Music Steak

It was with an air of caution and a hidden hopeful desire that I began listening to Linkin’s Park’s new album to review it. Hybrid Theory and Meteora had been amazing albums but then look what happened with Reanimation.

I had heard mixed opinions. Jenny had previously explained to me that it had one or two good tracks on at the start but overall pretty much sucked. Danny on the otherhand revealed he loved one of the songs so much that he actually had that one song on repeat on his car.

Overall, there is a mix similar to the mix of opinions I got. There are some great songs on there - I love Given Up and there are a few other jems on there such as Valentine’s Day. It’s differently a depature, if only a small one, from their typical sound. It’s more like Hawthorne Heights than classic Linkin Park. Luckily though, I happen to like Hawthorne Heights.

Britney Spears’ next album will apparently arrive in November. The so-far untitled album currently has a street date of November 12, except in the United States where it will not be released until the 13th.

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Paramore are back with a new album - and it’s good. From the first track I remember why I like Paramore as the songs rapidly change from upbeat to downbeat and back again. It doesn’t sound quite as polished as the new albums from the long established acts but then it probably isn’t supposed to. All in all, it’s a kick ass album.

Avril Lavigne’s new album has a title and an expected release date! Known as “The Best Damn Thing” it is currently scheduled to be released on April 13th.

Gwen Stefani’s second solo album is an interesting offering. I’ve listened to the album through a few times now and only one song has got stuck in my head though I’m unsure as to whether this just the natural progression of moving through the album. Basically, it has a lot of average to good songs on it. I’m still questioning how many of them are major hits though.

When compared to her first album, it doesn’t really compare. The first album had plenty of hits on it, this one is lacking that spark in most of the songs. So I think it comes down to this - it’s not a bad album, there is nothing wrong with it. But it’s not something special.

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Weird Al has a new album out full of another load of parody songs. But is it any good? Well, not bad. Not great.

White & Nerdy is a fantastic song and a great song to open the album with. However from here the album just trails off a bit. It’s not a massively bad album but Weird Al has a knack for making some really catchy hits and they just aren’t on this album. It has it’s other highlights including “Don’t Download This Song” but overall a mediocure effort.

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With today’s mass of 3rd wave emo bands such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance composing the popular rock scene it’s easy to forget that acoustic rock stylings of singer songwriters such as Heather Nova were writing thoughtful and sensitive music while the members of such bands were still at high school (although some of them probably still are).

Bill Madden is one of these people. It’s rare that something without a driving rock beat makes it onto my playlist but I think this album may be one of the rare exceptions. If you want an idea of the sound think Michelle Branch’s Broken Bracelet album, Heather Nova and to a lesser extent Sheryl Crow though influence has been pulled from all over. As “Friend” began playing I had to remind myself I wasn’t listening to R.E.M.

This is followed by “Gone” which features a hint of The Smashing Pumpkins. And so it should - Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin features on the track.

The album offers an interesting mix, most of the tracks manage to have a twist on them which creates a different type of sound without playing around with the core style.

All in all it’s a well written and well put together album. It has it’s up points (most notably “Gone”) and it’s down points (some of the tracks are too slow moving) which averages out to be a soulful album that still has enough bass to cause my sub woofer to shake my floorboards as much as most of my rock collection can.