Nothing to like about this. Not for me anyway.
Santogold, "Santogold"
Not too bad, but the singer is a little Nelly Furtado for me. Nothing really grabbed me.
Shy Child, "Noise Won't Stop"
I loved everything about this. High tempo dancy stuff with lots of computer game noises, good drum beats, synth guitar. Reminded me a lot of (Aussie 90s short lived pre-Primary band) Caligula. Unfortunately the singer just shouts the same note through most of the album. Shouty-Mc-Shouty got right on my nerves after a bit. Just like Caligula.
Radiohead, "In Rainbows"
The first song has some nice beats, but otherwise... bleh. Thom appears to be singing in his sleep through the whole album. No energy. Boring.
Powderfinger, "Dream Days At The Hotel Existence"
A friend described this as "insulting". I'll go along with that. I bought it only for the music-videos "best of" DVD that came with it (to save me transferring my VHS). Powderfinger videos are mostly terrible too, except for their ultra expensive try-hard 90s ones for their first album ...Wooden Ears, of while only Tail is included.
Soulfly, "Conquer"
I was at first disappointed with this, because I loved Cavalera Conspiracy so much. The mixing is muddier and the beats less thrashy. But having it on in the car for the past month, it has grown on me a lot. I read a really interesting interview with Max Caverera in the latest Metal Hammer magazine on the plane where he explains his preferred Sepultura albums are the thrashier Chaos A.D. and Arise and how Soulfly has only just started to move back to the thrash ideal. Personally I loved their last album Dark Ages for that reason, and this one takes it even further. Max is easily my favourite metal vocalist. I can even ignore the absolutely awful cover of Beautiful People...
Scars On Broadway, "Scars On Broadway"
The other System Of A Down singer/guitarist's album. I much preferred this compared to Serj Tankian's album. It's easy to see where the silly lyrics and most of the guitar riffs come from in SOAD. But it still sounded like something was missing. Serj.
Beck, "Modern Guilt"
Some really interesting stuff going on in this, but I haven't given it enough time. It isn't really... pop enough? for me? Beck has always been a grower for me though.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack
I love the move. The soundtrack is OK, but not great. The silly "turn your mobile off" song isn't as good without the visuals. Unusually, the little skit sections on this CD work. They're actually introductions (in character) for the various songs. I think they really add to the CD, which otherwise might be a bit dull. Nude love!
R.E.M., "Live in London" (iTunes EP)
Heath randomly bought me this. R.E.M. are an incredibly professional quality band when they play live. Almost flawless performances, with just a little bit of extra grunt in Michael's voice, something I thought was missing in a couple of songs in their otherwise excellent recent album, Accelerate. A few rare songs (for me anyway) in the set that were fun to listen to.
Benjamin Ely & Stella Mozgawa, "Studio WOW! Volume One"
I bought this limited edition CDr at the Regurgitator gig I went to at the end of the July. It's Ben and their new drummer (Mozgawa) jamming in the "studio" for a weekend. These are the "best" bits. It's very very rough, taped on to cassette. It reminds me a lot of a couple of tapes Heath and I made while making up stuff for Walken. The "33 ideas in a day" tape. Something we both love, but recognise that others might not. This CD is just like that. Ben loves it of course, but for anyone else it's hard to get past the recording quality. I'll give it more of a go. Made me ache for more Jump 2 Light Speed though.
Queen, "News Of The World"
This album starts with the killer We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions combo, and it's all downhill from there. The next song Sheer Heart Attack is good, but not much else is. I really really want to listen to all of the Queen albums and get past the "Greatest Hits I/II" ideal I have, but really... I suspect that the Hits CDs really are their best-of.
Commodores, "Greatest Hits (1978)"
Before Lionel Richie became "Nicole's dad", he was a singer in The Commodores. Before the Commodores became Lionel Richie's ballad express, they were a funk band. This best-of contains a fair bit of their more funky songs, including the awesome Brick House.
Commodores, "Greatest Hits (1982)"
Only four years later, it's easy to see the Commodores become "Richie's band". This is more full of their newer more Ballardy songs and it's far duller as a result. Easy is excellent, but Three Times A Lady makes me want to cut myself.
Commodores, "Midnight Magic"
The last track on this album is an awesome funk jam that only lasts a minute. I wish the whole album was like this. It is funky, but not funky enough. Didn't help that my copy (transferred from vinyl) had a few scratches on. I'm still thinking of digging up some really early Commodores to give it a go.
Bold! Apple Sour come in the same type of packet as Berry, Fruit and Mint Bold! varieties, only bright green.
They taste like Apple. Like a nice juicy apple. The sourness isn't over powering and I feel adds to the fruit flavour. A good apple is a little sour. Not too sweet.
But, their near perfect apple flavour means they're perhaps less interesting then they may have been. If I want apple, I'll go eat an apple. There is nothing super exciting about the flavour. It's apple.
Only 20 packs to go.
Angel Dust has been remastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and will be released in mid September. You can pre-order the gold CD now on Amazon. Search Google for "Angel Dust" and "MFSL".
The description says it all:
Mastered from the original ½”, 2-track, 30 i.p.s. master mixes MFSL engineers were quite impressed with the dynamic range and natural tonality present on the master tapes. When compared to previous versions, the new MFSL GAIN 2 mastering is much more dynamic, and reveals detail and subtleties not heard on other versions. This new MFSL Gold CD allows the full dynamic range to shine through, giving fans the chance to hear this album the way it was heard at Scream Studios, where mixing was expertly performed by Matt Wallace and David Bryson.
Weirdly, they didn't contact either Faith No More or Matt Wallace to talk to them about this remaster, despite holding Matt up as some kind of golden god of mixing in their description. But MFSL seem to be more about the challenge of playing with what they've got, than working with the artists themselves.
Angel Dust was recorded with almost no compression in the studio, with compression intended to be added in the mastering process. This has left the original recording filled with lots of dynamic range for the new remastering crew to play with.
This shouldn't be just a "turn it all up" remaster. It should sound completely different.
I'm REALLY looking forward to this.
I'm also quietly looking forward to how well this does commercially. It could be a nice indicator of how well a Faith No More CD release can do these days, when taken seriously. Three or more re-released best-ofs sent straight to the bargain bin have been rather insulting...