Feedback is appreciated and suggestions are more than welcome. This won’t be the format I’ll do the other videos, this is more of a beta test, checking accent and voice, unless you like it more than the usual “guy sitting looking at the camera”. As always, recommendations are enjoyed.
I’m so fucking sick and tired of reviewing albums I don’t really care. I actually prefer reviewing albums that are complete garbage, because that actually amuses me. I really enjoyed reviewing DragonForce, Justin Bieber, Helloween… because I get to know excellent tracks from these guys. So, I could review an album I really despise…
Or I could do complete opposite. Fuck that, I want to do something I enjoy. And this is my 40th review! And to celebrate, I’m going to review Aqualung by Jethro Tull. Who are Jethro Tull? A little background is required:
The year is 1971. Fiddler on the Roof is the highest grossing movie, but doesn’t get the academy awards, and Snoopy Dogg is born. Eat the Document, Bob Dylan’s documentary, sees the light of day, Queen is formed and Nirvana disbands… not Kurt Cobain’s Nirvana, but an UK Nirvana of the time… next review, Nirvana, the UK group. Kamen Rider started out (okay, I like Kamen Rider), and unfortunately, the Ed Sullivan Show comes to an end.
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It’s always the third one. We had Billy Idol, that sucked, B-52′s, that rocks, and then fucking Pump Up The Jam! Then, we have R.E.M, which is kind of good, EMF, which was average, and now we have Hip-Hop and R&B, which granted, is not exactly my area of knowledge. So, who are we talking about today? Bell Biv DeVoe. Who are they? Well, for me, they will always be part of New Edition.
New Edition was a seventies Boston R&B, comprising of mostly five members, Bobby Brown, Ralph Tresvant, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe (the three latter are, obviously enough, Bell Biv DeVoe) that pretty much was the first concrete group that resembled what we would call a Boy Band… you know, that group of people that sing and dance but don’t actively play any instruments in their songs and are more appreciated for their good looks than anything else and no wonder I didn’t pay that much attention. So, I already start the review with some bias, as, I’m not kidding, New Edition was to symbolize that they were a new edition of the Jackson 5. Who would ever want aspire to be in a group that has one talent and four other innocuous people?.. aside from N’Sync…
So, three of the five guys in the group started another group? Why? That actually has an answer, but warning, I’m turning on the SENSELESS STUPIDITY ALERT. One of the guys from New Edition, Bobby Brown, was voted out because of his behavior, and while the group tried success as a quartet with barely any success (they even hired someone to fill his space, by the name of Johnny Gill), he managed to get a multi-platinum album. So, the group thought “Fuck It” and went on to pursue side projects. Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie Devoe said “fuck it” to the “fuck it” and started a trio, which was awarded with a three platinum album, this one. And the rest of the group, I’m talking about Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill, only in the group for 2 years tops, released self-titled albums… and got multi-platinum… both! So, what you’re telling me is that these 6 guys can’t work together for shit, but “alone” they are able to get platinums? What sense does that make? Have you ever heard of a group that broke up and EVERY SINGLE member on it had incredible success, going even further than what the band could do together? It doesn’t make any sense! After this, they realized that they made more success solo than together, but because of contractual… stuff, they had to reunite… and they had a monster success! So, what is the deal? True, they broke up soon after that, because they had rivalries and such, but come on!
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So far, we had 4 reviews of 4 bands that, although I’ve already heard about, I didn’t go after. This case is completely different. I never heard of EMF. So, forgive for the lack of information, as I will report only of stuff I find in the interwebz.
EMF means Epsom Mad Funkers. Bad sign. They are an UK Indie Dance Rock group… Indie Dance? Does that even exist? Holy crap, it’s the same subgenre of New Order. Fuck! Okay… the band almost didn’t get any recognition, releasing three albums: this one got a 3rd place on the UK charts… but the other two were flops. They try to get back over and over again, but it’s never noticeable… want to see? They got together in 2007 and disbanded in 2009… did you hear about it? Me neither.
I really don’t know if I like the cover. It’s a black and white graffiti and it really sticks outside of the crowd but… it can be also signs of a completely lazy train of thought. “We are underground, graffiti” already has been done… and better, by the way. And believe me: it’s their best cover, believe me. It’s the kind of cover that depends on who’s the judge. The longest song is the intro, “Children”, with 5:15, and the shortest is “When You’re Mine” with 3:22, totaling 44:25 at the end of the album. At least I won’t be willing to blow my brains out, as I was after Pump up the Jam.
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This post is late, I know… but try listening to Pump up the Jam the Album thirteen times without a loss of spirits and then, teach me how you did it.
I don’t know why I haven’t heard a lot of R.E.M… I mean, I’ve heard only three songs: It’s the End of the World, which I really enjoy, Bad Day, I like to call it It’s The End of the World v2 but I also like it, and Losing My Religion, that I also enjoy a lot… then… why haven’t I heard more of them? I have many reasons for that, I think…
First of all… the music video for losing my religion is bad… emo bad… And when I saw the music video for a song I was hooked on for a long, long time… I was disappointed. And they are pretentious… I think. They are always involved in causes… I think. I really don’t like that… it’s that type of band that people involved in political causes always cling on too, because they are also involved, and I really am not for that idea: it’s like what happened to U2 in the last ten years. They were always involved in shit, but they had solid music… now, they don’t have solid music, so their fanbase is constituted of people that like baby critters and “Bono is so committed to baby critters” and you know the gist.
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...or maybe...
As you may notice… I’m playing well out of my ball park here, ladies and gentleman. This gem of the nineties is my first album to have two album covers. And to be honest, my copy is the latter, but maybe you know it for the first cover… because… well… this is the song:
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There is a B-52′s song on the medley… but it’s the third song of the bunch. The second song is a remix of Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega. The remix wasn’t released on any albums, and I dislike reviewing singles, but, hell, let’s check them both out, quickly. The original song is slow, has a certain charm to it, downer lyrics and kind of a day in the life atmosphere… I didn’t like it. I am, strangely enough, familiar with the works of Suzanne Vega (I don’t know why, I don’t know Billy Idol but I’ve heard Suzanne Vega. Although the song deserves a check, it’s not exactly great. DNA only added a beat to it and strings… summing up, both songs are really bad. Really, they are. It’s a boring song and a boring song with a beat. Next.
B-52′s is another band that I don’t know a lot… first off, I just know discovered they were an early eighties band. From there style, I could’ve bet all my money on a more Beach Boys period of time and be dead wrong. Second, I only know it because Peter Griffin played Rock Lobster to Cleveland one episode to cheer him up, with mixed success (it didn’t change anything). Afterwards, I heard something of them more recent, and to be frank, nothing made me run after them, but nothing made me run away. I can identify them, and when people ask me about them, I can say something about them (the silly wigs, the silly duets, the silly songs work entirely with their proposal) but really, nothing further. They are not an obvious suggestion on my part. And I thought Surfing Birds were theirs, and I thought Rocko’s Modern Life was by someone else.
The cover of the album is trippy and really campy. It really mixes with the whole B-52 suggestion of going with the fashions and a bit of the style (not musical style, mind you) of the fifties, with some minor influences of the early sixties, with the bubbly hippie colors. The entire album runs for 47 minutes, with the longest song out of the album being our very own Love Shack, with 5:21 and the shortest one being the intro title song, Cosmic Thing, with 3:50. It’s not usual for the title track to be the shortest: on the contrary, it’s almost always the longest one.
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Wow, huge title. Okay… hi, I’m JotaKa, and this will probably my last bet before retiring from music blogs. So, I’m blaming my lack of consistency on the blogs for the lack of feedback I’m getting. I decided reviewing the albums that contain the songs of any Weird Al polka, as I rolled a die (9 medleys, d10, I’m glad to be a nerd)… but here is the catch, it will be one review a day. So, what used to be a week long work, will be resumed to a day of work, since college resumes only on March. The die rolled a four, which means Polka Your Eyes Out was the chosen one. I really enjoy his medleys, because they really sum up a decade. He chooses almost always those songs with no staying power and, with his own version, does it better than the original, making his carefree version that more powerful.
The first time I heard him was a music video of his on MTV (would you believe that channel one day showed music videos? Thank god for VH1… even if it’s transforming itself into a probable MTV) called “The Saga Begins”. With one of my favorite songs of all time, American Pie told the story of Phantom Menace. And I can say with truth in my eyes: he makes the movie sound better than the movie really is. That movie sucked. A little curiosity: the song was released before the commercial release of the movie, as he wrote it based on internet spoilers. After he saw it in an advanced screening, he only did some alterations (one having to do with the chorus but unspecified). McLean loves the song so much that he sometimes on shows screws up and sings a bit of Weird Al’s version. Weird Al has the power.
So, Weird Al made Polka Your Eyes Out for the album Off The Deep End in the distant year of 1992. It contains only songs from 1989 to 1991, and to be honest, was in my opinion one of his more tame medleys, with not exactly a good selection (you can see him doing well on Polka Power, Angry White Boy Polka, Polkarama and Polka Face, but then again, maybe it’s because I am familiar with those tunes and wasn’t exactly musically aware till the year 1998), but it’s still a good medley. If you want to see exactly what songs there are in this medley, you will have to search for it. But here’s the vid:
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. One year ago, I found this little band (while playing in the sand) called Tally Hall. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but as I listened to it, it became my second favorite album, even getting an album in depth. I became maniac about this band, waiting for any release. The way they mixed whimsical with creepy, things that could’ve come out of an insane mind take place, with your mix of ballads, memorable songs and even cutesy songs, including one to an unborn baby and you can’t get any cuter than that.
But that was back in 2005 (and later re-released on 2008). So many years later, they decided to release Good & Evil this year. Since they aren’t that well known, most of the steps that were taken aren’t well documented: there is a mist of mystery on top of things, like why this album was released by their independent label instead of the label they just made a contract with. But we’re not talking politics, we are talking music on this one. The formation stood the taste of time, remaining the same five ties of before: Yellow Tie Rob Cantor keeps the vocals and guitar, Blue Tie Zubin Sedghi keeps some vocals and the bass, Grey Tie Ross Federman drums, Joe Hawley sings some and leads the guitar and, finally, Andrew Horowitz sings and plays the keyboards.
The cover art is almost as good as their previous album (seriously, I loved that cover) even though it’s simple, with white and black triangles intercalating the words Tally and Hall, which the duality of white with black, light and dark being almost a theme on the album. The longest song on the album the last one, Fate of the Stars, with 6:50, and the shortest tune is A Lady, with 1:05, and the entire album runs 48:50.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Ahh… Linkin Park. It’s one of those moments when I can say stuff about the band with little to no research at all, since, afterall, there are recent to my standards and I can say that I remember them, when they started with Hybrid Theory (the name of the band before the album Hybrid Theory), when they released the album in question, when they threw shit on the fan with that fucked up think with Jay-Z (whom I love, by the way, he just suits my style of music perfectly) and some minor stuff beyond, really. So… what the hell means Linkin Park? Beats me. A little background is required:
The year is 2003. The Wachowski brothers continued and destroyed what could’ve been one of the best sci-fi stories ever and the last one of the Lord of the Ring movies goes and wins the Academy Award. Slow year for music in general, with few headlines that matter: 50 cent releases “Get Rich or Die Trying” to very good critics and Barry White falls victim to his obesity, more specifically a total renal failure. N-Gage is released (much to gamers laughter), as well as Clamp’s manga XXXHolic, one of my favorites.
With the mix between Nu Metal and Hip Hop, mostly rapping, already proven right with the release of Hybrid Theory and its consequent ovation and critical acclaim, it was left to them to keep the bar up. After a turbulent start with lots of changes in the personnel, the guys that formed Linkin Park were Chester Bennington on the vocals, Mike Shinoda on the keyboard and vocals, Rob Bourdon on the drums, Brad Delson on the lead guitars, Phoenix on the bass and Mr. Hahn on… he’s the DJ of the group, for whatever reason you need one. After spending one year releasing single after single of this album, the album comes with generally great critics and is considered a staple of Nu Metal. So, right now, the problem is clear.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Well, as the theme month is over and the whole 30th Album in Depth long gone, I think I’ll already start the next review, Vivid. This was one of the few bands I got to know from Guitar Hero (along with DragonForce, holy crap that was like more than one year ago), and to be honest, was one of the few that I got happy only knowing of Cult of Personality, which will have my opinion on it later on the track by track analysis. So, why is it Living Colour and not Living Color and why the cover is clearly something related to LSD? A little background is required:
The year is 1988. Helloween releases Keeper of the Seven Keys Part. 2 and I Heard It Through the Grapevine is recorded by… the California Raisins, that manages to get a pretty decent position in the charts. Die Hard hit the big screens and Beetlejuice, which probably was the last Tim Burton movie before going Johnny Depp and never coming back. Alan Moore’s Killing Joke is published (one of my most cherished comics, by the way) and Sega releases Phantasy Star 1 for the Master System (one of the few RPG series that probably are great, but the sprites kill me).
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JK: Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen.
SK: And I'm Shukin, that other guy that complains about discs he doesn't like.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Since I didn’t have time to complete it within the month of November, I decided to continue it anyways, sorry for the delay. Continuing the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!
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Hi, I'm JotaKa. I'm a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Theme month continues, as it is the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Let’s get this on with, this is Ex-Beatle Debut Month!
#1 – Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr
#2 – McCartney by Paul McCartney
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Guess what month it is? It’s October, so obviously enough, this will be the first theme month (or at least season) of the Album in Depth series, this is the Ex-Beatle Debut Month!
So, I’ll take the four solo albums that were released by each of the Beatles right after the break up and review them one by one. The four albums are as follow:
#1 – Sentimental Journey by Ringo Starr
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So… Culture Club… I only know about one song of the band, Karma Chameleon, and it is in this album. That’s one of the reasons I want to do this one: it’s Karma Chameleon’s album, which is its band most influential album. The other reason would be that I never did a new wave eighties album. So… why Color by Numbers and who are the Culture Club? A little background is required.
The year is 1983. Rowan Atkinson makes his debut in movies starring the unofficial Bond movie “Never Say Never Again” and my favorite Star Wars episode, the sixth one, goes to the silver screen. Jason Todd appears as the second Robin and the great video game depression shows its claws, enduring for three years. Thriller is released and Madonna debuts.
After being fired from the Bow Wow Wow, Boy George (the “guy” from the album cover) started his own band. Joining with him, Mikey Craig on the bass, Roy Hay on the guitar and Jon Moss on the drums, Culture Club was formed and was heading to success (if you call New Wave that). After an album that had some success on the charts, but strange success on the tabloids (after all, nobody knew if the singer was a guy or a girl, it was popular in the eighties), the band released this album. There isn’t really many more to add to it than this.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Again, I’m going into progressive music too deep and complaining about minor things. Rereading my last two blogs, I can see I was almost only bitching about how some of the best prog rock ever wasn’t exactly perfect and it had minor flaws: after all, I believe it’s the genre I know the best. So, this time I’ll try to venture a little bit outside of the prog… well, at least outside of the big ass solos, but not so much afar from the creativity and creepy moments.
This week will be Motorcade of Generosity by Cake. I got to know Cake because, once again, a girl I was into liked it a lot. And when I found out she was a lesbian, and is now in England married to another one (if you are reading this, Julia, congratulations, so happy for you), the only thing that remained was this album on my shelf. So, what is Cake beside a delicious dessert and how grammatically wrong is the word “Motorcade”? A little background is required.
The year is 1994. The Lion King sees the silver screen and Forrest Gump gets the Oscar for best picture. Green Day releases Dookie and Kurt Cobain dies at the mythical age of 27. Knuckles shows himself in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Darkstalkers, one of the best fighting games ever, sees the arcades. The confusing, even though somewhat interesting, Clone Saga starts in the Spider-Man comics and the comic characters mourn the passing of the great Jack Kirby.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. After a filler week, let’s get on with it. The next album was, as Agents of Fortune, an album that got through my radar in other medias (I believe it was some movie) and, after some look around, I got it. Kansas for me was always one of those bands that have only two good music: Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. And looking back at my other reviews, it seems like 1976 was the year of those bands: we also had Blue Öyster Cult “Don’t Fear The Reaper” and Eagles’ “Hotel California”. But I’m getting a little over myself, and have to ask: Who is Kansas and why the band is named that way? A little background is required.
The year is 1976. The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin movie, is released, and sadly, Dame Agatha Christie dies from natural causes. Betamax is released in the US and VHS is introduced to Japan. SNL promises 3 grand to the Beatles for an immediate reconciliation, but they dismiss it because of tiredness and Deep Purple announces I believe the first of a lot of break ups.
Kansas was having a stroke of bad luck. After some tours, it had some fans, but it wasn’t a large group of ‘em. And after three failed albums with not one managing to make a hit single, the manager was pressuring them. And really, I can’t blame him: the three first albums aren’t exactly master pieces. And to make matters worse: the major song writer, Steve Walsh the singer, was experiencing Writers block. So, what could the band do? The path to oblivion was almost completely traced before them. So, they give the job of major song writer to Kerry Livgren, the guitarist, to do something about it. And boy, he did. He wrote the eight songs, although the last one was written by everybody in the band. Walsh co-wrote only four songs, and to be completely honest, that shows. I like to think that the problem before was the density of the albums, which were too much prog to go to a major audience: heck, even to prog for me, and I like some pretty prog stuff.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. When I decided on my schedule, I realized I was mostly doing albums that I enjoyed, so I jammed a lot of albums that I didn’t fancy: Sublime, Justin Bieber’s and St. Elsewhere. But, of course, I mixed some other albums that I somewhat enjoy. This is one of them.
Blue Öyster Cult is not famous here where I live, so, I grew up with classic like Floyd, Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, The Beatles, Jethro Tull… but Blue Öyster Cult was one of the large array of what I had to pursue by my own. Of course, as most people did, I got acknowledge of the band because of that segment on SNL: the famous “More Cowbell” sketch. I would later discover that the sketch lies to us with the whole “THE Bruce Dickinson” twice: one because it isn’t THE Bruce Dickinson (the singer) and the producer of the track isn’t even THE Bruce Dickinson (Producer). Oh, and Gene Frenkle, the cowbell player, doesn’t exist at all. But I’m really getting myself ahead. So… what is Blue Öyster Cult (BÖC for short)? A little background is required:
The year is 1976. Eagles would release there most famous album, Hotel California, later on, and AC/DC gets its International Debut with High Voltage. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man is published (though I can’t really say it would be a fair fight: come on, Spider-man is awesome, but a flick of Superman’s finger would kill him) and Bullseye fights the Daredevil for the first time. The Twelve Tasks of Asterix is released in movie theatres being the first movie of the Asterix franchise to be completely original and Taxi Driver hits the big screen.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. And it’s the first time I’m venturing in the magical wonderful world of hip-hop. So, this album fell in my hands some months ago, with promises of being one of the best albums ever recorded. I kind of doubted that back then: I still doubt that right now. This album is St. Elsewhere by the duo known as Gnarls Barkley. Who the hell they are, you may ask? A little background is required:
The year is 2006. With a key made of pure shit, Pirates of the Caribbean closes its trilogy while being the highest grossing movie of the year and The Departed won the Academy Award (although I believe The Queen was a superior film, but at least it won another award). Jason Blunt released the single “You’re Beautiful” and the music video for “Here It Goes Again” by Ok Go becomes a YouTube sensation. Nintendo releases the Wii and Sony releases the PlayStation 3.
Gnarls Barkley, a duo, released their first album, this one. But to be honest, talking about the duo is not that much explanatory, because it would be like a trio composed of Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Chris Cornell, that only released one album.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. This is a prank. My girlfriend hacked my schedule and prompted this one on there. I had no intention of doing this to me now, but here it is. Now I’m being blackmailed to do this one, so, I have to do it. I bought this one I believe in April to make a theme month, but as I wasn’t able to deliver everything on schedule, I wasn’t on the mood to say that a May blog was on an April theme. Enough with that, let’s get a little background, just to pretend that this one is a normal review.
The year is 2010. The H1N1 influenza scare ended with its usual contamination level returning to normal. Iron Maiden releases their last album to date and Dio was victim of a stomach cancer. Sony and Microsoft try to get in the motion control business by releasing PS Move and Kinect, with mixed opinions, and the original Perfect Dark (you know, the good one) goes to XBLA. I paid way too much money to see a crappy movie like Alice in Wonderland when I could’ve seen Toy Story 3 and gotten a really emotional reunion with Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
Justin Bieber, a Canadian kid singer, two years prior, was nothing. I mean that in the most sincere of ways, he just showed up. I’m not saying that you must need experience and time to be good, it’s just that for me, this guy appeared from nowhere. At one time, I was like “Bieber Who?”, now he become kind of like a personality that you either love or despise, and to be quite honest, I’m on the despise side. But let’s focus on his background.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So, I’m not one to banner my religion (or lack thereof) out loud because, well, it brought me more problems than solutions and when it comes the time to say “I’m an atheist”, I heard more shit than I would if I just said “I’m whatever the hell you want me to be.” And, well, one of the profits that came to my lap was the acknowledgment of some bands that name themselves (or the fans label them this way) “folk” or “atheist”. Crash Test Dummies was one of these that were appointed to me, though looking back, even though they made some jokes over religion as whole, it’s not exactly atheist. Anyways, this album, although a hit back in 1994, has become more and more of an obscure hit, mostly because of criticism on their major hit and, even though they release new material to this day, they left mainstream fame back then. But who are Crash Test Dummies and why a name so strange is a folk band? A little background is required.
The year is 1994. NAFTA is established. Two movies that moved my childhood (Lion King and The Mask) are released and are among the 10 top grossing films. Wario Woods, the last licensed Nintendo game to be released, goes to the stores and you could bash mummies and zombies with the release of Darkstalkers on the arcade. Kurt Cobain’s body is found and Dookie is released making punk profitable again (maybe the two facts are connected, I don’t know).
Crash Test Dummies, a folk/alternative rock band from Canada, did release an album three years after (The Ghost That Haunts Me), and gained some popularity, but it wasn’t an international fame or anything like that. With a hit “Superman’s Song”, a song really about Superman, Brad Roberts became a mark of the band with his baritone voice and clever lyrics, alongside his brother Dan Roberts on the bass, Ellen Reid on back-vocals and keyboard and Benjamin Darvell on the mandolin and harmonica. The only personnel change from one album to another was Michael Dorge replacing Steve Berlin on the percussion. With the release of the album “God Shuffled His Feet”, their major single hit “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” (not joshing, that’s the exact name of the song) hit the shelves, even though some people claiming it to be uninspired and boring. Together with some other singles, the ’94 album made the band more recognizable and achieved somewhat of a worldwide fame.
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Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth
and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. Ah,
finally, summer break. I was getting tired of working and studying my
ass off: now I can just sit back and relax. And maybe increase my
numbers: compared to what I reviewed last year, this year I’m a little
more absent. I was in the mood of reviewing this album since I did a
review on some classic albums that are more pop oriented: Goodbye Yellow
Brick Road, by Elton John. Elton John, for me, was always a good thing
to listen, even though looking back, that guy was this day’s Lady Gaga
in awkwardness material. So, even though I don’t believe it’s actually
necessary, a little background is required.
The year is 1973. The United Kingdom
becomes part of the EU, which at that time was known as European
Economic Community. The Exorcist is released and is the highest grossing
movie of the year and Bruce Lee deceases before the release of Enter
the Dragon, victim of a misadventure. Ac/Dc is formed and the Doors
disband officially. Konami is born, even though rudimentarily, and Atari
releases Gotcha, the first arcade maze game.
Reginald Kenneth Dwight (also known as
Elton John) was enjoying his newly won worldwide success with his
previous album “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player”, which was his
sixth album. He and Bernie Taupin, his companion to this day, had
already a huge following, so they decided to produce a new album, this
time around having as a main theme (but not too much to make this a
concept album) the feeling of nostalgia and the loss of innocence as one
grows up. After the release of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, considered
being his best album by many, he achieve super stardom and released his
last album in 2005, also his twenty-ninth album. He also advocates for
the LGBT cause and has a non-profitable foundation to help people that
have Aids.
Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth
and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. So, this
time around, I’m reviewing a suggestion of a college friend of a band I
never heard before, Sublime. This time around, I’m entering this magical
and mystery tour completely ignorant as I write this review, even
though most of the time I only need some mild search and some checking
on facts. So, who are Sublime and why the hell I never heard of them
before? A little background is as always required, even so for me.
The year is 1996. The English Patient
snatches the best picture academy award and Independency Day has its
première and even though most people nowadays don’t like the picture, I
enjoy it. Real Love, the Lennon song that wasn’t even in the know of the
rest of the band, is released with the help of the other Beatles and
the Ramones make their last show. Duke Nukem kicks ass in the third
dimension as Mario on the n64 on the same year, and Pokémon Green and
Red are released (strong year for gaming).
Sublime, a Californian ska band, was
only getting fame out of California and the West side of the U.S.A. Even
though now and then they got a little more of an attention from the
media, their first album released in a major label was their self-titled
album, which is their third album (I hate when bands name albums that
aren’t their debut with the same name as the band, it only confuses
people). Before Sublime, all two albums were released under the Skunk
Records label, which was owned by Bradley Nowell, singer and guitarist
of the band. Beside him, Bud Gaugh on the drums and Eric Wilson closed
the… power trio? I guess so.
One more of Gorillaz on my list. Maybe one day I'll finish all Gorillaz albums!
Ever wonder what lies beyong the Rick Roll?
Album in Depth of the debut album of the cover punk rock band, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes!
Band I never heard about released album with a complicated name. What too expect? Awesomeness, none the less!
Ever wanted to know what's beyond the track Hotel California? Check the album... in depth! *snickers*
Tea for the Tillerman? What the hell is a Tillerman?
Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. First of all, my Nightmare Revisited got Oct 2th Awesome Blog of the Week on TGWTG.com. Woohoo, mofos! I rulez!!! I mean… I’m really grateful with the recognition and even though I don’t like Paw Dugan all that much, I respect his opinion as a person, but not as a music reviewer: the top 50 just had one album that I liked, but most of them are in my “to look” list… I mean… where is Dark Side? Obviously he is more of an electro dude that I am, but… again, where is Dark Side? But I digress: thanks Paw!
So, anyway, I was in doubt what to do next, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens or Graceland by Paul Simon. After asking some people around (most of all, my new friend NYUN), this one was the one that got most votes, so, I’ll start with Graceland. Since October 12th is a holiday here in Brazil and I think that 15th will also be a holiday, I may write the other one quickly, but that is just thinking out loud: I really think I can’t listen to Tea for the Tillerman ten to twelve times this week alone because I already heard it like a gazillion times.
Again, since this is not a recent album, heck, even with recent albums I do this, a little background is required:
The year is 1986… wait, is this the first eighties album I’m doing? Graceland? Well, in 1986, Platoon won the Academy Award for Best Film, Metallica’s Master of Puppets is released and Argentina won their second FIFA World Cup.
Album in Depth: The Final Frontier by Iron Maiden
Hi, I’m JotaKa. I’m a rocker by birth and grew listening to rock discs and long plays by the dozen. In the midst of the year, I had an idea of a site that would host many album reviews by me and a group of people that not only would try to cover the most albums possible but review the same albums, and thus creating multiple opinions under the same subject so that the reader could identify with an specific author with an similar preference and heed to find his interest. Or, let’s see, if someone else comes along, someone that loved the Mothers of Invention “Freak Out!” that I hated, and wants to make the album justice in his way, he could by posting a review of his opinion. My main idea was to base this site on conflicting opinions over the same subject. So, for that need, I need help from people that have different opinion than me. And for that, my friend Battousai will be helping me around.
The thing is he liked the idea and went right away into making the review of this album: The Final Frontier, by Iron Maiden. He is a huge fan of the Maiden, and I… well… I‘m not. I really liked the album “Killers” of 1981 and since that, Iron Maiden got much more heavy metal and chanced vocals from the not so good Paul Di’Anno to the believed to be star of the Iron Maiden best formation, Bruce Dickinson. I don’t like Bruce Dickinson singing in any projects and I loathed Tyranny of Souls.
What the hell is Elf? Album in Depth will tel you! Time to hit a not so classic.
After some commentary on my last review, I move on.
Whoo, virtual band with cool artwork! Demon Days in depth.
"What exactly is a concept album?" is a question that always comes to me.
In depth review of Inhuman Rampage, by DragonForce, including a track by track review.
Analyzing in great detail the Frank Zappa debut, "Freak Out!".
I always thought The Wizard had something not original, but now, I know exactly what it is!
Ayreon's "Human Equation" in detail.
