Pimp Your Reviews!

[Ian]

"Gone are (previous album) Amputechture’s individualized songs"

They seemed like seperate tracks to me.  Other than that though I would pretty much agree with your review.  This album is a long way from Frances for me, but it's still darn good.

Of course, Frances recieved the second highest score I've ever given an album (9.7) behind only OK Computer (9.8), so I wasn't expecting Bedlam to beat it.

[murlough23]

I promised someone a Falling Up review in January. Uh, sorry.

http://www.epinions.com/review/Captiva_by_Falling_Up_094639219827/content_418275495556

[NinjaRob17]

For the most part, I agree with that review. Though, I would give Arch to the Archtilles a higher rating, but that's just personal opinion.

Also, Islander is still their longest track, as that isn't a "pointless remix".

[murlough23]

For the most part, I agree with that review. Though, I would give Arch to the Archtilles a higher rating, but that's just personal opinion.

I wanted to give that one higher marks. I just felt like the attempt at making it heavier in the middle ruined the intimacy of it.

Also, Islander is still their longest track, as that isn't a "pointless remix".

It's on the pointless remix album. Same diff.

[identification]

I think I was the one asking for that review, so thanks for doing that.  I think agree with you on it mostly.

[murlough23]

Reviewed Thrice's The Alchemy Index, Vols. I & II.

http://www.epinions.com/content_419208269444

[murlough23]

Here's my review of a spastic little piece of plastic called Drastic Fantastic.

http://www.epinions.com/content_420264185476

[murlough23]

I have reviewed Fauxliage.

http://www.epinions.com/content_421034626692

[Josh]

I need to start taking advantage of this thread. To catch up, here's a quick list of all the reviews I've done for 2008 so far:

White Hinterland-- Phylactery Factory
Tift Merritt-- Another Country
Son Lux-- At War with Walls and Mazes
Kathleen Edwards-- Asking for Flowers
Drive-by Truckers-- Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Shelby Lynne-- Just a Little Lovin'
Lizz Wright-- The Orchard
Los Campesinos!-- Hold On Now, Youngster...
Ray Davies-- Working Man's Cafe
Marah-- Angels of Destruction
Allison Moorer-- Mockingbird
Sheryl Crowe-- Detours
Nick Lowe-- Jesus of Cool

[murlough23]

Thanks for the Drive-By Truckers review, Josh. I'm really feeling them this time... though I do think it takes the album until about 1/2 of the way in to really hit its stride.

Here's my first review of a 2008 release - Olivia the Band's Where We Come From It Never Snows.

http://www.epinions.com/content_421795171972

NP: "Something Greater", Olivia the Band

[murlough23]

Here is a review of Plumb's Blink, in which I admit to my own fears of becoming a father someday.

http://www.epinions.com/content_422801018500

[murlough23]

Well, since this thread is called "Pimp Your Reviews", I thought I'd mention an amusing incident in which someone else ended up unwittingly pimping one of my reviews. Here's an "express review" of Josh Bates' Perfect Day (which I gave a scathing review back in 2005) by a newbie at Epinions:

Don't believe what the first reviewer Divad23 says about this CD
Mar 19 '08 (Updated Mar 19 '08)

Product Rating: 5.0

Pros
It's "real" Christian music. A good mixture of rock and ballads.

Cons
None

Full Review
This CD is just plain awesome. This music has the power to change lives. Really. Unlike most of the commercial junk out there that is only for making money, Josh's music will speak to you. Josh is the real deal. His music will encourage you. It may make you shout, it may make you cry.
I own hundreds of CD's and this one is in my top five.
Mark Miller the founder of Casting Crowns knows what he is doing. Who you gonna believe. Divad23 or him ?

This is the best kind of rebuttal to hope for, because nobody reading it would have any clue what he's replying to, so they'd have to go read my review in order to find out. So I decided to leave the following comment, thanking him for the favor:

Looks like you're off to a great start! You spent the entirety of your review attacking mine, which is awesome, because there's absolutely no context to help people figure out what you're offering a rebuttal to without reading my review first. So, thanks for the extra hits, bro!

Next up, I highly suggest that you write a similar review of Casting Crowns' Lifesong.

Subsequent comments can be found here: http://www.epinions.com/content_422707760772/show_~allcom

[spacebrat311]

You might just be evil. But my favorite kind of evil.

[TheWanderer]

That dude is a douchebag.

[spacebrat311]

That dude is a douchebag.

I recently discovered that the dollar store across from my apartment sells douches. Needless to say I have bought several and keep them in paper bags, just praying for the opportunity to hand one to someone and tell them it reminds me of them.

[TheWanderer]

I recently discovered that the dollar store across from my apartment sells douches. Needless to say I have bought several and keep them in paper bags, just praying for the opportunity to hand one to someone and tell them it reminds me of them.

Hilarious!

[Ian]

who you gonna believe, divad23 or jesus

think about it

[murlough23]

who you gonna believe, divad23 or jesus

think about it

Dude, when Jesus starts writing music reviews, that'll be the day I throw in the towel.

[spacebrat311]

What Would Jesus Listen To?

[murlough23]

What Would Jesus Listen To?

Jesus listens to all of our pathetic whining on a daily basis. But if we're going to charge other people money to hear our meager thoughts about Him, I'd be willing to bet He'd prefer we put a little more brain-power into it.

[Josh]

Here's my take on the Punch Brothers album.

[murlough23]

Here's my take on the Punch Brothers album.

Whoa, sounds positively impenetrable. I liked Thile in Nickel Creek, but he can get a bit smarmy in his solo work - we'll see what I think of this one.

Here's my review of Luna Halo's self-titled.

http://www.epinions.com/content_423695650436

[Josh]

R.E.M.-- Accelerate

[Josh]

The discussion of Kutless, et al. has been moved to its own separate thread. 

[NewDimension]

What annoyed you about it? Did you not like what it said? Did it make you feel guilty? Or was it just on an aesthetic level (the sound of the music and the guy's voice)? And if you didn't like the sound of the song, why did that change? Did your musical tastes just change?

I really liked the lyrics, and it didn't make me feel guilty at all; I just really didn't like their sound altogether that much; and maybe I didn't like their sound much, because I really didn't like how "rock" music sounded that much altogether. My musical tastes have changed. Other artists/bands whose sound I didn't really like, I started liking after a while. So it changed overtime. Several months after I heard "Run" I heard "Sea of Faces" and "It's Like Me", I liked the lyrics again, but still didn't like the sound. About,  maybe a year and half later, I heard their versions of a couple of worship songs that I knew, and I liked their versions of them. So I bought the Strong Tower cd (not something I was planning, but there was a bunch of other songs that I knew on there, and since I liked their versions of the previous worship songs I heard, I got it), and God started touching heart through their music; from that point on I started liking their music.

More detail is exactly what the song needs. What you explained is powerful, but the song doesn't actually explain any of that. So it makes sense to people who already know the theology behind it. However, to someone who is a non-Christian or a baby Christian, they might not know that, so I think this is where Kutless needs to take more responsibility for their craft. I don't think songwriters should necessarily explain everything they write, particularly if they're trying to be more poetic, but poetic has never been Kutless's M.O. They're trying to be straightforward and conversational, and still missing the mark due to their small vocabulary and tendency to describe things rather vaguely.

Well the song itself might not explain what I said, but that's something I've taken away from the lyrics that are present in it. I don't really think the song was written directly with non-Christians in mind at the time, the lyrics say: "whatever happened to love, the love you had for Me, when you first came to Me", and I've read that Jon Micah wrote this song at a spiritually dry point in his life. The song talks about how our love for God has grown cold, and how He's still reaching out to us, when we're not seeking Him. So I guess my question would be, how do you write songs that explain things well to unbelievers, but at the same time encourage those who are believers already to grow much deeper with their walk with God? Can you really do this with much detail in the same song, without making the song extremely long and sort of sounding like a run-on? Of course God can use songs that are more specified for Christians to reach the hearts of those who aren't Christians, and vise versa, but how do you think people should write songs, when they are trying to reach those who do believe and those who don't believe at the same time? What details should be given?

I see what you're saying here, but it sounds like about a thousand other Christian bands could have had the same effect on you, if not a more profound one.

Of course they could have, and God has used many Christian bands in my life....and not just Christian bands, but preachers, teachers, people, phrases, the list could go on and on. In my life, He doesn't just use one thing to impact me, though He might use one more than another many times, He uses a series of things. I still ask myself why I even started liking the music of Kutless, and why He has used them in my life so much, He could use anybody....but for some reason He chose them, to give me the right words and encouragment I needed to hear, at the right time.

Name another specific song and what you realized/changed/put into practice as a result of hearing it. You're talking in generalities and honestly, kind of losing me here.

Okay, I'll go with "Not What You See" this time. God has used this song to help change the conditon of my heart, how I respond toward things, and what my attitude is like all throughout the day. It reminds me (and God brings it to my mind when I need to hear it)  that being the greatest is being the least, washing someone else's feet. That being the slave, the servant of all, is better than having pride come before a fall. We never like to give up our pride; doing that, makes us feel uncomfortable and and causes us to do things we don't want to do. Really, it reiterates the words of Jesus: be servants to all. Then, in the song, it describes that Jesus, the One who is worthy of all exaltation, humbled Himself...."even He, He laid it down, to serve on bended-knee." Which in turn, reminds me of this Scripture:  "...He humbled Himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Phill. 2:8 What Jesus did for us, leaves us with no excuse, for being proud and not resembling Him in humility everyday of our lives.
Speaking of pride and humility, let's go to "Pride Away".  This song is like a prayer to me, especially the second verse: "Lord keep me only focused on You, make me a humble man. Don't ever let me take the credit, for what You have done." "In every single one of our lives, in every single day, we need to lay down our pride as God takes it away."

Yeah, and sometimes I think it's easy to just put that "Spirit" tag on things so that we won't have to do the work to describe what's really going on. I know God is working, I'm just asking what exactly He's doing and whether Kutless was really as big a part of that as you claim they were.

Well, it's true people do put the "Spirit" tag on things, but honestly how can you describe God's presence touching Your heart? No words can really describe what happens inside, when you know He's there, and He meets with you and inhabits you in that special way. It really is difficult to describe to you the things of the Spirit in natural terms.
"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:15

Yeah, and can someone please transmit this to the thread it relates to? I started typing this before that thread existed.

[Josh]

Um...

The discussion of Kutless, et al. has been moved to its own separate thread. 

[Brenden]

http://www.epinions.com/content_425627913860

My review of Fall/Winter by Jon Foreman.

[Ian]

There's a bridge melody the builds nicely,

Aside from that little mishap, well done.

[Brenden]

Aside from that little mishap, well done.

Isn't that a bridge? It's got a different melody than both the verse and the chorus.

[murlough23]

Isn't that a bridge? It's got a different melody than both the verse and the chorus.

I think you said "the" instead of "that".

[Brenden]

Oh, I see it now.

[Josh]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds-- Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

[murlough23]

Here's a review of one of the most inappropriately named bands ever.

http://www.epinions.com/content_426076573316

[murlough23]

Decided to actually review a newly released album in a timely manner, for a change. Here's my review of the last two volumes of Thrice's The Alchemy Index.

http://www.epinions.com/content_426500787844

[Josh]

Marco Benevento-- Invisible Baby

[murlough23]

Jars of Clay - Greatest Hits

http://www.epinions.com/content_426624454276

[dgp11776]

  I had to laugh at the $10 glaring omission fee!

[murlough23]

I had to laugh at the $10 glaring omission fee!

I suppose that was my way of counterbalancing the fact that my usual "dollar amount" system was kind of broken when it came to a CD that honestly did have a lot of quality music on it.

NP: "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", David Crowder Band

[spacebrat311]

Thrice - The Alchemy Index (all volumes)

http://thecornerdorm.blogspot.com/2008/04/alchemy-index-fails-to-turn-lead-into.html

[TheWanderer]

Thrice - The Alchemy Index (all volumes)

http://thecornerdorm.blogspot.com/2008/04/alchemy-index-fails-to-turn-lead-into.html

"they do not seem to have the talent at crafting grown-up melodies and sentiments that they did at high school ones"

I wholeheartedly disagree with this statement. Is it because you had certain expectations and that they were so big for you while in high school?   When people make statements like the one I quoted above, it is usually because the band did something so totally different from previous stuff that people aren't comfortable with said band changing so much.  That's just what I've observed over the years.