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The liner notes of I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat may attempt to sell the listener a cheap mythology of “a loose-limbed jamming unit” that recorded from the 1970s to the mid-nineties, but there’s no ignoring what this really is—Norman Cook’s own version of Timbaland’s Shock Value ... read more |
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Sure, I may just have a soft spot for the gal after watching a marathon of her BET reality show (starring her real-life recovering crackhead mother and alcoholic sister), but I'm speaking purely for the music. This is a solid R&B album full of baby-making bedroom tunes that achieves the goal of showing a new side of the star without sacrificing her identity ... read more |
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At a time in the late seventies when the rock music audience had become ridiculously polarized -- you had your metalheads and arena rock types, your punk rockers, and then you had those who had abandoned rock altogether for disco -- Cheap Trick was just about the only band everyone could agree on ... read more |
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There have been some complaints that O’Brien’s production on AC/DC's Black Ice is a bit too clean. Don’t listen to em’. The riffs here are as big and ballsy sounding as ever. Less mud and more crunch is a pretty good description of what you’ll find on Black Ice. God bless em’ for it, and bring on the tour. Just hold your nose at the WalMart checkout line ... read more |
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The album showcases Army Navy's signature vintage guitar growl, infectious melodies and Justin Kennedy’s spot-on, tight-throated vocals. The bigger picture, though, is available to those who have heard older recordings, giving them a basis to compare how far this band has come ... read more |
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Rucker comes across as just another purveyor of the made-to-order, lyrically trite, and musically stale fluff that passes for much of contemporary country music. Just about every stereotypical attribute of the form is present, including random banjos, an ever-present pedal steel, and hackneyed idioms palmed off as clever song titles and generically identifiable lyrics. ... read more |
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Maybe it is true that work comes before play. Band of Horses has showed their label they can sell an album in the Seattle indie fashion with Everything All the Time, so their sophomore album sounds like the band’s return home, to the style they probably wanted to pursue from the start ... read more |
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Give AC/DC credit for one thing – or actually, make that a couple of things. They’ve got longevity. No doubt about that. But what you’ve really got to respect about Angus and the boys is not just that they’ve stayed on top for more than three decades now, but that they’ve done so without really changing a thing. ... read more |
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His flow is delicious; his lyricism is perfect for those who seek something interesting and alarmingly significant in this world where everything seems to have morphed into an unbearable piece of half-retarded quips about loving strippers and wanting to by drinks for random chicks ... read more |
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My Morning Jacket has not recorded a radio-friendly album or a concert-friendly album. This is an album not for those who solely tap their toes or nod their heads; this is for those who hear the music even after it’s stopped, for those who listen to records, not reviews ... read more |
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When I first heard about this project, my hopes were through the roof. The experience is slightly deflating, then, to pop the disc in for the first time and hear not driving, keyboard-chaperoned, electric-guitar rock as “Scare Easy” implied, but ditty-down-home twang guitar and an electric country vibe akin to the Eagles’ early material ... read more |
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Everything the band accomplishes on paper is lost in practice, because most of the album is cringe-inducing, half-country grunge-rock, and as soon that music style comes out of the speakers, you change the station. You hear the first three chords of an intro, and you know what the fourth one is. Jason Ross sings, “I’m sinking…” and you know he’s going to say “…like a stone” ... read more |
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Trent Reznor must love surprises. First the Nine Inch Nails mastermind released 36-track instrumental compilation Ghosts I-IV out of the blue and now, without warning, he has temporarily pacified eager fans impatiently pleading for new material with surprise single "Discipline", yesterday ... read more |
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The album’s rustic flavor pours forth from the first, languid notes of “How Can A Poor Boy?” – the guitar and harmonica dangle on their notes like a pair of dragonflies that won’t move, over a rhythm section that paces up and down like an old dog. By the time Van’s deep, bluesman’s voice utters the first words, the aroma of a hot, dust-filled Tennessee afternoon is present and pungent ... read more |
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Here is where I should spend the rest of this review explaining in cliché terms exactly why Leona Lewis’ recent release, Spirit , lacks any real musical merit. Frankly, I’m getting tired of clichés, so we’ll get through this as quickly as possible. Leona Lewis has a pretty voice and she’s singing pretty little pop diddies ... read more |
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