The dreamy style of Page France is something that has not been heard in popular alternative music for years. This really hearkens back to the days of 4 Non Blondes, Lollipop, and Blind Melon. There is a heavy amount of the current time present in Page France as well, which allows “Hello, Dear Wind” to be such a considerable album when compared to the other albums out contemporaneously. During a…
Blair Packham really starts off this album with a vocal style that is not unlike Elvis Costello; the vocals during this opening track recollects “Veronica”-era Costello, while the backing instrumentation gives the track an innovative flair. The only thing that can be said as a negative about this opening salvo has to be the extended ending of the track; the momentum that Packham was building up is dissipated. The second…
“Wall St.” shows individuals immediately that Pablo is trying to shoehorn eirself into the space between Americana singers like Devendra Banhart and new-folkies like Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes). The vocal harmonies of Pablo during the opening track is almost enough to keep individuals interested, but it seems like “Wall St.” suffers a little bit during the Spartan musical arrangements present. If there were just a little more in the way…
The bombastic opening to this LP, the break-neck speeds achieved by “Progress” shows a band that is not afraid to hit the ground running. The mastering on this disc may not be up to Sonic Iguana quality, but the general sound that emanates from this disc both sounds appealing to many a listener’s ears and bolsters the slightly rough and raw sound that Overated live will bring to the tone…
Over It has taken the open slot as Lobster’s most impressive band after Yellowcard left about a year and a half ago. Chances are after “Silverstrand”, Over It will do much the same thing (unless Lobster locked them down for a few albums). Anyways, “Silverstrand” opens up with the immediately radio-friendly “Siren on the 101”, a track that mixes melodic vocals with guitar lines that would normally seem much too…
One of the first things that hit me when I first put on the CD is the rich influences that the members of Over It have. The first track on the disc, “Limiter”, mixes breakneck punk vocals with 80s-metal (read: Megadeth) guitar lines and Rush-style (Signals-Era) bass. “Wrong Way” moves on from “Limiter”, continuing the richly-belted out punk guitars and simply brutal guitar licks to provide a song that literally…
Outsmarting Simon start out their “Stand Up Tonight” with a well-meaning but essentially bland track in “Number Two”. The vocals are reminiscent of Yellowcard and Over It, and while the track plods on with a tempo that threatens to turn people off before they’ve adequately been turned on, Outsmarting Simon do play a strong, instrumentally-based type of emotive rock. The bass lines that provide such a presence during “Thirty-Third and…
It takes a decent amount of time for Ostinato to get started on their “Chasing The Form”. The disc’s first track is “Goal of all Believers”, and it is well past a minute before David’s voice reaches a volume level that can be heard. It takes two minutes before the band is able to create the chaos and fury that Ostinato has been known for since 1997. The music that…
It is always interesting when I review these movie soundtracks without seeing the miniseries that this soundtrack comes from. It means that I have to either extrapolate what the movie is about or just base my review on the music that is contained within, without anything in the way ofd context. Either way, Joseph LoDuca’s soundtrack for the Sci-Fi Channel’s movie “The Triangle” starts out strongly, with a mixture of…
While I had no one of the age to enjoy the Tarzan movie when it first came out, I still was able to hear and enjoy a few tracks from the soundtrack. This go-around brings the Broadway musical version of Tarzan to my door. There are some special features on this CD, but the vast majority of the content on this CD is purely audio. It is thus the weight…
The first thing that individuals can hear about this revival of Sweeney Todd is the power of the vocals of each of the actors in this musical. Of particular note is Patti LuPone, who brings a force to the musical that is only matched by Michael Cervaris’ title role. Beyond the impressive vocal tone of each actor, what should impress listeners further is that each of the major players also…
Duncan Sheik had a few hits on the Billboard chart. After doing time with His Boy Elroy (does anyone else remember them?), Sheik rocketed up the chart with “Barely Breathing”. After cutting a few more tracks, Sheik was tapped to contribute the music for the American stage version of “Spring Awakening”, a re-tooling of a seminal Frank Wedekind work. “Mamma Who Bore Me” is a fairly Spartan composition, with little…
“Scoop” is the newest in the increasingly long line of Woody Allen movies. I have really no idea what the movie is about, but the soundtrack has some hard hitting classical movements on it. Up first is the Swan Lake Ballet Suite, No expense was spared in including this Tchaikovsky symphony on this soundtrack; none less than The Berlin Philharmonic are present here. The one strong thing going for this…
Saw III is a horror movie. Most horror movies are tied to hard rock, whether it be eighties horror movies with Alice Cooper or Saw III with an act like All That Remains. One note about All That Remains; I was not impressed with their prior releases, but their track off of this soundtrack is a maelstrom of fury, something hard for individuals to immediately sink their teeth into. It…
It is rare that a movie has to compare itself with one of the classics of the sixties, but 2005’s remake of Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” tries to do just that. There are a few things that this re-make has going for it out of the gates; first off, the music and lyrics are still all those produced and written by Mel Brooks. If anything, the set of songs from…
Very few directors actually have the talent or desire to score their own movies. However, Tom Tykwer is one of those directors that does just that, and the soundtrack for “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” seems to have a closer connection to the events in the movie than would a non-director-created score would have. Like many different soundtracks, there are a number of shorter segments designed to be present…
Alexandre Desplat is responsible for the soundtrack to “The Painted Veil”. To get an idea of what the compositions are framed by, The Painted Veil’s action takes place in the 1920s. The story behind The Painted Veil is that a doctor and a younger woman marry, move to China, break up and then have to get back together through turmoil. To help Desplat during this score, Lang Lang lies down…
Harry Gregson-Williams may be best known at this point for the scores to Veronica Guerin and Phone Booth, while director Joel Schumacher has had a few hits of eir own (The Lost Boys, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Batman Forever). What results when these two get together to work with a movie in which Jim Carrey portrays a wildly-different character than anyone is used to? Essentially, there is a blend of…
I had heard a lot of hubbub about the original John Williams theme being used for the introduction of “Superman Returns”. I had also heard that Ottman was going to retool the general sound of the theme, but to be honestly, I’m not hearing much in the way of difference from the original theme. Regardless of the form it found itself as on the disc, this theme is a good…
Dario Marianelli has a hard job; how exactly does ey create music that fits with the period nature of the movie but do it in such a way that individuals in 2005 will be able to properly appreciate it? Well, with compositions like “Stars and Butterflies”, a strong arrangement really carries the day. It is not only the piano that keeps individuals interested, but rather the atmosphere created by Jean-Yves…