Category: Music
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Train – For Me, It’s You
Artist: Train Title: For Me, It’s You Label: Columbia Rating: 6.5/10 FILE UNDER: Train tries to muster up past glory. CORPORATE LINE: “The ‘you’ changes in every song,” says Train vocalist/songwriter Pat Monahan regarding the sources of inspiration on the band’s new studio album For Me, It’s You, “In the title song, ‘For Me, It’s…
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The Darkness – Interview [2006]
Everything you’ve heard is true. All of it. The exhaustion and the fear, the pressure, paranoia and pan pipes, the breakdowns and break-ups, the sackings, sitar solos and endless studio sessions, and now ultimately – with this, their second album – the rebirth and redemption of The Darkness. ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL…AND BACK is…
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Teddy Geiger – Interview
In a case of life imitating art, Teddy Geiger has been cast in a recurring role as a rising young pop star in “Love Monkey,” an upcoming CBS television series, based on the novel by Kyle Smith. “Love Monkey”–also starring Tom Cavanaugh, Jason Priestly, Larenz Tate, and Judy Greer–chronicles the dramatic and comedic misadventures of…
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Morningwood – Morningwood
Artist: Morningwood Title: Morningwood Label: Capitol Rating: 6.5/10 FILE UNDER: ‘70s-style rock and pop. CORPORATE LINE: Riff-shredding, ass-shaking, louder-than-life Morningwood is a glorious hodgepodge of personalities, backgrounds and influences — much like their NYC hometown — but that’s where the pigeonholing ends. “There’s an attitude, this balls-to-the-wall feeling, you don’t hear so much in New…
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Bon Jovi – Crush
Artist: Bon Jovi Title: Crush Label: Mercury Rating: 6.5/10 Bon Jovi is still around. Let’s understand that and accept it as fact. I know this because here I am with their latest release, Crush. Even before listening, I noted their updated look and that the packaging for the album is really cool. And in a…
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Mary J. Blige – Interview
Nobody tells it like Mary. With a voice that is rough and ready, sweet and pure, Mary J. Blige is capable of conveying heartache and happiness in a single musical phrase. A confessional singer, her emotional honesty reflects the great traditions of blues and soul with a ripped-from-the-pages-of-your-diary immediacy that has won her countless honors…
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Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Artist: Beach Boys Title: Pet Sounds Label: Capitol Rating: 10/10 So how do you expand on perfection? Well, you add a couple of new tracks that we’ve never heard before. Then you don’t re-mix the album, but you take the original mono recordings and update them into digital form. Pet Sounds is perhaps one of…
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Aphex Twin
Exploring the experimental possibilities inherent in acid and ambience, the two major influences on home-listening techno during the late ’80s, Richard D. James’ recordings as Aphex Twin brought him more critical praise than any other electronic artist during the 1990s. Though his first major single, “Didgeridoo,” was a piece of acid thrash designed to tire…
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Bo Bice – The Real Thing
Artist: Bo Bice Title: The Real Thing Label: RCA Rating: 5/10 FILE UNDER: Rocker gets watered down. CORPORATE LINE: The “American Idol” story you know. Bo made it into the top 24, then the top 12, and as the weeks went by and others were voted off, Bo remained. On the final episode, Bo was…
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Faith Evans – A Faithful Christmas
Artist: Faith Evans Title: A Faithful Christmas Label: Capitol Rating: 5/10 FILE UNDER: Not such a Faithful Christmas. THE GREAT: “Mistletoe & Holly” – This is the first track where Faith does something that sounds like a Christmas song. It’s a surprise how she covers this Sinatra classic so beautifully. THE AVERAGE: “Happy Holiday” –…