May 2008 - A month in music  #
Friday, 30 May 2008 12:15PM
Something I've been meaning to do forever, review the new music I listened to each month...

R.E.M., "Accelerate"
A return to form for R.E.M. More energy, melodies I actually want to sing, guitar riffs I want to play. Songs that are short and to the point and full of awesome drumming. Really really enjoy it. And it's still growing on me.

Flight Of The Conchords
Everyone and their dog has a compilation CD made up of songs from the TV show, so nothing on this CD is new to me. However, the band appear to have re-recorded almost all the songs for this CD, they're not the versions from the show, but they're close. Just different enough to be jarring. I like it, but it's weird hearing these songs done more as songs, and less as skits.

Nine Inch Nails, "The Slip"
I didn't must like the first CD of "Ghosts" (the free one). It was interesting, but I'd hardly put it on and listen to it for fun. "The Slip" on the other-hand I did enjoy, particularly "Head Down". Somehow knowing that the song elements have been released to help remixers allows me to forgive mixing/production that I don't like, knowing I could fix it if I wanted...

Sepultura, "Arise"
I bought "Chaos A.D." (for reasons I'll explain later) which was spotted by someone at work who said I could get "Arise". So I did. It's more melodic than I expected from Sepultura (who I mostly know from "Roots"), with some blistering 90's metal solos and some awesomely chunky riffs. The production isn't what I'm used to but I can see how it would have sounded like a huge improvement to previous metal albums of the era. Although Metallica's self-titled came out at a similar time and rewrote all the metal production rules. I'm a big fan of the time signature fun on "Desperate Cry".

Sound Of Urchin, "Rejoice"
Really silly, fun, rock. Full of melody, sing along, and inappropriate lyrics. Like a more Weeny Darkness without all the silly keyboards and hair.