Second Guess The Critic: Reloaded, Round 6

[Brenden]

Plvarona: Article One - Article One (clips) http://inpop.com/artists/article_one.html
Brenden: Hanson - The Walk (clips) http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Hanson/dp/B000KRNF50/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2334770-1687006?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173383226&sr=1-1
Bloop: Hanson - The Walk (see above for clips)
Murlough23: Meg And Dia - Something Real (clips) http://www.amazon.com/Something-Real-Meg-Dia/dp/B000GJ28KK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2334770-1687006?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173383314&sr=1-1
NinjaRob17: Chevelle - This Type Of Thinking Could Do Us In (clips) http://www.amazon.com/This-Type-Thinking-Could-Do/dp/B0002X8J3A/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-2334770-1687006?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173383377&sr=1-2
Josh: The Brothers Martin - The Brothers Martin (clips) http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Martin/dp/B000LW7UQO/sr=1-1/qid=1169612122/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4949027-4599319?ie=UTF8&s=music


This round hasn't officially started yet, but it will start tommorow at 12 noon eastern time. The round will end Friday next week at 10 PM eastern time.

[Josh]

Put me down for Brothers Martin. (And sorry for the delay!)

[Brenden]

Put me down for Brothers Martin. (And sorry for the delay!)

Quite alright, I wanted to give you a little time since you said you were swamped.

[bloop]

Plvarona:  4
Brendan:  3
Murlough:  4
Ninjarob:  3
Josh:  4

[murlough23]

Plvarona: 4
Brenden: 4
Bloop: 3
NinjaRob17: 4
Josh: 3

[Brenden]

Plvarona: 4
Bloop: 3
Murlough23: 3
NinjaRob17: 4
Josh: 3

[ajyouthguy]

Plvarona: 3
Brenden:3
Bloop: 3
Murlough23: 4
NinjaRob17: 3
Josh: 4

[eatahouse]

All 4s!

[plvarona]

Brenden: 3
Bloop: 3
Murlough: 3
NinjaRob: 4
Josh: 4

[Josh]

Plvarona: 3
Brenden: 3
Bloop: 3
Murlough23: 2
NinjaRob17: 4

[RedcoatJones]

Plvarona: 3
Brenden: Hanson - 3
Bloop: Hanson - 3
Murlough23: 3
NinjaRob17: 2
Josh: 3

It's not that I don't think any of these albums are good, but I'm having a hard time pegging everyone this week.

[murlough23]

The Amazon page for the Hanson album has no clips. Thanks again, Amazon!

[Brenden]

I will have to be more careful with amazon in the future. Looking for alternate site now.

[murlough23]

I will have to be more careful with amazon in the future. Looking for alternate site now.

I just realized that the album isn't actually out yet; Amazon traditionally doesn't put clips up this early.

Maybe the two people reviewing those albums this week could Pub a few tracks for us.

[Brenden]

I just realized that the album isn't actually out yet; Amazon traditionally doesn't put clips up this early.

Maybe the two people reviewing those albums this week could Pub a few tracks for us.

I pubbed a track, I'll pub a couple more to give an idea of the overall sound of the album.

[NinjaRob17]

Plvarona: 3
Brenden: 4
Bloop: 3
Murlough23: 4
Josh: 4

[murlough23]

Due to problems with Pub access this week, I'm going to suggest that we postpone the round until the Pub is back up and people have had a sufficient chance to listen to those Hanson songs. (Or until we find another place to hear clips. The album isn't out and reviews of it don't exist yet at the usual places one would look for such things, so we're all kind of shooting in the dark on this one.)

NP: "I Am Free", Newsboys

[Brenden]

Agreed, the round is on hold until the Pub gets back working and I can upload those hanson songs to give everyone else a fair shot, or someone finds clips.

[Brenden]

Hanson songs are now on the pub, so the round will now continue and I'll give everyone until Thursday at 10PM when this round will end.

[murlough23]

OK, my guesses are finally in.

[eatahouse]

Plvarona: 3
Brenden: 4
Bloop: 4
Murlough23: 3
NinjaRob17: 3
Josh: 4

[Brenden]

I was thinking about the next theme round, would anyone object to having the theme be albums by former american idol contestants?

I think that could be interesting, even if it did turn out to have the lowest overall ratings of any round.

[murlough23]

I was thinking about the next theme round, would anyone object to having the theme be albums by former american idol contestants?

I would. Sorry.

NP: "Over the Moon", The Innocence Mission

[Brenden]

Ok then, I'll think of something else.

[bloop]

Maybe you could stick with the TV theme idea, though - artists who have acted or otherwise been on television in some capacity.  That wouldn't eliminate the possibility of someone choosing an AI contestant.

[murlough23]

Maybe you could stick with the TV theme idea, though - artists who have acted or otherwise been on television in some capacity.  That wouldn't eliminate the possibility of someone choosing an AI contestant.

I'd be open to that, though I'm not 100% sure what I'd pick.

[Josh Powell]

If you do that one of you guys should pick Half Past Forever - Take a Chance.... (Chris Sligh's band's album)

[Brenden]

If you do that one of you guys should pick Half Past Forever - Take a Chance.... (Chris Sligh's band's album)

Sounds like a good choice for me, but that's the round after next, you everyone has time to find something.

[murlough23]

OK, I think this round is finally over. Sorry that my protests caused it to get delayed.

Meg & Dia was described to me as "Eisley plus Gatorade". And I loves me some Eisley, so that was a good sign. But I didn't expect an Eisley clone, and I didn't find one. There's a similar sister-driven pop-rock dynamic going on here, and M&D do have a little more crunch than Eisley, plus they can do the sensitive stuff, so that's good. There are songs which appear to depict characters that I'll have to spend a little bit more time with to figure out what's going on. That's a good thing. But they reside a little more in the "real world" than Eisley does, in terms of the lyrics, and the melodies are a little more down to Earth. What makes Eisley so fantastic for me is their imaginative approach, and at times Meg & Dia is a little too straightforward by comparison. Their vocal approach needs a tiny bit of work, too. I can't file any major complaints again Something Real other than its pretentious title, but its back half doesn't quite keep up the interesting momentum of its first half, so overall I'm gonna have to go with a B-, which translates to 4 stars.

Next round: Hellogoodbye's Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! Power pop to the max, baby!

[Brenden]

Yeah, it's over.

I had actually never heard a Hanson album or song before. They were big before I listened to radio or even listened to much music. So, I was kind of expecting the pop band I heard about during the Mmmbop era. I was pleasently suprised to find that, while it is basically a pop album, it does have some rock influnce. The melodies are memorable, the vocals are quite good, but the lyrics could have used more work. It's above average, good but not great, I'm going to give it a B-, 4 stars.

*edit* Next round I'm doing The Beatles - Love. It's the "remix" album that came out last year.

[bloop]

Yeah, I was happier with some of the bluesier influences in Hanson's music.  While I, too, enjoyed the vocals, they did still sound a little too youthful given the present age of the brothers - like they're trying to not change too much from their late 90s hey day.  Not a bad little album, but nothing amazing either, so, eh, 6.0 (C+) or 3 stars sounds about right here.

Next up:  Mirrored by Battles.  Hopefully, this link will work for clips.

[plvarona]

Based on what the guesses were for me this week, I think I'm about to surprise a lot of you.

Album Reviewed: Article One - Article One

Pros: There are a few solid pop songs on this album, most notably "Slow Down" and "Dream October."  For the most part, these guys seem to be competent musicians, and I do like them throwing in a violin once in awhile, even if I felt it could have been brought out more.

Cons: This is an album that does not stand up well to repeated listens.  It sounded okay the first time I listened to it, but its flaws became much more evident when I listend to it again.  For one thing, for an album that has been hyped as having a "fresh new sound", in reality it's anything but that.  If you take away the violin, this basically sounds like the same CCM shlock that many artists have done before, and many will continue to do long after these guys are forgotten.  Even then the violin doesn't stand out all that much.  In fact, if you take Big Daddy Weave (the signed version), and replace the saxophone with a violin, you pretty much get the idea.  I may have been willing to look past the stale sound if the lyrics were insightful.  Unfortunately, these guys also bat .000 in that department.  The lyrics are awkwardly written in many places, and don't really tell us anything new either.  Probably the worst offender in terms of lyrics is "So Many Ways to Say Goodbye."  I actually admire that song's intent, because it tries to tackle the difficult subject of death.  Unfortunately, its lyrics sound very clumsy, as if they were written by a confused 10-year old.  I could understand if that was the intent of the song, but from what I've read on their website, it doesn't look like that was the case.  So basically, the lyrics are banal at best, and insulting to my intelligence at worst.

The Bottom Line: Even though there weren't too many truly hideous moments on this album, it is still a highly flawed project that can get fairly irritating at times, and even at its best is still fairly unremarkable.  I emphatically do not recommend this CD.

Rating: "D+", which for the purpose of this game is 2 stars.  I really didn't want to be so harsh on these guys, but there are just too many flaws and not enough strong points for me to score this any higher.

On Deck For Next Week: The Day of Small Things - Alli Rogers (Link to clips: http://cdbaby.com/cd/allirogers2.)

[Brenden]

Yeah, I was happier with some of the bluesier influences in Hanson's music.  While I, too, enjoyed the vocals, they did still sound a little too youthful given the present age of the brothers - like they're trying to not change too much from their late 90s hey day.  Not a bad little album, but nothing amazing either, so, eh, 6.0 (C+) or 3 stars sounds about right here.

Next up:  Mirrored by Battles.  Hopefully, this link will work for clips.

I debated going with a C+, it, like a few other albums this year, is toeing the line between two different grades.

[NinjaRob17]

Chevelle's This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In) is very similar to their previous release, Wonder What's Next (it's also very similar to their newest release Vena Sera, but I digress). So it seems that Chevelle is one of those bands that found "their sound" early on in their career. This can be both good and bad, as is shown in This Type of Thinking.... The album flows together well, and is very consistent in its sound. However, some of the songs blend together, and the album gets a bit repetitive by the end. Nevertheless, the album still holds together pretty well, so I'll give it a B-, or 4 Stars.

NEXT WEEK IS....."We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" -Modest Mouse.

[Josh]

4 for the Martins.

Next week is LCD Soundsystem-- Sounds of Silver.

[Brenden]

I'm not gonna be able to score this round until tommroow, so the next will probably start tommorow night.

[Brenden]

http://www.thephorum.net/index.php?topic=3498.0

Next round has begun sooner than I expected.