Favourite Concert Dvd of the Year.

Posted : 2 weeks, 2 days ago on 3 July 2008 05:47 (A review of The Black Parade Is Dead)

Wow! This is exactly how a concert should be filmed. This is a fantastic Concert Dvd. MCR are such overachievers, they filmed not one but two concerts for this dvd and threw in a live cd as well. The only reason I'm rating The Black Parade is Dead! a 9 is that they cut the encore from the Mexico City show. While I understand why it was done I still would have preferred to have it included. Both concerts are absolutely amazing. I'm in love with the cinematography for both shows. Everything flowed so well, especially given the differences in the staging of both shows. Gerard's got so much charisma, he's a brilliant frontman.

Even though the Mexico City show is epic and awesome I think the New Jersey show is my favourite - I've already watched it multiple times. I really enjoyed the intimate vibe of this show. It had so many great moments. Ray switching guitars during Disappear was too cool. And the transition they did between 'Give 'Em Hell, Kid' and 'House of Wolves' was great. I love hearing Ray singing and I could hear him so well during this show. There was also a really nice mix of new and old songs.

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Full of Rock and Wit.

Posted : 3 weeks, 2 days ago on 26 June 2008 03:47 (A review of You're Awful, I Love You)

You're Awful, I Love You is a good solid rock album. But that's not all it is. It's also incredibly witty. I got into Ludo because of the catchy-ness of the lead single 'Love Me Dead' and found they're so much more than that. They're all truly talented musicians, they write well crafted songs and their lyrics are incredibly funny. Some great examples of that humour are 'Lake Pontchartrain', 'Mutiny Below' and 'The Horror of Our Love'. Besides 'Love Me Dead' my favourite songs on this album are 'Lake Pontchartrain' and 'Drunken Lament'.

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Shamelessly Dancy, Retro, and Beat Driven.

Posted : 3 weeks, 3 days ago on 25 June 2008 01:08 (A review of Embrace the Curse)

When I first heard I Hate Kate on my local radio station I thought they were a well known, famous band that I'd been oblivious to previously, they just sounded that good! So I was surprised to find out that they were a mostly local band with only some notoriety to their name.

I've loved their music since I first heard 'em on my radio and I'm so happy to finally have a full album to listen to. I Hate Kate's music is hard for me to describe, it's like they took all my favourite things from '80's rock and modern rock, threw them together and than sat the whole thing on it's head. It's dancy and retro and beat driven and guitar heavy and I love it shamelessly.

I'm really impressed with the cover of 'Major Tom' on Embrace the Curse. 'Cause I remember the original version of 'Major Tom' and it was nowhere near as good. Some of my other favourites are 'Outta My Head', 'Then You Kiss' and 'Inside Inside'.

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Howl is the Real Deal.

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 28 May 2008 01:31 (A review of Howl)

Howl is an absolutely awesome rock album. I've had it on repeat since I got it yesterday and I don't think I'll be getting tired of it any time soon. It amazes me that they did everything themselves, from the production down to the artwork. I'm constantly awed by Sean Van Vleet's voice, he's got an impressive range and he uses it so well. Another thing I'm impressed with is the amount of tracks on the album, there's more songs here then the majority of recent albums I've seen. There's a lot of different sounds on Howl, I can hear some 60's and some 80's and there's even a couple purely acoustic tracks (hand claps!). Currently my favourite songs are 'Believe!', 'All Night Long', and 'Modern Love'.

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Favourite Album of '07.

Posted : 2 months ago on 16 May 2008 02:55 (A review of Infinity on High)

I really truly love this cd. I bought it the week it came out and it's a rare day that I don't listen to at least a few of the songs on it. One of the things I love about Infinity on High is that it's so different from the I had been hearing on the radio. You might think it's just your typical pop-punk but really there's a lot of diversity here. I can hear the sounds of metal, hardcore, r&b, and funk on various songs. There's even something like a piano ballad, but not, since this is Fall Out Boy after all. Another thing I really love about Infinity on High is Patrick's voice. He's such a strong singer and he's grown a ton vocally since From Under a Cork Tree. Without a doubt my favourite song on this album is 'You're Crashing But You're No Wave'. It's a song that tells a story and I love the lyrics in this song and the way Patrick sings them.

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A Must Hear.

Posted : 2 months, 2 weeks ago on 30 April 2008 06:22 (A review of Whisper War)

Incredible!! I can't believe this is their debut album. I don't have the words for how much I love this album. I love how 'One of Those Nights' bleeds into 'Bounce'. Patrick really can't help singing on song's he's produced can he? I'm really having trouble picking a favourite song. I really dig 'I'm a Wonder' but 'Bounce' and 'This City is Contagious' are amazing as well. I'm also really impressed with ''Vegas Skies, they've done the improbable and written a ballad that I actually really like. The only thing I'm not quite sure I like is the vocal effects in 'High Hopes in Velvet Ropes' and I'm sure that a couple days from now I'll enjoy that too.

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Great Concert, Bad Directing.

Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 2 April 2008 04:55 (A review of **** Live In Phoenix)

I think Fall Out Boy put on an amazing show in this dvd. The audio was great and the camera crew did an awesome job filming. Patrick's voice is truly a lot deeper live than you'd expect listening to Fall Out Boy's cd's. But the concert portion of the dvd was full of directorial choices that took me out of the moment. One of my biggest pet peeves for concert dvd's is gratuitous crowd shots and there were A LOT here.

The Behind the scenes section was really well done. I'd seen a good deal of the clips during the Honda Civic Tour but they added a bunch of stuff I hadn't seen and it was great to see all of it in such high quality.

Overall my favourite part of the dvd I think is the drum solo. Andy's great drummer and the shooting here was top quality.

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Five Years Later Still a Great Album.

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 29 March 2008 02:32 (A review of Stripped)

Inexplicably I hated Stripped the very first time I heard it. But on just the next listen I feel absolutely in love with it.I've loved Christina's voice since I watched her on the MMC it's only gotten better from then. When I first heard Dirrty on the radio I was completely taken aback that this was Christina Aguilera I was hearing but I thought it awesome none the less. Even now, five years later, I can only think of one, maybe two songs I don't still enjoy. It's hard to pick favourites but Fighter, Make Over and Get Mine, Get Yours may well be the ones I played most.

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Ragtime indie pop-rock sound

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 27 March 2008 04:18 (A review of Goodbye Blues)

Goodbye Blues is a BIG step forward for The Hush Sound. Greta's voice has grown so much since Like Vines it amazes me. She's developed a blues-y jazzy tinge to her voice that really works with their overall sound on this album. There's a sort of ragtime feel to a lot of the songs that I like, it enhances the indie pop-rock sound they have. My current favourites - Medicine Man, The Boys Are Too Refined, and Molasses.

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First Impressions

Posted : 3 months, 3 weeks ago on 25 March 2008 04:14 (A review of Pretty. Odd.)

Pretty. Odd. is quite an apropos title for this latest release from Panic at the Disco. The album is very melody driven but a lot of the instrumentation and lyrics would be considered odd by most. I'm not most though. This album makes me smile. Pretty. Odd. is quite a change in direction for Panic at the Disco and while I enjoyed their previous direction I'm enjoying this direction just as much. So far I'm really digging That Green Gentleman, Northern Downpour, and Behind the Sea.

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