track - blegh. If some of the spoken samples were cut, and something was added in the way of songwriting, I really would have loved this one, maybe even enough for a full five stars. With that many issues though, I have to stick with just 3 stars.

[murlough23]

Dang, Danny. And that's the best electronica album you've ever heard? (You said that in the music journals thread. I guess your lasting reaction was quite different from your initial one.)

[bloop]

Alright, the polls are now closed. So I will go ahead and reveal that I'm giving Over the Rhine 4 stars.

I really, really struggled with this one, because I can see them striving for excellence and I absolutely adore the theme of the album. But musically, it's not quite coming together for me. Being slow and sparse is permissible. It adds to the intimacy. Being repetitive, and in some cases, lyrically simplistic in ways that I don't allow other bands to get away with, is iffy. Still far more of a positive than a negative impression, but I gave Ohio a 4 and I thought that was a better record, so I have to stick with a 4 for Drunkard's Prayer (because it's not an average album, which would be a 3).

Cool.  Although I mildly disagree, I even got your reasons reasonably right in my head when I guessed.  (In short, I think its stylistically and lyrically antiquated, but the essence of music should have never left out those very basic ideas as I'm concerned, and the musicianship itself is definitely a positive.  The lyrics are simple, but that's not a bad thing.  The music is jazzy, which is what I latched onto the most - jazz isn't remotely an easy style to pull off but they manage quite well on several of the songs.  Still, surely OtR must know why they don't get hit singles really).  As far as guessing, I'm having a good round so far.  I kind of thought wOrmSIgn sounded like the soundtrack to a Playstation game.  =D

Well, I was a little torn about the Anberlin record as well, but I went with 3 stars.  I'd bump it up a half star if we were doing that, though, but that's just the kind of rating that I think a solid modern rock record that doesn't aspire to much else should get.  However, the last song in particular hinted at better things to come for this band, so I'm still keeping my eye out.  I'm in no way down on Anberlin.  

[Brenden]

Funny, I was struggling with 4 or 5 on how many to guess for you. So near but so far....

It was hard to decide on this one, but I'm going to have to go with 3 stars on W0rmSiGn. The music's not bad, and the occasional real instrument in there works rather well - but some of the "speaking" samples are rather annoying. I keep getting the feeling that the music's trying to tell me something that doesn't quite make sense. Then there's that preachy one that ruins the last track - blegh. If some of the spoken samples were cut, and something was added in the way of songwriting, I really would have loved this one, maybe even enough for a full five stars. With that many issues though, I have to stick with just 3 stars.

That last track IS annoying.

[Josh]

Vic Chesnutt gets a 4 from me-- a solid B rating.

[dgp11776]

Dang, Danny. And that's the best electronica album you've ever heard? (You said that in the music journals thread. I guess your lasting reaction was quite different from your initial one.)

Curses!  We were foiled by the same comment.

But, SWEET!  So far, I nailed bloop, murlough, and Josh!  Not in the sexual sense, of course.

[Brenden]

Thus far, I've only gotten Bloop right.

[murlough23]

Still waiting for responses from bdg and worldofcm so that I can tally scores and start Round 3.

[worldofcm]

Sorry.  Forgot.

House of Heroes is just kind of there for me.  Nothing too overly memorable, but still done somewhat well.  Decent, but will get lost after awhile.  

2 stars

(if I was going with half, I'd go with 2 1/2)

[murlough23]

Posting for bdg by proxy (he PM'd me a few minutes ago):

the wedding landed a 3 star rating from me, because, although it's very similar to many other pop-punk offerings, it's not any worse than the bunch, either.

[Josh]

Man... I sucked it up this round.

[Brenden]

You're not alone.

[murlough23]

Round Three has begun.