The first album "Cement" was a nice surprise. The songs are good, but it's let down by some fairly bad production. Some of it sounds a little like a more punk RHCP, but so did a lot of bands. That's what the early 90s sounded like. Other songs are fast and brutal like the Beastie Boys punk tracks.
The second album, "Man with the Action Hair", has much better production, but far less interesting songs. I couldn't get into it at all. Repeat listens of "Cement" still impressed me.
Eminem: I'm happy to admit I was a fan of Eminem for his first albums, right up until "Encore" which I thought was pretty average. "Relapse" might not be awful... maybe I've just got over him? The production lacks the punch of the earlier albums. I found the lyrics dull, repetitive and pretty unpleasant. I perhaps need to go back and listen to his other albums to see what I saw in the guy. Maybe I've just moved on?
Flight of The Conchords: I bought the spin-off album from the TV series. It was fun, but I felt a lot of the songs lacked a lot when separated from the visuals. Last month I finally got around to getting their first CD, "Folk the World Tour". It's live, mostly with a backing band. Previously I'd only ever heard them live with just the two members playing acoustically. Some songs were new while others were older, rawer versions of songs I'd heard before. It was a fun listen, especially some of their banter between songs, but their TV series CD is infinitely better.
Armoured Angel: Wikipedia claims that Armoured Angel invented Death Metal. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. What is true is that the song "Hymn Of Hate" was on an old compilation tape on the front of a magazine and I've loved that song to death ever since. I'm very happy to have finally won a copy of their EP "Stigmartyr" on eBay recently and got to hear the other three tracks. It really is very good (for death metal) if a little hard to listen to due to some very muddy tape-esque production. It stands up very well to any modern metal I could throw at it. Excellent melodic solos, super-low growling vocals, grinding rhythm section. Very happy.
Mike Patton: The "Crank: High Voltage" soundtrack doesn't seem to have hit JB HiFi yet. I don't know why, although I suspect it slipped through their radar as it isn't on Ipecac (Patton's label).
I love it. It reminds me a lot of Patton's early Fantomas demos and his General Patton project. Some tracks have vocals, but most are instrumental and short.
This CD (with his other soundtrack project "Perfect Place") is a great indication of the kind of music Patton could write if he didn't focus on one single style of music per band.
What I liked about his work on Faith No More's "King For A Day" and "Angel Dust" and all of Mr. Bungle's CDs is the huge variation of music style.
I feel (as one of his biggest fans) that these days he tends to force himself into a single musical style for each project he does, and that his output is less interesting as a result.
His two soundtrack CDs are closer to the Patton I used to love. Unpredictable and genre-spanning.
Tori Amos: Later...