Fools for Rowan - Twisted. Tied Up. Tangled.

The word ‘Tennessee’ reminds whisky to most people, the home of Jack Daniels. But to people like me it means a lot more if there is a ‘Nashville’ before that Tennessee. The city has been an inspiration for many musicians or anyone who is a little bit interested in music. It is the home to the marvellous Gibson Guitars and it’s many luthiers that build the custom Gibsons along with many other top-notch instruments. Fools for Rowan is a band I came across when I was wandering on MySpace. For reasons I’ve explained earlier, when you see ‘Nashville TN’ on the location your expectations are a bit higher than any other band. Fools for Rowan consists of Erin Mullins, Rachel Brandsness, Aaron Elliot, Ryan Nanney and Jordan Cullen. They are probably friends from high school or something but of course that’s none of my concern. Although I don’t like 5-piece bands very much, it is good to see a girl (Rachel) playing the lead guitar. These kids didn’t betray their hometown, both Rachel and Ryan plays Gibsons both on and off the stage. Erin stands out to be the only member of the group who doesn’t play an instrument.

Their first album called ‘Twisted. Tied Up. Tangled.’ was released in 2009 and has two singles so far. Fools for Rowan’s style reminds me of Evanescence, some how hard rock with a hint of punk and gothic looks. The album opens with ‘Burnt Around the Edges’, a proper rock song with catchy guitar riffs accompanied by some (probably double tracked) excellent vocals by Erin. The album’s hit song (IMHO) is ‘Dead’, the fourth track which also has an excellent video (can be seen here) but my favourite is the live version of the song that you can watch below. I must say this is one of the best live performance videos I’ve seen on YouTube so far.

I find it much better than the album version. I thought this was a song written by someone else but when you watch the video you clearly understand that it is written by Erin. It is also quite hard to understand why the producer added strings to this song. I am no producer or anything close but it definitely sounds much better without those strings. Besides you don’t hear any other strings during the album apart from this song. The rest of the album goes with a slightly slower pace and there isn’t any song that attracts attention. Track 10 ‘Living Dangerously’ reminds me of ‘Still Waiting’ by Sum41 a little bit. Actually it reminds me “a lot” of ‘Still Waiting’.

To sum it up, ‘Twisted. Tied Up. Tangled.’ is not the best album of the world but not bad either, it is exactly what you expect from a new band. My opinion is that they’re ready to go national. After all they’re living in a country where the Jonas Brothers are famous. If they play their cards right, and a little bit of luck they can be the next Evanescence. Members of Fools for Rowan seem to have enough musician skills and looks to attract rebellious teenagers but they still have to concentrate a little bit more on song writing.

AC/DC – Iron Man 2 Soundtrack

Everyone who slightly knows my music taste knows that I’m a huge soundtrack fan. I always think that the soundtrack plays a huge role in the movie. A good soundtrack can make a movie last much longer in our memories. It is also a great and easy way to discover new music but there is also a fact that no one wants to listen to a soundtrack album without watching the movie itself. Well I am no exception but when you see four magical letters with a lightning bolt in the middle everything changes.

I didn’t see the first Iron Man movie but heard that it was really good and since I didn’t see the first one there is no point on seeing the second one. What I do about this film is to enjoy it’s epic soundtrack. Director John Favreau is a huge fan of AC/DC and he decided to use 15 tracks both from Bon Scott and Brian Johnson era, ranging from ’75 to ’08. The tracks are picked from ten different albums. Only ‘Shoot to Thrill’ and ‘Highway to Hell’ were used completely uncut in the motion picture. The album can easily be considered as a ‘Best of’ including hit songs like Shoot to Thrill, Back in Black, Thunderstruck, Have a Drink On Me and many others.

There is not much to say, this album seems to be a win-win for everyone. The movie will attract more viewers (AC/DC fans). The new generation of will be exposed to the music of AC/DC and no doubt they’ll like it. Fathers and sons will finally have a chance to listen to music together. Even if one kid starts listenin AC/DC instead of Justin Bieber the world will be a much better place.

Negramaro - Mentre Tutto Scorre

It's been quite a while since I wrote a post. I said some goodbyes, packed some stuff, quite awkward but sold our good ol' car. Since some of you may know my computer is dead and I'm using my brothers old laptop which I've kept for emergency situations like this.

I haven't listened new stuff except what I have in my iPod, yesterday I decided to use the 30 song credit which Last.fm gave me (damn you Last.fm). I've typed "Italian" and started listening. The second track Last.fm played was Negramaro's "Mentre Tutto Scorre". I was very impressed by the song and Last.fm couldn't offer me better stuff since track 9 which was Toto Cutugno's classic "L'italiano". I've done some search and found out that these guys were quite famous in Italy. I listened to "Solo3min" which was also great.

Today I decided to write a post about their third studio album; Mentre Tutto Scorre. The album brought the band country-wide fame and "Best Italian Act" award at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards. The title song was their first single and the fourth single of the album "Nuvole e Lenzuola" was selected for "Guitar Hero: World Tour" video game. Their music is best described as Alternative Rock, which stands for; somewhere between pop and rock, yet worth listening. Giuliano Sangiorgi is a very talented singer, he has a very characteristic voice, his vocal range is very wide and he can switch between high and low very quickly.

Believe it or not, I haven't listened the album completely yet (now I'm at track 9) but I am very very fascinated. Maybe because it's Italian and I don't understand anything except a few words but I always believe that music is more than just words. I can say that this is the first and so far the best Italian album I've heard. These guys know how to make good music and I'm quite happy perché I have a favourite Italian band before I leave.

Florence + the Machine - Lungs

It's been quite a while since I have posted an album review, and I decided I should do one. Lungs is the debut album of english soul & indie artist Florence Welch. The spelling is a bit of a confusion, iTunes Store and Amazon.com refer to as "Florence + the Machine" while Last.fm and Wikipedia credit as "Florence and the Machine". Anyway, it seems the spelling of their name is the least of problems.

Florence was making music with her friend Isabelle Summers, they called each other "Florence Robot" and "Isabella Machine". Then she switched the name to "Florence + the Machine", judging by the name it seems like a band but this is her recording name, the Machine is a group of artists who provide backing music for her.

The album contains some good songs and some very good songs. Very good songs catch you at a few listens, remaining songs are at so-so level. There is no doubt that Welch is a magnificent singer, she has a very strong voice. Throughout the album, she doesn't make a single mistake in terms of singing, but seems like the Machine isn't working very well. It's her fault though, you can feel that Florence Welch is the boss of this thing. I think she didn't set her genre in her head yet. Some songs have the proper indie rock sound with great guitar riffs some have lots of strings and no guitars at all. It feels like this album was not produced by a single producer and in fact it really is. Florence knows music and it feels like she's been doing it for a while. I believe this is a compilation of her previous works. 46 minutes is not very long but she kept all the good songs for the first half and you get bored after a while. "Howl" I think is the best of the album and one of the best songs I've heard this year, "Girl With One Eye" is epic, "Kiss With a Fist" has a lot of joy and fun but all these songs were not brought together properly. All songs are individually good but it is very hard to follow. The only binding force is Florence's extraordinary voice but after a while you start to think this is a best-of album of the artist and each song represent different eras of her career.

In conclusion, this is an album with some very good songs performed by a very talented artist but the problem is it doesn't feel like an album at all. I think Florence needs to decide which way she will go in her career, and she has to do some mending to the machine. If Florence Welch takes my advise (I don't see any good reason why she should) she has the capacity to be an all time classic.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

When you have a brother who is seven-year older, you listen to some unusual stuff. While my class-mates were interested in stupid pop songs of the era, I was listening to Pink Floyd, Queen, Nirvana and of course Metallica. I was 8 or 9 years old when I first heard Metallica and loved their music since. Death Magnetic is their 9th studio album and the best among last few.

They had problems with Jason Newsted for a long time, he was a decent bass player but his parts were either cut out or volumed down during mastering. I think James didn't liked this guy at all and Jason stormed off. They recorded the dreadful St. Anger without a bassist, with producer Bob Rock in charge of the instrument. Metallica did not produce a proper album since the legendary self-titled black album. They "Load"ed, they failed, they "Re-Load"ed, they failed again. They screamed their "St. Anger" and the fans were quite sure, a legend has come to an end. They signed Robert Trujillo as the bassist which did not cheer the fans either. Most people believed they were becoming their own tribute band.

James Hetfield and his friends did a proper job this time, they decided to work with Rick Rubin as the producer. He produced Slayer and Audioslave albums before, and he knows the recipe. James was in charge of the band since day one, he pushed himself to the edge this time. His vocals are perfect, riffs are catchy. Lars destroyed the drum kit into pieces. His drums were also good in "St. Anger" but there was nothing else to back him up. I think the drums in this album are at "... And Justice for All" level. Kirk is a bit of a let down of this album, he has a few good solos but instead of going for melodic solos like in the past, he fell in love with the wah pedal. Rob has done a great job with the bass. This is the first album that we hear proper bass since "Master of Puppets". Here's a video released before the album, shows Rob's skills with an acoustic guitar during one of recording sessions.

This is their longest "proper" studio album, it's 74 minutes long and the shortest song is the last one "My Apocalypse" at 5:01. Metallica usually had long songs, "...And Justice for All" had 9 songs, "Master of Puppets" had only 8. This one has 10 songs and despite a few, they are very good ones. "The Day That Never Comes" was released as the first single before the album which I think was a perfect choise. It's a song with proper Metallica sound and changing tempo, which is something we haven't heard from them in the last decade. James has perfect melodic vocals in "Broken, Beat & Scarred" and my favourite "All Nightmare Long". We also have a new unforgiven in this album the "Unforgiven III". I wonder how much unforgivens they have in store for us. It has a piano intro, it's 7:46 long and has a rather slow tempo. This time we don't have "What I've felt, what I've known" lyrics, in fact it doesn't even resemble the first two unforgivens. The album overall has a complete sound. It's seems long but it isn't. You get easily involved with it and never get bored after all, we all missed them so much.

I believe this is the album that all Metallica fans were waiting for since '91. All the world knows they are not super talented musicians. What made them popular was their ability to compose melodic songs. They don't need to prove themselves. They are already legends and I think with this album they realized what they should do. Write good, melodic songs.

Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak

I'm not much of a rap person but when it comes to Kanye West, things change instantly. He is a wonderful producer and in my humble opinion the best rapper of all time. 808s & Heartbreak is his 4th studio album. You can feel this album is different from the previous ones without even listening. The first three albums were titled in a college theme ("The College Dropout", "Late Registration" and "Graduation") and all contained Kanye's famous bear on their cover art.

Almost everyone agrees that the first two albums were hip-hop classics. Graduation was advertised with "Stronger", maybe his best song ever, but the album was a bit of a let down. This album proves he is now successfully graduated and no doubt his heart is broken. The thing I like about Kanye is unlike other rappers, he sings, he doesn't try to prove himself. He doesn't have a very good voice but he can sing. He showed the world that hip-hop is not about saying words that rhyme. In this album he really reflects his emotions to his singing.

The album takes it's name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine, he did most of his production on these machines. Unlike previous albums, this doesn't include much strings, it's more electronic. The sound of 808s are so dominant, giving the album a more complete feel. The first two singles, "Heartless" and "Love Lockdown" stand out but other songs are also really good. "Bad News" and "Coldest Winter" are worth attention. "Amazing" is made popular by NBA but I don't think it's one of the better ones. It's a good song though I think they chose it because it fits with their slogan; Where Amazing Happens. The album closes with a freestyle live performance called "The Pinocchio Story". It is quite touching and if he improvised that on stage, well he is a genius.

For me a good album is made by writing a few good songs, and writing other songs to back them up. This album does that exactly. 52 minutes it's still a bit long but his shortest album up to date. He definitely has better songs in his previous albums but this is the most complete one. This is the best to listen to. Which also makes it the best Kanye West album up-to-date.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

I just came back from a 45 min. walk, had a shower and set for this. It's 4 AM now, and I'm beginning to think that I should do this "walk, listen to an album, take a shower, write a review" thing more often. So here it is, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" or "The Dark Side of the Moon" or whatever you call it.

First things first, this is not an album that you can listen to on a normal time, you have to be prepared for what you are about to hear. You have to have the right conditions. I've listened to this album many many times and I don't really remember listening it in a morning time. Not because it's titled Dark Side of the Moon, this is a dark album, and to listen to a dark album you have to be in a dark environment. Most albums, you listen and have a good time. This one is an exception though. You listen to it, it rocks your world, changes your life. Every single time.

I've first heard about this album when I was like 14 or 15 years old. We were trading cassettes with friends, and I've got this. I guess I gave him Queen's Greatest Hits II. I wasn't much of a music freak back then but the first thing that got my attention was the recurring melodies in the album. They were stealing their own music, and they were doing it in style. This also helps to give a more complete feel to the album and attracted the listener. It is highly psychedelic and highly progressive. If you don't know what these two words mean don't worry, you'll definitely get it when you listen.

The first two tracks form an epilogue of what's yet to come, and the album actually starts with "Time". The backbone of the album is songs 3, 4 and 5; "Time", "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money". Then comes "Us and Them" which is kind of a bridge between the beginning and the end. This album does not contain usual rock songs except "Time" and "Money". Clare Torry perfoms one hell of a vocal in "The Great Gig in the Sky", Dick Parry's saxophone in "Us and Them" is epic. I still believe it's the best ever performance by any session musician.

The album was intended to Syd Barret, their former front man who (decided to) lost his mind. It opens up with quotes from a few mad men. These voices (and sometimes evil laughs) are placed at various points in the album. I later learned that these were not actual mad men, they were friends of the band members. Linda and Paul McCartney were also interviewed but their voices were not used in the album. But another Wings member Henry McCullough says "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time" between "Money and Us and Them". The main idea of the album is to look at life and things from another point-of-view. The closing lyrics of the album is shocking:

and everything under the sun is in tune

but the sun is eclipsed by the moon

This is not an album which consists of songs, you have to think of it as a 45 minutes long song. You definitely don't want any of these songs in your shuffle playlist, any of them will bore you to death, but when you listen to them all together, it is magical. It ties with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top spot of my best albums of all time chart. There isn't a possible way that anyone can surpass this no matter how hard they try. This is the highest point achieved in writing, executing and producing music.

"There is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact, it's all dark."

Gerry O'Driscoll

Franz Ferdinand - Tonight: Franz Ferdinand

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (quite an awkward name) is the third studio album by the Scottish rock 'n roll band Franz Ferdinand. Alex Kapranos and his friends handed the production to Dan Carey this time, and the result is quite good I must say.

At first few listens you get an idea that this album was intended for the dance-floor. However things change after a while, this is still a rock album, and a very good one. You get hard guitar riffs, even a few short guitar solos which is not something we heard from these guys before.

Rob Hardy really pushed hard on this as the bass is more dominant than ever. At some point (Can't Stop Feeling) you just find yourself listening to the bass and ignoring the rest of the band. Alex Kapranos' vocals are not extra-ordinary yet not average. He just uses his vocal range quite effectively. He knows his limits, and executes flawlessly. Nick McCarthy is like he was in the first two albums. He is just great, full stop.

The pace of the album is near perfect. Opens up with "Ulysses" the first single, is an electronic-rock song with great tempo. 3rd track "No You Girls" is also catching, you don't get bored at the first half of the album but there isn't really something worth much attention. Things start to get a little better at track 7 "Bite Hard". "What She Came for" is a proper rock song with a little solo outro. The party-piece is "Can't Stop Feeling" and located at track 9/12. It's clearly the climax of the album.Trumpets resemble Cake songs a little bit. "Lucid Dreams" is the longest song of the album with 7:56 and second half of the song is an experimental techno keyboard solo. Then they close the festivities with two slow songs. It's not an album that you listen good songs first and then get bored or get bored waiting for the good songs to come. There are good songs at the begining, then a little stall, and a fast climb to the top.

Franz Ferdinand has really done a proper job. They didn't make the mistake The Killers and Muse did, and donated us 3 wonderful albums. Is this their best album up-to-date? You can't tell. Which one is their best album? Well you can't tell thet either. The next album is crucial for them, more important than the first three. With this album, we may be witnessing history as it is being written.