This is a new section to my blog.
I listen to alot of music in my life and I'm very open minded with music, so I thought I'd contribute a small personal opinion on tracks I've heard in-passing and on my iPod. Which I proudly call, Rockets & Molehills!
So here we are, the best (Rocket) and worst (Molehill) tracks of my lovely locked away life, in a neat format of Track - Artist and all with nice dates too! Enjoy!
Starting:
Week 1 - February 9th:
Rocket: Unveil Your Crime - I See Sparks
This track has a certain sweetness I seem to have missed now that The Killers don't seem so popular, like their opening EP track 'The Highs, The Lows' this track is just beautiful and powerful.
Molehill: Cockney Thug - Rusko
A friend of mine encouraged me a couple of weeks ago that this song would grow on me, this week it finally got on my tits, all I can think of is some div dancing like a fucking pleb in one of the shittest clubs in England. Thanks for the encouragement but this mouldy gangsta ain't growing on me!
Week 2 - February 16th
Rocket: Rylynn - Andy Mckee
As a man, he is a laid back and talented individual. As a musician he is among gods. I can depict a scene where he is that angel with a lyle playing to the almighty Zeus, he was at the last supper playing the guitar in the background, this was the man that came into Shakespeares very dreams and played the beautiful music to inspire '12th Night'. Despite the fact he's a metal head, I think he's done pretty well for himself, don't you agree?
You can check him out on Youtube and his own website, buy his music and if guitarists out there fancy a challenge, buy his sheet music too.
www.andymckee.com
Molehill: I Fall Apart - Julianna Gianni
I have to say now, the Vanilla Sky Soundtrack made my week alongside Andy Mckee's album but what ruined it was her. Bloody Cameron Diaz, amazing actor by all means but this song annoyed me. The great thing about it, it's not a serious track to talk about but it's still a song! A bad one, well not bad, it fits all the conventions, verses and a chorus...terrible singing, lame backing track, I don't want to see the supple frame of Diaz doing this to herself, it almost killed me. Like many guys I'm in love with her, my music taste being the jealous other half, however, hates her. I'm under the thumb on this one.
Week 3 - February 23rd
Rocket: So Real - Jeff Buckley
This song wouldn't have grabbed me if I didn't listen to the album but it did and I'm better off for it. 'Grace', released in August 1994, is generally a good album I thought I'd reflect on since the early 90's are trying to make a comeback. 'Hallelujah' is another example off the same album, being a big song with X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke in 2008. I picked 'So Real' for a reason though, it's a fine example of how simple music can be but how powerful it is, so much it sticks in your mind, it did for me all week! Jeff Buckley was an astounding artist and singer, even now, 15 years later, his angelic voice sings bright and clear and I have the utmost respect for him as he was and his music as it stands today.
Molehill: Invaders Must Die - The Prodigy
One of the biggest musical movements in the 90's were The Prodigy. In 1997 they released the fastest and biggest selling album of the year 'Fat Of The Land'. Since then they faded away, broke apart and went underground. Their new album isn't that bad at all though. 'Invaders Must Die' is just something I've heard too much of. I don't want to make a huge stab like most of the media have done but the band are getting old. For the new and wanting generation The Prodigy came up short, expectation isn't an issue here, you couldn't have expected any more or less, it's that times have changed. The album came up with bad reviews, which sparked the raging thought, "Did anyone listen to 'Warriors Dance'?" It's the sheer disappointment, this song needed people to hype it up but now the album is out and about, this song comes up short. I hoped it would have been a high point before the guys go away and spend the last of their days in the setting sun.
Ladies and Gentlemen there is a gap in this part, the weekly track analy-sees will continue from 16th March.
Week 4 - March 16th
Rocket: Here Comes Your Man - The Pixies
Anticipation is a killer. We wait for albums that flop and get shocked by albums that don't! That, to me, is fucked up. Looking back once more, however, is starting to solidify a certain point I have raised elsewhere, the industry today is empty, it's not dying but it's suffering. Then again, that's one sad, depressed guy's opinion. Mine slightly differs, for example, the industry produced The Pixies and they will outlast alot of the music that is released today if not inspiring some of it. 'Here Comes Your Man' is the prime example of how the band, originally from Boston, took styles of music from the past where, in their eyes, they thought it was better and it inspired them to make the music they did then. If you haven't listened to The Pixies I would suggest you do so, if you don't like them it is understandable but they were pioneers and if, through their music, you can't recognise that, someone will. By following in their example, maybe the music released nowadays won't feel so dry...come on music industry eggheads, if you can resell tracks onto CD, try and inspire some 'reverse engineering' in a musical sense.
Molehill: Tonight (Album) - Franz Ferdinand
Alot of people that know me know that I don't appreciate most of the Indie genre, mainly for reasons relating to what I wrote above. I crave the artistic and relatively original, originality is hard to achieve, that's a given but when I put this whole album on I could chant the words to 'Matinee' along with it. Fellas, this has to stop. Be daring, do something different, if you're not happy with it, do it anyway, I'd love to give a lecture but there's alot of people that would say "Carl, what the fuck would you know", so I won't give the lecture. Otherwise, from an Indie standpoint, they did try, it doesn't sound typically like their older stuff IF I looked at it from a purely Indie perspective. Musically it wasn't very different, it wasn't heart felt enough, it wasn't strange enough, the lyrics didn't mean enough. I'm nit-picking but one day someone will say I was right.
Week 5 - March 23rd
Rocket: Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Just for the record, this album is my second best of the year, it's been a long year already, but It's Blitz! has taken the prize. 'Zero' has to be my favourite track, it's powerful and healing. Karen O's voice sores, it's a strange and creative process to go through and I can only imagine how magical it was creating it. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been a povital phenomenon since the early 00's, disturbing a few ears and producing some of the best live acts to grace our proud lands. Karen's stage performance is decieving and distressing but coupled with the outfits and the sounds, it is a work of art.
Molehill: Black & Gold - Sam Sparro
As my musical taste takes things in, 'Black & Gold' unsurprisingly got spat out. It was a song that tried to polish a turd that was the rest of the album. Rule of thumb, I'm meant to say something nice but honestly, I can't say too much bad stuff. For me this song had it for a while, I was impressed, I loved it then it got ruined when I listened to the rest, I've been tainted. That disppointment right there puts me in the position of fully not liking it through age. Funny, I haven't seen him around lately either.
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