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.

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.

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.

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.

I was worried when I first listened to the latest offering from Lostprophets that I didn’t like it much. Luckily all it took was a few more listens through the album and it was ranking up there with Start Something, their previous effort.

While I’m not sure it has the consistency of Start Something, I think that is because their last album was done on a fairly narrow track, LT broadens the scape a little. And with great results too. I have Can’t Catch Tomorrow on repeat, Rooftops has scoped enough popularity to actually get played in you request it at clubs and 4am Forever provides enough heart to be added to the songs you play when you’re feeling depressed playlist.

P.O.D. return from their 2003 success of Payable on Death with Testify which takes the band in a slightly different direction than their previous album but perhaps slightly reminiscent of Satellite. That said it still has strong connections with Payable, Roots in Stereo and Execute the Sounds have a very similar sound.

One of the downsides to P.O.D. is that they like to push their Christian views through their music but it’s easy enough to look beyond this. Testify seems to take them in two directions at once, slightly more towards rap route than their previous sounds but at the same time solidifies themselves in the rock/metal genre area.

It’s a more mature album than their previous works in many ways, the guitar work is more developed and the whole sound is deeper and more full. This is contrasted well with up and down beat sections in the songs which although is a slightly more formulaic approach sounds good enough that, that fact can be ignored.

The album is not without faults - not for anything specific, it’s just some of the songs are just not that good. They aren’t bad a stand-alones but they seem to lack P.O.D.’s unique rock-funk hybrid sound that give the band it’s edge.

On initial impression it might not capture you as Payable did but it doesn’t take long to really get into the album and appreciate it’s own unique talents. P.O.D. have delivered a worthy sequel to their previous work.

Millencolin returned in 2005 with a new album named Kingwood. They toured to support it too and I reviewed their gig at the Leeds Uni Union. You can find that review here. But right now we’re talking about the album.

It’s good. It’s punk revivial. Which I like. Although I totally agree that Penguins and Polarbears was their so far crowning achievement, Kingwood to me represents a more substancial Millencolin. It seems to have more body to it than the mindless (don’t get me wrong, I love mindless) punk that they traditionally play.

There are some catchy tunes in there, none as much as No Cigar or Fox but none the less you will start to pick up on a few of them.

It’s a good album and while I don’t think it is particuarly ground-breaking it’s a solid album and a step forward for them.