Charlotte’s Web is a book that I believe is assigned in pretty much every American elementary school. Whether it is assigned in other countries’ classrooms is not something that I know, but what I do know is that there is a movie out now that brings this book to life. Tied to this movie is a soundtrack that is created by Danny Elfman, often considered one of the most magestic…
There are a number of individuals that make their bread and butter playing music that do not really excite me. While this list may include some of rock’s greatest axe men (and women), suffice it to say that Eric Johnson is not one of those individuals. Most casual fans will know Johnson for 1990’s “Cliffs of Dover”, but the simple truth is that ey has had a tremendous career. Up…
I don’t know how I feel when it comes down to soundtracks. Specifically, I am not sure whether I prefer more albums that have a mix of previously recorded and fresh songs by established band, or those cases in which a master musician is given the reins for the entirety of the CD. For those that are not familiar with this soundtrack, “Catch and Release” has 17 cuts by a…
The style of music is fairly docile in this musical, as a great number of these tracks act in forwarding the plot instead of trying to wow the viewers. Of course, some tracks do happen to impress listeners; this can first really be noticed during songs like “Shine”. The female vocals that take such a major part in the first half of this soundtrack should make individuals recall Beauty and…
Seven CDs worth of material is absolutely amazing, and this fact becomes more amazing when individuals realize that the quality of these recordings does not slack at any point. The main discs comprise their original albums, with a number of live or otherwise demo tracks taking residence at the end of the disc. This means that the first disc provides listeners with 2005’s compilation “The Glasgow School” while adding on…
It is always difficult to go forth and give a review to a soundtrack that I haven’t seen the movie for. However, “Babel”’s soundtrack is masterful in having listeners understand what exactly is going on during that specific track. However, there is enough variation in the disc’s 37 tracks that individuals will be able to glean a great deal of detail from each of the compositions. The movie has a…
I’m not sure how many of the readers of NeuFutur actually saw Apocalypto, but the movie is Mel Gibson’s latest offering, about essentially Mayan Jesus. The soundtrack itself was composed by James Horner, who individuals may know from eir scores going all the way back to 1980, with notable soundtracks including An American Tail, Glory, Field of Dreams, Legends of the Fall, Apollo 13, and Braveheart. Hell, all those movies…
This is the score for the 1957 version of “Around The World in 80 Days”. The disc was re-released on the 50th anniversary of the film being released. In the last few years, copies of the CD version of this score became increasingly hard to find, as there was only one run of the discs. This album, which became the #1 album of 1957, had to be re-released to its…
Osaka Popstar is one of the few all-star bands that exist in punk rock. The band has a number of legends (members of Misfits, Black Flag, The Voidoids, and The Ramones). In this sense, the band does a number of covers, ranging from anime theme songs (Astro Boy, Sailor Moon), to classical tracks (“Man of Constant Sorrow) and punk classics (“Blank Generation”, “I Live Off of You”). This means that…
It is always sad when someone dies, and while I had no real connection to Elliot Smith’s music, I can honestly say I felt bad when ey died. We can only assume that Chistopher O’Riley felt the same way; I mean, why else devote an entire album of piano-lead instrumental covers of eir music if not for that? At some point, the emotive style of O’Riley’s composition sound like those…
There is a strong connection between an electronic and a rock style fostered during the initial offering by Voice in the Dark, “Can You Believe”. With a driving beat and compelling vocals, there is a world of wonder present here. “Stop” has a slower tempo, allowing for a different side of Voice in the Dark to be shown.
This is an album of piano-led Radiohead covers; I couldn’t say I was enthusiastic about reviewing this before I stuck the disc into my player, but O’Riley turns tracks that were originally the height of pretension into nuanced and emotion-filled tracks. The impressive thing about “Hold Me To This” is O’Riley’s ability to maintain relevance over some of the longer tracks (Cuttooth, Talk Radio Host) without anything more than eir…
The high-flying rock aerobatics that Oranger pulls off during the title track for this album has the band split up figuratively for increasing returns – there are at least two different levels that the band plays at during this track, and through their success in this field, individuals already know that the band is serious. Where Weezer have been stealin Steve Miller Band’s guitar riffs for the last few years,…
The mixture of Busted and Rancid makes the opening of Orange’s disc interesting to say the least. Pop-punk mixes with the traditional Epitaph sound to make something that has a few shreds of musical credibility mixed in with the required punk rawk cred. Simply wanting to go and use brain-dead rhymes tied with the snotty faux-British accent of Tim Armstrong may be enough to make tracks that have a catchy…
“Gone” is the opening track for The Oohlas on “Best Stop Pop”, and the band immediately begins to create a diverse sound for themselves. There are a number of different styles that the band sticks into this first track, but perhaps the most present during “Gone” has to be an early-nineties brand of alt rock that has more than its fair share of later, Radiohead influence. The fact that different…
Imagine a mixture of White Zombie and Hatebreed and one can get an idea about how Maine’s On the Outside sounds on “Tragic Endings”. A screamed-out set of vocals dominates all facets of On the Outside, but there are minor amounts of variations on Kyle’s vocals that keep things at least somewhat interesting. The meshing of hardcore and metal is a marked step away from most of the hardcore acts…
This may only be the second album that Only Crime has released together as a band, but members of the band have been in other bands, releasing a number of album before taking on the Only Crime name. Specifically, members of Only Crime came from the seminal punk band Good Riddance, along with members from the lesser-known act Bane and the smaller band Hagfish. “Everything For You” has a typical…
Funny story. I got this CD totally out of the blue in the mail a few days after I slammed this twelve-year old’s grandfather’s CD. Eir grandfather, Len Guardino, created an absolutely mediocre disc that supported sexism and all the things wrong with the music and the actions of the 1950s and 1960s. From the title of this single, I can only think that Len imbued these values on eir…
The 101 starts out “Green Street” with a more sedate version of the Replacements with their “Never In”. However, the three-piece ensures that when music is being played on this disc, all parts are immediately noticeable – especially Ben’s bass, which sounds are timeless and fresh as “When I Reach For My Revolver”. “Wolf” uses the same omnipresent nature of each instrument to further Eric’s Michael Stipe meets Phil Collins…
While the beginning of “The Harvest” sounds as if The One AM Radio is not doing anything that the stars of AM radio did over thirty years ago, the ambient instrumentation that becomes the norm for the track gives them a style different from anyone else on the market today. This tender sound is something that is present as well during “In The Time We’ve Got”. The band sounds here…