what are you listening to?

[ewok20t3]

Well, this is their initial review, and the star rating doesn't match the text of the capsule review very well.  Words like that, 4.5 stars, minimum.

True. The album has a 90 on Metacritic.com right, which is very impressive. I wonder how much Rolling Stone is dragging down the number. Metacritic puts more emphasis on the score's of the more respectable critics and publications. I wonder if they consider Rolling Stone respectable...

[murlough23]

They gave Kanye a five star rating once. Rolling Stone are notorious for going back on their original rating and changing it in their books and online database after determining from reading everyone else's reviews and realizing they were wrong.

Which just goes to show that they're trend followers rather than trendsetters.

[ewok20t3]

Which just goes to show that they're trend followers rather than trendsetters.

Exactly. Yet for some reason they still can't help but give 5 stars to everything Bruce Springsteen releases. The Rolling Stone is an enigma (or Springsteen fanboy), I guess.

[murlough23]

Exactly. Yet for some reason they still can't help but give 5 stars to everything Bruce Springsteen releases. The Rolling Stone is an enigma (or Springsteen fanboy), I guess.

I can understand fanboyishness giving a reviewer a bit of bias, but you'd think such a visible mainstream publication would have a system of checks and balances there. Like, if I worked as a professional reviewer for Christianity Today or some other credible music Christian review site that does not actually exist, they'd probably figure it wouldn't be wise to assign me reviews of Jars of Clay, or for the opposite reason, Kutless. Or, at least, not publish that stuff without running a second opinion alongside it.

[ewok20t3]

I can understand fanboyishness giving a reviewer a bit of bias, but you'd think such a visible mainstream publication would have a system of checks and balances there. Like, if I worked as a professional reviewer for Christianity Today or some other credible music Christian review site that does not actually exist, they'd probably figure it wouldn't be wise to assign me reviews of Jars of Clay, or for the opposite reason, Kutless. Or, at least, not publish that stuff without running a second opinion alongside it.

I absolutely agree.

I'm waiting for them to make some changes in the way they do things in order to appeal to the younger crowd who are gravitating towards Pitchfork. I doubt they're gaining many new readers.

[murlough23]

I'd make some changes to Pitchfork as well, though they wouldn't be nearly as severe as the changes I'd make to RS. I don't always agree with Pitchfork, but they at least go into detail about their reasoning. I just feel like sometimes they don't give something much of a chance before writing it off because it remotely resembles something they've heard done better before. (See how they savaged Anathallo's first disc. They never even reviewed the second one.)

[bloop]

For many of Pitchfork's lowest reviews, I think they're just trolling for readers (and ad revenue).  I've found quite a few 2.whatevers that should probably be more in the 4 or 5.whathaveyous.  I can even name a couple 0.0s that are actually, um, rather good  The "Best New Music" tag is understandably confusing to people, too, since an 8.1 will sometimes get it where an 8.4 won't.

Still, they aren't bad as far as webzines go, and the best part is that I can easily find and listen to anything they review (on another message board).

[murlough23]

For many of Pitchfork's lowest reviews, I think they're just trolling for readers (and ad revenue).

Seems disingenuous. The review rating wouldn't affect its likelihood to come up in search results, would it?

[bloop]

It'd increase its likelihood of standing out on metacritic and wiki...

[NinjaRob17]

(See how they savaged Anathallo's first disc. They never even reviewed the second one.)

Actually...

At least they liked it more....?

[murlough23]

Actually...

At least they liked it more....?

Not sure how I missed that. They're still wrong.

[murlough23]

Broken Bells - the collaboration between Danger Mouse and The Shin's James Mercer. It's a'ight. Kind of like how I react to everything by The Shins. I really like the last track, "The Mall and Misery".

[RedcoatJones]

Speaking of Danger Mouse, I'm listening to the Sparklehorse collaboration that came out this month. Jury's still out, but I think this one will end up being good, but not great in my book.

[Ian]

Is there a new Newsboys CD out?  Saw one at Target I'd never seen with Tait on the cover. :/

[Aaron]

Is there a new Newsboys CD out?  Saw one at Target I'd never seen with Tait on the cover. :/

Nah, its just a mashup of newsboys and dctalk from 15 years ago...

oh wait, it is a new cd.  It's not great but Tait is better than he was as a solo artist.  He doesn't have the chops to do it on his own.  Like with most newsboys albums, Jody Davis bails the rest of the band out with his guitar chops.

[murlough23]

Technically, Tait was never a solo artist. Tait was a band. Only a halfway-good band when they had Pete Stewart providing the riffage (hence the awful reliance on synths after Stewart left), but still a group effort.

I don't know whether Tait or Furler writes the new Newsboys stuff, or whether they collaborate, etc. But this new group is as much the Newsboys as Velvet Revolver is Guns N' Roses.

And really, did they have to cover "Jesus Freak"?

[Brenden]

Zoo Seven - Lifesaver

It's a solo album from Del Currie, lead singer of Fono. I'm enjoying it so far.

[murlough23]

Zoo Seven - Lifesaver

It's a solo album from Del Currie, lead singer of Fono. I'm enjoying it so far.

I've seen some promos for this in my inbox, probably because  was on Fono's old mailing list. Does this mean Fono is dead? What kind of music is it?

[ewok20t3]

I've seen some promos for this in my inbox, probably because  was on Fono's old mailing list. Does this mean Fono is dead? What kind of music is it?

Yeah, I got this in my inbox, as well. I'm only a couple of songs into it, but it's sounding pretty good. It's still got that mainstream alternative sound like Fono, but I'd say it's got a little more of a U2 arena rock vibe to it. Based on the couple of songs I've heard, I'd say it's worth giving a listen.

[murlough23]

We Are the Fallen's Tear the World Down. I can't exactly accuse them of ripping off Evanescence, because 3/5 of the band is Evanescence, just with a new lead singer who's much less of a drama queen (at least thus far). But hearing an album that sounds like a clone of Fallen doesn't have the same charm for me now as the original Fallen did in 2003. At least Evanescence's second disc showed some growth. I'm not sure whether to blame Moody for being so by-the-book, or Amy Lee for being such a frigging drama queen that she literally drove out the rest of the band. (Comparisons to Scott Stapp and Alter Bridge are not entirely inappropriate.)

EDIT: Holy felgercarb, "Like a Prayer" is THAT "Like a Prayer"? I'm not sure whether to laugh or cringe.

[ewok20t3]

We Are the Fallen's Tear the World Down. I can't exactly accuse them of ripping off Evanescence, because 3/5 of the band is Evanescence, just with a new lead singer who's much less of a drama queen (at least thus far). But hearing an album that sounds like a clone of Fallen doesn't have the same charm for me now as the original Fallen did in 2003. At least Evanescence's second disc showed some growth. I'm not sure whether to blame Moody for being so by-the-book, or Amy Lee for being such a frigging drama queen that she literally drove out the rest of the band. (Comparisons to Scott Stapp and Alter Bridge are not entirely inappropriate.)

EDIT: Holy felgercarb, "Like a Prayer" is THAT "Like a Prayer"? I'm not sure whether to laugh or cringe.

A guy that I work with plays that album sometimes and I don't find anything appealing about what I've heard of it. I hate when musicians I admire (Rocky Gray) are part of a project that's this mediocre and generic.

[murlough23]

A guy that I work with plays that album sometimes and I don't find anything appealing about what I've heard of it. I hate when musicians I admire (Rocky Gray) are part of a project that's this mediocre and generic.

Yeah. I'm like, "Now I see what annoyed everybody else so much about Evanescence." Even though this doesn't make me feel suddenly annoyed by old Evanescence. Weird how that works.

[ewok20t3]

Yeah. I'm like, "Now I see what annoyed everybody else so much about Evanescence." Even though this doesn't make me feel suddenly annoyed by old Evanescence. Weird how that works.

I enjoyed Evanescence when they first released Fallen. At the time I was very much into listening to rock radio and it was a breath of fresh air to have a female with that type of voice singing hard rock music over the airwaves. That feeling wore off rather quickly and I began to get frustrated that they didn't push the envelope musically. The only things I like about that album now is "My Tourniquet" (mainly because it's a cover of a Soul Embraced song), and "Going Under" is a song I can still stand to listen to occasionally.

[murlough23]

I felt like Fallen, and to a lesser extent, The Open Door made an effort to make the individual songs stand out, which for me was an achievement despite the bland power-chord approach of Moody's guitars. (Having Terry Balsamo around for the second album helped a little.) Actually, some of their most surprising stuff on a creative level happened on their demo Origin. They didn't constantly have the drama cranked up to 11 on that one.

[bloop]

Speaking of Danger Mouse, I'm listening to the Sparklehorse collaboration that came out this month. Jury's still out, but I think this one will end up being good, but not great in my book.

I love this album (enough to buy the book and a blank CD-R last year), but the death of the artist known as Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) is very saddening.

I liked Evanescence - thought there was a lot of potential there, but felt at the time that they were deeply overrated.  I haven't revisited really.

[cbluejays]

I've been listening to Delta Spirit's new album History from Below.  Very good album, in the folk/punk/indie vein.  The lead singer has a very distinctive, raw voice that is one of the band's best qualities.  Intelligent lyrical themes, although sometimes the lyrics themselves are a bit too simplistic.  If you just want to check a couple songs out, I'd recommend 9/11, Bushwick Blues, Golden State, or Salt in the Wound.

Also, their first album, Ode to Sunshine  , is highly recommended if you want more.

[bloop]

Edgar Winter's White Trash, which my dad left behind for me when he was watching the kids. My first experience with a full Winter album, and it's a good one.

[plvarona]

I was listening to a stream of Andrew Peterson's Counting Stars earlier tonight and I like what I heard.  The instrumentation really stood out to me on this album, more so than others.  I do think the best tracks are towards the end, with "In The Night My Heart Goes On" and "The Reckoning" especially standing out.

[Aaron]

Lost Dogs - "You Satisfy"

[murlough23]

I was listening to a stream of Andrew Peterson's Counting Stars earlier tonight and I like what I heard.  The instrumentation really stood out to me on this album, more so than others.  I do think the best tracks are towards the end, with "In The Night My Heart Goes On" and "The Reckoning" especially standing out.

Good to hear it. I like him best when the instrumentation is rich and folksy. When he tries to go pop, not so much.

[ewok20t3]

Listening to Queens of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf. I forgot what a solid album this was. I haven't listened to it all the way through in years.

[ewok20t3]

"Crossfire" - Brandon Flowers
It doesn't sound much different from what The Killers do, but I'm really liking this song.

[bloop]

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, which I don't find as exciting as their first two albums, so color me a little disappointed. I'm not ready to rate it yet, though.

[murlough23]

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, which I don't find as exciting as their first two albums, so color me a little disappointed. I'm not ready to rate it yet, though.

I listened to it, too. I think we're missing a track. The stuff that interested me the most seemed to be in the back half. Jury's still out, but I figure there's no way I can judge it with a track missing.

[bloop]

No, it isn't exactly missing a track. Sprawl I and II are combined into one track, which isn't correct, but it isn't missing either.

[murlough23]

No, it isn't exactly missing a track. Sprawl I and II are combined into one track, which isn't correct, but it isn't missing either.

I checked Wikipedia for the titles and track times. What we have labelled as "Suburban warfare" is really "Sprawl II". I realized something was up when the track times didn't match and that track was out of sequence, so I listened carefully to the sequence. Regine is definitely singing about "Mountains Beyond Mountains" there, which is the subtitle of Part II. I paid close attention to the lyrics the rest of the way through after that (from "Month of May" on), and the rest of 'em seemed to be labelled correctly, but there's no way eight minutes of "Sprawl" fits on just that one track.

[bloop]

Ah, the downside of piracy.  Good catch.  Hopefully, something will come out soon where the quality is good and everything is present.

[murlough23]

Ah, the downside of piracy.  Good catch.  Hopefully, something will come out soon where the quality is good and everything is present.

That's called the CD.

I'm just glad this never happened with Falling Up. (They're notorious for having oddball song titles that don't appear in the song, but instead appear in other songs.)

[bloop]

Vinyl rips can be very good, and there's nothing about them that implies that the rip will be incomplete vs. a CD, but they're kind of pointless unless you're going to 24-bit lossless, and the uploader knows what they're doing (and you have the sound card and equipment that can handle it), IMO.  In this case, I think the uploader only sort of knew what he was doing (I can't knock him too much since I have yet to attempt ripping a record).

For mp3s, though, I prefer a good CD rip usually, unless the loudness war issues are present and distracting, in which case the vinyl rips are sometimes (but not always) an improvement.

[murlough23]

The issue here isn't CD vs. vinyl, unless the vinyl was purposefully given a different tracklisting (and why would you want to do that to the audiophiles who arguably pay the most attention to the music?) It's simply that the only way to know for sure you've got the real thing is to have your own copy. Especially when the thing isn't even out yet, we could be judging based on a pre-release, and sometimes songs get tacked on, dropped, or otherwise futzed with at the eleventh hour.