Blue October

Released on March 24, Approaching Normal is Blue October's 5th studio album and possibly their best. Justin Furstenfeld as usual provides lyrics that are both deep and emotional, that seems to connect with our own inner-problems and depressions.

Approaching Normal is a means that Furstenfeld uses to express his own feelings on topics like relationships, adultery, depression and death. I enjoyed how well-paced the album was, with it never getting too overly depressing, which was my primary issue with some of their previous work.

"Dirt Room," the first single from the album, is a great song that can also be used as a good representation as to how much progression the band has made. There is more variety in this album than in previous ones which can be attributed to the even-feel of the album.

I'd say that some of the older Blue October fans may feel like the band has sold out, but I personally think that this is the best they have sounded. I liked some of their older music, but as I've said before at times it almost got too depressing. There are definately more upbeat and optimistic songs on this album than any of their others, but the primary theme and story is still a dark one. This is one that deserves multiple listens.

Favorite Songs: Dirt Room, Been Down, Jump Rope, The End.

Listen to it Here.

Tunng - Bullets

Just wanted to put a link up to a song from Tunng's 2007 effort Good Arrows, a good album with some experimental sounds. The song is called "Bullets." Let me know if anyone else hears some Pink Floyd Wall-era influence in this song.

I listened to a few new albums that I'll be reviewing tonight or tomorrow, including (but not limited to), the new Blue October and The Decemberists' albums.

One Day As A Lion

Since today is my first day doing this blog I will do one more review. I won't have this many updates everyday but I felt like I needed to get some more content up here. Also, I included a link to the full EP at the end of this post (so if you don't plan on reading what I have to say you can just scroll down and listen to the music.)

One Day As A Lion is a music duo with Zach de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) and Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta). I was initially attracted to this self-titled EP because I am a big RATM follower and also a fan of Mars Volta. With de la Rocha on keyboards/vocals and Theodore on drums they handle the weight of a full band. Despite having no guitars the sound is heavy and full and has a heavy metal/hip-hop feel.

Since this is only an EP the drawback is that there are only 5 tracks, but it's definately worth a purchase because each track is strong. Fans of RATM will definately want to check this out because of de la Rocha, but be warned that this is not RATM. de la Rocha infuses rap, techno, and metal to form One Day As A Lion's sound. People who are turned off by music that is too electronic may want to take a pass as well.

Another sidenote, the band is supposedly looking to finish work on a full length album soon, with a release date hopefully sometime in the fall. de la Rocha has also said that he would like to expand the band by (at least) hiring a keyboard player because he is "not good enough to do it all myself - so that will be rectified soon." In my opinion I liked the raw style that he created on the keyboard but nevertheless I'll be checking out the album when it drops.

Favorite Song: One Day as a Lion

Listen to the EP>>> here

Tonight I'm going to listen to Blue October's new one, so I'll have a review and some songs up tomorrow or Thursday.

Eagles of Death Metal

The Eagles of Death Metal's third album Heart On sees the band finally finding the sound it seems to have been searching for on Peace, Love and Death Metal and Death By Sexy. While EoDM's earlier albums contained catchy songs that are possibly better in their singularity than those from Heart On, the rest of the albums seemed flat and way too much like Queens of the Stone Age, Josh Homme's other band that you may have heard of.

The album starts strong with the bluesy-sounding "Anything 'Cept the Truth" and gets you hooked with the following song (and first single) "Wannabe in L.A." The songs have a generally upbeat mood and rhythm to them and fans of the original EoDM will be relieved that the almost cheesy and always funny sexual innuendo is still present.

I liked this album, but I wouldn't say that I'd consider it an option for being in the top 20 of the year. Still, it was good and is definately worth a buy to anyone who likes Queens of the Stone Age or early Rolling Stones. If you aren't sure, just get the single "Wannabe in L.A."

Favorite Song(s): Wannabe in L.A., Cheap Thrills

Animal Collective

An album of 2009 that I listened to a little bit ago was Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion. I had heard of Animal Collective but had never listened to much of their music but I read a review that called MPP the best album of the year (and I thought the cover art was cool) so I checked it out.

To me the band sounds like a modern version of the Beach Boys, which in some ways is good. I can understand how some people could love this album, but it wasn't for me. Most of the songs have a trance-like vibe to them and while the album is well-produced and evenly-structured, I doubt it will ever go down as anything more than average in my book.

Some of the songs seem to take heavy influence from 60's psych-rock so as you'd guess there are no singles here. There wasn't a song on the album that I hated, but there also wasn't one that I'd put on the Top Rated on my ipod, either. It's a relaxing album to listen to, but in my opinion it's kind of boring.

Favorite Song - Summertime Clothes.

New Strokes Album

It's been 3 years since The Strokes' last released an album. First Impressions of Earth was released in 2006 but the band has since taken a long hiatus allowing members such as Albert Hammond Jr. to concentrate on solo projects. Hammond Jr. has released not one but two solo albums during the hiatus, Yours to Keep in 2006 and ¿Cómo Te Llama? in 2008. I highly recommend any fan of The Strokes to check these out, especially ¿Cómo Te Llama?.

I've tracked the band off and on to see what their progress has been over the last year or so, and despite rumors of a breakup it has been announced that the band is currently in the studio working on their fourth studio album. As soon as a track is released I'll give an update.

While you wait for the next album you might want to check out a catchy track from the comedy hip-hop group The Lonely Island that is led by SNL's Andy Samberg (Dick in a Box, I'm on a Boat). The song is called "Boombox" and features Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas. You can listen to it on my imeem page HERE

imeem

Here's a link to my imeem page which has various songs i'm listening to. I'm going to try to keep a regularly updated playlist available.