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Post by Kapitan on Aug 6, 2021 15:01:31 GMT
Here is a fun little song by a band I became aware of today, "Happy," by the Umbrellas. This self-titled debut is very much the kind of '90s indie-pop take on the jangle-pop of earlier decades, between its 12-string guitars in spots, boy-girl melodic trade-offs, and so on. Here's AllMusic's review. (4 of 5 stars.)
I've just sampled the album and wouldn't go out of my way for it, but this little country-inspired tune is fun.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 6, 2021 20:12:23 GMT
The remarkably talented songwriter Aimee Mann has a new album coming in November, music created for a stage adaption of "Girl, Interrupted." The first song, video below, is "Suicide is Murder." (Cheery!) I thought Mann's 2017 album Mental Illness was, really, really good from top to bottom.
She really constructs songs beautifully. Great melodies, interesting changes here and there but all feeling very classic. Relatively soft rock or pop, well arranged... I just think she's very good.
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2021 15:49:38 GMT
The first new Guns 'n' Roses song in over a decade was released last night. "Absurd" is apparently based on a Chinese Democracy outtake called "Silkworms." Per Pitchfork, it's co-produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo (who co-produced CD) and includes former GnR drummer Brain. No details on who else is on the track or did what.
I finally listened to this today. So.....this is what we've been waiting for all these years? Wow. Is that even Axl singing?
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2021 18:57:51 GMT
"Singing" is a strong word.
I wasn't impressed, either. I don't hate it, but it sounds to me like a young Duff McKagan song, the hardcore/punk fan of the group with limited melodic and vocal leanings. But then Axl does the distorted, one-note ranting. It could end where it goes peaceful for a moment, that's more a true punk style, in and out.
If you said this was Track 9 on an 11-track album and it was Duff's, I'd say, oh, OK, cool. But why is it being released? If this is meant to be any kind of single to kick off what's to come in the future, it's not at all enticing.
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Post by kds on Aug 11, 2021 19:04:43 GMT
If not for a couple of signature sounding Slash notes, there's no way I'd even identify this as a Guns N Roses song.
Hell, I'd have been happier had they just gone into the studio and banged out one of the covers they'd been performing the last few years on tour, like The Seeker.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2021 16:55:21 GMT
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss announced a new album, the successor to their successful and acclaimed 2007 album Raising Sand. Raise the Roof will be released November 19 of this year.
T-Bone Burnett is producing. The band includes some great players, including guitarists Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot, as well as multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo. (Also announced were some players I'm not familiar with: guitarist Buddy Miller, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassists Dennis Crouch and Viktor Krauss, and pedal steel guitarist Russ Pahl.)
Here is the first song released from the album:
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Post by kds on Aug 12, 2021 17:00:42 GMT
Granted, I only heard one or two songs off the previous Plant / Krauss album, but those songs really didn't entice me to dig any deeper.
I remember Classic Rock Magazine gave it something like a 9/10, but it also seemed like the writers / editors of that magazine thought that no member of Led Zeppelin could possibly do any wrong.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2021 17:35:10 GMT
I never listened to Raising Sand, though I remember hearing some of it and thinking it was fine. I'm listening to this new song now, and I think it's pretty cool. I enjoy it.
The critical unanimity about this duo has been interesting though, especially since it doesn't exist for Plant's solo material.
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Post by kds on Aug 12, 2021 18:24:06 GMT
I just listened to it. It's OK, but it's not anything I'll be adding to my collection.
Maybe Alison Krauss has a big following. To be honest, I know almost nothing about her.
As for Plant, his solo catalog doesn't do a lot for me. Now and Zen was a solid album. And, I like a few songs here and there, but I can't think of much I've heard from him in the last 20 years that I find very compelling.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 12, 2021 18:41:33 GMT
Yeah, I was never really a Plant solo fan. Those pre-Page reunion hits never really did anything for me.
I do like the sound of the Krauss collaborations quite a bit. But as I said, I never really paid all that much attention. So little attention, in fact, that I only today discovered that album included a version of "Please Read the Letter," which was on the Plant/Page album Walking Into Clarksdale. (I always liked that song.)
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Post by kds on Aug 12, 2021 18:53:40 GMT
I really need to go back and revisit the Walking Into Clarksdale album. I remember listening a couple times, and not being overly moved by it.
Plant released a compilation back in 2003 called Sixty Six to Timbuktu. I feel like it's got pretty much everything I'd want.
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Post by kds on Aug 19, 2021 19:44:02 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 19, 2021 19:50:18 GMT
What do you think of it?
I haven't listened to any Iron Maiden as far as I can recall since Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, back in the late '80s. I wasn't ever a big fan, though I liked a few things up through that.
Listening to this now, I like that the production doesn't mimic so much of the (admittedly not a lot of) metal I've heard in the past 20 years or so, which is almost always SO, SO bass-heavy! Like, just powerful kick drum, massive bass, thundering. I know, that's just how the style of sounds went, but when I think of most of the classic metal, it didn't sound like that. And frankly I prefer it not sounding like that. So I really was glad to hear that.
Interesting choice to have a lead guitar play the melody beneath the vocal melody, too. I wonder if it was to bring more high-end, with his lead voice not quite what it was once upon a time.
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Post by kds on Aug 19, 2021 19:53:59 GMT
What do you think of it?
I haven't listened to any Iron Maiden as far as I can recall since Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, back in the late '80s. I wasn't ever a big fan, though I liked a few things up through that.
Listening to this now, I like that the production doesn't mimic so much of the (admittedly not a lot of) metal I've heard in the past 20 years or so, which is almost always SO, SO bass-heavy! Like, just powerful kick drum, massive bass, thundering. I know, that's just how the style of sounds went, but when I think of most of the classic metal, it didn't sound like that. And frankly I prefer it not sounding like that. So I really was glad to hear that.
Interesting choice to have a lead guitar play the melody beneath the vocal melody, too. I wonder if it was to bring more high-end, with his lead voice not quite what it was once upon a time.
I really like it. This is a fast, gallop-er that were once very common on Maiden's albums, but have become a bit of a rarity as they've ventured into longer, more mid paced music in the 21st century. Yeah, Maiden never really went for that sound, but I am glad that Steve Harris's bass is very prominent in the mix on the two songs I've heard for the new album. I thought the production of Book of Souls was a little muddy, and the bass was buried on a lot of the songs. But, that's not the case here.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 19, 2021 19:56:21 GMT
Right, the bass is prominent, but not overwhelming or EQ'd to sound like just overpowering indistinguishable bass force: you actually hear the instrument itself in (what I'd call) proper balance.
The galloping rhythm is great. (I love that rhythm generally, not just with Maiden. It's like the modern day version of the "train song" rhythm. In fact, it pretty much IS that rhythm...)
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