album reviews
Reviews of albums old and new from iconic artists and up and coming musicians alike.
An Album Comparison
I first discovered the folk opera Hadestown a couple of years ago when I was researching the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, one of the favorites, and found that there was a concept album based on this story. The album was available for listening on YouTube and I was instantly obsessed. Unlike your typical concept album, there are different singers playing the different characters in the story. It feels like the cast recording of a musical and my first thought was that there should be a stage production. Sure enough, there was one in New York but it came and went before I had the chance to see it. So I looked up everything I could find of the production online which was tantalizingly little. Then it was announced a few months ago that a cast recording was to be released and I quickly pre-ordered it off of iTunes and waited for the whole thing to be available with a track released every few weeks to wet my appetite.
By Rachel Lesch8 years ago in Beat
A.Boogie - 'The Bigger Artist'
His talent speaks for itself. Strengths/Weaknesses It seems like every other day there’s a new artist going viral or dominating Soundcloud with their music. Music has never been so easily accessible, and listeners are consuming music much faster than at any other point in history. There are so many trends and fads that it’s easy to get dizzy trying to keep up with all of them. With so many artists to choose from and numerous channels to discover them, many artists will be here today and gone tomorrow.
By Rap Disciple8 years ago in Beat
Macklemore — 'Gemini'
Here is an album review of Macklemore's Gemini. Strengths/Weaknesses Let’s face it: Geminis are the punching bags of the zodiac. The rest of the zodiac would have you believe that they’re two-faced and shallow. They're stereotypically associated with snakes for their deceptive behavior.
By Rap Disciple8 years ago in Beat
PartyNextDoor — 'Seven Days'
Party has come a long way since first bursting onto the scene. 1. "Bad Intentions" I immediately liked the vibes on this opening track. Party doesn’t get enough credit as a producer. He has his own distinct sound; his instrumentals never sound as if they’re attempting too much, but they never feel lackluster, either. The nocturnal R&B vibes he has cultivated over the years becomes a little more polished with every project.
By Rap Disciple8 years ago in Beat
Euphoria Mourning: No, It's Not a Typo
Hello, and welcome back to Second Chances where I take another look at a maligned or forgotten piece of pop culture. For the longest time, I was behind the times when it came to my musical interests. When my classmates were part of the grunge revolution, I was still listening to classic rock. I didn't get caught up until I got to college in the late 90s. That was when I first learned of Chris Cornell.
By Adam Wallace8 years ago in Beat
'Hamilton': An American Musical Soundtrack Review
When people first started raving about Hamilton on Broadway, the first response was "It can't be that good." Mixing hip-hop with a musical? It sounded like showrunner Lin Manuel-Miranda was trying to combine two audiences together and would attract neither one of them. After listening to the soundtrack, Manuel-Miranda did a fantastic job at weaving in the elements of both from seemingly opposite and conflicting genres. After all, rap and musicals are practically oil and water when it comes to their fanbase. The fans of one genre aren't likely to go and try the other. In fact, I'd argue, Hamilton is more musical than rap album.
By Michael Bergonzi8 years ago in Beat
You Want It Darker
2016 was a dark year full of, among other bad omens, the deaths of many icons of the musical community. Among the many musical legends we lost that year was Leonard Cohen, the legendary Canadian singer/songwriter and poet who passed away on November 7th, a day before Trump won the presidency. Cohen's passing was but the latest in a long line of music deaths and it only served to further the notion that 2016 was a terrible year. Before he left us however, Cohen released You Want it Darker, his fourteenth and final studio album. Released just 19 days before his passing, the album gives us Cohen's final musings on life with nine of his most strikingly poetic and darkly prophetic songs delivered by a man not quite ready to go gently into that good night.
By Matthew Frati8 years ago in Beat
Ryan Follese's Debut Solo Album Is Evidence You Can't Change Those Roots
Everyone may not realize this but the guy with the guitar singing about backroads and putting a label on it isn't new to music, let alone country music. That's Ryan Follese, son of singer songwriters with country roots Keith Follese and Adrienne Follese, and he's most well known as being the front man from the pop rock band Hot Chelle Rae.
By Chelsea DeVries8 years ago in Beat
Ke$ha's 'Rainbow' Is a Hopeful Comeback After Five Year Hiatus
I'm not sure if I need to say this but Ke$ha started out as a songwriter for other artists, most famously Britney Spears. Her debut as an artist was called "Tik Tok," and featured a comment about brushing your teeth with Jack Daniels. It was a party anthem that instantly became a hit simply because not only was it catchy but it showed the kind of free spirit Ke$ha was, even early on.
By Chelsea DeVries8 years ago in Beat
Somehow It's Already Been a Year: A Look at Touché Amoré's Post-Hardcore Masterpiece: 'Stage Four' - 1 Year Later
"Somehow it's already been a year," lead vocalist Jeremy Bolm of Touché Amoré bellows out at the beginning of "New Halloween," the second track off of the band’s 4th studio album Stage Four. However in this context, Bolm is referring to the time passed since his mother Sandra Bolm passed away of Stage 4 cancer, just a year earlier. When such a tragedy occurs it is nearly impossible to predict the implications that might follow, from an instant deluge of grief and emotions poured out in the most open of ways, to an almost complete shutdown of social communications and interactions, everyone handles death in his/her own way. While seemingly delicate and complex, the subject certainly hasn’t gone unexplored in music. Billie Joe Armstrong gave us “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” Eric Clapton penned the legendary “Tears in Heaven,” Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth gave us- well, yeah let’s not remember that one…
By Matt Knight8 years ago in Beat
Top of Their Genre: Pop-Punk
Music has always had the ability to represent emotions that people have, thoughts they have, experiences they have; the list can go on. Certain kinds of music represent different emotions, thoughts and experiences. Pop-Punk is one of these genres which has always had an image around it, a guideline for what the content should be and what it should represent and what emotions, thoughts, and experiences the listener has or goes through, and while this formula has produced many enjoyable albums and projects, it has always fallen short of the records which draw from other influences and themes not seen in the standard Pop-Punk formula.
By Tom Clarke8 years ago in Beat
