On the fifth album by French DJ and record producer David Guetta he applied the same formula: combined all the ideas and trendy sounds and stylistic approaches from both, European and American dance scene and pop music, Guetta delivered the best mixture of dance music. This is absolutely classy, clean cut and 100% cash-in formula. Still, we have to admit, Guetta knows to make his products to sound awesome, he construct excellent grooves, simple, but percussive sounds and powerful beats. For the first time, Guetta gave-up on the services of his long-time collaborator Chris Willis on vocals and features collaborations with artists from the R&B, hip hop and pop world such as Lil Wayne, Usher, will.i.am, Akon, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Jennifer Hudson, Timbaland, Afrojack, Jessie J and Sia Furler. An all-star line-up which definitively will help to break down the charts and sell more singles. Well, many people try this and that – as any good ideas, by the way -, but not everybody managed to be successful as Guetta. Read more David Guetta – Nothing but the Beat (2011)
Yearly Archives: 2011
Tom Waits – Bone Machine (1992)
“Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?”
Actually the future seems even darker now than back in ’92 while “Bone Machine” and it’s hypnotic textures, noisy percussion and experimental glows are still sounds fresh and its rich lyrics are still very actual.
“What does it matter, a dream of love / Or a dream of lies / We’re all gonna be the same place / When we die”…
What Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Les Claypool and David Hidalgo have in common? The bone machine. Several songs from the album were covered by several artists: “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” was covered by The Ramones for their last album, “Adios Amigos”, but also by Petra Haden and Bill Frisell on their album collaboration “Petra Haden & Bill Frisell” (2003), by Hayes Carll on “Trouble In Mind” (2008), and by Scarlett Johansson on her debut album, “Anywhere I Lay My Head” (2008). “Goin’ Out West” has been covered by Queens of the Stone Age, Gomez, Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule, the Blacks and Australian blues guitarist Ash Grunwald. This song also is featured in the 1999 film “Fight Club”, while “Earth Died Screaming” is featured in the 1995 film “Twelve Monkeys”, and “Jesus Gonna Be Here” is featured in the 2005 film “Domino”, in which Waits appears. Read more Tom Waits – Bone Machine (1992)
Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (2011)
An eighteen songs epic in four acts, “David Comes to Life”, the third full-length studio album by Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up is an over 77 minutes trip into an universe juggling between alternative and post-rock shredding and punk rock energy and the space between is fulfilled with everything from classic hard rock to pop and hardcore punk. It’s like “Tommy” – the 1969’s classic rock opera by The Who – were re-interpreted by a rebellious teenager punk band grown up on Offspring and Green Day diet. And actually, “David Comes to Life” is a rock opera, comparable with Green Day’s “American Idiot” (2004) or “21st Century Breakdown” (2009).
Released on June 7, 2011 in North America and June 6, 2011 elsewhere on Matador Records in CD and double LP formats, “David Comes to Life” became Fucked Up’s first charting album in the United States ranking at number 83 on the Billboard 200. Read more Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (2011)
Mansun – Six (1998)
The band was formed in Chester, England in 1995 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Paul Draper and bassist Stove King. Originally called themselves “Grey Lantern” but changed their name to “Manson”, after the cult leader Charles Manson but were forced to change it to “Mansun” due to copyright issues.
After several EP’s and singles, their critically acclaimed debut album, “Attack of the Grey Lantern” was released in 1997 and it knocked fellow Parlophone act Blur’s self-titled album from the top spot of the British album chart.
The album’s sleeve art was a painting produced by Max Schindler, and commissioned especially for the album. It contains many references to personal interests and obsessions of the band, such as a TARDIS and an image of Tom Baker as Doctor Who, and Patrick McGoohan as Number 6, from The Prisoner. There is also a depiction of Winnie the Pooh standing close to a painting that may be a reproduction of Vinegar tasters, a Taoist allegorical painting. Guitarist Dominic Chad is known to be both a Taoist and a fan of A. A. Milne, and the album’s name is in fact a reference to Milne’s book Now We Are Six. Read more Mansun – Six (1998)
Anthrax – Worship Music (2011)
Back in the mid 80’s “Spreading the Disease” was one of my favorite albums. “Madhouse”, “Aftershock”, the killer “Armed and Dangerous” and “Medusa” were daily head-banging munitions for me. And I love them since as I loved the 1990’s “Persistence of Time”, “Keep It in the Family”, “Belly of the Beast” or the murderous cover of “Got the Time” by Joe Jackson were killer proofs of how great band Anthrax really are and they definitively deserves to be one of the “Big 4” alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer.
During 1991 they collaborated with pioneering rap artists Public Enemy on a joint version of “Bring the Noise”. Also, the EP “Attack of the Killer B’s” was recorded during 1991, featuring a new version of “I’m the Man” and a cover of “Bring the Noise” on which Scott Ian did the vocals, as well as some other killer tracks: “Startin’ Up a Posse”, “N.F.B. (Dallabnikufesin)”, “Parasite” (Kiss cover), and two S.O.D. covers “Milk (Ode to Billy)” and “Chromatic Death”.
BUT, I also believe the best thing ever happened to this band was kicking out Joey Belladonna in 1992 and bring to the microphone John Bush, formerly of Armored Saint. Just listen “Only”, “Room for One More”, “Black Lodge” or “1000 Points of Hate” and you will hear definitively the difference. “Sound of White Noise” (1993), “Stomp 442” (1995), “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real” (1998) and “We’ve Come for You All” (2003) are all great Anthrax albums even if the record labels don’t offer them their full support.
“Worship Music” have history. The recordings beginning in 2008 and were finished this year… Read more Anthrax – Worship Music (2011)
Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When It’s Over (1989)
This isn’t definitively their dirtiest album, actually after their sleazy debut album, on this the boys from Los Angeles turned to more bluesy sounds kind of leaving behind their glam and hair metal roots, but still, this is 60 minutes of quality and dirty rock and roll as only at the end of the 80s were possible. “Bathroom Wall” back then was one of my favorite songs, kind of Sex Pistols/New York Dolls meet Steppenwolf (“Born to be Wild”).
“House of Pain” is a bluesy song, off the band’s original punk rock/glam outfit and style. The guys still rocks on with “Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way”, “Slip of the Tongue”, “Ain’t No Way Around It”, etc, while songs as “Cryin’ Shame” combined hair metal and blues rock tastefully. One of my favorites from this album is the bluesy, cabaret taste like “Arizona Indian Doll”.
“House of Pain” reached #28 in the Billboard Hot 100 and the video, which was directed by future film director Michael Bay, was in rotation on MTV. The album itself peaked at #48 in the Billboard 200. Read more Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When It’s Over (1989)
Brutal Truth – End Time (2011)
Painful and consistent. I can’t really imagine any other band 100% entitled to delivering the soundtrack of the “end times” than Brutal Truth. Formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers Of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990, in New York City, Brutal Truth along Napalm Death were one of the leading grindcore bands, delivering extreme – and obviously – brutal metal. The group disbanded in 1999 after four studio albums, but reformed in 2006 and delivered in 2009 “Evolution Through Revolution”. “End Time”, the band sixth studio album will be released on September 27, 2011 by Relapse Records. The band have also made the entire album available for via streaming from their website and as the official release note said: “End Time packs shotgun blast-sized impact throughout its 21 track take down of civilization’s imminent implosion.” Read more Brutal Truth – End Time (2011)
Gary Numan – Telekon (1980)
September 5, 1980, Gary Numan released “Telekon” the third and final studio release of what Numan retrospectively termed the “Machine” section of his career, following “Replicas” with Tubeway Army and “The Pleasure Principle” in 1979, the first album under his own name. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of “Pretty Hate Machine” while Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields also became a Numan fan through the album. Otherwise, “Telekon” received a largely hostile reception from contemporary music critics. Many critics anyway considered Numan one of the “one-hit wonders” for his most popular song “Cars”, a single from his previous album. For the less ignorants, it is announced that Numan’s new album entitled “Dead Son Rising” will be released on September 12, 2011. Read more Gary Numan – Telekon (1980)
Staind – Staind (2011)
It’s been awhile, isn’t it? Actually, many just never heard of them before and after “Break the Cycle” and justifiably or not, Staind was labeled by most as one hit wonders, but anyway, as one of the followers and not the leaders of the nu-metal wave. Anyway, definitively I skipped some of their albums lately. Scheduled to be released on September 13, 2011, “Staind”, the seventh upcoming album marks the return to the band’s heavier sound that was predominate on their earlier two albums, “Tormented” (1996) and “Dysfunction” (1999). Juggling between nu metal (Pantera/Korn/Limp Bizkit) heavy riffing and gloomy grunge (Alice In Chains/Pearl Jam) and post-grunge schemes, the 10 new tracks of Aaron Lewis and his band mates are a collection of so-called modern and alternative metal elements and cliches, but still, Staind have some excellent riffs, strong themes and the skill and ability to write catchy and powerful songs. Read more Staind – Staind (2011)
Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)
Between their debut, “This Was” in 1968 and their 21st in 2003 with “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album “, Jethro Tull has delivered albums with distinctive sounds crossing genres and styles, merging prog/art rock, hard rock, heavy metal, jazz, blues, folk, classical, Elizabethan, and world music. I heard Ian Anderson’s music for the first time with the 72’s album “Living in the Past” and even if I wasn’t an unconditional fan of Tull, Anderson, we have to admit it, delivered quality materials throughout the years. “Roots to Branches” released on 4 September 1995, probably is not as acclaimed as “Thick as a Brick” (1972) or famous as “Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!” (1976), but definitively is a colorful trip into a musical universe filled up will all the spices from Anderson’s workshop. Read more Jethro Tull – Roots to Branches (1995)
