| 1. (** |
| 2. Mr. Shining Moon |
| 3. Japanese Title |
| 4. #~The Wind Knows How I Fe |
| 5. Japanese Title |
| 6. && |
| 7. Children's World |
Everything,Mr. Children,Toys Factory,Japan,World Music
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August and Everything After
Counting Crows Manufacturer: Geffen Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000003TAP Release Date: 1993-09-14 |
Tracks:
- Round Here
- Omaha
- Mr. Jones
- Perfect Blue Buildings
- Anna Begins
- Time and Time Again
- Rain King
- Sullivan Street
- Ghost Train
- Raining In Baltimore
- A Murder Of One
Amazon.com
It's amazing the difference a year makes. Upon its release, August and Everything After sounded remarkably fresh, a welcome change from the crunch and screech of grunge. Blending the vocal athleticism of Van Morrison with the moody rock of The Band, the Counting Crows turned on a whole legion of fans turned off by modern rock. But what sounded fresh soon became stale as dozens of bands flocked to the radio with euthanized versions of the Counting Crows' sound. But you shouldn't hold that against the Crow boys. August and Everything After is a fantastic rock album. Though "Mr. Jones" was the moneymaker, the disc features such standout cuts as the dark lilt of "Anna Begins," the morose "Rain King," and the outstanding U2-meets-Grant Lee Buffalo anthem "Murder of One." Maybe time, and another listen, will heal the damage wrought. --Tod NelsonCustomer Reviews:
Favorite CD of all time.......2007-07-06
Brilliant debut album.......2007-07-02
Mr Jones, Round here and Rain king were the best songs on this cd but you could easily play from start to end and appreciate it. Their following albums are also good but their debut was certainly the best.
Soon after came Hootie and the Blowfish, Sister Hazel and Dave Matthews with similar sounds. But Counting Crows were first to bring back this sound.
August ... Is A Year-Round Classic!.......2007-05-23
Take my advice: BUY IT!
I have owned this album since its debut and I have found that it never ages. I listen to it often and find myself connecting with the deep lyric content. The timbre changes keep the songs fresh and interesting with the use of dobro, mandolin, and accordian. Adam Duritz's voice always seems to be fighting a battle that he is winning. This Translated West Coast sound employs a folk element, yet it is Rock; do not doubt it. The songs are finely crafted and you can listen to the whole album without ever hitting the skip button. The moods process from hopeful to meloncholy and back again. The lyric content is easily grasped and is a reflection of the feelings of most of Generation X, or anyone else that is still breathing. You will find it exceptional, I'm sure. So go ahead and order it.
A versatile collection of songs.......2007-04-22
The songs have been covered, re-done, played with a myriad of acoustic, electric, and string arrangements and they always hold up.
The lyrical potency of Murder of One, Anna Begins, Rain King, and ROund Here prove their timelessness again and again whether through individual listening or through application in film and TV.
This is a landmark album for the band, American rock,and the 90s
First Album I Ever Loved.......2007-04-11
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The Heart of Everything
Within Temptation Manufacturer: Roadrunner Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000ROALIU Release Date: 2007-07-24 |
Tracks:
- The Howling
- What Have You Done
- Frozen
- Our Solemn Hour
- The Heart Of Everything
- Hand Of Sorrow
- The Cross
- Final Destination
- All I Need
- Stand My Ground
- The Truth Beneath the Rose
- Forgiven
- What Have You Done
Album Description
US version includes two bonus tracks, 'Stand My Ground' and 'What Have You Done' (Extended Version). 2007 release from the Dutch Gothic Metal band who have been pounding the Metal pavement with their unique brand of hard-edged Metal for over a decade. Their sound is the perfect combination of guitar-driven Hard Rock and ambitious Symphonic Metal. Underneath the aggressive wall of sound lies a secret beauty that can often be dark and uninviting. 13 tracks including 'Howling', 'Frozen' and 'Final Destination'.Customer Reviews:
Another great album by WT.......2007-07-29
I got into Within Temptation with their album Silent Force. I immediately fell in love with their music. Their mix of orchestral music and heavy mettle riffing along with Sharon's amazing voice range landed their music as an instant staple in my collection.
This album is no less amazing. The lyrics can be related to by anyone. The variety in each song keeps the album from getting dull or redundant.
If you like Within Temptation, this album will not disappoint. If you've never heard their music before, I heavily suggest both this album and Silent Force. This album would probably be a great starting point, though, given it's price.
Finally, a US release!.......2007-07-27
When I first listened to this album (half asleep on a tour bus in France, mind you), I wasn't sure what to think. There are some notable changes from the band's last album: Sharon's vocals don't quite come off as angelic as they did on "Jillian" or "Dark Wings," instead remaining in a somewhat lower key for the majority of the first few tracks - with virtually none of the high-pitched screeching that distinguished them from the rest of the symphonic metal pack. "The Howling" is a good example of this - much of the verses feature shouted vocals from Sharon that may take some getting used to, but actually suit the song quite nicely.
The next two tracks, "What Have You Done" and "Frozen" were rather disappointing for me. The first makes "Stand My Ground" look like Dark Tranquillity, and I can only assume that this was forced by the band's label. Anyone who said this song sounded like "Bring Me to Life" was right on the mark. Half the vocals are done by Life of Agony frontman Keith Caputo, and as far as I'm concerned, he's no longer welcome on a WT song again. :P That aside, there's really little here to maintain my interest, and "Frozen" is nothing to write home about either. Sharon's vocals seem strained during the chorus, similar to those of Alanis Morissette's, but not in an attractive way.
Fortunately the album picks up its pace with the appealing "Our Solemn Hour," which will surely win over a live audience. The strangest track of the album, the title track, follows, which marks the biggest departure for Sharon - entirely abandoning her falsetto roots for a deeper, grungier vocal. And this time their experimentation worked. "Hand of Sorrow" revisits the older days of WT, sounding closer to Mother Earth-era writing than anything else.
Another favorite, "The Cross," benefits from a well-rounded chorus and better-than-average lyrics, while "Final Destination," a slightly less memorable but altogether decent track should please fans. "All I Need" is the second ballad from the album (they usually come in threes), and while not their finest ballad to date, still surpasses "Frozen." "The Truth Beneath the Rose," the longest track of the album is a success - combining a beautiful symphonic intro with reflective lyrics that may or may not have been inspired by the Beauty of the Beast. Our third ballad, "Forgiven," is also a winner, stripped down to a keyboard and Sharon's beautiful vocals that will send chills down your spine.
Overall, I think this was a very good buy. It doesn't look like the band will surpass their magnum opus, 2000's Mother Earth, but that doesn't mean they'll stop putting out other great albums for their fans. While there are a couple misses, the majority of the songs here are hits and I hope any Americans with taste in music will make the wise decision to buy this CD when it's released domestically in July.
Highlights: The Howling, The Heart of Everything, Hand of Sorrow, The Cross, The Truth Beneath the Rose, Forgiven
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Originally reviewed on April 30. Here's hoping more American fans will check out this great band, and hopefully dig into their back catalog as well. :)
this sound done right.......2007-07-27
Album of the year!.......2007-07-26
A Masterpiece.......2007-07-26
If you are a fan of Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, or any other music featuring a gorgeous female voice featured against music that rocks, buy this now. You may simply listen to it, awed by its beauty (like during the ballad "Forgiven"). But do not be ashamed if you find yourself rocking out to it with your speakers turned up as loud as they go (especially on "The Howling" and "The Heart of Everything"). Enjoy!
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The Battle For Everything
Five for Fighting Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00012FNDG Release Date: 2004-02-03 |
Tracks:
- NYC Weather Report
- The Devil in the Wishing Well
- If God Made You
- 100 Years
- Angels & Girlfriends
- Dying
- Infidel
- Disneyland
- Maybe I
- The Taste
- One More For Love
- Nobody
Amazon.com
Math wiz and multi-instrumentalist John Ondrasik's third album under his rather misleading Five For Fighting rubric shows that he's lost little of the cranky ire that he unleashed on American Town, but this time his targets are a little closer to home. He skews faithless friends and bad habits on the tetchy opening track "NYC Weather report," oddly borrowing from both Guns N' Rose's "Paradise City," and Barbara Streisand's "People" to hammer his ornery point home, before training his sights on the human life span, fleeting relationships, and even Disneyland. But it isn't until "Girlfriends and Angels," that he shows his real brilliance, imagination and grit; Ondrasik finds the exact place where the Beach Boys intersects with the Velvet Underground and plants himself in that spot, spewing out his own hard won romantic philosophies, proving once again that the hunter does indeed get captured by the game. More ribald, sonically inventive, and lyrically edgy, The Battle For Everything, shows that Ondrasik's combative days may be behind him. --Jaan UhelszkiCustomer Reviews:
The Battle for Everything Five for Fighting.......2007-03-18
Very good! John is amazing!.......2007-03-09
trying to believe.......2007-03-05
The album's opener, 'NYC Weather Report', fairly lilts. Ondrasik's irony seems less bent on anger venting than on description of life as a stranger, one passing through with wistful memories of places and relationships that failed but somehow cast their expectation forward into destinations that await the end of this moment in the journey. Back, yet somehow forward, to New York City.
The man can also sing a mean love song. Shades of Sting's lyricism haunt 'If God Made You':
'Hey Kid .. Your time has come to change
Though I need you more than I've needed anyone in any way tonight
Hey Kid ... I know it won't be long
The Captain's calling .. come to see you back where we belong
Something inside me is breaking
Something inside says there's somewhere better than this ...
Sunset sailing on April skies
Bloodshot fire coulds in her eyes
I can't say what I might believe
But if God made you he's in love with me'
Ondrasik places the chord transition exactly where it releases the listener's attentive energy. The man can score a song.
Then comes the high-air-play '100 Years', a wistful survey of live's brevity that conjures up Cat Stevens, John Mellencamp, and Billy Joel. Ondrasik stands up just fine in such company. It's a tune made for hearing over and over again, then once more.
'Dying' underscores Ondrasik's thickening credentials as a baladeer of lost love, though hardly with the campiness that such a description might suggest. It sounds real, not postured. Ondrasik has been criticized, of course, for the latter. This album should in part quiet that angle of criticism.
In my judgment, the balance of anger with deeper and more varied sentiments, together with Ondrasik's growth as a writer, make THE BATTLE FOR EVERYTHING his first five-star offering. One feels confident it will not be his last.
Five for Fighting-The Battle for Everything.......2007-02-25
A Winner!.......2006-12-08
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Everything Will Never Be OK
Fiction Plane Manufacturer: Mca ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008J2L7 Release Date: 2003-03-11 |
Tracks:
- Listen To My Babe
- Everything Will Never Be OK
- Cigarette
- Hate
- Soldier Machismo
- I Wish I Would Die
- Fallow
- Real Real
- Everybody Lies
- Sickness
- Silence
- Wise
Customer Reviews:
Good tunes!!.......2007-06-27
I also enjoy the style of music FP seems to gravitate towards. They're sort of mildly dark, a grey feel, and they tell stories without telling stories. I dunno, give em a listen and decide for yourself.
Some hope for rock?.......2005-05-26
I knew they were "Sting's son's band", but I am a jaded 54 year old who has seen it all starting with my first concert being Hendrix in the fall of 1968. I went in early to see.
There is so much junk being passed off as popular music these days, heck Philadelphia even lost its only decent Alt Rock station earlier this year. Sons of popular performers have really done very little but coat-tail on daddy's name.
In spite of or because of his Father's influence Joe has put together a band that really impressed me. Live they were an opening act that you didn't really want to get off the stage. I bought the album at intermission (sorry, Amazon) and have been listening to it since, wishing I had been familiar with them prior to seeing them. Interestingly enough, I recognized nearly every track from the live performance first time round.
An occasional sophomoric lyric belies Joe's youth, but generally for a debut from a famous son this is a very hopeful album that is damn good as a stand-alone. Somewhat remininsent of the energy and pathos that forged the Police and the occasional uncanny resemblance of Joe's voice to Gordon's (especially "Silence"), this band is its own and by any standard of rock a band to be eagerly followed.
I look forward to what is hopefully to come and the next opportunity to see them in a live show.
Fantastic debut. Recommended for those bored with pop!.......2005-05-18
While my evaluation was initially instigated by seeing the band perform, opening for Sting at 2 shows, actually listening to the CDs brings FP's package together. The band's lyrics shower the listener with an array of emotions, while the musical dexterity displayed by each member launches them into a genre all their own. Yes, FP has its share of faux-ballads discussing relationships and life-lessons, however they are subversively concealed behind boisterous and genre-leaping songwriting. While the band itself cites NIRVANA as a distinct influence, I am more inclined to believe that FP's style is a monstrous hybrid of RADIOHEAD, MAROON 5, early POLICE, PORCUPINE TREE (check out the `ghost track' following "Wise", loaded with esoteric, progressive rock overtones) and a touch of early DURAN DURAN (especially in the lyric department). I would guess that FP wanted to get out of the gates and show the world a little bit of everything that comprises them, and this debut CD does just that. That in itself is probably the album's one downside - the fact that they move in so many different directions during the course of one disc that the listener is not offered a solid impression of what the band is truly about.
However, one cannot hold that against a young band on its debut release. New acts are usually pressured by labels to create one or two strong `radio-friendly' cuts, leaving the rest of the album for the band to noodle with as filler. However, rather than play that game, FP went out on a limb and broke down walls that would otherwise limit them to one sect of listenership. As there may be one or two songs on the disc that I would chalk up as `growing pains', there are still ten very strong tracks showing the range and intensity of a band that is primed for evolution and success. Excellent standout tracks, in addition to the aforementioned ghost track, include the funky "Listen To My Babe", the incredibly cynical "Hate", and the mixed metaphor "Cigarette". I implore you, check out FICTION PLANE; the best band you've never heard on the radio!
What an Experience!.......2005-05-05
FANTASTIC~!!!!.......2005-05-04
once i found out who was opening for sting, and to find out that it was his son... i'd figure i'd wait and see how he sounded before getting the albums... Joe's voice is fantastic.. a nice cross between early sting and bono... and with good looks to boot!!.. thank god for nearly front row seating right in line with the mic... as soon as his set was done, i had to rush right out and get both albums (this and the ep) before they sold out...
"cigarette" is definitely one of my fav's...
definitely really great original music...
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Everything I've Got in My Pocket
Minnie Driver , and Minnie Driver Manufacturer: Zoe Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0002W4T4O Release Date: 2004-10-05 |
Tracks:
- Everything I've Got in My Pocket
- Invisible Girl
- Fast as You Can
- Wire
- Home
- Deeper Water
- So Well
- Hungry Heart
- Down
- Yellow Heart
- Ruby Adeline
Amazon.com
British actress Minnie Driver's debut album is a more than credible affair--and a far cry from the usual travesty that unfolds with thespians who pine to be rock stars--outdistancing efforts by brethren like Don Johnson, Russell Crowe, and more recently Juliette Lewis. But then Driver was well on her way to becoming a recording artist as a member of the Puffs, Rock and Brown, but was sidetracked when she scored the starring role in 1995's Circle of Friends. If this CD is any indication, she should have rethought her priorities. Driver's voice is a wistful and stylish hybrid of a rather morose and breathy Kathleen Edwards and a more austere Sheryl Crow, raiding her own rather colorful autobiography for material, giving fans a chance to pick apart her rather melancholy lyrics to decipher which one of her famous beaus--like Matt Damon, Harrison Ford, Josh Brolin, or John Cusack--inspired them. Driver convinced members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn (whose brother is her agent) to play join her in the studio, giving her music a deft authentic gloss that might not have surfaced had she just used nameless studio pros. As a result Driver's music is languid and sensual dream pop, verging on alt country, but never making it over that rickety wooden fence. --Jaan UhelszkiAlbum Description
The delete bins of history are littered with the recording attempts of actors who fancy themselves as singers. In the case of Minnie Driver, music actually came first. She began singing in London's jazz clubs as a teenager, eventually joining a band that landed a deal with Island Records. She was in the midst of negotiating a solo deal with EMI when the hit film Circle of Friends came along and changed her life. But she always longed to return to music, and with the release of Everything I've Got in My Pocket, Driver has made the album she's been dreaming of making since her teenage years. Backed by a group that includes members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's band, the album deftly blends Driver's sultry, bittersweet vocals with sparse, atmospheric pop and a hint of contemporary folk. With ten original songs and an unforgettable cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart," Driver's debut marks the arrival of an accomplished singer-songwriter.Customer Reviews:
Very mellow soothing sexy CD.......2007-06-01
Very good actress, believable in romance, funny in comedy, spellbinding in her current project " The Riches", is here a self examining songwriter, and once again a very good one. As a bonus (or due to not enough original tracks to fill out a CD) there is a heart wrenching version of Sprinsteen's "Hungry Heart" that is also quite memorable.
Her voice is a sexy, soft, raspy and breathy, no power balads here, and no iratating vocal runs. It gives it a refreshingly honest feel, like it is meant for just you.
If you are looking for something fairly fresh and mellow, (performed by a grown up beautiful woman) you will not be dissapointed with this buy!
Everything I've got in my pocket.......2007-05-16
Praise to Ms. Driver.......2006-09-07
I truly hope Ms. Driver will follow this album with another. It will be a great loss to us if she does not.
if you like tori amos you will like minnie.......2006-03-22
impressive.......2006-03-02
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The Heart of Everything
Within Temptation Manufacturer: Bmg Int'l ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000MQ3OSW Release Date: 2007-03-27 |
Tracks:
- Howling
- What Have You Done - Keith Caputo, Within Temptation
- Frozen
- Our Solemn Hour
- Heart of Everything
- Hand of Sorrow
- Cross
- Final Destination
- All I Need
- Truth Beneath the Rose
- Forgiven
Album Details
2007 Issued Fourth Studio Album by the Dutch Symphonic Metal Band. Within Temptation Once Again Prove Themselves as Peerless Purveyors of Quality Gotihic-tinged Rock, Produced Again by Daniel Gibson and Mixed by Stefan Glaumann (Rammstein). While the Epic Grandeur of the Band's Sound Remains, it Now Coexists with a More Contemporary "organic" Feel. Nowhere is this Highlighted More Than on the Single "What have You Done" (Featuring Life of Agony Vocalist Keith Caputo), which Manages to Be Both Passionate and Punchy. Elsewhere "Frozen" is a Classic, Streamlined Ballad and "The Howling" Swirling Tour-de-force.Customer Reviews:
Amazing album.......2007-08-06
AMAZING!!!.......2007-07-31
wt, wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-07-19
Go Back To Silent Force.......2007-07-19
Within Temptation keeps getting better.......2007-07-16
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Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends
Original TV Soundtrack Manufacturer: Astralwerks ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0009MAPXG Release Date: 2005-06-28 |
Tracks:
- Feelin' Good - Nina Simone
- Amazing Life - Jem (exclusive track)
- Everything Is Everything - Phoenix
- A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay
- Breathe Me - Sia
- Lucky - Radiohead
- Time Is On My Side - Irma Thomas
- Angajou (The Latin Project Remix) - Bebel Gilberto
- Direction - Interpol (exclusive track)
- Don't Fear The Reaper - Caesars (exclusive track)
- Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
- Cold Wind - The Arcade Fire (exclusive track)
- Lonely Little Petunia - Imogen Heap
Amazon.com
It seems an easy task to put together a CD for a series about a funeral home...pick some songs about death and make people smirk on topic for a moment before they toss it into the soundtrack graveyard. But this is not a disc to be tossed away. Six Feet Under: Everything Ends is a collection of music that feels exactly like the series: a floaty-bordering-on-surreal batch of greatness. The disc starts off with an underrated track from Nina Simone, the sultry "Feeling Good." Fans of Coldplay and Radiohead will certainly be familiar with their previously-released tunes ("A Rush of Blood to the Head" and "Lucky" respectively) but the best element of this disc is that it gives lesser-known, musically-similar artists a push. After all, finding Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism" and Sia's fragile "Breathe Me" on pop radio is, well...let's stick to the theme and use the "snowball's chance in hell" analogy. There are a host of great, previously unreleased and exclusive tracks on this CD: Jem's Dido-esque "Amazing Life," the Caesars' "Don't Fear The Reaper" cover, Interpol's discordant and dark "Direction" and Arcade Fire's wonderful "Cold Wind"--a whispered, frail, and beautiful soundscape, perfect to watch hearses off drive into sunsets by. --Denise SheppardCustomer Reviews:
Six Feet and feeling good.......2007-07-13
Great soundtrack for a great show.......2007-05-11
Six Feet Under, Vol 2: Everything ends.......2007-04-11
Uneven Compilation.......2007-03-16
Sia's "Breath Me", which provided the soundtrack to the dying minutes of the terminal episode of Six Feet Under, brings back memories of the show and still sounds good without the wonderful elegiac visuals. Everything else on the CD sounds tired. Alan Ball & Co. deserve a lot of credit for including songs on the show from unknown bands, but not many of these choices stand the test of time.
If you like the music from Six Feet Under then you'll like this soundtrack.......2007-03-13
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The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection
Manufacturer: Decca Broadway ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00000I0XW Release Date: 1999-06-01 |
Tracks:
- The Phantom Of The Opera: The Phantom Of The Opera
- Song & Dance: Unexpected Song
- Aspects Of Love: Chanson D'enfance
- The Phantom Of The Opera: All I Ask Of You
- Evita: Don't Cry For Me Argentina
- Evita: Another Suitcase In Another Hall
- Aspects Of Love: Love Changes Everything
- Friends For Life
- Cats: Memory
- Cats: Gus: The Theatre Cat
- Aspects Of Love: Anything But Lonely
- Cats: Macavity: The Mystery Cat
- Tell Me On A Sunday/Song & Dance: Tell Me On A Sunday
- The Phantom Of The Opera: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
- Requiem: Pie Jesu
- The Phantom Of The Opera: The Music Of The Night
Amazon.com essential recording
Sarah Brightman's career was launched by her success in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, so it's no surprise to hear the soprano paying homage to the composer on this disc. Really a Brightman best-of, the album includes the Phantom theme (a duet with Michael Crawford), the light-opera fare of "Chanson D'enfance" from Aspects of Love, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita, and numerous other Lloyd Webber classics. Throughout, Brightman's diminutive voice lends a fragility to these musical theater tunes that you'll either love or despise. On Evita's "Another Suitcase, Another Hall" and Cats' "Memory," she literally chirps through the vocal lines. No matter. The growing legion of Brightman fans wouldn't have it any other way. --Jason VerlindeAlbum Details
Another Compilation of Stage Favourites - Some Tracks Are Hard to Find Elsewhere.Customer Reviews:
The Andrew Lloyd Weber Collection.......2007-05-12
Andrew Lloyd Webber .......2007-02-12
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection.......2007-01-05
The Best You'll See from Sarah.......2006-09-09
I also recommend Charlotte Church - (in her earlier career) - including Voice of an Angel and her self-titled album. I also recommend Love Changes Everything - The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection Vol.2 - just another grouping of Webber's classics. I also recommend Andrea Boucelli - he's awesome!
The Angel of Music.......2006-03-13
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Everything All the Time
Band of Horses Manufacturer: Sub Pop ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000E6GBV2 Release Date: 2006-03-21 |
Tracks:
- The First Song
- Wicked Gil
- Our Swords
- The Funeral
- Part One
- The Great Salt Lake
- Weed Party
- I Go To The Barn Cause I Like The
- Monsters
- St. Augustine
Amazon.com
This Seattle-based band was formed from the ashes of the incredibly talented Carissa's Wierd [sic], whose mopey and self-deprecating songs were like some magical and baroque combination of the Magnetic Fields, Cat Power, and Leonard Cohen. Longtime friends of Iron and Wine, few fans in their native Pacific Northwest could understand why Carissa's weren't huge. But they weren't, and after three albums and few folks really caring, they naturally broke up. Band of Horses, led by ultra-charming CW bassist Ben Bridwell, is a remarkably different, though just as radically excellent, brand of indie-pop sulk. These songs are anthems to ambivalence, and Bridwell's lovely high-pitched trill will please any fan of Built to Spill, the Shins, and Modest Mouse. It takes a few listens to sink in, but Everything is transcendent, shimmering, layered, and smartass emo-pop fully ready for stadium saturation. --James CondeAlbum Description
Guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell and bassist Mat Brooke formed Band Of Horses in 2004 after the dissolution of their nearly ten-year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissa's Wierd. Carissa's Wierd trafficked in sadly beautiful orchestral pop, whose songs told unflinching stories of heartbreak and loss, leavened with defeatist humor. Band Of Horses rises from those ashes. Buoyed by Bridwell's warm, reverb-heavy vocals (which channel a strange brew of Wayne Coyne, Neil Young, and Doug Martsch), the group's woodsy, dreamy songs ooze with amorphous tension, longing, and hope. Both raggedly epic and delicately pensive, this is an album painted gorgeously in fragile highs and lows.Customer Reviews:
Awesome Album.......2007-07-19
some beautiful songs.......2007-07-05
whatever, i know i'm late but..........2007-06-18
Great melody........2007-05-27
good, but NOT great.......2007-04-04
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Everything You Want
Vertical Horizon Manufacturer: RCA ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00000J6BR Release Date: 1999-06-15 |
Tracks:
- We Are
- You're A God
- Everything You Want
- Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)
- You Say
- Finding Me
- Miracle
- Send It Up
- Give You Back
- All Of You
- Shackled
Amazon.com
If R.E.M. hadn't already blazed the trail years ago, Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want would be a seminal album, with its earnest harmonies, fluid melodies, and jangly guitars. And while Vertical Horizon may not have taken many forks off the road to Athens, they have whipped up an excellent pop-rock meld out of the purloined elements. Beginning with the ardent and anthemic "We Are," the pop band who began life on Georgetown's central campus nearly a decade before this major-label debut was released unleashes a personal diary of loss, love, and angst. The band, led by school chums Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane, find they just can't leave their pedagogical leanings behind. Only this time their investigations are into the mysteries of the human heart rather than Zeno's famous paradoxes. But the real paradox here is how a band so derivative can have made such a credible album. This time familiarity doesn't breed contempt. "You're a God," an edgy lament about putting someone on a pedestal, could have been lifted right out of the Alanis songbook, but it still manages to shimmer on its own merit, as do most of the 11 songs. --Jaan UhelszkiCustomer Reviews:
Brink of stardom.......2006-12-03
Like many other things at the time..........2006-09-09
It's not that this album is particularly stunning, amazing, original... because it's not. It's the best for what was out at the time, playing on the radio way too much and an album that 90% of people I know own.
What I love about this album is the fact that it represents that time in music (mid-90s) wonderfully, where alternative music really became popular and started branching off into more creative venues.
I agree with the other reviews, that it's terribly formulaic. But so was most of the music at that time (like I stated, it represents that time in music). There is an amazing gem on this album, however, which is "Grey Sky Morning/Best I Ever Had." Meloncholy, sad, and relenting. I know there were even a few covers made of it, it's a wonderful song that I do hope becomes a classic of sorts.
Though this review is most likely not very helpful, I do hope that this strikes a chord with those that 'grew up' in the mid 90's and that this album is remembered as a small treasure of that time. It's terribly familiar and wonderful to listen to.
5.6/10.0.......2006-08-30
Everything You Want is a case in point.
The album begins with derivative music: it's all choruses and guitar hooks on the first two tracks. The lyrics here are mostly about overly dramatic scenarios and the kind of high school hyperboles that many a teenager has lied on their beds listening to.
The hit single, though, demonstrates what I had mentioned earlier: the guitar is forced to surrender some of its spotlight to post-recording effects, as on the album's hit single, "Everything You Want." Muted electric keyboards lace over and through acoustic guitar while Scannell sings about the nostalgia-angst in pursuing new relationships. Try finding that in an early 90s pop opus. The sound on this track has a compelling mix of instrumentation and good flow, but there has to be a more graceful way to express the tribulations of young love.
The highlight of the album, though, is clearly "The Best I Ever Had": this is R.E.M. on Dramamine. Steel percussion instrumentation bears resemblance to orca whales bouncing music off one another. Again, Scannell sings of love, but this times he reminisces of past love. Grey Sky Morning is a perfect alternate title here: the message is one of lost passion and emptiness after times of great fulfillment. The reality of experiences like the one Matthew cites here is pressing.
Unfortunately, the rest of Everything You Want is unremarkable and formulaic. The theme of unrequited love and spiteful relationships features on these other songs. As other critics have commented, the songs stick to a single formula, both sonically and lyrically that easily tires. Many of the tracks even lose the kind of deliberate and careful articulation so basic to beautiful pop music. What exactly does it mean to say "Here in the light / It burns you out sometimes /Here in the shell of a sun / We echo on"? Regardless of how Vertical Horizon has tinged there music here with the sounds of "a new musical order", this definitely isn't everything you want.
After a few years .... it still is a great album!.......2006-05-25
The other evening I heard another cover of a couple of the songs covered by Verticle Horizon on this album. So, I pulled theirs out again and listened again. It is still (after 6 or so years) an excellent album. I put it back into my car and now some of my friends are asking .... "hey, who is that? I really like it!"
It does still sound new.
Some songs are gems, others are quite mediocre.......2006-04-16
World Music:
- Excursions in Ambience: Third Dimension
- Fado's Archives, Vol. VI: Ericilia Costa with Armandinho
- Fernanda Relax [Import]
- Gentleman [CD-single] [Import]
- Hip Flip
- In Chromodal Discourse
- In Dialetto Sardo: Music of Sardinia
- In Harmony
- Kind of Love [Import]
- L'homme a Tue-Tete [Import]
World Music
Schubert: Piano Trios Op.99 & 100
Complete 1959 & 1963 United Artists Complete Big Band Studio Recordings [Import]
Supermodel (You Better Work) [EP]
Sun Records 50th Anniversary Collection [Original recording remastered]
Puccini: Manon Lescaut / Guleghina, Cura, Gallo; Muti