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Post by unomusette on Mar 7, 2015 23:38:31 GMT
I was in several minds over what to post this time. You almost had a dose of something smooth and scrumptious which would have been balm to your ears. But unfortunately that album's not on Youtube so instead you're in for a bit of a work out.
The Music are one of my top four favourite bands; if I had to choose a top three I think ELO and Strawbs might be fighting it out to stay in. They are now sadly split up and I only saw them once at their farewell gig in Brixton Academy - it was one of the best I've ever been to (and I've been to LOTS of gigs) Catch it on Youtube, it's fab, Mr Musette and I are on the barrier in the middle behind a couple of titchy Japanese girls.
Their style is a mixture of rock and dance and a bit of electronica, although there are the odd slowies. All four members are hugely talented in my opinion, although you'll never hear a twiddly guitar or annoying show-off drum solo. Rob Harvey has a brilliant voice, although I will admit it might be a bit of an acquired taste to start off with. I love the way he's not lost his Leeds accent. Plus it can be pretty full on and lively, so you are allowed to have a rest now and then, but they do have a knack for a catchy tune and infectious beat. In the past I've ranted about dancey bands that repeat the same lyric endlessly - The Music do a bit of that now and again, especially in the first track, but usually with interesting changing music beneath it so I forgive them.
Strength in Numbers was their last album. There were two extras on Youtube but nothing special, so I've snuck in a couple of other gems just to stretch you to breaking point. The first video might make you feel a bit seasick but the second evolves into quite a good Tron style. No more videos after that until the very end. I'll shut up now, go back to wishing they'd reform and leave you to it. Sorry for the separate tracks, it was the only way to do it.
(I only meant to put up Bleed from Within, you're allowed to stop it if it tries to play the other tracks)
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Post by jrmugz on Mar 8, 2015 14:13:08 GMT
Very cool, something new; will send my review later this week!
Jim
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Post by queenofthehours on Mar 8, 2015 15:54:43 GMT
I'm not familliar with their music but I'm always open to new things.
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Post by Chippa on Mar 8, 2015 20:24:59 GMT
Found the whole album in one video.
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Post by jefflynnenut on Mar 8, 2015 21:03:00 GMT
Hey cool! Looking forward to listening in! I prefer it with each song seperated myself.
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Post by Chippa on Mar 8, 2015 21:24:15 GMT
Strength in Numbers – Good techno/rock sound. Almost reminds me of The Killers or Franz Ferdinand, in parts.
The Spike – Great bass. Good “Sexy time” music, to steal a term from Borat.
Drugs- Very late 70’s disco sounding opening. Not bad. Almost a U2-like chorus.
Idle- I like the “shimmering” vocals, for lack of a better term. Very cool chorus, too.
The Leftside – Reminds me of Muse, quite a bit. Another catchy chorus. The breathy vocals must be this band’s “thing”, ‘eh?
Fire – Kind of an alt/metal sound going on here. Very anthemic . I could see some fists pumping to this song.
Get Through It – Opening is almost a straight steal from the theme to “The Midnight Express”. A bit monotonous, but not bad. The chorus saves it from being a total bore.
Vision – Was this song a radio hit? I swear I’ve heard it before. Good ear candy. Immediately catchy chorus, again.
The Last One – I hear some Depeche Mode in this track. Probably could have been a big club hit.
No Weapon Sharper than Will – Relentless bass! I like it. Some of the chorus reminds me of Oasis.
Cold Blooded – There’s a definite late 2000’s alternative sound that dominates this song. The acoustic guitar is a nice touch.
Inconceivable Odds- Sort of a Coldplay vibe to this track. Nice melody. I’m also hearing a little Billy Joel , especially in the vocals.
The Price – Sounds like “soundtrack” music. Infectious, pounding rhythm. Another fist-pumper.
The Rain – This almost has a late 80’s hair metal power ballad vibe to it. Very nice melody, and soaring vocals.
I’d never heard of this band until today, but they aren’t bad. Some of the songs are a bit too similar, but they definitely have an interesting sound. I’d give it a strong 7/10.
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Post by unomusette on Mar 8, 2015 21:40:01 GMT
I found the whole album one too, but it has the not-so-good extras on it and you can't slice them off. I thought I'd found one that would just play the original tracks but when I posted it here it only played track 1. Seems to happen a lot on Youtube; the updated versions of albums superseding the originals. It's a shame because posting the individual tracks is slowing down the opening of the thread
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Post by unomusette on Mar 8, 2015 21:59:50 GMT
Thanks for the speedy review, Chippa! I was hoping it would appeal to you, and you've pointed out some things I'd never noticed, such as the Franz Ferdinand similarity and the "shimmering" description of the Idle vocals, perfect! You may recognise Vision from Homes under the Hammer, they use the outro a lot when they reveal the finished article, and probably it's on other BBC programmes as backdrop.
Really pleased to see that you enjoyed more than half of it, did you try Bleed from Within and Getaway too?
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Post by Horacewimp on Mar 8, 2015 22:05:48 GMT
I found the whole album one too, but it has the not-so-good extras on it and you can't slice them off. I thought I'd found one that would just play the original tracks but when I posted it here it only played track 1. Seems to happen a lot on Youtube; the updated versions of albums superseding the originals. It's a shame because posting the individual tracks is slowing down the opening of the thread Some of the YouTube albums are actually playlists and so when you post the link directly into the forum it only plays the first song as you say. If you don't want the thread to have loads of individual tracks then you can just post up the link to the playlist for us to follow. You can do this in the main post area by clicking the first picture after the formatting ones and entering in the link details. If you want any help then let me know
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Post by unomusette on Mar 8, 2015 22:15:49 GMT
Yep, it was a playlist as you say. Do you want me to re-do it to save opening time? As jefflynnenut says it can be good to have the tracks individually but if it's causing problems with the site I'll change it.
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Post by Horacewimp on Mar 8, 2015 22:28:08 GMT
It's fine Uno leave it as it is, to be honest it can be good to have individual tracks as sometime I don't have time to listen to the whole album in one go and so can check out a few tracks at a time.
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Post by unomusette on Mar 8, 2015 22:37:01 GMT
Righto, hope you like the CD a bit too - with your OMD background it might appeal to you
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Post by jrmugz on Mar 11, 2015 1:32:38 GMT
It's a crazy week, but will probably have my review here on Friday! Sounds very cool from my playing it so far! Really like it.
Jim
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Post by unomusette on Mar 11, 2015 21:51:59 GMT
Good news! I'm really pleased you're liking it, it's going down a lot better than I thought it would so far
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Post by Helmut83 on Mar 14, 2015 6:06:05 GMT
This album clearly moved me out of my zone of comfort, which is a healthy exercise to do from time to time. The first song predisposed me wrong and I thought I would have to suffer through the whole album like it had happened to me with the Daft Punk album. Wrong assumption. As a whole, I must say I didn’t consider it a good album and I found most of it’s songs bad (you know how much I loathe electronic music, Uno…), but I found several songs I enjoyed, and I was happy to discover not all of it sounded so techno and synth invaded like I thought it would be. “Idle”, “The leftside”, “Inconceivable odds” and “The rain” were all good in my opinion, and the guys showed with them they have some songwriting talent, even though it didn’t show on most tracks.
Besides the techno-electronic-synth thing, which I will probably never be able to swallow and I still think is the worst thing that ever happened to music, the other bad thing is that many songs feature (particularly on their choruses) that thick layer of electric guitars which has become so common from the ‘00s on and which makes every artist sound the same, from Taylor Swift or Avril Lavigne to Greenday or Linkin’ Park. It’s a pity that they fell on that too.
Here goes the review song by song:
- 1 / 2 range: Strenght in numbers (hyper repetitive, silly melody, absolutely nothing good about it, terrible way to start the album), The Price (awful… techno crap at it’s best, with all the characteristic features of it; this is the kind of music that I’m sure produces damage to ear nerves; worst song of the album).
- 3 / 4 range: The Spike (a more decent verse and the female and male voice blend very well; however, the chorus sounds as so many things, unoriginal, and with that thick, amorphous, dense layer of electric guitars that is so common in nowadays music and makes everything sounds the same), Drugs (worthless, produces no emotion, again full us those electronic sounds and thick electric guitars mattress; the chorus which is a bit better is what saves it from getting a lower note), Fire (too much screaming, too little melody), Get through it (plain, monotonous, the bassline is an aberration, it doesn’t even skip one single semiquaver and that tires your ear after 15 seconds; I don’t like the chorus either), No weapon sharper than will (great bassline, but unfortunately there’s not a great song beneath it; I found it quite tasteless, irrelevant, boring, and to make things worse it’s like the 3rd consecutive song that sounds the same –again with that fedding-up-1000-electric-guitars thick layer that makes all nowadays music sound all the same- so at this point your ear is begging for a change).
- 5 / 6 range: Vision (more 5 than 6… reminds me a bit of U2; not a fan of this kind of music and much less when it is so loaded with electronic sounds and production, but I must admit it isn’t so bad), The Last one (the bassline begins like an always-the-same-note version of “Another one bites the dust”, but then it has some interesting turns; the chorus is quite decent), Cold blooded (at last my ear gets a rest from those electric guitars! A bit of a disco-funk feel to it during the verse but then the chorus gets kind of melancholic… too long though), The Rain (more tending to 6.5… quite Muse-sounding, isn’t it? Nice vocals, something of a dramatic feel to it… decent way of closing the album).
- 7 / 8 range: Idle (I put it here because of it’s originality; it’s not the same regurgitated thing the album offered us so far: it’s a really original and good idea… it has a nice atmosphere of mystery, interesting percussion and good vocal work), The Leftside (this song has a lot of shape, something the previous ones had been lacking… some arab influences on it and a good guitar work… good chorus too, nice energy, very good song), Inconceivable odds (very nice ballad, very decent melody, peaking well at the chorus; and happily I can’t hear much techno contamination on it… why didn’t they dedicate themselves to making more songs like this?)
- 9 / 10 range:
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