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Recommended Mp3s
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| Scream 3 Soundtrack (Various Artists)- **** out of ***** possible A very interesting, although not exactly groundbreaking, collection of modern rock songs. Many modern rock bands such as Creed, Finger Eleven, Slipknot, Static X, System of a Down, and the new (and awesome) American Pearl appear with good songs. Certain tracks however sound exactly the same... but all in all, this is WELL worth the money. By the way, in my opinion, the best track has got to be Finger Eleven- "Suffocate." That is a great song. But, I love Finger Eleven. Anyway, I'm done. Smashing Pumpkins- ADORE **** out of ***** possible. Let's face it.... this was not what people wanted from the Pumpkins. However, it could have been a LOT worse. Occasionally, the album breaks down into cheesy 80s crap, but a good portion of the tracks are good. Highlights are the industrial-esque "Ava Adore," the grandiose ballad "For Martha," and two incredible piano songs, "Blank Page," and "Annie-Dog." (By the way, if any of you think you know what the latter is about, please email me). All in all a sound buy if you like they slower side of rock. Smashing Pumpkins- MACHINA/THE MACHINES OF GOD **** 1/2 out of ***** possible Well its early in 2000 yet, but this is the best so far this year. Even though i don't like all of the tracks on this album, the strength of just three tracks earned this album 3 1/2 of the 4 and a half stars it received. The songs I refer to are the opening cut, "The Everlasting Gaze," the very Siamese Dream-like "Stand Inside Your Love," and a song that had best be a single, "Heavy Metal Machine." In "Gaze" Corgan reflects on God and religion in a biting tone over almost industrial grinding, while "Stand" is a love song with a beat, and "Machine" is, without a doubt, one of the great rock and roll anthems of all time with its opening chorus line of "Let me die for rock and roll." All in all a great album, if you prefer the sounds of earlier works like "1979" you may want to check out "Raindrops + Sunshowers" and "The Crying Tree of Mercury." Also noteworthy is the semi-psychedelic "Glass and the Ghost Children." My recommendation is that if you like the Pumpkins, or if you can even tolerate Billy's voice, you try this album, it is clearly up there with SIAMESE DREAM and MELLON COLLIE AND THE INFINITE SADNESS. Stabbing Westward- STABBING WESTWARD *** 1/2 out of ***** possible I try not to let my musical integrity as an aspiring artist get in the way of my ability to review music. However, this album draws heavily on my patience for musical prostitution. Who remembers when Stabbing Westward was a hip underground band with a minor hit called "Save Yourself?" Who remembers when they wrote better industrial than the genre's king, Trent Reznor? Who remembers when they were all weird and gothy? None of those appear on this album. This is pretty basic (although above-average) modern rock. The album's art seems to imply their ties to a goth past, but the music doesn't. All of that said, this album will give you well constructed modern rock, through and through. The disc leads off with the beautiful single "So Far Away," to which I give great credit for sharing a title with Carole King and Rod Stewart and not sucking. From there, the band travels across the slightly darker-than-average modern rock landscape with nothing terribly standout (or terribly terrible either) to show for it until the seventh track, Angel(which is somewhat the former, and certainly not the latter). A disappointment occurs in the next track, "Breathe You In", which sort of sucks, unfortunately, despite having a great hook. Tracks 9 and 10, "High" and "Television" respectively, actually seem to recall what I remember Stabbing Westward being, with elements of industrial and metal present in each. I like this album, but unfortunately, I liked DARKEST DAYS one hell of a lot better. Buy it if selling out isn't a big issue with you. Strait Up- STRAIT UP **** out of ***** possible Yes I know there's a long story behind this album, but this review will be about the album itself. The minimal background information: Strait Up consists of two former members of Snot, whose vocalist Lynn Strait died in 1998, and various guest vocalists (and occasionally other musicians). Now, onto the music. The first track, "Starlit Eyes" f/ Serj Tankian of SOAD is fairly good, and most reminiscent of an actual Snot track. Jonathan Davis (Korn) turns in a fairly-good-but-not-earth-shattering performance, as does MCUD of (hed)p.e. I'm not a big Soulfly fan, and i didn't much care for Max Cavalera's song either. Jason of RKI (who I'm not familiar with) has a decent punky tune. The first stellar track (no pun intended) is Brandon Boyd (Incubus)'s "Divided." The lyric/music interplay is at a high point here. Next, a obligatory-but-pointless message from Ozzy. At #8 is the highlight of the album for me, "Angel's Son" featuring Lajon, Clint, and Morgan of Sevendust. I can honestly say that song brings me to tears. Fred Durst, of course, turns in the album's worst performance with his pointless and lyrically "familiar" (coughjonimitchellcough) rambling. Dez of Coal Chamber turns in a decent performance, and Corey from Slipknot turns in a good one with an amazingly melodic chorus. Mark McGrath, who must've felt very out of place, puts together a good, albeit out of place "Reaching Out." The previously-only-available-on-Strangeland Snot track is pretty good, and the spoken word "Sad Air" is downright creepy. There's a hidden track that I won't spoil. All in all, a metal fan should buy this. |
 zeromus06@netscape.net |
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