Pimp Your Reviews!

[spacebrat311]

I know what you're talking about, but I disagree with your concept of reality.

I never would have taken you for an absolute objectivist (in the non-Rand sense).

[bloop]

You're making me curious about the Rand sense as opposed to the non-Rand sense (can't say I've read her work), but I guess the thread needs to get back to pimping reviews.

[murlough23]

Here's a bite-size review of Fleet Foxes' Sun Giant EP.

http://www.epinions.com/content_463221198468

[Josh]

Madeleine Peyroux - Bare Bones

[dgp11776]

Nicely done.

[Josh]

Extra Golden - Thank You Very Quickly

If you like Vampire Weekend's take on Afro-rock fusion, you have GOT to hear this record.

[Josh]

Duncan Sheik - Whisper House

[Josh]

Mirah - (A)spera

[Josh]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

[bloop]

I'm rather taken by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's album, too.  I don't usually mention this kind of thing, but I absolutely love the album cover.

[Josh]

Marianne Faithfull - Easy Come, Easy Go

[murlough23]

Here's my take on U2's No Line on the Horizon.

http://www.epinions.com/content_464023096964

[Josh]

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/the-decemberists-the-hazards-of-love/

[Ian]

"the album can only really be enjoyed as a whole, from front to back, as it builds toward a big payoff at the end rather than affording numerous, smaller crescendos along the way. "
I wouldn't agree with this part.  There are quite a few good stand alone songs, and there are several crescendos throughout the album.  Besides that though, I'd say you're pretty much on the money.

[Josh]

I've had a few commentors disagree with that point, so I'm happy to admit that I'm in the minority here, but I really do think that even the few songs that kinda stand on their own-- like "The Rake's Song"-- don't have particularly great hooks, at least by Decemberists standards, and that they make a lot less sense outside the context of the story than they do as stand-alone singles.

To put it another way: I don't think anyone would ever put this album on shuffle, or pop it into the player just to skip to a few favorite tracks. You listen to the whole thing, or you don't listen. Which is, I think, how it was intended.

[Ian]

Sounds fair, Crane Wife is definitely superior where hooks are concerned.

[Josh]

Nick Lowe - Quiet Please: The New Best Of...

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/nick-lowe-quiet-please-the-new-best-of/

[Aaron]

Nick Lowe - Quiet Please: The New Best Of...

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/nick-lowe-quiet-please-the-new-best-of/

I'm not sure how I had never heard of Lowe before this year but that album was a wonderful introduction to his works.

[Josh]

Dan Deacon - Bromst

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/dan-deacon-bromst/

[murlough23]

Dude, Josh, how do you pump these out so fast?

[Aaron]

Spring break?

[Josh]

Unemployed. 

Actually, a lot of these are things I've been sitting on for a long time-- some of them since before Christmas! These last couple of weeks have been big for new music, so I've been posting more than usual, but things will be slowing down in the coming weeks.

[murlough23]

Here's my (apparently unpopular) take on The Lonely Island's Incredibad.

http://www.epinions.com/content_464497905284

[Josh]

Gomez - A New Tide

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/gomez-a-new-tide/

[murlough23]

This isn't a review in the strict sense (e.g. I didn't post it to Epinions), but after going to the Delirious? concert the other day, I figured it would be appropriate to write up an overview of their career, with my critical reactions and personal memories for each album. So I posted it to my Xanga.

Part 1 (Cutting Edge through Audio: Lessonover?): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696364853/audio-lesson-one/
Part 2 (World Service through Kingdom of Comfort): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696435772/audio-lesson-two/

[Aaron]

Here's my (apparently unpopular) take on The Lonely Island's Incredibad.

http://www.epinions.com/content_464497905284

I don't think those guys are all that funny anyways.

[murlough23]

I don't think those guys are all that funny anyways.

It probably depends on your reaction to someone's moronic tendencies getting played up to a ridiculous degree. Some things are do dumb that you just gotta laugh. I'm just not sure this is one of those things for me.

NP: "When in Rome", Nickel Creek

[Aaron]

It probably depends on your reaction to someone's moronic tendencies getting played up to a ridiculous degree. Some things are do dumb that you just gotta laugh. I'm just not sure this is one of those things for me.

NP: "When in Rome", Nickel Creek

I laughed the first couple times at Dick in A Box when I saw it on tv. 

Then again, I am someone who has not viewed SNL to be good for the past 10 years.  It does not keep my interest at all.

[murlough23]

Then again, I am someone who has not viewed SNL to be good for the past 10 years.  It does not keep my interest at all.

As I mentioned in the review, I never watched the show in its "classic" days. (I started watching it circa 1998, though I missed a few years around 2001-2002.) I think it's hit-and-miss now, but the stuff that makes me laugh is usually worth sitting through the stuff that doesn't.

NP: "Daylight", Coldplay

[bloop]

I like:

• Weekend Update (fake news, generally)
• Digital Shorts and Fake Commercials
• TV Funhouse
• musical guests (sometimes)

The sketches are, as a rule, pretty lame.

[murlough23]

Weekend Update is usually the cornerstone of the show for me, though I like it less with Seth solo than I did with Seth and Amy (which, in turn, I liked less than I did when it was Tina and Amy or Tina and Jimmy). My main problem with WU is that they take so much time out of the headlines for the generally less funny guests who appear at the newsdesk.

The political cold opens are sometimes really good, but I hate that they feel they always have to open with politics. Sometimes it seems they're really stretching for some relevant political issue to make fun of that week, and then, invariably, the good stuff'll happen in real life (like Obama's Special Olympics gaffe) when SNL is in reruns for a week or two.

Digital Shorts are also very hit and miss for me. Either you can tell it's gonna be a viral hit, or it makes no sense at all.

The sketches tend to me lame when they're just one-off bits about made-up characters that we'll never see again because they don't catch on. When they goof on current events or parody celebrities, they tend to get more mileage out of that stuff. Some recurring characters that I think are absolutely hilarious are the Two A-Holes, Debbie Downer, Penelope (Kristen Wiig's character who always brags about doing everything better than everybody else), and MacGruber (though now that Richard Dean Anderson has guest starred as MacGeyver, this one's kind of played out). I will admit to laughing at the Target lady even though that sketch is basically the same thing every time. (Admittedly, a lot of their recurring character sketches do fall into this trap.)

Musical guests have been more hit than miss for me lately. I'm still stunned that they actually had Fleet Foxes and TV on the Radio on the show this year. (Then again, they had the Jonas Brothers and just about every rapper whose first initial is "T".)

NP: "Water & Blood", Say-So

[dgp11776]

This isn't a review in the strict sense (e.g. I didn't post it to Epinions), but after going to the Delirious? concert the other day, I figured it would be appropriate to write up an overview of their career, with my critical reactions and personal memories for each album. So I posted it to my Xanga.

Part 1 (Cutting Edge through Audio: Lessonover?): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696364853/audio-lesson-one/
Part 2 (World Service through Kingdom of Comfort): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696435772/audio-lesson-two/

Thanks, man.  I really enjoyed reading that.

[Josh]

Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali

http://tinyurl.com/dm5hp4

FANTASTIC album.

[murlough23]

Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement

http://www.epinions.com/content_465342664324

In which I overanalyze an overanalyzer.

[Josh]

Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

http://tinyurl.com/chtvmf

[Josh]

Prince x2

http://tinyurl.com/cmovdb

[Josh]

Ramblin' Jack Elliott - A Stranger Here

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/ramblin-jack-elliott-a-stranger-here/

[murlough23]

The Killers - Day & Age

http://www.epinions.com/content_466343726724

Wow. I brought the snark more than I planned to while writing this one.

[Josh]

Sara Watkins

http://tinyurl.com/cjwdvq

[murlough23]

Sara Watkins

http://tinyurl.com/cjwdvq

Good to know that "Long Hot Summer Days" made the cut. She performed that one with Fiction Family and it was awesomeness.

NP: "No Higher Place", Sierra