I picked up this record a few weeks ago. A double album from a good band, relatively cheap, sporting a very decent cover art (executed with taste) – why not buy it?

I’ve known BJM for quite long, and like them. A nice mix of 60′s rock, psychedelia, country – retro, but with an own sound. And it’s a very good compilation. Covers their whole musical carreer and demonstrates, basically, every song-writing style they do. You get those shoegaze songs (Evergreen), the simple straight-ahead guitar and harmonica country stuff (Ballad of Jim Jones, Free and Easy Take 2), the psychedelic stuff (Sue and the amazing Anenome), the hippy stuff (All Around You), the ‘guys, let’s rip off the Dandy Warhols!’ stuff (Who and of course Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth), retro rock (That Girl Suicide, In My Life, Hide and Seek) and a whole bunch of other tracks.Really worth it.

Shortest review so far? Probably.
More like a recomendation. This is not an album to write about – it’s an album to listen.

~ Overall score: 8/10
(there are some weaker tracks too)

Oh yeah, you all knew it was coming. After all this waiting, all the previews, sneak-peaks, ads, teasers, finally it’s out there. If you don’t have it already, you can listen to the whoooole album here.

After listening, hit the streets and buy it. You won’t be disappointed.

Yeah, you can blame me for being biased about Era Vulgaris. But I’ll try hard to make an objective review, both positive and negative sides will be represented. Finding the negatives will be rather difficult. Hell, I’ve been listening to Era Vulgaris two weeks non-stop. Let’s go.

The album kicks off with the amazing drumming of Turnin’ on the Screw. I hate people who keep ranting how much they miss Dave Grohl. Yeah, he indeed contributed much to Deaf’s success, he’s a great drummer, but seriously, I prefer Joey Castillo’s style. His approach is more minimalistic and simple, but you can really feel the strength of his accented, economic beats on Era Vulgaris. A man of few words, huh? Turnin’ on the Screw might sound a bit boring but after a few listens it will grow on you. Repetitive robotic QOTSA riffs!!

Talking about robotic riffs, first single and cannibalistic video spawning Sick Sick Sick comes next. As an acquaintance of mine puts it, this song sounds like a perverted, twisted disco. This is what Josh Homme meant when he said Era Vulgaris will be a dance record. It is indeed dancey. These groovy robotic riffs and steady percussions make you wanna dance and drink and party and scream ‘sick! sick! sick!’ at the top of your head.

A personal favourite follows: I’m Designer. To quote the song itself: ‘just like diamonds… in shit’. When it comes to the lyrics, they are quite unorthodox in structure, makin’ it hard to sing along instantly. I’m Designer explores the depth of wealth and fame, which is, honestly, a boring subject (for me, it’s one of the no-nos of rock and roll music…), but with the lines

You’ve made me an offer that I can refuse
(‘course either way I get screwed)
counter proposal:
I go home and jerk off,

you gotta love it. I’m Designer‘s guitars remind me of Captain Beefheart, jangling inconsistently, producing sweet sonic chaos…

A sweet slower song, Into the Hollow is to come. Very mellowish vocals and guitar-work. Not bad, not bad at all, but it lacks the overall drive of the album. So it’s more like a short intermission, because it’s followed by…

Misfit Love! Yeah! It took me some time to get into this song but now I’m in love with it. There’s a slight industrial rock influence to the record, you can feel that on these buzzing synths. By the way, it’s good that there are more synths and keyboards on this album then on previous ones. A nice touch to the sound. And the songs are full of changes!
And I just love the vocodered background vocals chanting ‘we don’t know, we don’t know’ throughout the second half of the track. Very complex song.

An interesting song, Battery Acid is up next. Garage and punk roots, anyone? Josh sings in an unusual for him way. ROBOTS ROBOTS BRAINWASHED BABIES!! Good song, but might get boring after the 100th listen.

Ahh, the obligatory Desert Sessions song, I Wanna Make It Witchu. A bit of a disappointment, honestly. I prefer the other versions – this is not mellow enough. Not bad, but the rythm guitar is too klang-ish, if you know what I mean. Intermission, to get you ready for……..

3′s & 7′s!! Forget that the base riff resembles Smells Like Teen Spirit… Who cares?? This is a true QOTSA song. Raw guitars, screaming guitars, sliding guitars, tough static drumming, a surprisingly pop chorus = awesome song. I guess this might be the second single (or not). Funny, but this song seems to be longer than it is. Maybe all the changes create that effect?

3′s & 7′s might be sorta cheerful, but the next bunch of songs demonstrate the dark side of Era Vulgaris. Suture Up Your Future is depressing, but fuckin dancey at the same time. The bass! Bamm-bamm-bamm-bamm… I’m sitting in my chair, but my body is jerking and twisting to the rythm… Dark little song.

River in the Road. Circus-style drumming (I’m sure it ain’t an official deifinition), police sirens looped through the song, and MARK LANEGAN on background vocals – only background, but you can indeed feel his haunting presence in this piece. Paranoid song, monsters, darkness and heavy riffs. Mmmmmmmm…

Last song of the album (if you don’t count the bonus tracks) is Run Pig Run. It reminds me of the Fun Machine, only darker. And a great chorus, bit like Sick Sick Sick, only this one’s RUUUUUN PIIIG RUUUN!! This song is the pair of River in the Road, they explore the hunter-prey stuff (this one being from the hunter’s pointof view, the other – from the prey’s). Woohooohooo! Aaaaah! Woohooohooo! And beautiful guitars. A great closing.

Yeah… That’s Era Vulgaris in a nutshell.

So… Judgement time. Era Vulgaris is a perfect album. It’s amazing that QOTSA can demonstrate new music on each album. A diverse and challenging piece. Can’t wait to hear these songs live.

~ Overall Score: 9.2/10

Unfortunately released in 2007, on Interscope

A long-awaited album, marketed with tons of ‘alternative reality’ websites and pendrives containing mp3′s found after shows, etc. Sounds funny, but I get shivers from evil government theories. Not because I’m afraid of them – I simply find them boring and banal.

Now for the album.

It’s up on their myspace, so you can have a listen too. I had some expectations towards Year Zero but it turned out to be a total failure. It’s their (their? fuck no, his) sixth album officially, if you don’t count the numerous compilations, EPs and remix albums. NIN, basically, is a band which only changes lineups but not style, as everything revolves around Reznor and his so called vision of art.
Talking about art… The NIN myspace profile, proclaiming “art is resistance” shows how banal this thing became. Seriously, I can’t believe it’s interesting for Trent Reznor to groan about the same things for nearly twenty years constant.

Let’s just talk about the album instead.

It’s boooooooooooooring. As usual, it takes the NIN formula of noisy guitars and synths, heavy drums but lacks any kind of creativity or songwriting talent. The same song repeated 16 times. The last album, With Teeth, had four or five distinguishable (and good) songs and a mass of fillers, but Year Zero inherited only the fillers.

~ Final score: 2/10

……possibly the worst album of 2007?

Released in 2006, on Universal/Polydor

So, their concert is surely on my ‘best moments of summer 2006′ list, despite the crow. They played a few of Ta-Dah’s songs too, e.g. hit-to-be single I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’, which was a shockingly amazing experience. I had some mixed feelings when I’ve first heard that Elton John is collaborating with them, but, as every objective reviewer must do, I couldn’t let my prejudice ruin this whole thing (don’t get me wrong, that’s prejudice as in “don’t like his music”).Overall, this album is even more eighties-influenced, than their debute, which could be a problem… But it isn’t. What else can I write? This album is fun, good to listen. Has some very good moments. She’s My Man and Kiss You Off being two of them, I love these songs.

But maybe it lacks some of their debut’s interestingnes. They take a good scheme and write songs for it. They base things of the 80′s as today’s most bands copy the 60′s or 70′s. That I can enjoy on one album

But I hope it doesn’t become a fashion. What I don’t need is a total global 80′s revival. I’d never forgive that to the Sisters.

Nevertheless, I like Ta-Dah. Funny, slick, dancable. But they should start making up something different.

~ Final score: 7,2/10

One thing: good lyrics. Better than the previous album’s.

Released in 2004, on Full Time Hobby

A non-new (but neither old) record this time. They are mentioned in Questionable Content (my favourite webcomic) AND they opened for Queens of the Stone Age a few times (my favourite band, maybe), so they can’t be bad, huh?
(That’s a rhetorical question, but if a band fulfils these two factors + has a cool sounding name, it’s considered to be worth a try for me.)
That’s a whole lot of brackets in barely a few sentences.
They are worth a try! Yeyy! Internet media (wiki…) classifies them mostly as shoegaze and yeah, maybe it’s so. So you get these distorted guitars and effected sounds and all, which is something I like. By the way, if I have to compare Autolux to another band, it’d be Transmissions-era Flaming Lips. Future Perfect’s opening track, Turnstile Blues, reminds me of Transmissions’ last song, Slow Nerve Action: amazing distorted drums, that is!

Nevertheless, this record is quite original and unique on it’s own. It’s a perfect mix of various moods. You get hard and powerful songs (Robots in the Garden, a personal favourite, with a good simple riff), but there are some laid-back ones too. A little bit of this, a little bit of that… Oh, and did I mention that they have two vocalists? Maybe I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but I love a band with more than one vocalist. This time it’s a guy and the drummer girl.

Maybe it’s the result of this mixed style: Future Perfect is best listened as a whole. There are some outstanding tracks, but mostly they prove big together. 50 minutes of interesting guitar-based music. Get this one somehow.

~ Final score: 8,3/10

One thing: I don’t think they’ll come up with something better than this. But, whatever, I can listen this one over and over again. Keep it sugarless!

You can expect a Zaireeka review (we’re having a Zaireeka-party on New Year’s Eve), also a Desert Sessions 7-8, those are for sure.

Have fun. Merry x-mas and new year, lotsa music. Don’t forget to summarize this years top albums and stuff ;)

Released in 2004, on Last Gang Records

Oh-Em-Gee, I had to make a new category to fit in this album. Punk, that is. It’s a pity that DFA1979 doesn’t exist any more. They had a short but bright life, full of drama, mistery, headaches, near-lawsuits, a tour with QOTSA and NIN and all that stuff. A rather amazing career.

Calling them the White Stripes of hardcore punk would be not only a bad joke, but also stupid as it is. Yeah, it’s a duo, drums and bass-guitar (sometimes synth). And I love it when drummers sing, it’s just so… Umm, don’t know what’s it like. It’s funny how they sit there, concentrating on the beats. They aren’t sitting, to be precise, cause the poor souls have to be in a strange half-standing position most of the times to fulfil all their functions. Respect.

DFA1979 is heavy. No surprises there: beneath the heavy layer of distortion, there’s a fookin bass guitar. Instant headache. It could be compared to Lightning Bolt, as far as sound-texture is concerned. But DFA1979 proves to be surprisingly melodic. Melodic? Yeah, sorta, melodic. The bass riffs are very catchy, the drumming tight and dancey. Sometimes they are classified as dance-punk and noise-funk and things like that…

The lyrics might be the weak point. Don’t like them that much. So that’s a minus. Not a big one. Actually, it goes well with the music. Oh, and I love the design, pink and elephantesque.

~ Final score: 8,1/10

Judgement time it was. Massive headaches are the result of too much listening last night (got it for X-mas [hehh, I know, quite early...] from my friends, thank you guys!!), and a massive amount of pity that I can’t see them live.

One thing: maybe it’s not bad that they split up. I don’t think a next album would have been this cool without a radical sonic makeover.

Released in 1998, on Spin Art

Third review (: And now I’ll officially stop announcing the number of the review in the beginning of the article.
This time it’s relatively older record, straight from the mystical ’98. That’s very far away in space and time. Not as far as The Beatles though, to whom The Apples in Stereo bear pretty much resemblance.

Mehh, I opened up the Wikipedia article about Her Wallpaper Reverie, and it compares them to The Beatles too. F-ck, I wanted to be all original, making a super-witty perception or something like that… I didn’t succed. Better luck next time.

The record lasts only a mere 27 minutes, with half of the songs being short interludes. You can read about them in details in that pesky wiki. Undeniably, the other songs are indeed beatles-esque. The piano melodies and catchy guitars. Even the lyrics remind me of the Fantastic Four (John, Paul, George and Ringo, that is).

Again, just like Oh No! Oh My! in the previous review, this is light music, comes and goes, good for the 27 minutes while I’m tidying my room, but doesn’t stay for any longer. It could’ve been better but it’s too late now (:.

~ Final score: 6,3/10

Self-released in 2006 (= so indie it hurts)

Here goes the second review.

Oh No! Oh My!’s self-titled debute album was a random encounter for me, an almost unintentional download (yepp). Slightly snobbish band name with two exclamation marks? Hell yeah, love those. I mean, if one thing is good in downloading, it’s the fact that I won’t regret it even if it sucks. And if it’s good, I can buy it to support the artist. I don’t think you can buy this record anywhere near here, but that’s not my fault. Enough, let’s cut to the chase.

After a few undefined reversed cymbal sounds which, for a few seconds, make you wonder, whether this album will be experimental or something, an acoustic guitar comes in. Relief, I must say. I like electronic stuff and strange noises, but I was getting ready for something more… light-hearted.

And this record is light-hearted indeed. Pop in its pure form. And that’s something I really need from time to time. Okay, I nearly erased the whole thing when iTunes shuffled me Walk In The Park in the morning. A stupidly optimistic song about walking in the park with a girl (‘when you wake up early and the sun is shining’), hooray, you look out and the streets are covered with mud and rain, grey clouds hover above you, no hope, no future, an industrial band is giving a free concert next door (=the neighbours are having their plumbing repaired)… Ruins your day even more.
But… On the other hand, stupid happiness can make your day too. Cheerful pop is a must.
Come on, they have cute turtles on the cover!!

But only one of them is alive. Maybe life isn’t so perfectly happy at all? No, it isn’t, I tell you that. No, but cheer up, Brian, you know what they say.

Let’s cut to the second chase.
Musically this album is nothing outrageously new. It’s somewhere on the way between The Magnetic Fields (without Stephin Merritt dying in each song :) ) and The Boy Least Likely To (less cartoonishness here). Acoustic guitars and cute synth melodies dominate these rather simple songs.
I Love You All The Time brings the only surprise with a minute of technoish beat and keyboard effects. Guitar strumming follows. Maybe the best song on the album, by the way. I Have No Sister is great too.

~ Final score: 6.8/10

It’s nothing very special, but catchingly simple. And I won’t say anything like ‘they have potential’ etc because I wouldn’t believe my own words then. I seriously don’t believe they are capable of anything better than this half-an-hour-long record. But boys…prove me wrong.

Released in 2004, on Island Records

The first review in my blog starts very promising… I mean, I have a cool cover art (a bit further), and the record label is mentioned too. Professional, isn’t it? Promise you, the review itself won’t be as professional, as the header… I’m 100% sure I’ll get caught by the flow – you’ll see why.

My situation with this record is quite unusual, because I bought it without listening to any PJ Harvey ever. Okkkay, I admit, the only reason I bought it was her co-operation with Mark Lanegan (two songs on the amazing Bubblegum) and various appareances on Desert Sessions vol 9-10. So she can be considered the part of the QOTSA family. But still, buying an album by an artist I haven’t even heard… it never happened to me before.

I saw it in a shop, 10% off or something like that, bought it. It was a sudden decision. BANG!!, or more of a clink!! (sound of money), and I was the owner of Uh Huh Her.

Totally worth it.

14 songs (okay, the 13th being an utterly unneeded one-minute passage of seagulls). I wasn’t instantly hooked on it. I liked it, yeah, listened to it a few times. Then, another BANG!! came (and it really was a BANG!! this time), sometime around the end of October. I started listening to it, I discovered amazing songs such as The Letter (blues-esque wonder) or Shame (acoustic ballad about love).

Her voice is… I don’t know… it’s brilliant. Many different tones and shades, sometimes raw, sometimes sweet and mellow. The same goes for the music too. The fuzzy Who the Fuck? tends to be punkish in attitude, as does Cat on the Wall, while the marimba-driven (at least I guess it is a marimba…) You Come Through demonstrates a certain laid back feeling.

And now, having listened to almost all earlier works of PJ Harvey I can tell that even this album (the 8th in the row) is still very diverse, unique an… PJ Harvey. That sounds a bit contraversial. She has a very defined sound, so you can always tell whether a song is PJ or not, but almost each song is different.

~ Final score: 9/10

Yes, very high score. It represents the fact that I’ve been listening to a great amount of PJ Harvey (not just Uh Huh Her, but mostly) and I’m hooked on it. And it’s almost perfect.